Dear Friends,
As we approach the holiday season, R.A. is making our annual Seventh Tradition appeal. We are asking for your financial support. We need your help because R.A. is a Twelve Step program that relies on your contributions to pay our bills.
Everyone who does service for R.A. Universal Services, Inc. is a volunteer. However, we still need your contributions to pay our bills. These include the cost of our office supplies and equipment, website hosting, and domain registrations. In addition, we do not have the funds to print paper versions of our books, so they are only available in PDF format.
The financial support of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., his friends, and Charles B. Towns was crucial to the survival of A.A. Their support was also vital to the printing of the Big Book. You can read more about this in "A.A. Comes of Age: a brief history of A.A.," published by A.A.
If you know anyone who can provide R.A. with similar help, please tell them about our needs. Having the funds to print paper versions of our books will help R.A. save thousands of lives.
Your past donations have been vital to our work. We sincerely appreciate your support. Please consider contributing again today. Please contribute today if you have never contributed to R.A. or have not done so recently. Your donation can make a significant difference and potentially save thousands of lives.
Your help will go towards printing paper versions of our books. It will also help pay for all the vital services that allow us to continue helping others. If you cannot contribute now, please know that you are always welcome within R.A. If you are charitably inclined, you can also help in another way. You can make a Legacy gift to R.A. by including Recoveries Anonymous in your will.
Thank you for considering our request. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Please take a moment to click this link and make your contribution to R.A.
Sincerely,
R.A. Universal Services, Inc.
As we approach the holiday season, R.A. is making our annual Seventh Tradition appeal. We are asking for your financial support. We need your help because R.A. is a Twelve Step program that relies on your contributions to pay our bills.
|
||
|
 |
|
|
The financial support of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., his friends, and Charles B. Towns was crucial to the survival of A.A. Their support was also vital to the printing of the Big Book. You can read more about this in "A.A. Comes of Age: a brief history of A.A.," published by A.A.
If you know anyone who can provide R.A. with similar help, please tell them about our needs. Having the funds to print paper versions of our books will help R.A. save thousands of lives.
Your past donations have been vital to our work. We sincerely appreciate your support. Please consider contributing again today. Please contribute today if you have never contributed to R.A. or have not done so recently. Your donation can make a significant difference and potentially save thousands of lives.
Your help will go towards printing paper versions of our books. It will also help pay for all the vital services that allow us to continue helping others. If you cannot contribute now, please know that you are always welcome within R.A. If you are charitably inclined, you can also help in another way. You can make a Legacy gift to R.A. by including Recoveries Anonymous in your will.
Thank you for considering our request. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Please take a moment to click this link and make your contribution to R.A.
Sincerely,
R.A. Universal Services, Inc.
R.A.’s Stories Of Recovery Revealed
We are using this newsletter to introduce stories from our latest addition to R.A.'s Suggested Literature, R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed. After many years of work, the full PDF version of this new book is now available. You can download it from the "R.A.'s Books" page on R.A.'s website.
The stories in R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed were initially published in this newsletter years ago. Unfortunately, due to space limitations, some were abridged. In addition, the number of people reading this newsletter has tripled. Therefore, this will be the first opportunity many people will have to read the full versions of these stories.
R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed contains the stories of R.A. members. These accounts follow the same structure used by the pioneers of the program in their original stories. In these new stories, R.A. members describe, in a general way, what they used to be like, how they found R.A., worked all Twelve Steps, and what they are like now.
In R.A., we hope that R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed, will inspire its readers to go through R.A.'s Step Presentation. They will thoroughly follow all of the pioneers' 'clear-cut directions.' They will fully work all Twelve Steps. They will recover. We believe that R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed is a valuable addition to R.A.'s Suggested Literature.
We are using this newsletter to introduce stories from our latest addition to R.A.'s Suggested Literature, R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed. After many years of work, the full PDF version of this new book is now available. You can download it from the "R.A.'s Books" page on R.A.'s website.
The stories in R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed were initially published in this newsletter years ago. Unfortunately, due to space limitations, some were abridged. In addition, the number of people reading this newsletter has tripled. Therefore, this will be the first opportunity many people will have to read the full versions of these stories.
R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed contains the stories of R.A. members. These accounts follow the same structure used by the pioneers of the program in their original stories. In these new stories, R.A. members describe, in a general way, what they used to be like, how they found R.A., worked all Twelve Steps, and what they are like now.
In R.A., we hope that R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed, will inspire its readers to go through R.A.'s Step Presentation. They will thoroughly follow all of the pioneers' 'clear-cut directions.' They will fully work all Twelve Steps. They will recover. We believe that R.A.'s Stories Of Recovery Revealed is a valuable addition to R.A.'s Suggested Literature.
