What Do I Do Now?
First, know this: YOU NEVER HAVE TO BE ALONE AGAIN!
Recovery
for each of us began only when we were able to reach out and ask others
for help. In almost every case, this was most difficult at first but,
over time, has become an essential component of our continuing recovery.
There are countless others in the area who are willing to help. All one has to do is ask.
GO TO MEETINGS:
Every day of the year, early morning, afternoon, evenings and even late
at night, there is help in the form of meetings for you and for every
alcoholic who wants help.
GO TO AS MANY MEETINGS AS YOU CAN.
Use
this website’s meeting database (or the printed version obtainable on
meeting literature tables) to find meetings in the area.
Call us at (330)- 270-3000 if you would like to talk to someone.
A.A. does not promise to solve your life’s problems. But we can show you how we are learning to live without drinking.
am I an alcoholic?
Nobody in A.A. is able to answer this question definitively. The only person who is truly able to determine this is you.
What we can say concerning this very personal decision, is that we were all faced with one, if not both of the following:
“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.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 4, Page 44
“Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No
person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his
fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have
been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink
like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and
enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The
persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the
gates of insanity or death.”
“We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that
we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion
that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.”
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 3, Page 30
“The
fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the
power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically
nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our
consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and
humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense
against the first drink.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 2, Page 24