One Day at a Time

How Long is "Any Length" . . Really?

Link: http://www.dannyschwarzhoff.net/screens/faq.htm

Stop being " green" and start getting "real" about alcoholism -- by taking the Twelve Steps

How long does it take to go through a formal Alcoholics Anonymous program?

Greengirl

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Hi Greengirl,

This is a question that I suppose everyone should ask. If they have a brain anyway. Unfortunately the answer coming back may kill them - if they are real alcoholic - and if they ask the wrong person.

Yes, there is such a thing as the "real alcoholic" - just as surely as there are folks with financial interests in the rehab-detox-additions industry who do NOT want YOU to know it. "addiction" is BIG BUSINESS and they also do not want you to recover and so they will misinform you about "how long" the twelve steps takes to "work" through - as well as their purpose.

The "formal" Alcoholics Anonymous program to which you are referring is the "Twelve Steps". So many people confuse the 'the Fellowship" with "the program" - fellowship or "going to meeting" is for as long as or whenever you want. However the suggested Twelve Steps (the Program) is designed to be begun and completed within a matter of days depending on each individual. Since each of the twelve steps does require immediate action into the next upon completion. Traditionally (as well as historically) the program took less than total of thirty days before the

desired result occurred. Bill Wilson was nine days, Dr. Bob about three weeks. In My case it was forty four days, but that was because I am slow starter and particularly prone to balking. The men I sponsor do it in around four weeks.

It is a race. The key is in remembering that most people in AA don’t consciously know the difference between the Fellowship and the program. They think that by attending meetings of AA that they are utilizing AA’s program of recovery – they are not. What do we do - stop drinking THEN pursue spiritually - or do we purse spirituality first SO THAT we have a spiritual awakening and consequently stop drinking?

Which idea do you prefer? Which one is the standing proposal heard in your Group? Go to any meeting and you will hear the former idea pushed vehemently - religiously.

“Just don’t drink - go to meetings - THEN when you’re ready we’ll talk about the steps."

OK? “But what about the real alcoholic” (21:1) who if he could “just don’t drink” then would not ever need to come to AA in the first place? You see the problem?

Greengirl, if alcoholics had the choice to “put the plug in the jug” then the problem would already be solved - without the spiritual experience that is the result of doing the steps. It becomes obvious that anyone who has such power over alcohol isn’t even an alcoholic (powerless) in the first place - and never need come to AA in the second.

People who push the meetings and fellowship first - BEFORE the Steps and Spirituality that is the result of taking those steps - ought to come to the funerals I have had to attend.

They have been the funerals of the people who needed to get to God as soon as possible and who heard the advice middle-of-the-road solutions based guys, brandishing medallions, spouting pithy and practiced "shares" from their folding chairs - telling them to "take their time" and "its not a race" - saying that “meeting makers make it” and rarely if ever talk about God or the Steps.

These are folks who somehow - probably because they aren’t even real alcoholics - have been able to rely upon the human aid of meetings and the camaraderie of fellowship to “stay away from a drink for one day” and have never experienced the insanity of the kind of obsession that us real McCoy’s experience.

Maybe that is why when they speak of "insanity" it consists of the stupid things they do in life - but doesn't include any reference to a "queer mental condition", "strange mental blank spot" or "peculiar mental twist" that the co-authors describe and with which ALL real alcoholics can identify.

Sorry, but simply 'drinking too much-too often' does not even approach the insanity of the first drink that real alkies experience.

When we alkies hear this, it seems so easy - confusing “simple” with “easy” is one of the things we do best. We take that easy way out - and WHAM - we get struck drunk - like a freight train hitting a stalled car on the tracks.

In talk about sobriety it is commonly thought that in order to stop drinking and remain sober, “You have to REALLY want it!” “It” being “sobriety”. Anyone who believes this is true is very naive about the malady, yet I have heard respected and experienced “addictions counselors” use just this terminology.

Really wanting sobriety never helped me. In fact “really wanting” sobriety and not being able to achieve it is what helped define me as an alcoholic in the first place.

If I could achieve anything I wanted, if only I wanted it badly enough, I would have never have proceeded through the tortuous life of a real alcoholic to begin with. Trust me. I have spent almost thirty years being sick and tired of being sick and tired, and even THAT miserable life was no match for the one-two punch of true alcoholism - obsession of mind COMBINED with physical craving. If a real alcoholic could stop drinking just because it made him sick and tired and then got fed up with being sick and tired - he wouldn't be a real alcoholic.

As real alcoholics we cannot stop drinking EVEN THOUGH we are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

We use the phrases like “willing to go to any length” - - It is possible to really want to be sober but not be willing to go to any length? I don’t know. Those dead guys don’t talk. They have lost the race - the obsession won.

God help me, I love AA more than anything on earth. I love meetings, friends, Traditions, AA History, Concepts ALL OF IT. It is right up there with my kids, my wife, family and God Himself. But unless Primary Purpose is our "primary purpose"- and we cut out all this treatment center crap that treats AA's Twelve Steps not as a solution but as another competing "Recovery Model" from which to garner market share - then I'm afraid we are going to find ourselves as cooked as a Christmas Turkey.

Please whatever you do --- do not fall for that "it's a lifetime process" bullshale that confuses spiritual growth with spiral awakening. Spiritual growth is a lifetime adventure, yes --- the recovery through a spiritual awakening is instantaneous and ca n happen now. That spiritual awakening and consequential recovery from alcoholism through he the twelves steps can be yours and those steps are fast acting as well as they are effective. If you a re a real alcoholic Greengirl then I suggest you keep it real- not green.

Peace and Love,

Danny S - RLRA
Real Live Recovered Alcoholic