“In The Face Of Expert Opinion To The Contrary, We Have Recovered”
Many of Alcoholics Anonymous were like that. Everybody had given them up. Defeat seemed certain. Yet often such men had spectacular and powerful recoveries. (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 113)
You may already have asked yourself why it is that all of us became so very ill from drinking. Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why, in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body. If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking -“What do I have to do?”
It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically. We shall tell you what we have done. (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 20)
The second passage listed is in a chapter named “There is A Solution”. The idea is that there is hope: Even if you are amongst the most hopeless and most desperate of alcoholics/addicts, there is hope.
What it does not say in these statements is that it is this kind of miraculous change is going to be a magically easy process. Nowhere are you promised that the magic recovery fairy will sprinkle magic recovery dust on you and you will never use or even wish to use again. There is hard work, a great deal of discomfort, a complete change of who and what you are and a desperation to be free that drives you to continue through all of this.
In the statements above, it is implied that those around you even those closest to you and some experts in the field might even feel it is impossible for you to even change a little. Using those of us who have walked this path and experienced such impossible change:
“…in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body.” (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 20)
The question a newcomer should have was stated above:
“What do I have to do?” (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 20)
There are many paths that claim to lead to freedom many of which even call themselves Twelve Step Programs. Without going into a major history lesson on Twelve Step Programs just understand the Alcoholics Anonymous book itself to be the source of all things Twelve Steps (there are other sources and observations led to the creation of the Twelve Steps, but they were first seen in the manuscript of the Alcoholics Anonymous book).
So anything claiming to be doing Twelve Step recovery should line up with the concepts outlined in the Alcoholics Anonymous book or whatever it is has just hijacked the Twelve Step name as a marketing scheme. Example:
Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all. (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 14)
There are many I have encountered who think the more complicated the program sounds the more legitimate it must be. There are self-proclaimed experts coming up with all sorts of complex and deep sounding recovery tasks that are supposed to be the series of puzzles and adventures you are supposed to solve and complete to get the magic of recovery. As if this were Indiana Jones and the Twelve Step Temple of Recovery.
“Simple but not easy” means that the concepts are simple it is that hurts, fears, angers etc. that make these simple tasks hard for the individual to do.
Do not be put off by the idea that there is this super-intellectual Rubiks-cube that you must solve to work recovery. The struggle is not in the complexity of the Twelve Steps. The struggle is in the desire to face hurts, fears, angers, facts, yourself, others, your past etc. on such a deep level and to be willing to finish a completely different person than when you started.
All of this packing on of super-complicated work to be completed and long, drawn out, overly complicated describing and pontificating about what the each sep is to contain in detail is a hiding place to avoid the real struggle each of us has in recovery: OVERCOMING MYSELF!
In other words, the focus on complexity and the logistics of Twelve Step recovery is often a complete failure to truly have accepted Step 1. A failure to accept that your situation is so desperate that “I must do anything it takes IMMEDIATELY with all of the desperation of a drowning person.” This focus on complexity and triviality is simple a distraction to put off or to completely avoid the inner discomfort of working recovery.
We must not hide behind complexity and confusion to avoid truly dealing with ourselves.
We must focus on doing that which we find extremely hard to do or that we desperately do not want to do.
Reminding ourselves that we have decided to go to any lengths to find a spiritual experience, we ask that we be given strength and direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be. We may lose our position or reputation or face jail, but we are willing. We have to be. We must not shrink at anything. (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 79)
Your recovery hinges on this and you “must not shrink at anything.” (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 79).
There is hope beyond what seems reasonable and beyond what seems possible. The direction of this hope is not hidden behind some secret, super complicated series of riddles and adventures that you must undertake and solve; the process is not complex at all. The challenge that must be overcome to gain what is hoped for is the challenge of overcoming yourself using that uncomplicated process as a tool.
You must be willing to do the things that your mind and your heart will try all means to avoid. You must be willing to resist fear, to resist your own anger and resentment, to resist your own resistance and to overcome your own foolishness, stupidity, crazy etc. Do not be distracted by other people’s confusion and so on that keeps you from this focus or your own attempts at creating confusion.
You are in a desperate situation looking for a miraculous solution to an extremely desperate situation. There is simply no time to waste in weird endeavors that put off dealing with the real problems. The mindset needed to work (or even to start working) the Twelve Steps is best described in these 2 questions:
If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it-then you are ready to take certain steps. (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 58)
A spectacular and powerful recovery is a possibility for all of us. There is great hope. YOU JUST HAVE TO BE DESPERATE ENOUGH TO AVOID CONFUSION AND OVERCOME YOU! That is the how and why that will allow what is found in the Alcoholics Anonymous book to work for you.
Doubtless you are curious to discover how and why, in the face of expert opinion to the contrary, we have recovered from a hopeless condition of mind and body. If you are an alcoholic who wants to get over it, you may already be asking -“What do I have to do?”
It is the purpose of this book to answer such questions specifically. (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 20)
When you have the right mindset and focus, then you are ready to start to be changed by what is in the Alcoholics Anonymous book.
Stay Sober My Friends…
Wade H.
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