Icelandic Alkies Know Better Than We Do

_{NOTE: Those of you for whom “Keep Coming Back” is a solution for your drinking and go around telling folks that things like “Just don’t drink and good to meetings” is some sort of solution to alcoholism may not enjoy this article. But if you will keep an opened mind you may find that everything here is on hundred percent AA. As always anything that cannot be reconciled with the Big Book, “Alcoholics Anonymous” can be safely discarded. Likewise anything that can be reconciled – discard at your own risk and peril if you are a true alcoholic. Anything discard it without bothering to investigate – well, then more fool you. DJS}

_{“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” Author Unknown*}

Estimating from the emails I get it seems that many people, whether in the fellowship or not, are not are not familiar with how a Twelve Step “Call” works.

People from Iceland, Australia, the UK, Denmark and Norway seem to have a better grip than many of us in the USA – and AA started here. Man!

Where the hell have you all been with those multi-decade medallions and greying sideburns? SHEEESH

So maybe I can clear up misunderstanding for the uninitiated – and if you have not gotten your understanding of how to perform a twelve step call or what “carry this message” means out of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous then you are the uninitiated and I don’t give a crumb how many “24s” you have “under your belt”, how many IIs and Vs there are on those little brass medallions which you are so found of constantly mentioning to others in meetings — or even how many “pigeons” you have.

If you are sitting meetings telling folks that you have not done the steps – have meandered through them through an “AWOL” or some other “system” or movements or for whatever reason NOT yet recovered from alcoholism – then YOU ARE A NEWCOMER! and people like me – our numbers are wordwide and high – can help you if you will set aside your overblown “Look Ma. Not drink’ today!” ego and admit it.

Anyone with minimal reading comprehension skills can get clear on these things if only they would use the Big Book – instead of some some MOR sponsor or somebody told them in a meeting or in rehab. People that can’t read c n have someone learned read it to them.

That’s how I straightened myself out and began using its practicable applications out in the field, which is where we preform our avocation – not in church basements so much.

Do not follow me for the directions! We have a book with a chapter called “Working With Others” for that. I am just generalizing here and this is my understanding of what the Big Book directions say and call for and my experience in practicing it. Clear? Good.

There are two approaches – not approaches in the sence of “methodologies” I mean two actual ‘approachings‘ when we physically “go visit “ the still suffering alcoholic with the intent of taking him through the Twlevs Steps. Each of these “approach”es has very specific tasks to perform and results hoped for. I cover these all when I do Twelve Step workshops but for now I will generalize and not get into the minutia of it – but you can easily reference the Big Book for the details – what to say, when to say it, what not to say, what to do – it is very clear and precise. That’s twice I’ve said it, now- OK?

The Big Book directions are interesting too, especially if you are not familiar with the process. Your mind would boggle if you saw what I see doing this work in the field. It warms the heart and soul and so encourages one to continue with the work. It is immensely satisfying.

To see families reconcile – lives and health restored and then to watch as these folks then carry it on to other sufferers with the exact same results is sometimes astonishing!

To see men who upon meeting are lying in a fetal position for days and sometimes weeks at a time, in their own vomit and diarrhea, near death – eschewed by hospitals, failures of ten or twenty treatment center residencies – and just a few weeks later are up, holding a job and reuniting with children, parents and spouses, well frankly it is just too much for words. Even for someone as verbose as I.

First it’s helpful to know why we do this work and why it is so effective when “run” properly:

“Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Remember they are very ill.” (89:0)

So let’s take Bill Dodsen as an example – the well known “Man in the bed”. Bill and Bob go after him. Notice the method used in the twelve step work Bill and Bob were performing:

“The man in the bed was told of the acute poisoning from which he suffered, how it deteriorates the body of an alcoholic and warps his mind. There was much talk about the mental state preceding the first drink.” (157:5)

Deterioration of the body? What were they talking about? Liver cirrhosis? – Wet brain” – Pancreatitis“ - Hangovers? Not likely.

They explained to him what they knew about the progressive sensitivity to alcoholic – called “physical allergy” by Dr. Silkworth – and how if any alcohol whatever enters his body the phenomenon of craving would kick in.

This is where we hear much confusion even amongst our own members. Alcoholics don’t CRAVE alcohol until the first drink has been swallowed. (Or alcohol has somehow entered the body through alcoholically contaminated foods, mouthwash, medications, ect)

We alkies don’t sit at home or in our offices “Jones’n” for a drink – when there isn’t any already in our bodies.

So if we cannot have any alcohol in our bodies without experiencing a craving for MORE, and we don’t CRAVE more until the first alcohol is introduced, then why can’t we “Just Don’t Take The First Drink” – thereby avoiding the CRAVING for more? That should solve the problem, right?

