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No one likes to admit defeat
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Also: hard to admit defeat, even in the face of evidence
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What are we defeated by?
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Two-fold nature of alcoholism ('double-edged sword')
- The mind is obsessed with drinking
- 'The insane urge' (to have the first drink)
- Yet that drinking is destructive
- 'Allergy' = 'sensitivity' = compulsion to continue (after the first drink)
- The mind is obsessed with drinking
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The mind cannot fix itself
- Self-confidence is a liability
- Willpower is of no use when directed at the obsession
- [Though vital when directed at the programme]
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The outcome, if the process is unchecked, is death
- 'Ultimately destroy ourselves in the process'
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Something external must do so
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The defeat is total
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Admission of defeat is the prerequisite for recovery ('bedrock')
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Sobriety impossible or precarious without it
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Real happiness impossible without it
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The steps ('attitudes and actions') are too hard otherwise
- Rigorous honesty and tolerance
- Confession
- Restitution
- Higher Power
- Meditation / prayer
- Sacrifice of time and energy
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Alcoholics are self-centred: we will do this only for survival
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If defeat is admitted:
- Lay hold of AA principles
- 'With all the fervour with which the drowning seize life preservers'
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Promise: 'they almost invariably got well'
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How to admit defeat when not all has been lost:
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Required: admission of unmanageability
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Recognise: losing control precedes the realisation thereof
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Drinking (for us) is no mere habit
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It is the beginning of a fatal progression
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Prove this by trying controlled drinking
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No need to wait for 'extreme difficulties'
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Once we have admitted this
- The mind opens
- We are ready to do whatever is necessary
- ... to lift the merciless obsession