From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
Click
to display the full page from the Big Book1.
... self.
BB p.108,
To Wives
2.
... self-appointed members
present themselves as messiahs representing ...
12&12 p.187,
Tradition Twelve
We simply couldn't afford
to take the chance of letting self-appointed members present themselves as messiahs representing
A.A. before the whole public.
3.
... self-appointed, of
course, because there is no ...
12&12 p.133,
Tradition Two
These are the growing group's hierarchy of service -- self-appointed, of course, because there is no other way.
4.
... self-appraisal.
12&12 p.89,
Step Ten
The emphasis on inventory is heavy only because a great many of us have never really acquired the habit of accurate self-appraisal.
5.
... self-appraisal.
BB p.76,
Into Action
6.
... self-appraisal, and
the admission of our defects ...
12&12 p.59,
Step Five
Hence it was most evident
that a solitary self-appraisal, and the admission of our defects
based upon that alone, wouldn't be nearly enough.
7.
... self-appraisal, how
you straightened out your past ...
BB p.94,
Working With Others
Outline the program of
action, explaining how
you made a self-appraisal, how you straightened out your past and why you are now endeavoring to be helpful to him.
8.
... self-appraisal insufficient.
BB p.72,
Into Action
9.
... self-centered and
in direct conflict with the ...
BB p.124,
The Family Afterward
10.
... self-centered behavior
blocked a partnership relation with ...
12&12 p.53,
Step Four
11.
... self-centered --
ego-centric, as people like to call ...
BB p.61,
How It Works
12.
... self-centered fear
-- primarily fear that we would ...
12&12 p.76,
Step Seven
The chief activator of
our defects has been self-centered fear -- primarily fear that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to
get something we demanded.
13.
... self-centered in
the extreme, doesn't care for ...
12&12 p.24,
Step One
No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme,
doesn't care for this prospect -- unless he has
to do these things in order
to stay alive himself.
14.
... self-centered person;
and we were not above ...
BB p.116,
To Wives
We wives found that, like everybody else, we were afflicted with
pride, self-pity, vanity and all the things which go to make up the self-centered person; and we were not above
selfishness or dishonesty.
15.
... self-centeredness.
BB p.14,
Bill's Story
16.
... self-centeredness!
BB p.62,
How It Works
17.
... self-centeredness cannot
be set in reverse all ...
12&12 p.73,
Step Seven
18.
... self-centeredness much
by wishing or trying on ...
BB p.62,
How It Works
19.
... self-confidence.
12&12 p.22,
Step One
20.
... self-confidence, but
it didn't fully solve the ...
BB p.68,
How It Works
Some of us once had great
self-confidence, but it
didn't fully solve the fear problem, or any other.
21.
... self-confidence, their
reliance upon things human, their ...
BB xxviii(xxvi),
The Doctor's Opinion
These allergic types can
never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
22.
... self-confidence was
no good whatever; in fact, ...
12&12 p.22,
Step One
Then we had been told that so far as alcohol is concerned, self-confidence was no good whatever; in fact, it was a total liability.
23.
... self-confidence, we
were apt to play the ...
12&12 p.92,
Step Ten
24.
... self-confident, that
it would be only a ...
BB p.40,
More About Alcoholism
I felt I had every right to be self-confident, that it would be only a matter of exercising my
will power and keeping on guard.
25.
... self conscious
and ill at ease most ...
BB p.178,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
I was self conscious and
ill at ease most of the time, my health was at the breaking point, and I was thoroughly miserable.
26.
... self-conscious or
feel that you must apologize ...
BB p.115,
To Wives
You will no longer be self-conscious or feel that you
must apologize as though your husband were a
weak character.
27.
... self-consciousness will
do wonders for you socially.
BB p.115,
To Wives
28.
... self-constructed prisons,
the surety that we need ...
12&12 p.124,
Step Twelve
Service, gladly rendered, obligations
squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God's help, the knowledge that at home or in
the world outside we are
partners in a common effort, the well-understood fact that in God's sight all human beings are important, the proof that
love freely given surely brings a full return, the certainty that
we are no longer isolated and alone in self-constructed prisons, the surety that we
need no longer be square pegs in round holes but can fit and belong in God's scheme of things -- these are
the permanent and legitimate satisfactions of right
living for which no amount of pomp and circumstance, no heap of material possessions, could possibly be substitutes.
29.
... self-control.
12&12 p.91,
Step Ten
30.
... self-control.
BB p.26,
There Is A Solution
31.
