2 SUGGESTIONS FOR BEGINNERS
FRIENDLY CIRCLE BEGINNERS BERLIN
These suggestions come from the collective experience of AA members who have found them to be helpful in maintaining sobriety, we hope you will find them helpful too.
1.We don’t drink this 24 hours, or just don’t drink for the next hour or the next minute, whatever works in that moment. if you feel like drinking, postpone the drink!
2 If a desire to drink should occur, and it’s very likely, make a commitment to yourself to call and tell another alcoholic and tell that you want to drink. Telling another that you want to drink will take the power out of the obsession/compulsion. POSTPONE THE FIRST DRINK!
3 Go to lots of AA meetings. Plan to attend 90 meetings in 90 days. Plan your day around a meeting.
4 Change routines – especially at drinking hours – to break up old habit patterns.
5 Find a “home group”, which is a meeting you attend weekly.
6 Get a service commitment at a meeting. Three AA commitments per week are recommended.
7 It is said that the opposite of addiction is connection, get lots of numbers of other members and make daily recovery phone calls.
8 Always remember the AA HALT, do not get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired.
9 Always remember the HOW of the program: Aim for Honesty, Openmindedness and Willingness.
10 Get lots of AA literature, including the Big Book, and the Living Sober book which is packed with great practical suggestions to help you stay sober.
11 Start working the Twelve Steps with a Sponsor, to fight such threats to sobriety as resentments, self-pity, and the tendency to dwell on the past or the future.
12 Prayer – in whatever form you prefer it.
RECOMMEND LITERATURE:
AA Big Book – Here’s a free PDF:
AA 12 Steps & 12 Traditions – Here’s a free PDF:
Living Sober book, Published by AA
https://sites.google.com/site/aspiritualrecovery/literature-pages/living-sober-chapters
AA Pamphlet on Sponsorship:
https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/p-15_en_0722.pdf