From the books ...
Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
CONTROL occurs
29 times
(
Definition from Merriam-Webster Online)
Click
to display the full page from the Big Book
1.
... control.
12&12 p.91,
Step Ten
Disagreeable or
unexpected problems are
not the only
ones that call for
self-
control.
2.
... control.
BB p.21,
There Is A Solution
Here is the
fellow who has been
puzzling you,
especially in his
lack of
control.
3.
... control.
BB p.24,
There Is A Solution
4.
... control.
BB p.26,
There Is A Solution
He
wished above all things to
regain self-
control.
5.
... control.
BB p.30,
More About Alcoholism
We
know that no
real alcoholic ever
recovers
control.
6.
... control.
BB p.117,
To Wives
Often you
must carry the
burden of
avoiding them or
keeping them under
control.
7.
... control.
BB xxix(xxvii),
The Doctor's Opinion
I do not
hold with those who
believe that
alcoholism
is
entirely a
problem
of
mental control.
8.
... control.
BB xxx(xxviii),
The Doctor's Opinion
These
men were not
drinking
to
escape; they were
drinking to
overcome a
craving beyond their
mental control.
9.
... control, and
continue to fail, our suffering ...
12&12 p.53,
Step Four
10.
... control and
enjoy his drinking is the ...
BB p.30,
More About Alcoholism
The
idea that somehow,
someday he will
control and
enjoy his
drinking is the
great obsession of every
abnormal drinker.
11.
... control, but
such intervals -- usually brief -- were ...
BB p.30,
More About Alcoholism
All of us
felt at
times that
we were
regaining control, but such
intervals --
usually
brief -- were
inevitably followed by
still
less control, which
led in
time to
pitiful and
incomprehensible demoralization.
12.
... control, for
he is unable to stay ...
BB p.109,
To Wives
Two: Your
husband is
showing lack of
control, for he is
unable to
stay on the
water wagon even when he
wants to.
13.
... control his
desire for alcohol, the only ...
BB xxix(xxvii),
The Doctor's Opinion
On the other
hand -- and
strange as this may
seem to
those who do not
understand -- once a
psychic change has
occurred, the very same
person who
seemed doomed, who had so many
problems he
despaired of
ever
solving them,
suddenly finds himself
easily able to
control his
desire for
alcohol, the only
effort necessary being
that
required to
follow
a few
simple rules.
14.
... control his
drinking can do the right-about-face ...
BB p.31,
More About Alcoholism
If anyone who is
showing inability to
control his
drinking can do the
right-about-
face and
drink like a
gentleman, our
hats are off to him.
15.
... control his
drinking, tell him that possibly ...
BB p.92,
Working With Others
If he
sticks to the
idea
that he can still
control his
drinking, tell him that
possibly he can -- if he is not too
alcoholic.
16.
... control of
his liquor consumption, once he ...
BB p.21,
There Is A Solution
He may
start off as a
moderate drinker; he may
or may not
become a
continuous hard drinker; but at some
stage of
his
drinking career he
begins to
lose all
control of his
liquor consumption, once he
starts to
drink.
17.
... control of
his liquor situation, he went ...
BB p.155,
A Vision For You
Some
time later, and just as
he
thought he was
getting control of his
liquor situation, he went
on a
roaring bender.
18.
... control our
drinking.
BB p.30,
More About Alcoholism
We
alcoholics are
men and
women who have
lost the
ability to
control our
drinking.
19.
... control our
drinking just because we were ...
BB xxvi(xxiv),
The Doctor's Opinion
It did not
satisfy us to be told that we could not
control our
drinking just
because we were
maladjusted to
life, that we were in
full flight from
reality, or were
outright mental defectives.
20.
... control our
emotional natures, we were a ...
BB p.52,
We Agnostics
We were having
trouble with
personal relationships, we couldn't
control our
emotional natures, we were a
prey to
misery and
depression, we
couldn't make a
living, we had a
feeling of
uselessness,
we were
full of
fear, we were
unhappy, we couldn't
seem
to be of
real help to other
people -- was not a
basic solution of these
bedevilments more
important than whether we should see
newsreels of
lunar flight?
21.
... control our
inner lives and guarantee us ...
12&12 p.37,
Step Three
22.
... control over
the amount you take, you ...
BB p.44,
We Agnostics
If, when you
honestly want
to, you find you cannot
quit entirely, or if when
drinking, you have
little
control over the
amount you
take, you are
probably alcoholic.
23.
... control, that
our drinking even then was ...
12&12 p.23,
Step One
By
going back in our
own drinking histories, we
could
show that
years before
we
realized it we were out of
control, that our
drinking even
then was no
mere habit, that
it was
indeed the
beginning of a
fatal progression.
24.
... control the
situation, and there were periods ...
BB p.5,
Bill's Story
Nevertheless, I still
thought I could
control the
situation, and
there were
periods of
sobriety which
renewed my
wife's
hope.
25.
... control whatever.
BB p.32,
More About Alcoholism
Once he
started, he had no
control whatever.
26.
... control whatever
over alcohol.
BB p.26,
There Is A Solution
Yet he had no
control whatever
over
alcohol.
27.
... control, which
led in time to pitiful ...
BB p.30,
More About Alcoholism
All of us
felt at
times that
we were
regaining control, but such
intervals --
usually
brief -- were
inevitably followed by
still
less control, which
led in
time to
pitiful and
incomprehensible demoralization.
28.
... control would
enable us to do it.
BB p.151,
A Vision For You
There was an
insistent yearning to
enjoy life as we once did and a
heartbreaking obsession that some new
miracle of
control would
enable us to do it.
29.
... control your
drinking.
BB p.139,
To Employers
Whenever you
want to, you
control your
drinking.
Passages from the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous
and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
are reprinted with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.
The A.A. Preamble, copyright ©
The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., is reprinted with permission.
Permission to reprint does not in any way imply affiliation with or
endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous or The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.
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