Help ME Help Me!

(How many Doctors besides Bob give their opinions about alcoholism in the Big Book? Email me at ready2stop4ever@dannyschwarzhoff.net and you’ll receive the answer. You may be surprised)

In the Big Book, “Alcoholics Anonymous” there is never any mention of an alcoholic recovering by helping themselves – by putting his own sobriety FIRST or by proceeding in the Fellowship as if “This is a selfish program”.

The exact opposite is true.

There are two main types of “Help” that I can find in the Big Book. There is “Help” that we GIVE – and then there is “Help” we receive. Some help we receive comes does come from others while we are still un-recovered alkies. Other alcoholics can show us how we are able to receive God’s help – but then of course there is Gods help.

The book tells us we CANNOT help ourselves. If we could then we wouldn’t have been POWERLESS and there would be no need to seek help from Him. We could simply attend AA meetings, “share” our troubles to lighten our emotional and mental loads – and then put the plug in the jug. That might be fine for hard drinking alcohol abusers – but real alcoholics? Let’s see.

Prior to recovering, when we were still suffering, we had to accept the help from another human being only is-far-as that other alcoholic could bring us to God by laying the spiritual tools at our feet. That much is true. His ability to help us was “the power to help others” – a God given power. We are directed to help others – not only the alcoholic but his family and specifically his spouse, never avoiding this responsibility. NEVER!

“Helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery.” (97:1)

There’s “Help” in matters of life and then there’s “Help” in preventing the next first-drink – the one that sets in motion the terrible cycle ONLY experienced by real alcoholics. For the latter – there is only God.

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Tell me – are doctors today honest with themselves about alcoholics? Of course they are. Tomorrow I will not only prove it – but also show you how it is possible for monkeys to fly out of my butt!
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“Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power.” (43:3)

Even in prayer when asking for God’s help in specific matters – other than that next first-drink – we do ask for God’s help – but not selfishly.

“We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped” “Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.” (69:2) (So much for us trying to get the cable TV bill paid or a winning scratch ticket through our own petitioning – if you get my drift). “We asked God to mold our ideals and help us to live up to them.” (69:2) (Sex ideals)

“Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God’s.” (62:2) This is not good news for those of us who insist upon “working on my character defects“.

(“I WILL be self-less! I WILL be selfless!”)

“Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power-that One is God. May you find Him now!” (59:0)

On page 43 we hear from Dr. Percy Polik a staff doctor at “Belleview Hospital Center” on First Avenue in NYC.

“What you say about the general hopelessness of the average alcoholic’s plight is, in my opinion, correct. As to two of you men, whose stories I have heard, there is no doubt in my mind that you were 100% hopeless, apart from divine help. Had you offered yourselves as patients at this hospital, I would not have taken you, if I had been able to avoid it. People like you are too heartbreaking. Though not a religious person, I have profound respect for the spiritual approach in such cases as yours. For most cases, there is virtually no other solution.” (43:2)

Then on page 27, the co-authors relate the experience and comments from Dr. Carl Jung – as given to Rowland Hazard,

“Some of our alcoholic readers may think they can do without spiritual help. Let us tell you the rest of the conversation our friend had with his doctor. The doctor said: “You have the mind of a chronic alcoholic. I have never seen one single case recover, where that state of mind existed to the extent that it does in you.” Our friend felt as though the gates of hell had closed on him with a clang. He said to the doctor, “Is there no exception?” “Yes,” replied the doctor, “there is. Exceptions to cases such as yours have been occurring since early times. Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them. “

Once again, ultimately spiritual help – not helping ourselves or help from others – is the solution.

Let’s keep going:

“If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were, we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: One was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could; and the other, to accept spiritual help.” (25:3)

Dr. Silkworth: “Men have cried out to me in sincere and despairing appeal: “Doctor, I cannot go on like this! I have everything to live for! I must stop, but I cannot! You must help me!” Faced with this problem, if a doctor is honest with himself, he must sometimes feel his own inadequacy.” (The Doctors Opinion)

Tell me – are doctors today honest with themselves about alcoholics? Of course they are – AND tomorrow I will prove it and also show you how it is possible for monkeys to fly out of my butt!

There is more – but this is enough now to say without doubt that the “This is a selfish Program“ or a “Self-Help” program MYTH IS BUSTED!

It is “HELP OTHERS” Program of action.

Peace,

Danny S

(And you thought there was only ONE Doctor’s Opinion in the Big Book!)