As Bill Sees It. Anonymous

257, 275, 314, 324, 328; for our own sobriety 13, 29, 35, 69, 163, 192, 212, 257, 275, 298 Twenty-Four-Hour Living 11, 16, 75, 89, 92, 132, 157, 233, 243, 284, 296, 308, 317 U Unity 9, 50, 82, 98, 125, 143, 149, 154, 155, 162, 198, 207, 220, 229, 249, 273, 297, 302, 307, 319, 332 W Will 4, 16, 33, 42, 47, 55, 66, 87, 88, 109, 122, 124, 139, 170, 210, 225, 232, 245, 272, 282, 283, 295, 315, 320, 328, 329 Willingness 4, 88, 106, 109, 115, 122, 137, 171, 211, 219, 226, 232, 321, 327, 328 Worry; see Fear

      In page references indicating sources of excerptssome titles have been abbreviated: A.A. Comes of Age (“Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age”); Grapevine (the A.A. Grapevineour monthly magazine); Service Manual (“The A.A. Service Manual”); Twelve Concepts (“Twelve Concepts for World Service”); Twelve and Twelve (“Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions”). Two titles appear in full: Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book); A.A. Today (the book published by the Grapevine in celebration of A.A.’s twenty-fifth anniversary). The letters and talks by Bill have not been printed before, with two exceptionsfor which publication refer ences are given.

       AS BILL SEES IT

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      Personality Change

      “It has often been said of A.A. that we are interested only in alcoholism. That is not true. We have to get over drinking in order to stay alive. But anyone who knows the alcoholic personality by firsthand contact knows that no true alky ever stops drinking permanently without undergoing a profound personality change.”

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      We thought “conditions” drove us to drink, and when we tried to correct these conditions and found that we couldn’t do so to our entire satisfaction, our drinking went out of hand and we became alcoholics. It never occurred to us that we needed to change ourselves to meet conditions, whatever they were.

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