I Know This Program Works
I want to share R.A.'s message of
hope, of sanity, of Recovery.
An R.A. Recovery Storyhope, of sanity, of Recovery.
For as long as I can remember, I didn't think I was okay. I didn't believe I was good, smart, thin, or nice enough. I found ways to escape that pain. They included gorging on food, drinking to intoxication, sexual promiscuity, and immersing myself in daydream fantasies about the ideal life. Overeating became my most frequent means of numbing myself.
When I was a child, I snuck food, lied about it, obsessed about it, and held onto excessive guilt and shame. If my mom asked who ate the cookies, I would deny it and even blame one of my sisters. I looked forward to babysitting where I could have access to new stores of food.
Sometimes I would make agreements with myself about how much I would eat so as not to be discovered. Then, when I got to that point, I would convince myself why just "a little more" would be okay. After that, I would be in great fear of getting caught.
I was always making deals with myself. "Today I'll do better." "I won't eat sugar." "I'll fast today." One "fasting" day, I convinced myself that while I had agreed not to eat anything, I could drink throughout the day, and since a milkshake was "drinking," I could have that. My intellect and my compulsion seemed to have no connection. However, I still blamed myself. Each incident added to my certainty that I wasn't okay. I could not stop hurting myself.
Ironically I also thought I knew everything, and I was so intelligent and knew what other people should do and think. I was also willing to make this known. My incredible lack of humility hurt all those around me. I ate to tame the fear of being found out for the hypocrite I was, numb the sadness of not being good enough, and escape from my life.
At fifteen, I joined a Twelve Step group and found success in losing weight. However, I was still obsessed with food and figured it was my responsibility to keep up the "diet," with God helping a little now and then. I also had lost my method for dulling the pain since I wasn't eating so much. I became sexually active with my boyfriend. I felt guilty and afraid of getting caught. I made agreements with myself, over and over, that I would stop. This never worked.
I was sure that I just needed the willpower and the moral fiber to stop my problems and behaviors. But unfortunately, the person I was showing to most of the world, and the person I thought myself to be, did not match. I was desperate to escape the feelings this caused.
I started to use alcohol as a way of losing my inhibitions, of forgetting my life, my guilt, and my shame. I used alcohol in this way through college but found that the consequences of drinking too much were uncomfortable, as was the loss of control. In addition, food was more accessible and enjoyable to me, so alcohol became just an occasional way to escape.
During college, I continued to look for comfort in vending machines, cafeteria lines, and one-night-stands. In my senior year, I lived with three other women in an apartment. We each had our own shelf in the kitchen. I would take food from the others without asking and then scramble to get it returned before I got found out.
I felt out of control, ashamed, and afraid. As hard as I tried to eat normally and be honest about who I was, I couldn't succeed. I always went back to the insanity of my problems and behaviors and then lied to cover it up.
(This story is continued in the next section of this newsletter.)
When I was a child, I snuck food, lied about it, obsessed about it, and held onto excessive guilt and shame. If my mom asked who ate the cookies, I would deny it and even blame one of my sisters. I looked forward to babysitting where I could have access to new stores of food.
Sometimes I would make agreements with myself about how much I would eat so as not to be discovered. Then, when I got to that point, I would convince myself why just "a little more" would be okay. After that, I would be in great fear of getting caught.
I was always making deals with myself. "Today I'll do better." "I won't eat sugar." "I'll fast today." One "fasting" day, I convinced myself that while I had agreed not to eat anything, I could drink throughout the day, and since a milkshake was "drinking," I could have that. My intellect and my compulsion seemed to have no connection. However, I still blamed myself. Each incident added to my certainty that I wasn't okay. I could not stop hurting myself.
Ironically I also thought I knew everything, and I was so intelligent and knew what other people should do and think. I was also willing to make this known. My incredible lack of humility hurt all those around me. I ate to tame the fear of being found out for the hypocrite I was, numb the sadness of not being good enough, and escape from my life.
|
|
 I was sure that I just needed the willpower, and the moral fiber to stop my problems and behaviors.  |
|
|
I was sure that I just needed the willpower and the moral fiber to stop my problems and behaviors. But unfortunately, the person I was showing to most of the world, and the person I thought myself to be, did not match. I was desperate to escape the feelings this caused.
I started to use alcohol as a way of losing my inhibitions, of forgetting my life, my guilt, and my shame. I used alcohol in this way through college but found that the consequences of drinking too much were uncomfortable, as was the loss of control. In addition, food was more accessible and enjoyable to me, so alcohol became just an occasional way to escape.
During college, I continued to look for comfort in vending machines, cafeteria lines, and one-night-stands. In my senior year, I lived with three other women in an apartment. We each had our own shelf in the kitchen. I would take food from the others without asking and then scramble to get it returned before I got found out.
