Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition - 12step.org

1 Alcoholics Anonymous The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism NEW AND REVISED Edition Alcoholics Anonymous WORLD SERVICES, INC. NEW YORK CITY 1955 CONTENTSC hapter Page Preface xi Foreword to First Edition xiii Foreword xv The Doctor's Opinion xxiii 1 Bill's Story 1 2

2 There Is a Solution 17 3 More About Alcoholism 30 4 We Agnostics 44 5 How It Works 58 6 Into Action 72 7 Working with Others 89 8 To Wives 104 9 The Family Afterward 122 10 To Employers 136 11 A Vision for You 151 PREFACE THIS IS the Second Edition of the book "AlcoholicsAnonymous," which made its first appearance inApril 1939.

3 More than 300,000 copies of the firstedition are now in circulation. Because this book has become the basic text for ourSociety and has helped such large numbers of alcoholicmen and women to recovery, there exists a sentimentagainst any radical changes being made in it. There-fore, the first portion of this volume, describing recovery program, has been left largely un-touched. But the personal history section has been consider-ably revised and enlarged in order to present a moreaccurate representation of our membership as it istoday. When the book was first printed, we hadscarcely 100 members all told, and every one of themwas an almost hopeless case of alcoholism.

4 This haschanged. now helps Alcoholics in all stages ofthe disease. It reaches into every level of life andinto nearly all occupations. Our membership nowincludes many young people. Women, who were atfirst very reluctant to approach , have come for-ward in large numbers. Therefore the range of thestory section has been broadened so that every alco-holic reader may find a reflection of him or herselfin it. As a souvenir of our past, the original Foreword has xixii PREFACE been preserved and is followed by a Second on de-scribing Alcoholics Anonymous of 1955.

5 Following the Forewords, there appears a sectioncalled "The Doctor's Opinion." This also has beenkept intact, just as it was originally written in 1939 bythe late Dr. William D. Silkworth, our Society's greatmedical benefactor. Besides Dr. Silkworth's originalstatement, there have been added, in the Appendices,a number of the medical and religious endorsementswhich have come to us in recent years. On the last pages of this Second Edition will befound the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anony-mous, the principles upon which our groupsfunction, together with the directions for getting in touchwith FOREWORD TO THE FIRST Edition This is the Foreword as it appeared in the first printing of the first Edition in 1939 WE, OF Alcoholics Anonymous , are morethan one hundred men and woman who have re-covered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind andbody.

6 To show other Alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WEHAVE RECOVERED is the main purpose of this book. Forthem, we hope these pages will prove so convincingthat no further authentication will be necessary. Wethink this account of our experiences will help every-one to better understand the alcoholic. Many do notcomprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick besides, we are sure that our way of living hasits advantages for all. It is important that we remain Anonymous becausewe are too few, at present to handle the overwhelm-ing number of personal appeals which may resultfrom this publication.

7 Being mostly business or pro-fessional folk, we could not well carry on our occupa-tions in such an event. We would like it understoodthat our alcoholic work is an avocation. When writing or speaking publicly about alcohol-ism, we urge each of our Fellowship to omit hispersonal name, designating himself instead as "amember of Alcoholics Anonymous ." Very earnestly we ask the press also, to observe thisrequest, for otherwise we shall be greatly handi-capped. We are not an organization in the conventional xiiixiv FOREWORD TO THE FIRST Edition sense of the word.

8 There are no fees or dues what-soever. The only requirement for membership is anhonest desire to stop drinking. We are not allied withany particular faith, sect or denomination, nor do weoppose anyone. We simply wish to be helpful to thosewho are afflicted. We shall be interested to hear from those who aregetting results from this book, particularly form thosewho have commenced work with other Alcoholics . Weshould like to be helpful to such cases. Inquiry by scientific, medical, and religious societieswill be welcomed. Alcoholics Anonymous FOREWORD TO Second Edition SINCE the original Foreword to this book waswritten in 1939, a wholesale miracle has takenplace.

9 Our earliest printing voiced the hope "thatevery alcoholic who journeys will find the Fellowshipof Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination. Already,"continues the early text, "twos and threes and fives ofus have sprung up in other communities." Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printingof this book and the presentation of 1955 of our secondedition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymoushas mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose mem-bership is far above 150,000 recovered are to be found in each of the United Statesand all of the provinces of Canada.

10 Has flourish-ing communities in the British Isles, the Scandinaviancountries, South Africa, South America, Mexico,Alaska, Australia and Hawaii. All told, promisingbeginnings have been made in some 50 foreign coun-tries and possessions. Some are just now takingshape in Asia. Many of our friends encourage us bysaying that this is but a beginning, only the augury ofa much larger future ahead. The spark that was to flare into the first groupwas struck at Akron, Ohio in June 1935, during a talkbetween a New York stockbroker and an Akronphysician.