Customer Reviews
Proven method for dealing with alcohol problems - By: Tom Phoulerri, 20 Sep 2008 
This book has been around since 1939 & it's still the best way of recovering from alcoholism. It's written by alcoholics for alcoholics & has helped more than a million people to recover.
Inspired - By: Cicelie H, 22 Aug 2008 This book, written by a handful of alcoholics who found a way to recover, seems to me to be divinely inspired. I tried every other way I could find to stop drinking. Some of them worked for a while. But just avoiding drink left me feeling so miserable thatin the end I always started drinking again. This book is different. It's not just about abstaining from drink. It has shown me a completely different way to live & be happy. If you have a drink problem, buy it, read it, get to meetings, get a sponsor. Save your life.
a spades a spade...a cults a cult.... - By: shoequeen, 12 Jun 2008 
while i have no doubt that the individuals who run meetings have a good heart the history of aa & its 'teachings' give pause for thought...
bill wilson (co-founder of aa) is not a guru. he was a narcissistic, womaniser who was also physically & emotionally abusive to his children & wife. he had such an ego that he insisted on writing the chapter 'to wives'in the 'big book' which is written as if by a wife by himself!! he sponged off his own wife for most of his life while bedding newcomers to aa meetings (apparently tolerated by his disciples as he couldn't help it & still at least he was off the demon drink...??) he also took lsd yearsin to his 'sobriety'. he was definitley a 'do as i say not as i do' kind of a man. if that wasn't enough he was an admirer & follower of frank buchman (oxford group/mra)....who was himself an admirer of facism & its most ugly face - nazism & hitler. to buchman himmler who had furniture made from the bones of concentration victims...was 'just a lad'.
as another reviewer says keep an open mind. take what you need from it to get by & hopefully to help get sober but don't get suckedin by it all.
read the orange papers. they make for very interesting reading...& are very thorough!
orange@orange-papers.org *
* AA & Recovery Cult Debunking *
* http://www.Orange-Papers.org/ *
** The A.A. Plan: "Search out another alcoholic and
** try again. You are sure to find someone desperate
** enough to accept with eagerness what you offer."
** (The Big Book, page 96.)
Historic and pivotal - By: John Coats, 20 Nov 2007 It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this bookin addressing the age-old problems of alcoholism & other addictions. Prior to its publicationin the late 1930s, the vast majority of alcoholics & addicts simply died from the direct or indirect consequences of their condition. Their decline & destruction commonly caused untold suffering to all those who were close to them.
Since that time, increasing numbers of people have been recovering from these disorders & leading happy, purposeful, productive & successful lives. Nowadays,in the anonymous fellowships throughout the world, there are literally millions of people whose restoration to life & sanity is directly attributable to the Twelve Step programme first articulated by the authors of this 'Big Book'.
It is true that, since the early days of the pioneers of recovery, we have learned a great deal more about the nature of addiction. They predicted that this would happen. It is also true that we no longer share all of the cultural assumptions of the original authors. Nevertheless, no more effective way of dealing with addictive disorders has yet been found.
This seminal book is essential reading, not only for people who suffer from any kind of addiction, but also for all professionals who work with them.
Every person who isin recovery is a walking miracle & owes an incalculable debt of gratitude to the authors of this book. I speak as one of those who, from personal experience, knows this to be true.
Best read with a very open mind (but not so wide open that your brain falls out). - By: Toadjuggler, 31 Jul 2007 AA as a group of people does tremendously good work helping alcoholics (including myself) get through the first few months after they've decided to put down the bottle, & I have never met such kind & helpful folk as I did during my timein the fellowship. I strongly recommend anyone who has a problem with drinking to approach them & go to meetings. However, this book, & what it leads the recovering alcoholic to believe as gospel truth, is raving madness. It is not just ill-researched: it isn't researched at all, & far from being non-religious it is fudamental Christian indoctrination of the worst kind. By all means go to the AA for help if you want to stop drinking, but don't swallow this codswallop whole or you'll just end up replacing one intrusive addiction with another. AA IS a cult & this is it's Bible, it can take over your life if you let it, & it isn't the only way to stop. It is also very badly written (but we can't go changing Bill's words, now can we?)