... self-deceived?
12&12 p.59,
Step Five
If all our lives we had more
or less fooled ourselves, how could we now
be so sure that we weren't
still self-deceived?
32.
... self-deceived, and
so incapable of receiving enough ...
12&12 p.32,
Step Two
Therefore we remained
self-deceived, and so incapable of receiving
enough grace to restore us to sanity.
33.
... self-deception and
experimentation, they will try to ...
BB p.31,
More About Alcoholism
By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic.
34.
... self-delusion had
been causing us.
12&12 p.58,
Step Five
35.
... self-delusion, self-seeking,
and self-pity, we step on ...
BB p.62,
How It Works
Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.
36.
... self-destruction.
12&12 p.64,
Step Six
37.
... self-destruction.
BB p.56,
We Agnostics
Post-war disillusionment, ever
more serious alcoholism, impending
mental and physical collapse, brought him to
the point of self-destruction.
38.
... self-determined objective
and for the perfect objective ...
12&12 p.68,
Step Six
So the difference between "the boys and the men" is the difference between striving for a
self-determined objective and for the perfect objective which
is of God.
39.
... self-discipline.
12&12 p.52,
Step Four
These are the sort of fundamental inquiries
that can disclose the source of my discomfort
and indicate whether I
may be able to alter my own conduct and so adjust myself serenely to self-discipline.
40.
... self-discipline.
BB p.567(569),
Appendix II, Spiritual Experience
What often takes place in a few months could seldom have been
accomplished by years
of self-discipline.
41.
... self-discipline had
qualified him to drink as ...
BB p.32,
More About Alcoholism
Then he fell victim to a belief which practically
every alcoholic has --
that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as
other men.
42.
... self esteem
(fear).
BB p.65,
How It Works
43.
... self esteem
(fear).
BB p.65,
How It Works
44.
... self esteem
(fear).
BB p.65,
How It Works
45.
... self esteem
(fear).
BB p.65,
How It Works
Mrs. Jones -- she's a nut, she snubbed me; she committed her husband for
drinking; he's my friend; she's a gossip -- personal relationship; self esteem (fear).
46.
... self esteem
(fear); security.
BB p.65,
How It Works
My employer -- unreasonable, unjust,
overbearing; threatens to fire me for drinking and padding my expense account -- self esteem (fear); security.
47.
... self-esteem, our
pocketbooks, our ambitions, our personal ...
BB p.64,
How It Works
In most cases it was found
that our self-esteem, our pocketbooks, our ambitions, our personal
relationships (including sex) were hurt or threatened.
48.
... self-esteem, our
security, our ambitions, our personal, ...
BB p.65,
How It Works
Was it our self-esteem, our
security, our ambitions, our personal,
or sex relations, which
had been interfered with?
49.
... self-evident.
BB p.9,
Bill's Story
50.
... self-examination are
bound to make all the ...
12&12 p.89,
Step Ten
For these minutes and sometimes hours spent in self-examination are bound to
make all the other hours of our day better and happier.
51.
... self-examination, meditation,
and prayer.
12&12 p.98,
Step Eleven
52.
... self-forgetting.
12&12 p.101,
Step Eleven
53.
... "self-forgetting," and
how did he propose to ...
12&12 p.101,
Step Eleven
54.
... self-forgetting that
one finds.
12&12 p.99,
Step Eleven
55.
... self-importance.
12&12 p.120,
Step Twelve
56.
... self-importance.
12&12 p.122,
Step Twelve
In later life he finds that real happiness is not to be found in just trying to be a number one man, or even a first-rater in the heartbreaking struggle for money, romance, or self-importance.
57.
... self-importance.
12&12 p.124,
Step Twelve
58.
... self-imposed crisis
we could not postpone or ...
BB p.53,
We Agnostics
When we became alcoholics, crushed by a
self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to
fearlessly face the proposition that either
God is everything or else He is nothing.
59.
... 'self-insurance.'
BB p.572(574),
Appendix V, The Religious View on A.A.
60.
... self-insurance has
resulted in the restoration of ...
BB p.572(574),
Appendix V, The Religious View on A.A.
This self-insurance has
resulted in the restoration of physical, mental and spiritual health and self-respect to hundreds of men and women who would be hopelessly down and out without its unique but effective therapy."
61.
... self-interest, pure
and simple, that has enabled ...
12&12 p.66,
Step Six
62.
... self-justification.
12&12 p.54,
Step Four
Because our surface record hasn't looked too bad, we have frequently been
abashed to find that this
is so simply because we
have buried these selfsame defects deep down in us under thick layers of self-justification.
