What Is Alcoholics Anonymous?

1. What Is Alcoholics Anonymous? What Is the Oxford Group? Practice These Principles

2. Practice these Principles: Our Fellowship • “Our Fellowship has no official membership list, subscriptions, badge, or rules, nor owns vast amounts of property. It is a name for a group of people who from every rank, profession, and trade, in many countries, have surrendered their lives to the God of their understanding. They are endeavoring to lead spiritual lives under the guidance of the Spirit of the Universe.”1

3. The HistoryAkron, Ohio, June 1935, …talk between a New Work stockbroker and an Akron physician. “Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by A.A. members, whose story of the early days of our Society appears in the next pages. From this doctor, the broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.”2

4. The HistoryAkron, Ohio, June 1935, …talk between a New Work stockbroker and an Akron physician. “Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by A.A. members, whose story of the early days of our Society appears in the next pages. From this doctor, the broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.”3

5. Points • Cognitive - obsessive thinking • Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal that is linked with genetic predispositions (nature) • Personality Disorder or defects • Religion: the need for confession, restitution, belief in God and a spiritual experience.

6. Points • Cognitive - obsessive thinking • Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal that is linked with genetic predispositions (nature) • Personality Disorder or defects • Religion: the need for confession, restitution, belief in God and a spiritual experience.

7. Imaging and Alcoholism: A Window on the Brain • The processes that initiate and maintain alcoholism are regulated by interactions among nerve cells (i.e., neurons) in the brain. These mechanisms interact with emotional, cognitive, and social factors to determine an individual's response to alcohol consumption.4

8. Cognitive Impairment and Recovery From Alcoholism • “Brain damage is a common and potentially severe consequence of long-term, heavy alcohol consumption. Even mild-to-moderate drinking can adversely affect cognitive functioning (i.e., mental activities that involve acquiring, storing, retrieving, and using information). Persistent cognitive impairment can contribute to poor job performance in adult alcoholics, and can interfere with learning and academic achievement in adolescents with an established pattern of chronic heavy drinking. A small but significant proportion of the heaviest drinkers may develop devastating, irreversible brain-damage syndromes, such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a disorder in which the patient is incapable of remembering new information for more than a few seconds.”5

9. Alcohol, Cocaine, MethamphetamineMost drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. The result is significant changes in the brain. Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction. NIDA, U.S. Department

10. Brain Disease and Recovery

11. Alcoholics Anonymous and the Mind “. . .the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body.”6 “. . .the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge.”7

12. Biology + Environment + Drug Effects and Brain changes = Addiction

13. A. A. Points • Cognitive - obsessive thinking • Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal that is linked with genetic predispositions (nature) • Personality Disorder or defects • Religion: the need for confession, restitution, belief in God and a spiritual experience.

14. Scientific Research and the (2) Medical – the Genetic Link “Scientists estimate that genetic factors account for between 40 and 60 percent of a person’s vulnerability to addiction, including the effects of environment on gene expression and function.”8

15. Alcoholics Anonymous and Biology “Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.”9 “If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic.”10

17. A. A. Points • Cognitive - obsessive thinking • Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal that is linked with genetic predispositions (nature) • Personality Disorder or defects • Religion: the need for confession, restitution, belief in God and a spiritual experience.

18. Scientific research on (3) Personality Disorders and Addiction • Research indicates that there is a high correlation of substance use disorders with personality disorders, however, they also indicate that there is no single “addictive personality.” • Persons with a wide variety of personality traits and types become addicted to drugs. The common personality traits associated with addiction may be the result of the addiction, rather than a prior risk factor.

19. Alcoholics Anonymous and Personality Step 6: “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” Defects: • Self-centeredness • Intolerance • Fear • Anger and Resentments

20. Step 7 “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” Transforming change that demands: • Humility • Service • Love “We had lacked the perspective to see that character-building and spiritual values had to come first, and that material satisfactions were not the purpose of living.”11

21. Points • Cognitive - obsessive thinking • Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal that is linked with genetic predispositions (nature) • Personality Disorder or defects • Religion: the need for confession, restitution, belief in God and a spiritual experience.

22. A. A. and (4) Spirituality “Our Fellowship is not a religion. It has no hierarchy, no temples, no endowments; its members have no salaries, no plans but God’s plan.”12

23. The Oxford Group Keys to a spiritual life from the Oxford Group:13 • Absolute Honesty • Absolute Purity • Absolute Unselfishness • Absolute Love

24. The Principles “In recovery, we try to take the opposite of our character defects/shortcomings and turn them into principles. For example, we work to change…. • fear into faith fantasizing into reality • hate into love selfishness into service • egoism into humility resentment into forgiveness • anxiety-worry into serenity judgmentalism into tolerance • complacency into action, despair into hope • denial into acceptance self-hate into self-respect • jealousy into trust loneliness into fellowship”14

25. Where did these principles come from? Step 1 Honesty Step 2 Hope Step 3 Faith Step 4 Courage Step 5 Integrity Step 6 Willingness Step 7 Humility Step 8 Brotherly Love Step 9 Justice Step 10 Perseverance Step 11 Spiritual Awareness Step 12 Service15 Keys to a spiritual life from the Oxford Group: • Absolute Honesty • Absolute Purity • Absolute Unselfishness • Absolute Love16

26. Step One We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—That our lives had become unmanageable. • Powerless? • Unmanageable?

27. Step Two Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. • Came to believe. • Power greater than ourselves? • Sanity?

