Oldtimers

"Many oldsters who have put our A.A. 'booze cure' to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. To attain this, we must develop real maturity and balance (which is to say humility) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God."
Bill W., AA Grapevine, January 1958
c. 1967 AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 244

Thought to Consider . . .

Newcomers are the lifeblood of the program, but our oldtimers are the arteries.

AACRONYMS

C H A N G E
Choosing Honesty Allows New Growth Every day

"The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety"

by Bill Wilson I think that many oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA -- the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God.
Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance -- urges quite appropriate to age seventeen -- prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven. 

Since AA began, I've taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually. My God, how painful it is to keep demanding the impossible, and how very painful to discover finally, that all along we have had the cart before the horse! Then comes the final agony of seeing how awfully wrong we have been, but still finding ourselves unable to get off the emotional merry-go-round.

Emotional Sobriety

"If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small,

we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependency

and its consequent unhealthy demand.

Let us, with God's help,

continually surrender these hobbling liabilities.

Then we can be set free to live and love;

we may then be able to twelfth-step ourselves,

as well as others, into emotional sobriety."

Bill. W., AAGrapevine, January 1958

c.1967AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 288

Thought to Consider . . .

Sobriety is a choice and a treasure.

AACRONYM

A A = Altered Attitudes 

Seeking Emotional Stability

When we developed still more, we discovered the best possible source of emotional stability to be God Himself. We found that dependence upon His perfect justice, forgiveness, and love was healthy, and that it would work where nothing else would. If we really depended upon God, we couldn’t very well play God to our fellows nor would we feel the urge wholly to rely on human protection and care.  12 & 12, p.116

All my life I depended on people for my emotional needs and security, but today I cannot live that way anymore. By the grace of God, I have admitted my powerlessness over people, places and things. I had been a real “people addict”; wherever I went there had to be someone who would pay some kind of attention to me. It was the kind of attitude that could only get worse, because the more I depended on others and demanded attention, the less I received. I have given up believing that any human power can relieve me of that empty feeling. Although I remain a fragile human being who needs to work A.A.’s Steps to keep this particular principle before my personality, it is only a loving God who can give me inner peace and emotional stability.

EMOTIONAL SOBRIETY

 

This is the substance of a revealing letter which Bill Wilson wrote several years ago to a close friend who also had troubles with depression. The letter appeared in the "Grapevine" January, 1953.

EMOTIONAL SOBRIETY

"I think that many oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA, the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God.

Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance, urges quite appropriate to age seventeen, prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven and fifty-seven.

Since AA began, I´ve taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up emotionally and spiritually. My God, how painful it is to keep demanding the impossible, and how very painful to discover, finally, that all along we have had the cart before the horse. Then comes the final agony of seeing how awfully wrong we have been, but still finding ourselves unable to get off the emotional merry-go-round.