Sudden Need*

An alcoholic in recovery and a normal drinker may be the same in one sense.  Neither may want a drink when sober.  But once they each take that drink, the difference shows up.  The alcoholic in recovery does not need a drink until they have one.  Then the craving sets in.  The normal drinker does not have the craving for "more."  The 12 Steps will not keep you from that first drink.  Only a relationship with a power greater than yourself will do that.  So what good are the steps and all the AA stuff?  They are to deal with alcoholism which is a lot more than drinking.  It is a whole personality, damaged with flaws and character defects, living fear-based lives and being clueless.  The steps don't show up until Chapter five in the big book.  All that goes before chapter five is about that first drink and a Higher Power, whatever that might be.  It is not the alcoholic left to themselves. So I suggest to the newcomer that they simply keep coming to meetings, don't drink and read the Big Book up through chapter four.  I don't make it like a lot of institutional religion which loads you up with too much stuff too soon, lots of rules must do stuff.  Keep it simple.  Don't drink today.