“It is important to all Al-Anon, and to me personally, to know both the Steps and the Traditions and protect them from distortion and dilution. I will read them and try to apply them in both personal and group matters.” (ODAT, 18 November)
The first nine Steps strip away what prevents me from committing fully to a life of doing God’s will and only God’s will.
The last three Steps provide a basic structure for such a life, but they provide relatively little on exactly how to get along with others, to operate in a group, to relate the group to the world, or to perform service work.
That’s why I need all Steps, Traditions, and Concepts to provide guidance on all matters.
I’ve never found a problem that does not yield surprisingly quickly to a firm, resolute application of all 36 sets of principles.
In particular, no other addictive behaviour, no other compulsive pattern, no other ‘mood’ has failed to yield.
Over the last 32 years, this has worked on anxiety, on depression, on all of the things I was told would plague me forever because I was just built like it and that’s what the rest of my family was like, so that’s what I would be like. Pretty much everyone in my immediate family and quite a lot of people in my extended family have been hospitalised because of suicide attempts, psychosis, depression, or anxiety, or actually died through suicide. I was told I was suffering from a chemical imbalance: I infer from the fact that I did change, and through the Steps, Traditions, and Concepts, that the chemical imbalance—if there was one—was caused by how I was living; it turns out believing, thinking, and doing some things depressed, frightened, and exhausted me, and believing, thinking, and doing other things lightened, cheered, and energised me. Everything changed, because I am upstream, not downstream of my body. Sort the spirit out, and everything downstream—the mind, the brain, the body—seems to sort itself out, sooner or later.
It turns out my body and brain do not dictate what I believe, think, and do, and what I believe, think, and do generate my life, externally, and internally.
I’m not a victim of my brain chemistry, of genetics, of upbringing, of family, of society, of ‘influences’ (or influencers).
It turns out spiritual principles solve all my problems (I don’t know about yours, but there’s only one way to find out!)
I’m a voluntary orphan of the world and a voluntary ward of God, and God seems to provide everything I need through those 36 channels.
God literally wants me to be happy, joyous, and free.
If the principles appear not to be working, that means I’ve not tried long enough, sincerely enough, and with the right guidance.
Keep at it, and every internal and external enemy yields.