63.
... self-justification, and
always spurred by conscious or ...
12&12 p.48,
Step Four
For pride, leading to
self-justification,
and always spurred by conscious or unconscious fears, is the
basic breeder of most human difficulties, the
chief block to true progress.
64.
... self-justification during
their drinking days.
12&12 p.46,
Step Four
First off, they can be told
that the majority of A.A. members have suffered severely from self-justification during
their drinking days.
65.
... self-justification or
resentful criticism.
BB p.127,
The Family Afterward
These family talks will be constructive if
they can be carried on without heated argument, self-pity, self-justification or resentful criticism.
66.
... self-justification was
the maker of excuses; excuses, ...
12&12 p.46,
Step Four
For most of us, self-justification was the maker of excuses; excuses, of course, for drinking, and for all kinds
of crazy and damaging conduct.
67.
... self-knowledge.
BB p.7,
Bill's Story
68.
... self-knowledge.
BB p.39,
More About Alcoholism
But the actual or potential alcoholic,
with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge.
69.
Self-knowledge would
fix it.
BB p.40,
More About Alcoholism
70.
... self-knowledge would
not help in those strange ...
BB p.42,
More About Alcoholism
71.
... self-loathing.
12&12 p.45,
Step Four
If temperamentally we are on the depressive side, we are apt to be swamped with guilt and self-loathing.
72.
... self, manifested
in various ways, was what ...
BB p.64,
How It Works
Being convinced that
self, manifested in various ways, was what had defeated us, we considered its common manifestations.
73.
... self-overhaul and
meditation.
12&12 p.89,
Step Ten
Many of us also like the experience of an
occasional retreat
from the outside world
where we can quiet down for
an undisturbed day or so
of self-overhaul and meditation.
74.
... self-pity.
12&12 p.135,
Tradition Two
The bleeding deacon is
one who is just as surely convinced that the
group cannot get along without him, who constantly connives for
reelection to office,
and who continues to be consumed with self-pity.
75.
... self-pity.
BB p.8,
Bill's Story
76.
... self-pity?
BB p.62,
How It Works
Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?
77.
... self-pity, and
depression.
12&12 p.52,
Step Four
78.
... self-pity, and
hurt feelings, it was probable ...
12&12 p.59,
Step Five
Because we were still bothered by fear, self-pity, and hurt feelings, it was probable we couldn't appraise ourselves fairly at all.
79.
... self-pity and
resentment.
BB p.15,
Bill's Story
80.
... self-pity, and
unwarranted pride.
12&12 p.47,
Step Four
But in A.A. we slowly learned that something
had to be done about our vengeful resentments,
self-pity, and unwarranted pride.
81.
... self-pity, dishonest
or self-seeking motives.
BB p.86,
Into Action
Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it
be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.
82.
... self-pity made
them killjoys.
BB p.105,
To Wives
83.
... self-pity, misunderstanding
and fear.
BB p.104,
To Wives
84.
... self-pity oozing
from every pore, and inflict ...
12&12 p.81,
Step Eight
What happens when we wallow in depression,
self-pity oozing from every pore, and inflict that upon those about us?
85.
... self-pity or
delusions of personal grandeur.
12&12 p.58,
Step Five
All of us saw, for example,
that we lacked honesty
and tolerance, that we were beset at times by attacks of self-pity or delusions of personal grandeur.
86.
... self-pity, or
foolish decisions.
BB p.88,
Into Action
87.
... self-pity, or
hurt pride -- did the same ...
12&12 p.90,
Step Ten
88.
... self-pity, self-justification
or resentful criticism.
BB p.127,
The Family Afterward
These family talks will be constructive if
they can be carried on without heated argument, self-pity, self-justification or resentful criticism.
89.
... self-pity, vanity
and all the things which ...
BB p.116,
To Wives
We wives found that, like everybody else, we were afflicted with
pride, self-pity, vanity and all the things which go to make up the self-centered person; and we were not above
selfishness or dishonesty.
90.
... self-pity, we
step on the toes of ...
BB p.62,
How It Works
Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.
91.
... self-pity will
disappear.
BB p.84,
Into Action
92.
... self-pitying.
BB p.61,
How It Works
93.
... self-preservation, duty,
and love, it is not ...
12&12 p.151,
Tradition Five
Under these compulsions of self-preservation, duty, and
love, it is not strange
that our Society has concluded that it has but one
high mission -- to carry the A.A. message to those who don't know there's a way out.
