“Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.” — Alcoholics Anonymous (1939) · Chapter 7 · Working With Others
The opening of Chapter 7 — the chapter on carrying the message, which the first members considered the engine of their own sobriety.
When everything else feels flat — the willpower, the routine, even the meetings — one thing reliably works: helping another alcoholic. Not because we’re saints, but because you can’t reach for a drink and reach for someone else at the same time. Service is the program’s load-bearing wall. Text a newcomer. Make the coffee. Take the call you’d rather not take.
Step 12 · Service