Friend of Bill W.

Carrying the message of hope from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Posting passages once daily from the Fourth Edition.

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

* Posting from AA Big Book, 4th Edition, Personal Stories: “Flooded with Feeling,” p 369-374 *

When a barrier to God collapsed, this self-described agnostic was at Step 3

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

In my third year I drank homemade peach wine, and when it was gone, I had some whiskey. That night, I vomited, in a blackout. Soon I found that I didn't get as sick on vodka.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

I'm sure that very few of them make that date into an annual celebration by getting as drunk as possible. It was in my second year of drinking that I started saying that if you can still feel your face, you're not drunk enough.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

Nothing really bad happened, but it could have. I nearly got arrested. A friend just missed being shot. The car I was riding in stopped just before it crashed.
I don't think most moderate, social drinkers remember so clearly the night they had their first drink.
#sobriety #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

I had a great time that summer between high school and college. It revolved around drinking: drinking and football, drinking and hunting, drinking and playing pool, drinking and driving.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

(2/2) I was the one who walked for miles searching for something. I know now what I was looking for: Unlike the rest of them, I wanted another drink.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

(1/2) The others drank a lot too, but I was the one who woke up in the middle of the night and started wandering around the countryside by the light of the moon.

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

There were four of us, and we only brought four bottles of home brew.
I never made that mistake again!
The next week, a bunch of us went camping, and we brought cases of beer. We finished it all.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

I came to realize that I was on the same road. I just hadn't gone as far - yet.

I had my first drink in my senior year of high school. That first night, I slipped out of the window so my parents wouldn't hear me leave.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

When I first came to A.A., I thought everyone had drunk more than I had, that everybody had gotten into more trouble. But I kept coming to meetings, and after a while, I began to hear the beginnings of their stories.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

* End of Chapter - ‘Tightrope’ *

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

Even more important, I have returned to my home group and am still asked to make coffee. I now have an extended family that is international in scope, all the members of which are joined by bonds of shared pain and joy.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

I have a full, happy life, with friends and loving family. Recently I retired and have begun to travel throughout the world. I have attended and felt welcome at A.A. meetings wherever I have gone inside and outside the United States.
#recovery #sobriety #alcoholic #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

I have come to terms with my Higher Power; after more than a dozen years in the A.A. Fellowship, I was able to join a religious group and have now become active in that organization.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

I no longer have the sense of impending doom. I no longer wish for death or stare at myself in the mirror with loathing.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

When I first came to this Fellowship, I had lost my health and sanity, my friends, much of my family, my self-respect, and my God. In the years since, all of these have been restored to me.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

I have always felt that the representatives of groups in my area were concerned only with how we carried the message of recovery, not with what I might do in my personal life.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

After two years I went on to do a number of other service jobs for A.A. In all these positions I never felt obligated to conceal or deny my sexuality.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

I knew nothing of general service at that time, and I decided to learn what it was all about so I could do a decent job and be able to pass it on to a successor as quickly as possible.
#recovery #sobriety #alcohol #alcoholic #12Steps #BigBook #odaat #aa

[Friend of Bill W. @BigBookMessage]

It was in this period that I started to turn to service beyond the group level. I had helped in founding the first gay A.A. group in my part of town and was elected general service representative after having served in other group offices.
#recovery #sobriety #odaat #aa