Home Page www.aaspain.org - aaspain@gmail.com
If you or someone you love has a
problem with alcohol, we would like to help. We are recovering alcoholics ourselves and are committed to helping other alcoholics achieve sobriety. Alcohol will inevitably destroy the alcoholic, one way or another. It's a simple message, but one that needs to be said. We are men and women who finally gave up trying to control our drinking. We hated to admit that we could not drink safely or socially. We found that many people suffered from the same guilt, loneliness, and hopelessness that we did. In AA we found that we had these feelings because we had the progressive and fatal illness of alcoholism. If you know someone who needs help with a drinking problem, contact us at aaspain@gmail.com. Those people are not alone. We will assist you (or your friend) to attend an AA meeting with us. The only requirement for attending the meeting is a desire to stop drinking. The meetings are anonymous and they are free. But only you can decide whether you want to give A.A. a try -
whether you think it can help you.
We who are in A.A. came because we
finally gave up trying to control our drinking. We still hated to admit that we
could never drink safely. Then we heard from other A.A. members that we were
sick.
(We thought so for years!) We found out
that many people suffered from the same feelings of guilt and loneliness and
hopelessness that we did. We found out that we had these feelings because we
had the progressive and fatal illness of alcoholism. We decided to try and face
up to what alcohol had done to us. Here are some of the questions we tried to
answer honestly. See how you do.
Remember, there is no disgrace in facing up to the fact that you have a
problem.
12 Questions:
Answer YES or NO to the following questions.
1. Have you ever decided to stop drinking for a
week or more, but only lasted for a few days? Most of us in A.A. made all kinds of
promises to ourselves and to our families. We could not keep them. Then we came
to A.A. In A.A. they said: "Just try not to drink today." (If you do
not drink today, you cannot get drunk today.)
In A.A. we do not tell anyone to do anything. We just talk about our own drinking,
the trouble we got into, and how we stopped. We will be glad to help you, if
you want us to.
3. Have you ever switched from one kind of drink to
another in the hope that this would keep
We tried all kinds of ways. We made our
drinks weak. Or just drank beer. Or we did not drink cocktails. Or only drank
on weekends. You name it, we tried it. But if we drank anything with alcohol in it, we ended up getting drunk eventually.
4. Have you had to have an eye-opener upon
awakening during the past year?
Do you need a drink to get started, or
to stop shaking? This is a sure sign that you are not drinking socially.
5. Do you envy people who can drink without getting
into trouble?
6. Have you had problems connected with drinking
during the past year?
7. Has your drinking caused trouble at home? Before we came into A.A., most of us
said that it was the people or problems at home that made us drink. It never
solved problems, but we could not see that our drinking just made everything
worse.
8. Do you ever try to get "extra" drinks
at a party because you do not get enough? Most of us used to have a
"few" before we started out if we thought it was going to be that
kind of party. And if drinks were not served fast enough, we would go some
place else to get more.
9. Do you tell yourself you can stop drinking any
time you want to, even though you get drunk sometimes even when you don't mean
to? Many of us kidded ourselves into
thinking that we drank because we wanted to. After we came into A.A., we found
out that once we started to drink, we couldn't stop.
10. Have you missed days of work or school because
of drinking? Many of us admit now that we "called
in sick" lots of times when the truth was that we were hung-over or on a
drunk.
11. Do you have "blackouts"? A "blackout" is when we have
been drinking hours or days which we cannot remember. When we came to A.A., we
found out that this is a sure sign of alcoholic drinking.
12. Have you ever felt that your life would be
better if you did not drink? Many of us started to drink because
drinking made life seem better, at least for a while. By the time we got into
A.A., we felt trapped. We were drinking to live and living to drink. We were
sick and tired of being sick and tired. What's your score? Did you answer YES four or more times?
The AA Preamble Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. A.A. is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety. Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., reprinted with permission
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