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Dr. Bill,
I was so glad to read your
article in the August 30th edition of the Twin Boro News.
("Denial is defined in terms of alcohol addiction."
Pg. 69) I just received my 5 year coin in A.A. after 30
years of drinking & black-outs. I make 2 meetings a
day and sponsor 2 people. I keep active in the Sahara Club
at 160 Johnson Avenue in Hackensack & run the AA store
there. So many people in the rooms with lots of time ---
10, 12, 20 or more years go back out & (if they do)
it never gets better. They come back or die! If they make
it back---they always say the main reason is they stopped
going to meetings. This is a disease and a life-long battle!
I am very active in A.A. & have now signed up for a
jail commitment -- taking meetings into the women's jail
in Hackensack. One day at a time, life gets better &
better. Instead of drowning problems, we can work through
them with a clear mind I love A.A. & the people in it.
It is a we program...one alcoholic helping another. Thanks
again for your article.
Janet J., Age 56
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Dear Janet,
Congratulations on your 5th anniversary!
I purposely saved your letter to quote in my Thanksgiving
column as it is the perfect holiday for all of our fellow
countrymen, whether afflicted by an addictive illness or
not, to say, "Thank you, A.A.! Thank you for the thousands
upon thousands of our country's citizens who you have turned
around; for the lives you have saved; for giving hope to
those caught in the suffocating grip of the devastating
illness of addiction to alcohol and other drugs; and also,
for giving the families of addicted persons a ray of hope
amid their desperation and hopelessness because their loved
ones are being helped and now have a chance to have a decent
life."
It seems only appropriate to give credit
where credit is due during this 65th anniversary year of
the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The movement was born in 1935, when a newly
sober stockbroker from New York (the late Bill Wilson) sought
out another alcoholic, a physician ("Dr. Bob")
who was still drinking, but was ready to embrace any solution
to his alcohol problem. The result was the beginning of
what you have rightly described as the "we program"......alcoholics
helping other alcoholics... and the development of the signature
effective 12-step recovery programs. From that original
one-on-one approach, A.A. has grown to a membership of many
millions of sober alcohol and drug free alcoholics.
I mention drug addiction here, along with
alcoholism, because so many today are addicted to other
drugs than just alcohol and are often addicted to both.
Even in the case of drug addicts (N.A.), or families of
alcoholics and addicts (Alanon & Nar-anon),or persons
with other addictions---virtually all groups created to
deal with these problems use the 12 steps of A.A. as the
basis of their recovery programs.
But, are we taking the value of these 12-step
programs to our society for granted? Do we realize just
how much a contribution they have made, and continue to
make, to the lives of clean and sober alcoholics and to
those addicted to other drugs?...To their families?..To
their friends, to their colleagues, and to their workplace?..To
our whole society, for that matter? The list goes on.
Most addiction counseling centers, such
the Van Ost Institute, attribute their treatment successes
to the insistence that their patients attend an appropriate
12 step program both during treatment and as a major component
of their aftercare. These programs are the lifeline of recovery.
So, this Thanksgiving, I say,
..."Thank you, A.A....Thank you for
65 years of service!"
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