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Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism

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This is the primary text for recovery. The twelve steps and twelve traditions is also primary.

Also, if you are serious about your recovery and wish to improve your conscious contact with God, you simply must read An Encounter With A Prophet by C.A. Lewis.

If you feel you may have a problem with drinking too much and are ashamed to talk about it, don't be ashamed any more. This book (called 'The Big Book' by AA members) contains the basis for a new life without the crippling cycle of alcohol abuse.

There is no more need to hide liquor bottles... lie about your drinking... drink alone... black out for hours... or take just a little morning drink to ease the shakes. Please look in your local white pages under "Alcoholics Anonymous" just to find someone to talk to. Or you may email me.

It gets much easier from there, I promise.

The principles expressed here apply to every challenge in life today. The essence and foundation for every 12 step program in existence. This book saved my life and has made my life worth living.

If you have a problem with alcohol, this book offers a solution that has worked for over two million sober alcoholics. Written in 1939 by a group of 100 sober alcoholics this book has become the textbook of Alcoholics Anonymous. The best way (and the least expensive way) to buy the book is at an AA meetig....

For the person that is a binge drinker, weekend drinker, or steady drinker, for the person that drinks too much yet thinks they are "different", for the person who was raised in a loving home or the person that had a difficult childhood, for the highly-paid professional or the homeless indigent. If you suspect you drink too much, and are willing to look at it, this book could save your life. It is an attempt to break through the denial that precludes people from seeking recovery. This book talks about what it was like before entering AA, during recovery and continuing on sober.

The companion piece; "12 steps and 12 traditions" carries on detailing how the transformation occurs, how to stay sober, what to expect, and what other people experienced.

The main emphasis of both books is simply maturing through overcoming self-centredness by developing a relationship with a higher power(God). Advice that most people could use regardless of their alcohol consumption.

Cleary one of the most important books written in the 20th century.

Book saved my life and millions of others. What more do you want? If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Give it a try. It works.

Alcoholism is not a physical disease? Hello? Hello? For you who are in RATIONAL RECOVERY, SMART, ad infinitum; I took a blood test 25 years ago. For 50 foods. The lab graded each food from one to four. I was negative on all foods except one. Wheat. Which rated a four. Puzzled, I called my doctor about these results. He said, "Wheat? Do you drink?" I said yes. He said, "That's your allergy!" These anti-A.A. movements have done incredible damage to the world! I called my sponsor about this. Dennis Danzell. He just laughed. And made some comment about sales are sales. THIS BOOK WAS THE GREATEST BOOK FOR RECOVERY, IS THE GREATEST BOOK FOR RECOVERY, AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE GREATEST BOOK FOR RECOVERY. It also beautifully interfaces with Buddhist Psychology which goes back 2,000 years. Thank You.

My attitude toward this book has changed over the last few years. I actually wrote a review some time back saying how much I loved this book and how wonderful I thought its philosophy was, but now I have my problems with it. I think the main one is that it and the program it pushes is not geared for doing deeper inner work, the work that will really set a person free. And not just that. If you really follow the AA program by the letter of the word, which is exactly what this book recommends, then it goes directly against doing the deepest of inner work. Perhaps this is actually a wise philosophy for many alcoholics and other deeply troubled people in the short-term, because the deep inner work can really throw people for a loop, bring out the truest insanity and horrors from within...but...but what is life unless we know our truest inner selves...and what is recovery unless we heal at our deepest levels?

I would be less likely to criticize this book if I thought AA was the only way to get sober, but I think no one who has really healed at their deepest levels - who has taken on the biggest demons - would remain addicted to alcohol, because alcoholism only serves the purpose of staying numb and shut down. Although I have not drunk alcohol for a long time - and value this sobriety - I have come to realize just how un-sober life without alcohol can still be, and this book makes sobriety from alcohol look like an end in and of itself - a pinnacle of healing. It isn't.

This book says "turn it over to god."

I say: "go into your deepest traumas with a safe guide...and really attempt the possibility of healing."

This book says: "take a moral inventory."

I say: "scrap all the morality...take an emotional inventory, for that's where the real truth of our horrors lie...and the truth of our brightest beings."

This book says: "put your faith in a God, a higher power."

I say: "enter your deepest traumas, get help to resolve them, and then open up the possibility of putting true faith in yourself."

This book never questions what makes an alcoholic. It's almost as if it's saying: "an alcoholic can neither be created nor destroyed." For me, this is the flaw of AA recovery. Childhood traumas create alcoholics. And healing these traumas with heal the need to become alcoholic. This book says: "accept the fact that you always were and always will be an alcoholic." It's actually an odd sort of terror philosophy that tells people they can never really heal, that they're crippled with a lifelong affliction. I don't buy it...because it hasn't proven true for me.