From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
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to display the full page from the Big Book1.
... years.
12&12 p.113,
Step Twelve
And it can go on for years.
2.
... years.
12&12 p.161,
Tradition Seven
3.
... years.
12&12 p.168,
Tradition Eight
4.
... years.
BB p.6,
Bill's Story
5.
... years.
BB p.12,
Bill's Story
6.
... years.
BB p.33,
More About Alcoholism
7.
... years.
BB p.33,
More About Alcoholism
Several of our crowd, men of thirty or less, had been drinking only
a few years, but they found themselves as helpless as those who had
been drinking twenty
years.
8.
... years.
BB p.33,
More About Alcoholism
Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years.
9.
... years.
BB p.36,
More About Alcoholism
I also had the notion that I
might find a customer for
a car at this place, which was
familiar for I had been going to it for years.
10.
... years.
BB p.80,
Into Action
11.
... years.
BB p.118,
To Wives
12.
... years.
BB p.118,
To Wives
We do not like the thought
that the contents of a book or the work of another alcoholic has accomplished in a few weeks that for which we struggled for years.
13.
... years."
BB p.570(572),
Appendix III, The Medical View on A.A.
14.
... years.
BB xxv(xxiii),
The Doctor's Opinion
15.
... years.
BB xxxii(xxx),
The Doctor's Opinion
16.
... years.
BB p.173,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
17.
... years.
BB p.174,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
This had little effect
however for I kept on drinking and used a great deal more hard liquor than in former years.
18.
... years.
BB p.174,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
I conducted myself so
creditably that I was able to secure a much coveted internship in a western
city, where I spent two years.
19.
... years.
BB p.177,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
20.
... years after
this chapter was written.
BB p.121,
To Wives (Note)
(*) The fellowship of Al-Anon Family Groups was formed about thirteen years after this chapter was written.
21.
... years ago.
BB p.80,
Into Action
22.
Years ago,
in 1935, one of our ...
BB p.153,
A Vision For You
23.
... years ago,
it disappeared.
BB p.56,
We Agnostics
24.
... years ago
one of our number was ...
BB p.162,
A Vision For You
25.
... years ago
one of the leading contributors ...
BB xxvii(xxv),
The Doctor's Opinion
Many years ago one of the leading contributors
to this book came under our care in this hospital and while here he acquired some ideas which he put into practical application
at once.
26.
... years ago,
that the action of alcohol ...
BB xxviii(xxvi),
The Doctor's Opinion
We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these
chronic alcoholics is
a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is
limited to this class and
never occurs in the average temperate drinker.
27.
Years ago
this principle of "no endorsement" ...
12&12 p.157,
Tradition Six
28.
... years ago,
when my head doctor, Silkworth, ...
12&12 p.136,
Tradition Two
Three years ago, when my head doctor, Silkworth, began to tell me of the idea of helping drunks by spirituality,
I thought it was crackpot stuff, but I've changed my mind.
29.
... years alcoholics
flocked to A.A. by tens ...
12&12 p.17,
Foreword
In the next years alcoholics flocked to A.A. by tens of thousands, largely as the
result of excellent and
continuous publicity freely given by magazines and newspapers throughout
the world.
30.
... years all
normal activities -- clubs, civic duties, ...
BB p.131,
The Family Afterward
31.
... years and
retired at the age of ...
BB p.32,
More About Alcoholism
An exceptional man, he
remained bone dry for twenty-five years and retired at the age of fifty-five, after a successful and happy business career.
32.
... years, and
this in the face of ...
BB p.138,
To Employers
I pointed out that I had had
nothing to drink whatever for three years, and this in the face of difficulties that would have made nine out of ten men drink their heads off.
33.
... years and,
when it falls short, the ...
BB p.123,
The Family Afterward
Today's life is measured against that of
other years and, when it falls short, the family may be unhappy.
34.
... years before
his time.
BB p.21,
There Is A Solution
35.
... years before
the onset of extreme difficulties, ...
12&12 p.23,
Step One
After a few such experiences, often years before the onset of extreme difficulties,
he would return to us convinced.
36.
... years before
we realized it we were ...
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.
37.
... years beyond
the point where we could ...
BB p.34,
More About Alcoholism
As we look back, we feel we had gone on drinking many years beyond the point where we could quit on our
will power.
38.
... years break
out of their confinement, and ...
12&12 p.62,
Step Five
The dammed-up emotions of years break out of their confinement, and miraculously vanish as
soon as they are exposed.
39.
... years, but
I still got tight every ...
