The main purpose and mission of Alcoholics Anonymous members is to stay sober and help others achieve sobriety. So that even when someone has overcome their addiction, they stay within the fellowship and help others overcome their addiction, and this also keeps them from relapsing.

“Hold Back Nothing”

The real tests of the situation are your own willingness to confide and your full confidence in one with whom you share your first accurate self-survey… Provided you hold back nothing, your sense of relief will mount from minute to minute. The dammed-up emotions of years break out of their confinement, and miraculously vanish as soon as they are exposed. As the pain subsides, a healing tranquility takes its place.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, pp. 61-62

A tiny kernel of locked-in feelings began to unfold when I first attended A.A. meetings and self-knowledge then became a learning task for me. This new self-understanding brought about a change in my responses to life situations. I realized I had the right to make choices in my life, and the inner dictatorship of habits slowly lost its grip.

I believe that if I seek God I can find a better way to live and I ask Him daily to assist me in living a sober life.

From the book Daily Reflections 
© Copyright 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.

Respect for Others

The Forest and the Trees