94.
... self-preservation, they
seem bent upon self-destruction.
12&12 p.64,
Step Six
95.
... self-propulsion.
BB p.60,
How It Works
96.
... self-reliance and
contentment.
BB xxxi(xxix),
The Doctor's Opinion
From a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment.
97.
... self-reliance failed
us?
BB p.68,
How It Works
98.
... self-reliance first,
a genuine reliance upon a ...
12&12 p.72,
Step Seven
As long as we placed self-reliance first, a genuine reliance upon a Higher Power was out of the question.
99.
Self-reliance was
good as far as it ...
BB p.68,
How It Works
100.
... self-respect and
the respect of my colleagues.
BB p.180,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
101.
... self-respect to
hundreds of men and women ...
BB p.572(574),
Appendix V, The Religious View on A.A.
This self-insurance has
resulted in the restoration of physical, mental and spiritual health and self-respect to hundreds of men and women who would be hopelessly down and out without its unique but effective therapy."
102.
... self-restraint.
12&12 p.91,
Step Ten
103.
... self-restraint.
12&12 p.181,
Tradition Eleven
104.
... self-restraint has
become automatic.
12&12 p.91,
Step Ten
For we can neither think
nor act to good purpose until the habit of self-restraint has become automatic.
105.
... self-restraint, honest
analysis of what is involved, ...
12&12 p.91,
Step Ten
In all these situations we need self-restraint, honest analysis of what is involved, a willingness to admit when
the fault is ours, and an equal willingness to forgive when the fault is elsewhere.
106.
... self-revealing accounts
in bad taste.
BB p.29,
There Is A Solution
107.
Self-righteous anger
also can be very enjoyable.
12&12 p.67,
Step Six
108.
... self-righteous folk?
12&12 p.90,
Step Ten
109.
... self-righteously imposes
its will upon the rest.
12&12 p.37,
Step Three
110.
... self-righteousness can
underlie the smallest act or ...
12&12 p.94,
Step Ten
111.
... self-righteousness or
grandiosity, our reaction will be ...
12&12 p.45,
Step Four
If, however, our natural disposition is inclined to self-righteousness or grandiosity, our reaction will be just the opposite.
112.
... self-righteousness that
clung to so many 'believers' ...
12&12 p.30,
Step Two
We gloated over the hypocrisy, bigotry, and
crushing self-righteousness that clung to so many 'believers' even in their Sunday best.
113.
Self-righteousness, the
very thing that we had ...
12&12 p.30,
Step Two
Self-righteousness,
the very thing that we had contemptuously condemned in others, was
our own besetting evil.
114.
... self-righteousness while
trying to enforce upon the ...
12&12 p.176,
Tradition Ten
Others fell apart because of sheer self-righteousness while trying to enforce upon the rest of mankind some millennium
of their own specification.
115.
... self sacrifice
and unselfish, constructive action.
BB p.93,
Working With Others
116.
... self-sacrifice for
others, he could not survive ...
BB p.15,
Bill's Story
For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he
could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead.
117.
... self-sacrificing.
BB p.61,
How It Works
118.
... self-sacrificing.
BB p.105,
To Wives
119.
... self-satisfied.
12&12 p.72,
Step Seven
True, most of us thought good character was desirable, but obviously good character was something
one needed to get on with the business of being self-satisfied.
120.
... self-searching becomes
a regular habit, until he ...
12&12 p.88,
Step Ten
For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching becomes a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong.
121.
... self-searching is
the means by which we ...
12&12 p.98,
Step Eleven
As we have seen, self-searching is the means by
which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures.
122.
... self-searching, the
leveling of our pride, the ...
BB p.25,
There Is A Solution
Almost none of us liked the self-searching, the leveling
of our pride, the confession of shortcomings which the process requires for its successful consummation.
123.
... self-seeker even
when trying to be kind?
BB p.61,
How It Works
124.
... self-seeking.
12&12 p.151,
Tradition Five
If a group of doctors possessed a cancer cure, they might be conscience-stricken if
they failed their mission
through self-seeking.
125.
... self-seeking.
12&12 p.183,
Tradition Eleven
126.
... self-seeking and
frightened?
BB p.67,
How It Works
127.
... self-seeking, and
self-pity, we step on the ...
BB p.62,
How It Works
Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.
128.
... self-seeking motives.
BB p.86,
Into Action
Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it
be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.
129.
Self-seeking will
slip away.
BB p.84,
Into Action
130.