BB p.178,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
I gave the matter much time and study for the next two and a half years, but I still got tight every night nevertheless.
40.
... years, but
they found themselves as helpless ...
BB p.33,
More About Alcoholism
Several of our crowd, men of thirty or less, had been drinking only
a few years, but they found themselves as helpless as those who had
been drinking twenty
years.
41.
... years, every
conceivable deviation from our Twelve ...
12&12 p.146,
Tradition Four
42.
... years, except
when circumstances made it seem ...
BB p.172,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
This resolution I kept
steadfastly for the next forty years, except when circumstances made it seem unwise to absent myself.
43.
... years' experience
as Medical Director of one ...
BB xxvii(xxv),
The Doctor's Opinion
I say this after many years' experience as Medical Director of one of the oldest hospitals in the country treating alcoholic and drug addiction.
44.
... years fortune
threw money and applause my ...
BB p.3,
Bill's Story
45.
... years found
he was just where he ...
BB p.33,
More About Alcoholism
46.
... years have
elapsed between our first printing ...
BB xv,
Foreword to Second Edition
Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the presentation
in 1955 of our second edition.
47.
... years have
passed.
BB p.180,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
48.
... years he
became so violent when intoxicated ...
BB p.35,
More About Alcoholism
49.
... years he
had floundered from one sanitarium ...
BB p.26,
There Is A Solution
50.
... years he
has so shockingly treated.
BB p.82,
Into Action
But he is yet a long way from making good to the wife or parents whom for years he has
so shockingly treated.
51.
... years, he
reacts much like other men.
BB p.22,
There Is A Solution
We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do
for months or years, he reacts much like other men.
52.
... years his
drinking has placed him on ...
BB p.129,
The Family Afterward
Dad may feel that for years his drinking has placed him on the wrong side of every argument, but that now he has
become a superior person with God on his side.
53.
... years, I
developed two distinct phobias.
BB p.175,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
54.
... years, I
drank as much as my ...
BB p.173,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
During these years, I drank as much as my purse permitted, still without paying too great a penalty, although I was beginning to have morning
"jitters" at times.
55.
... years I
had sense enough never to ...
BB p.176,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
During the subsequent
fifteen years I had sense enough never to go to the hospital if I had been drinking, and very seldom did I receive patients.
56.
... years I
spent in Boston, Chicago, and ...
BB p.172,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
The next three years I spent in Boston, Chicago, and Montreal in the employ of a
large manufacturing
concern, selling railway supplies, gas engines of all sorts, and many other items of heavy hardware.
57.
... years I
was kept so busy that ...
BB p.174,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
58.
... years, I'll
never know, but she did.
BB p.178,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
59.
... years in
one of the best colleges ...
BB p.172,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
After high school came four years in one of the best colleges in the country
where drinking seemed to
be a major extra-curricular activity.
60.
... years in
pulling down the structures of ...
BB p.123,
The Family Afterward
But the head of the house has
spent years in pulling down the structures of business,
romance, friendship,
health -- these things are
now ruined or damaged.
61.
... years in
spite of friendly warnings.
BB p.37,
More About Alcoholism
62.
... years in
the Big Book (A.A. members' ...
BB xii,
Preface
All changes made over the years in the Big Book (A.A. members' fond nickname for this volume) have had the same purpose: to represent the
current membership of
Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately, and thereby
to reach more alcoholics.
63.
... years later
the conquest of the air ...
BB p.52,
We Agnostics
Only thirty years later the conquest of the air was almost an old story and airplane travel was in full swing.
64.
Years later,
this tough Irish customer liked ...
12&12 p.154,
Tradition Five
Years later, this tough Irish customer liked to say, "My sponsor sold me one idea, and that was sobriety.
65.
... years, more
than 300,000 copies went into ...
BB xi,
Preface
The first edition appeared in April 1939, and in the following
sixteen years, more than 300,000 copies went into circulation.
66.
... years now
has been rated as a ...
12&12 p.99,
Step Eleven
67.
... years of
abstinence.
BB p.181,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
Unlike most of our crowd, I
did not get over my craving for liquor much during the first two and one-half years of abstinence.
68.
... years of
age -- among them, many in ...
BB xxii,
Foreword to Third Edition
Seven percent of the A.A.'s surveyed are less than 30 years of age -- among them, many in their teens.
69.
... years of
alcoholism.
12&12 p.117,
Step Twelve
To a surprising extent, A.A. has offset the damage to family life brought about by years of alcoholism.
70.
