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This is AA General Service
Conference-approved literature
Copyright © 1976 by A.A. World Services, Inc.
All Right Reserved.
MANY OF US THOUGHT WE WERE SPECIAL
"A.A. won't work for me. I'm too far gone."
"It's nice for those people, but I'm president of the P.T.A." I'm too old.
Too young. Not religious enough. I'm gay. Or Jewish. A professional person.
A member of the clergy. Too smart. Or too uneducated.
At this moment, people all over the world
are thinking that A.A. probably won't work in their case for one or several
of these reasons. Perhaps you are one of these people.
We in A.A. believe alcoholism is a disease
that is no respecter of age, sex, creed, race, wealth, occupation, or
education. It strikes at random. Our experience seems to show that anyone
can be an alcoholic. And, beyond question, anyone who wants to stop drinking
is welcome in A.A.
Our co-founder Bill W., in telling about
A.A.'s earliest days, wrote:
"In the beginning, it was four whole years
before A.A. brought permanent sobriety to even one alcoholic woman. Like
the `high bottoms,' the women said they were different; A.A. couldn't be
for them. But as the communication was perfected, mostly by the women
themselves, the picture changed.
"This process of identification and
transmission has gone on and on. The skid-rower said he was different.
Even more loudly, the socialite (or Park Avenue stumblebum) said the
same. So did the artists and the professional people, the rich, the
poor, the religious, the agnostic, the Indians and the Eskimos, the
veterans and the prisoners.
"But nowadays all of these, and legions
more, soberly talk about how very much alike all of us alcoholics are
when we admit that the chips are finally down.
"In the stories that follow, you may
encounter men and women whose race, age, sexual preference, or any
number of other conditions are similar to yours. They came to A.A. and
found that Alcoholics Anonymous worked just as well for them as it had
for hundreds of thousands of others of us who thought we were
"different." We found help, and we found friends with whom we could
identify and share our experiences.
We are no longer alone.
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