28. Step Three • Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. • Turn my will? • God • As we understood Him

29. The Third Step Prayer How It Works in Alcoholics Anonymous explains: We were reborn. We were now at Step Three. Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: “God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with ma as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. 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. May I do Thy will always!” We thought well before taking this step making sure we were ready; that we could at last abandon ourselves utterly to Him.17

30. Step Four • Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. • Moral • Inventory – list of

31. Step Five • Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. • Admission • Confession • Wrongs

32. Step Six • Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. • God remove? • Defects of character?

33. Step Seven • Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. • Him? • Shortcomings?

34. Step Eight • Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. • Restitution • Willing amends

35. Step Nine • Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. • Amends – restitution • Do no harm

36. Step Ten • Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. • Inventory? • Wrongs? • Admission?

37. Step Eleven Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. • Prayer and meditation – contact with… • God • Knowledge and power!

38. Step Twelve Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. • Spiritual awakening? • Carry the message? • Practice these principles

39. The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous • We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—That our lives had become unmanageable. • Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. • Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. • Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. • Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. • Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. • Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. • Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. • Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. • Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. • Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. • Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.18

40. A. A. Points • Cognitive - obsessive thinking • Medical cause – a disease: Progressive and fatal that is linked with genetic predispositions (nature) • Personality Disorder or defects • Religion: the need for confession, restitution, belief in God and a spiritual experience.

41. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles that Influenced A.A. In the beginning, God • God Biblical descriptions of Him, such as Creator, Maker, Almighty God, Lord, Father, Love, Spirit, Living God. • God has a Plan – His will for man – and provides definite, accurate information for the individual who wants the plan fulfilled. • Man’s Chief End – To do God’s Will, thereby receiving the blessings God promises to those who align their lives with His will. • Belief – We must start with the belief that God IS.

42. Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A. Sin – Estrangement from God – The Barrier of Self • Sin is a reality – The selfishness and self-centeredness that blocks man from God and from others. Finding or Rediscovering God • Surrender – The turning point which makes it possible for man to have a relationship with God by surrendering his will, ego, and sins to God. • Soul-Surgery – The “art” or way which enables man through Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Conservation (the 5 C’s) to have the sin or spiritual disease cured. • Life-change – The result in which man, through a spiritual experience, becomes God-centered instead of self-centered, and focuses on helping others.

43. Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A. The Path They Followed To Establish a Relationship With God • Decision – The action by which man verbalizes his surrender and gives in to God, saying, essentially, “Thy will be done.” • Self-examination – A “moral” inventory in which man takes stock of his sins and their consequences. • Confession – sharing with God and another the inventory results. • Conviction – Readiness to change resulting from man’s conviction that he has sinned and that Christ miraculously can cure. • Conversion – The New Birth – Change, namely, that which occurs when man gives himself to God, is regenerated, has part of God’s nature imparted to him, and finds the barrier of sin gone. • Restitution – Righting the wrong and enabling man to cut the cord of sin that binds him to the past.

44. Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A. Jesus Christ • Jesus Christ – The source of power as the Divine Redeemer and Way-Shower by whose transforming power man can be changed. Spiritual Growth-Continuance • Conservation – Continuance as an idea, by which man maintains and grows in his life of grace. • Daily surrender – A process in which man engages in daily self-examination and surrender to get rid of newly accumulated sin and selfishness. • Guidance – The walk by faith in which the Holy Spirit gives Divine Guidance to a life that is changed from sin to God. • The Four Absolutes – Christ’s standards, the standards of absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love by which man’s life can be tested for harmony with God’s will.

45. Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A. • Quiet Time – a period in which man can receive Divine Guidance and be sensitive to the sway of the Spirit. • Bible Study – Meditation which enables man daily to feed his soul on God’s revelation of His Will in the written Word. • Prayer – Talking to God. • Listening to God for Leading Thoughts and Writing Down Guidance Received – The means of receiving revelation of God’s particular will. • Checking – Testing thoughts to be sure they represent God’s Guidance and not just self-deception.

46. Continued…. Twenty-Eight Oxford Group Principles That Influenced A.A. The Spiritual Experience or Awakening • Knowledge of God’s will – Attaining, with the Guidance of the Holy Spirit, a knowledge of God’s Universal Will as revealed in the Bible, and receiving knowledge of His particular Will through obedience to His Universal Will. • God-consciousness – The total changes resulting from the experience of God when His will is know, lived, and witnessed. Fellowship with God and Believers, and Witness by Life and Word • Fellowship – The fellowship of the Holy Spirit in which believers maintain fellowship with God and mutually sacrifice to win others to the fellowship of the love of God revealed by Jesus Christ. • Witness by Life and Word – Sharing with others by personal evangelism the fruits of the life changed and the proof of God’s forgiveness and power.19

47. Oxford Group Principles Reflected in the 12 Steps Step 1 Admission Step 2 Belief Step 3 Decision and Daily Surrender Step 4 Self-examination Step 5 Confession Step 6 Regeneration Step 7 Soul-Surgery (Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Conservation). Step 8 Conviction Step 9 Restitution Step 10 Perseverance Step 11 Study, Meditation, Prayer, Listening Step 12 Spiritual Experience, Conversion, Fellowship and Witness

48. Spirituality and A.A. “The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God’s universe.”20 How It Works presents: “Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas: • That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. • That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. • God could and would if He were sought.”21

49. A.A. and Transformation “The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.”22

50. Where did they come from? The Principle The Step We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—That our lives had become unmanageable. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Admitted to god, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.23 Step 1 Honesty Step 2 Hope Step 3 Faith Step 4 Courage Step 5 Integrity Step 6 Willingness Step 7 Humility Step 8 Brotherly Love Step 9 Justice Step 10 Perseverance Step 11 Spiritual Awareness Step 12 Service