... self-serving demand
of God for replies, is ...
12&12 p.103,
Step Eleven
The A.A., or indeed any man, who tries to run his life rigidly by this kind of prayer, by this self-serving demand of God for replies, is a particularly disconcerting individual.
131.
... self-sufficiency.
12&12 p.37,
Step Three
Should his own image in the mirror be too awful to contemplate (and it usually is), he might first
take a look at the results normal people are getting from
self-sufficiency.
132.
... self-sufficiency and
all will to resist its ...
12&12 p.21,
Step One
Alcohol, now become the rapacious creditor, bleeds us of all
self-sufficiency and
all will to resist its demands.
133.
... self-sufficiency is
not paying off.
12&12 p.37,
Step Three
134.
... self-sufficiency, prejudice,
and defiance often prove more ...
12&12 p.28,
Step Two
The roadblocks of indifference, fancied
self-sufficiency, prejudice, and defiance
often prove more solid and formidable for these people than any erected by the unconvinced agnostic
or even the militant atheist.
135.
... self-sufficiency, that
we began to feel humility ...
12&12 p.72,
Step Seven
It was only at the end of a long road, marked by successive defeats and humiliations, and the final crushing of our self-sufficiency, that we began to feel humility as something more than a condition of groveling despair.
136.
... self-sufficiency who
have cut themselves off, those ...
12&12 p.28,
Step Two
There will be those who have
drifted into indifference, those filled with self-sufficiency who have cut themselves off, those who
have become prejudiced
against religion, and
those who are downright
defiant because God has failed to fulfill their demands.
137.
... self-sufficiency would
solve our problems.
BB p.52,
We Agnostics
138.
... self-sufficient man
or woman.
12&12 p.29,
Step Two
139.
Self-supporting alcoholics?
12&12 p.160,
Tradition Seven
140.
... self-supporting, declining
outside contributions."
12&12 p.160,
Tradition Seven
141.
... self-supporting, declining
outside contributions.
BB p.562(564),
Appendix I, The A.A. Tradition
142.
... self-supporting through
our own contributions.
Grapevine,
Preamble
143.
... self-survey.
12&12 p.61,
Step Five
The real tests of the situation are your own willingness to confide
and your full confidence
in the one with whom you share
your first accurate self-survey.
144.
... self-survey and
criticism.
12&12 p.88,
Step Ten
More experienced people, of course, in all times and places have practiced unsparing
self-survey and criticism.
145.
... self, that
I may better do Thy ...
BB p.63,
How It Works
146.
... self unconsciously
blind themselves to their liabilities.
12&12 p.46,
Step Four
This is because people
who are driven by pride of
self unconsciously blind themselves to their
liabilities.
147.
... self which
later placed us in a ...
BB p.62,
How It Works
Sometimes they hurt us,
seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at
some time in the past we have
made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.
148.
... self-will, and
are careful to make no ...
BB p.87,
Into Action
We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves
only.
149.
... self-will, and
has suffered enough under its ...
12&12 p.38,
Step Three
Each of us has had his own near-fatal encounter with the juggernaut of self-will, and has suffered enough under its weight to be willing to look for something better.
150.
... self-will and
run the show ourselves.
BB p.76,
Into Action
We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves.
151.
... self-will can
hardly be a success.
BB p.60,
How It Works
The first requirement
is that we be convinced that any life run
on self-will can hardly be a success.
152.
... self-will, do
we misuse this gift for ...
12&12 p.117,
Step Twelve
So our question will be
this: How, by ignorance, compulsion, and self-will, do we misuse this gift for our own destruction?
153.
... self-will had
driven everybody away and our ...
12&12 p.116,
Step Twelve
But when self-will had driven everybody away and our isolation had
become complete, it caused us to play the big shot in cheap barrooms and then fare forth alone on the street to depend upon the charity of passersby.
154.
... self-will has
blocked you off from Him.
BB p.71,
How It Works
155.
... self-will may
slam it shut again, as ...
12&12 p.35,
Step Three
Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness.
156.
... self-will run
riot, though he usually doesn't ...
BB p.62,
How It Works
They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme
example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so.
157.
... self-will which
has always blocked the entry ...
12&12 p.34,
Step Three
Like all the remaining Steps, Step Three calls for affirmative action, for
it is only by action that we can cut away the self-will which has always blocked the entry of God -- or, if you like, a Higher Power -- into our lives.
158.
... self without
His aid.
BB p.62,
How It Works
Passages from the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous
and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
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