Most of us in A.A. made all kinds of promises to ourselves and to our families. We could not keep them. But when we came to A.A., we were told: “Just try not to drink today.” (If you do not drink today, you cannot get drunk today.)

In A.A. we do not tell anyone to do anything. We just talk about our own drinking, the trouble we got into, and how we stopped. We will be glad to help you, if you want us to.

We tried all kinds of ways. We made our drinks weak. Or just drank beer. Or we did not drink cocktails. Or only drank on weekends. You name it, we tried it. But if we drank anything with alcohol in it, we usually got drunk eventually.

This is a pretty sure sign that you are not drinking “socially.”

At one time or another, most of us have wondered why we were not like most people, who really can take it or leave it.

Be honest! Doctors say that if you have a problem with alcohol and keep on drinking, it will get worse — never better. Eventually, you will die, or end up in an institution for the rest of your life. The only hope is to stop drinking.

Before we came into AA, most of us said that it was the people or problems at home that made us drink. We could not see that our drinking just made everything worse. It never solved problems anywhere or anytime.

Most of us used to have a “few” before we started out if we thought it was going to be that kind of party. And if drinks were not served fast enough, we would go some place else to get more.

Many of us kidded ourselves into thinking that we drank because we wanted to. After we came into AA, we found out that once we started to drink, we couldn’t stop.

Many of us admit now that we “called in sick” lots of times when the truth was that we were hung-over or on a drunk.

A “blackout” is when we have been drinking hours or days which we cannot remember. When we came to AA, we found out that this is a pretty sure sign of alcoholic drinking.

Many of us started to drink because drinking made life seem better, at least for a while. By the time we got into AA, we felt trapped. We were drinking to live and living to drink. We were sick and tired of being sick and tired.