IS A.A. FOR YOU?
The page invites those considering joining Alcoholics Anonymous to honestly reflect on their relationship with alcohol through questions that identify behaviors indicative of alcoholism.
If you answer “yes” to four or more of these questions, you likely have a serious alcohol problem, and AA offers support to live without drinking “one day at a time,” while maintaining anonymity and confidentiality.
Only you can decide whether A.A. is worth trying - if you think A.A. can help you. Those of us in A.A. came because we had finally given up trying to control our drinking. We still hated to admit that we could never drink safely. Then we heard from A.A. members that we were sick (that's what we thought for years!). We discovered that many other people had the same feelings of guilt, loneliness and despair that we had. We discovered that we had these feelings because we are alcoholics.
We decided to try and look at what alcoholism had done to us head-on. Here are some questions we tried to answer honestly. If you answer YES to four or more questions, you might have a serious drinking problem. Try answering them. Remember, there's no shame in facing up to the fact that you have a problem.
- Have you ever tried to stop drinking for a week or more, but only succeeded for a few days? Most of us in A.A. have made all sorts of promises to ourselves and to our families. We couldn't keep them. Then we got to A.A. and were told: "Try not to drink just for today". (If you don't drink today, you can't get drunk today).
- 2. Do you think people should mind their own business when it comes to the way you drink - should they stop telling you what you have to do? In A.A. we don't tell anyone to do anything. We just talk about our own way of drinking, the problems that came with it and how we managed to stop. We offer to help you if you want.
- Have you ever tried switching from one type of drink to another in the hope of it would prevent you getting drunk? We tried all sorts of ways. We prepared weak drinks. Or we only drank beer. Or we didn't drink cocktails.Or we only drank on weekends. Whatever it was, we tried everything. But if we drank anything with alcohol, we usually ended up drunk.
- Have you ever drunk in the morning during the last year? Have you ever drunk in the morning to start your day or to stop shaking? This is a clear sign that you don't drink "socially".
- Do you envy people who manage to drink without getting into trouble? At times, most of us have wondered why we weren't like most people who can just "take it and leave it"?
- Have you had any drinking problems over the last year? Be honest! Doctors say that if you have a drinking problem and keep drinking, it can only get worse. Never better. Eventually, you'll either die or end up in an institution for the rest of your life. The only hope is to stop drinking
- Did your drinking cause problems at home? Before we came to A.A., most of us said that it was people or problems at home that made us drink. We couldn't see that our drinking just made everything worse. You never solved problems wherever you went.
- Did you ever try to get "more" drinks at parties because they didn't give you enough? Most of us used to have "a few" before we went out, if we thought it was going to be "that kind" of party. And if those drinks weren't served as quickly as we wanted, we tried to get them elsewhere.
- Did you ever convince yourself that you could stop drinking when you wanted to, even though you kept getting drunk without meaning to? Many of us deluded ourselves into thinking that we drank because we wanted to. Once we got to A.A., we found that once we started drinking, we couldn't stop.
- Have you ever missed work because of drinking? Many of us now admit that when we often asked for "sick leave", the truth was that we had a hangover or were drunk.
- Do you have "blackouts"? A "blackout” means hours or days of drinking that we don't remember. When we came to A.A., we found that this was a clear sign of an alcoholic way of drinking.
- Have you ever felt that your life would be better if you didn't drink? Many of us started drinking because it made our lives seem better, at least for a while. By the time we got to A.A., we felt trapped. We drank to live and lived to drink. We were sick and tired of being sick and tired.
What's your score?
Did you answer yes four times or more? If so, you probably have a drinking problem. Why do we say that? Because thousands of people in A.A. have said it for many years. They discovered the truth about themselves the hard way. We're ready to show you how we stopped drinking ourselves.
Mas de novo, só você pode decidir se acha que AA é para si. Tente manter o espírito aberto nesta questão. Se a resposta for SIM, prontificamo-nos a mostrar-lhe como nós próprios parámos de beber. Entre em contacto connosco.
A.A. doesn't promise to solve the problems in your life.
But we can show you how we are learning to live without alcohol "one day at a time".
We stay away from that "first drink".
If there is no first, there will be no tenth.
When we got rid of the "drinks", we found it much easier to keep control of our lives.