SLIPS - extracts from As Bill Sees It

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SLIPS
"extracts from As Bill Sees It
"About this slip business--I would not be too discouraged. I think you
are suffering a great deal from a needless guilt. For some reason or other,
the Lord has laid out tougher paths for some of us, and I guess you are
treading one of them. God is not asking us to be successful. He is only
asking us to try to be. That, you surely are doing, and have been doing.
So I would not stay away from A.A. through any feeling of discouragement or
shame. It's just the place you should be. Why don't you try just as a
member? You don't have carry the whole A.A. on your back, you know!
"It is not always the quantity of good things that you do, it is also
the quality that counts.
"Above all, take it one day at a time."
page 11
"Though I know how hurt and sorry you must be after this slip, please
do not worry about a temporary loss of you inner peace. As calmly as you
can, just renew your effort on the A.A. program, especially those parts of
it which have to do with meditation and self-analysis.
"Could I also suggest that you look at excessive guilt for what it is?
Nothing but a sort of reverse pride. A decent regret for what has happened
is fine. But guilt--no.
"Indeed, the slip could well have been brought about by unreasonable
feelings of guilt because of other moral failures, so called. Surely, you
ought to look into this possibility. Even here you should not blame
yourself for failure; you can be penalized only for refusing to try for
better things."
page 68, paragraphs 1-3
"Slips can often be charged to rebellion; some of us are more
rebellious than others. Slips may be due to the illusion that one can be
`cured' of alcoholism. Slips can also be charged to carelessness and
complacency. Many of us fail to ride out these periods sober. Things so
fine for two or three years--then the member is seen no more. Some of us
suffer extreme guilt because of vices or practices that we can't or won't
let go of. Too little self-forgiveness and too little prayer--well, this
combination adds up to slips.
page 99, paragraph 1
"It does not seem to pay to argue with `slippers' about the proper
method of getting dry. After all, why should people who are drinking tell
people who are dry how it should be done?
"Just kid the boys along--ask them if they are having fun. If they are
to noisy or troublesome, amiably keep out of their way."
page 154, paragraphs 3 & 4
"Our spiritual and emotional growth in A.A. does not depend so deeply
upon success as it does upon our failures and setbacks. If you will bear
this in mind, I think that your slip will have the effect of kicking you
upstairs, instead of down.
"We A.A.'s have had no better teacher than Old Man Adversity, except in
those cases where we refuse to let him teach us."
page 184, paragraphs 1 & 2
"You know what our genius for rationalization is. If, to ourselves, we
fully justify one slip, then our rationalizing propensities are almost sure
to justify another one, perhaps with a different set of excuses. But one
justification leads to another and
presently we are back on the bottle full-time."
page 197, paragraph 1
"Don't be too discouraged about that slip. Practically always, we
drunks learn the hard way.
"Your idea of moving on to somewhere else may be good, or it may not.
Perhaps you have got into an emotional or economic jam that can't be will
handled where you are. But maybe you are doing just what all of us have
done, at one time or another: Maybe you are running away. Why don't you
try to think that through again carefully?
"Are you really placing recovery first, or are you making it contingent
upon other people, places, or circumstances? You may find it ever so much
better to face the music right where you are now, and, with the help of the
A.A. program, win through. Before you make a decision, weigh it in these
terms."
page 251