Money, power, prestige, sexual relations,
and so on are the most obvious obstacles to spiritual growth and can ensnare
the very best of us. However, when combined with personal trauma, physical pain
and financial deprivation… these things become a hammer and anvil that could
have flattened me out. I even considered suicide after countless vain attempts
to get sober and I have lost more than one friend in our little Fellowship to
suicide… folks who have had long-term sobriety. They were good people… every
last one of them. They worked hard on their sobriety and were as committed to
their own recovery as I have been.
In AA
there are enough suicides and slips that are testimony to the potency of this
toxic brew and it has been a mystery to me why suicide isn’t addressed more
directly in the literature of AA. The more I think about the history of our
Fellowship the easier it is to understand that the Big Book itself was written
before most in our fellowship had five years of sobriety under their belts.
I know that this notion could be considered an AA heresy but I believe that
much more ought to be written into our literature on this subject because the
Big Book, as beautiful and useful as it is, cannot be considered a scripture
set in stone that answers all our problems. Rather it ought to best be regarded
an ever evolving and growing text-book for recovery. Clean house, work with others
and, by all means, get help when the hungry lions of despair are clawing at the
door.
geo, 4,607
I have long thought that the overblown canonization of the big book as "providing answers to any possible problem is a total crock of poo" as you say, this book has tremendous value as an effective gude for recovery, with many useful tools for maintaing that sobriety. And it's not denigrating that value when we are honest about what the big book--and by extension meeting discussions--lack in the way of examination of and possible coping strategies for dealing with chronic depression, bi-polar disorder, other mental health issues, extreme poverty, suicide, and all the other life issues intimately related to maintaing sobriety and being comfortable doing so. Too many aa members treat the BB as if it is unchanging gospel, to be read literally at all times. These are the aa fundamentalist types.
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