"To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book." ~Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Foreword To First Edition, pg. xiii :

To introduce everyone to this column, I figured that it would be appropriate to start at the beginning of the book. Being that the main purpose of the Big Book is to show other alcoholics precisely how the first one hundred people recovered. It seems that probably is the most important point that the book makes.

Sure the Big Book has a lot of stuff in it, but the precise plan of recovery is what we are seeking. It is the message that is contained in the first 164 pages. The stories show us that we are not alone in the way alcoholism affects us. In fact it seems to me that we all can relate quite a bit to each and every story that is told. There is a very good reason why! They are just like us in one way or another. If we weren’t alcoholics, we wouldn’t be able to relate.

So if you are an alcoholic then this book has a program that has been written down in a precise way for you. Of course that is only if you are serious about recovering. That is why it really seems to me that the first thing that someone has to do is pick up the book and start reading.

O.K. I will admit that there are some things in the book that might make it hard to understand. But we must be willing to make a conscious effort to understand those things. That is why it seems really important to me to write down what I believe those things mean. It is by you and I working together to understand these things that will keep us sober. Once we come to an understanding we pass the message on to others who are still suffering. That’s how it works!

You may say, “Well I can tell other people how it works for me”. That’s not it! The program of recovery lays with-in the pages of the book. The problem that exists with some who say they are in this program is they don’t understand that. They carry the message to others about how they believe it should be done. I guess that is cool if it is working for them, but that isn’t how the first one hundred got sober, and it is not how many, many more got sober after them. It is by following the program that has been written down.

If you notice in the quote above I underlined the word “We”. There is a reason for that. The message isn’t that Bill W. got sober and wrote down precisely how he did it. Nor is it exactly how Dr. Bob got sober. It isn’t an individual undertaking. It is consorted effort. That is they way it is right now. The program is a bunch of alcoholics getting together and trying to understand precisely how to stay sober.

I hear a lot of people say in meetings that “if you don’t drink, that you stay sober”. To some extent that is true, but it only covers the part of sobriety that involves the drink. The Big Book shows precisely how to not only put down the drink, but how to be sober in the other parts of your life. So when I hear people say something like that, I realize that they don’t understand what the first one hundred were trying to say.

So it really seems important to start this out with the understanding, that my opinion is only that. The reasoning behind this column is to share some of what I have learned in studying the program of recovery as it has been precisely laid out in the Big Book.

I hope you enjoy it! ~ Thanks, Ed C.