Right! It sure should -and for some people it does – unless they are alcoholics of our kind – the real alcoholic for whom AA was created.

What they explained to Bill D shed light on why he couldn’t do that – why ALL alcoholics cannot do that. They talked “much” about the mental state preceding – BEFORE – taking the drink. That means they explained to him the obsession or in other words the alcoholic insanity of taking that ONE DRINK even though his past history adequately demonstrated an inability to stop (Craving more) when he needed or wanted to stop.

Once he “Got it” – then “Getting it” was not enough. You know like a junkie gets a fix and that seems to be enough? He’s good! Alcoholics are different – they MUST have more immediately. He recognizes this in himself and sees that this continuous cycle makes his kind of condition a hopeless one. (That means he took Step One)

Finally:
The two friends spoke of their spiritual experience and told him
about the course of action they carried out. (157:1)

They wrap the presentation with their solution to the problem – that is the “What happened” part you may have heard of in the formula. What happened was that they had a spiritual awakening/experience that came about by “Action they carried out”. Then they outlined that program of action to Bill D – the Twelve Steps.

Now all our friend Bill D needs to do is acknowledge that the spiritual solution will work (Step Two) and to make a decision to follow the course of action they outlined to him. (Take Step Three).

It’s a simple effective formula for carrying this message.

• Explain the allergy/craving -what you “were like”
  
• Explain the obsession/insanity – again part of what “you were like”
  
• Explain the spiritual experience (This is “what happened” – which can’t be done if we haven’t actually HAD a spiritual experience ourselves) and explain the 12 Steps. (Again – can’t be done if we haven’t taken them)
• Tell him what life is like now AFTER recovery. (“What it’s like now” – It’s going to be GOOD — if you have recovered)
  

BUT WAIT!

If my prospect cannot identify with my explanation of allergy AND obsession – I may not be dealing with a real alcoholic. Even if he IS, he may not really WANT to stop. (SO I ASK HIM!) If so, there will be no need to proceed. But I have still been helpful – now he is free to seek help for whatever OTHER problem he may have that has brought him to this horrible juncture.

“After satisfying yourself that your man wants to recover and that he will go to any extreme to do so, you may suggest a definite course of action.” (142:4)

Have any of us ever gone on a “Twelve Step” call prior to actually understanding the disease – been able to explain it as Bill and Bob have done – had a spiritual experiences and recovered through the twelve steps?

I have. Shame on me – and shame on anyone who hasn’t experienced the solution, hasn’t learned how to explain it – yet attempts to pass it on to another alcoholic whose very life sits in our hands.

If the guy/gal is a real alkie – willing to go through the simple process of the Twelve Steps and adopt its new way of living on a continuing basis – then these folks WILL HAVE a spiritual awakening that BLOWS THE MIND! So much so, they are sometimes ridiculed and eschewed by contemporary “meeting goers” and others who call themselves “still recovering” alcoholics who have not done or experienced what he has.

But they never drink again and they pass on to others exactly what has been passed onto them in the same way it was passed to them. It’s fast acting.It’s effective and I have NEVER seen it not work for any real alcoholic willing to really try. Heavy drinkers and problem drinkers hardly EVER “really try”. They don’t HAVE to! They can just moderate or quite on their own – they put the willpower that they already posses to put the “plug in the jug” and leave the fellowship – or else they stay and avail themselves of the social benefits – coffee, chicks or hunks, a night out of the house, friends. Some even go on the Internet passing on their middle-of-the-road solutions which worked for them but is deadly for us real alkies whose malady can only be conquered through a spiritual awakening. Oh, did I mention that “spiritual awakening” is the only purpose of the 12 Steps – not “to stop drinking”? I probably did.

Some even go on the Internet passing on their middle-of-the-road solutions which worked for them but is deadly for us real alkies whose malady can only be conquered through a spiritual awakening. Oh, did I mention that “spiritual awakening” is the only purpose of the 12 Steps – not “to stop drinking”? I probably did.

I hope this give you a good idea of how the twelve steps for alkies like me work and why I am so passionate about recovery and Twelve Steps. But more importantly if you are in a twelve step fellowship – are a real, true alcoholic and re being told that it’s OK to just show up to ” show others that it can be done” – share your lifes problems, bring cookies and make coffee and shake hands with a newcomer in the parking lot and that THAT stuff is a sufficient substitute for what the co-founders prescribe as a vital and necessary part of the AA Program of recovery – then you are being lied to and are in great danger and it is no wonder that you think you think that you will “never recover” . I believe you. You are probably correct.

The ‘Circle’ in the Circle and Triangle isn’t a freakin’ Scooter Pie, OK?

Peace,

Danny S

* The co-authors may have been wrong since Herbert Spenser cannot be attributed to this quote. See here.