Charles L. Davis http://www.cdaviscenter.net/bbxml/cdc_bb_chap_rss.xml This work in progress...is dedicated to all the individuals who helped me get here so I could share this...work in progress...with you......My Name is Charles and My Sobriety Date Is June 9, 1985 and Counting... bb_wip@yahoo.com Sat, 12 Mar 2005 16:00 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en-us "http://www.cdaviscenter.net/Images/valid-rss.png" http://www.cdaviscenter.net/bbxml/cdc_bb_chap_rss.xml 60 http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/forewards.html This is the Foreword as it appeared in the first printing of the first edition in 1939. We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:10:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/doctors_opinion.html WE OF Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the reader will be interested in the medical estimate of the plan of recovery described in this book. Convincing testimony must surely come from medical men who have had experience with the sufferings of our members and have witnessed our return to health. A well known doctor, chief physician at a nationally prominent hospital specializing in alcoholic and drug addiction, gave Alcoholics Anonymous this letter: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:20:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_1.html War fever ran high in the New England town to which we new, young officers from Plattsburg were assigned, and we were flattered when the first citizens took us to their homes, making us feel heroic. Here was love, applause, war; moments sublime with intervals hilarious. I was part of life at last, and in the midst of the excitement I discovered liquor. I forgot the strong warnings and the prejudices of my people concerning drink. In time we sailed for "Over There." I was very lonely and again turned to alcohol. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:30:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_2.html We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have recovered. They have solved the drink problem. We are average Americans. All sections of this country and many of its occupations are represented, as well as many political, economic, social, and religious backgrounds. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:35:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_3.html 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. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:40:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_4.html In the preceding chapters you have learned something of alcoholism. we hope we have made clear the distinction between the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic. 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. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:45:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_5.html Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:50:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_6.html Having made our personal inventory, what shall we do about it? We have been trying to get a new attitude, a new relationship with our Creator, and to discover the obstacles in our path. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:05:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_7.html Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion:Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when other fail. Remember they are very ill. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:10:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_8.html With few exceptions, our book thus far has spoken of men. But what we have said applies quite as much to women. Our activities in behalf of women who drink are on the increase. There is every evidence that women regain their health as readily as men if they try our suggestions. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:20:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_9.html Our women folk have suggested certain attitudes a wife may take with the husband who is recovering. Perhaps they created the impression that he is to be wrapped in cotton wool and placed on a pedestal. Successful readjustment means the opposite. All members of the family should meet upon the common ground of tolerance, understanding and love. This involves a process of deflation. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:25:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_10.html Among many employers nowadays, we think of one member who has spent much of his life in the world of big business. He has hired and fired hundreds of men. He knows the alcoholic as the employer sees him. His present views ought to prove exceptionally useful to business men everywhere. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:30:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/chapter_11.html For most normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship and colorful imagination. It means release from care, boredom and worry. It is joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good. But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking. The old pleasures were gone. They were but memories. Never could we recapture the great moments of the past. There was an insistent yearning to enjoy life as we once did and a heartbreaking obsession that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it. There was always one more attempt -- and one more failure. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:35:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/chapters/DrBob.html A co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. The birth of our Society dates from his first day of permanent sobriety, June 10, 1935. To 1950, the year of his death, he carried the A.A. message to more than 5,000 alcoholic men and women, and to all these he gave his medical services without thought of Charge. In this prodigy of service, he was well assisted by Sister Ignatia at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio, one of the greatest friends our Fellowship will ever know. Sat, 12 Mar 2005 16:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/ This work in progress...is dedicated to all the individuals who helped me get here so I could share this...work in progress...with you......My Name is Charles and My Sobriety Date Is June 9, 1985 and Counting... Sat, 12 Mar 2005 18:15:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com http://www.cdaviscenter.net/#Dis Construction of this site and the design of all other connecting pages by Charles L. Davis... Sat, 12 Mar 2005 18:15:00 -0500 bb_wip@yahoo.com