... years of
devotion had failed to do.
12&12 p.118,
Step Twelve
After the husband joins A.A., the wife may become discontented, even highly resentful that Alcoholics Anonymous
has done the very thing that all her years of devotion had failed to do.
71.
... years of
drunkenness would make a skeptic ...
BB p.83,
Into Action
72.
... years of
experience, that we have found ...
BB xxviii(xxvi),
The Doctor's Opinion
We feel, after many years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.
73.
... years of
frightful drinking, who had had ...
BB p.180,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
But this was a man who had experienced many years of frightful drinking, who had had most all the drunkard's experiences
known to man, but who had been
cured by the very means I had been trying to employ, that is to say the spiritual approach.
74.
... years of
hard drinking have been repaired ...
BB p.156,
A Vision For You
As we shall see, he now means a great deal to his community, and the major liabilities of thirty
years of hard drinking have been repaired in four.
75.
... years of
harrowing experience.
12&12 p.139,
Tradition Three
76.
... years of
literal hell the rest of ...
12&12 p.23,
Step One
77.
... "Years of
living with an alcoholic is ...
BB p.122,
The Family Afterward
A doctor said to us, "Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic.
78.
... years of
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.
79.
... years of
this, I wound up in ...
BB p.175,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
After three years of this, I wound up in the local hospital where they attempted to help me, but I
would get my friends to smuggle me a quart, or I
would steal the alcohol
about the building, so that I got rapidly worse.
80.
... years of
trial and error in selecting ...
12&12 p.16,
Foreword
After three years of trial and error in selecting the most
workable tenets upon which the Society could
be based, and after a large amount of failure in getting alcoholics to recover,
three successful groups emerged -- the first at Akron, the second at New York, and the third at Cleveland.
81.
... years of
waste threw us into panic.
12&12 p.121,
Step Twelve
82.
... years of
your existence lie ahead.
BB p.152,
A Vision For You
83.
... years, often
pay dearly for skimping this ...
12&12 p.56,
Step Five
84.
... years old,
an event occurred demonstrating this ...
12&12 p.135,
Tradition Two
85.
... years, or
hardly draw a sober breath.
BB p.4,
Bill's Story
Mercifully, no one could guess that I was to
have no real employment for five years, or hardly draw a sober breath.
86.
... years passed.
BB p.172,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
My whole life seemed to be centered around doing what I wanted to do, without regard for the rights, wishes, or privileges of
anyone else; a state of mind which became more and more predominant as the
years passed.
87.
... years past.
BB p.69,
How It Works
88.
... years she
has made a far better ...
12&12 p.118,
Step Twelve
89.
... years since,
however, most of us have ...
12&12 p.123,
Step Twelve
90.
... years since
I could remember his coming ...
BB p.9,
Bill's Story
91.
... years since
then, we have changed our ...
12&12 p.172,
Tradition Nine
92.
... years' standing
melt away in an hour.
BB p.78,
Into Action
Sometimes the man we are
calling upon admits his own fault, so feuds of years' standing melt away in an hour.
93.
... years that
mother became head of the ...
BB p.130,
The Family Afterward
94.
... years thereafter
he was dogged by trouble ...
BB p.56,
We Agnostics
95.
... years they
had completely lost their effectiveness ...
12&12 p.178,
Tradition Ten
When the Washingtonians became temperance crusaders, within a very few years they had completely lost their effectiveness
in helping alcoholics.
96.
... years this
changed.
12&12 p.23,
Step One
97.
... years this
conduct continues, accompanied by his ...
BB p.38,
More About Alcoholism
On through the years this
conduct continues, accompanied by his continual promises to be
careful or to keep off the
streets altogether.
98.
... years to
complete.
BB p.123,
The Family Afterward
Though old buildings will eventually be replaced
by finer ones, the new structures will take years to complete.
99.
... years we
have been demanding more than ...
12&12 p.71,
Step Seven
For thousands of years we
have been demanding more
than our share of security, prestige, and
romance.
100.
... years we
have been working with alcoholics ...
BB p.114,
To Wives
101.
... years we
were still behaving childishly, trying ...
12&12 p.115,
Step Twelve
We had failed to see that though adult in years we were still behaving childishly, trying to turn everybody -- friends, wives, husbands, even the world itself -- into protective
parents.
102.
... years were
swept away.
BB p.56,
We Agnostics
103.
... years were
up, I opened an office ...
BB p.174,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
104.
... years with
an alcoholic, a wife gets ...
BB p.81,
Into Action
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
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