Читать книгу One on One - Группа авторов - Страница 9

January 1975

What can be done for the alcoholic who is a newcomer in AA, who has suffered one traumatic experience after another, one failure after another, who is desperately willing to reconstruct his life, yet unable to do it himself? How can hope be instilled in him, to replace despair? How can a recovering alcoholic find calm and something that was never in him before—patience? How can a person who has repeatedly failed all his life be convinced that things will get better, especially when he will not even be in control of his own life?

Like everything else in AA, the answer is simple. The key to success for the alcoholic, to repairs for an emotionally mangled life, lies in AA sponsorship. Sponsorship by its very nature demands complete honesty and gut-level communication between the sponsor and the newcomer.

I speak from my own observations, but mostly from my own experience. I do believe God’s will is being projected through my sponsor. I thank God that my sponsor has intervened in my life when I started straying, especially when I was doing something that could interfere with someone else’s way of life. At many of these interventions, I objected vehemently, but I later accepted the fact that I was sick.

I would not stand a chance alone. In the past, I did everything recommended by AA except getting a sponsor, and for a long time I stayed frustrated and baffled, wondering what had gone wrong.

When I drank, I had a drinking problem that I could not handle. When I stopped drinking, I had a living problem that I could not cope with—I had no idea even where to begin. But I am stepping along now, and those steps feel a lot more secure with the help of my sponsor.

L. W.

Syracuse, New York