I felt out of control, ashamed, and afraid. As hard as I tried to eat normally and be honest about who I was, I couldn't succeed. I always went back to the insanity of my problems and behaviors and then lied to cover it up.
(This story is continued in the next section of this newsletter.)
After college, I was again drawn to a Twelve Step group. I went to three meetings a week. I had never gotten past the Third Step. I could never do the first three steps "right" enough, so I didn't go forward. I had a food sponsor and a step sponsor.
I lived with four other people. I was ashamed to tell them where I was going three times a week. I started on a food plan. I stopped eating sugar. Now instead of obsessing about what I was going to eat, I was obsessing about what I wasn't going to eat. I was reading ketchup packages, looking for sugar.
At one of my meetings, we all introduced ourselves by how long we had been abstinent. I had ten months on me when I drank a margarita. Had I broken my abstinence? Would I need to go back and say I had only a few days of abstinence and the humiliation of the admittance? I obsessed about what to do for a long time.
Around then, I went to a retreat for compulsive overeaters. I went to a Twelve Step meeting at the retreat. Someone asked if you could ever be "recovered" since many people were introducing themselves as "recovering." I balked internally. I had been told we were always going to be sick. I believed we could never be recovered and that it was dangerous to think we could.
A woman responded to this question by saying, "Actually the full name of the Big Book, as written by the pioneers of A.A., is 'Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism.'"
I was astounded and quite intrigued. I asked this woman to tell me more. She brought me to a Recoveries Anonymous meeting. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.
We didn't talk about our problems or behaviors. Instead, we read aloud from the Big Book and other program literature. We focused on the solution. People introduced themselves as "Recovered." These people had gone through all Twelve Steps. They were living in the promises of the program.
One woman offered to tell me her story. I related to the insanity she described, the hopelessness, and the lack of willpower. She invited me to go through the Twelve Steps using the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. I did.
I admitted my powerlessness that my life was unmanageable by me. I started to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity. I made my decision to turn my life and my will over to God as I was now coming to understand Him. I made a list of my defects and shared them with someone else. I made a list of people I had harmed and made amends to them. I started praying and meditating each day and sharing my recovery with others.
I started behaving sanely and normally in the same situations in which I used to behave insanely and abnormally. I began to trust in God as the source of my recovery. I started to think about what I could add to life and my relationships instead of what I could get out of them. I started carrying R.A.'s message of hope, sanity, and recovery to those who still suffered.
(This story is continued in the next section of this newsletter.)
|
|
|
I had never gotten past the Third Step. I could never do the first three steps "right" enough, so I didn't go forward. |
|
At one of my meetings, we all introduced ourselves by how long we had been abstinent. I had ten months on me when I drank a margarita. Had I broken my abstinence? Would I need to go back and say I had only a few days of abstinence and the humiliation of the admittance? I obsessed about what to do for a long time.
Around then, I went to a retreat for compulsive overeaters. I went to a Twelve Step meeting at the retreat. Someone asked if you could ever be "recovered" since many people were introducing themselves as "recovering." I balked internally. I had been told we were always going to be sick. I believed we could never be recovered and that it was dangerous to think we could.
A woman responded to this question by saying, "Actually the full name of the Big Book, as written by the pioneers of A.A., is 'Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism.'"
I was astounded and quite intrigued. I asked this woman to tell me more. She brought me to a Recoveries Anonymous meeting. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.
|
|
| I had been told we were always going to be sick. I believed we could never be recovered, and that it was dangerous to think we could. |
|
|
One woman offered to tell me her story. I related to the insanity she described, the hopelessness, and the lack of willpower. She invited me to go through the Twelve Steps using the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. I did.
I admitted my powerlessness that my life was unmanageable by me. I started to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity. I made my decision to turn my life and my will over to God as I was now coming to understand Him. I made a list of my defects and shared them with someone else. I made a list of people I had harmed and made amends to them. I started praying and meditating each day and sharing my recovery with others.
I started behaving sanely and normally in the same situations in which I used to behave insanely and abnormally. I began to trust in God as the source of my recovery. I started to think about what I could add to life and my relationships instead of what I could get out of them. I started carrying R.A.'s message of hope, sanity, and recovery to those who still suffered.
(This story is continued in the next section of this newsletter.)
Ayear later, I accepted a job in a city that did not have an R.A. meeting. I was afraid. I didn't know how I would ever be able to start another group there.
My sponsor kept reading me a passage from R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. On page 75, in the third paragraph, it says, "We know what you are thinking. You are saying to yourself: 'I'm jittery and alone. I couldn't do that.' But you can. You forget that you have just now tapped a source of power so much greater than yourself. To duplicate, with such backing, what we have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience and labor."
I kept praying for the willingness and patience to do whatever was needed.
On my way to my new home, I went to a retreat. There I met a woman I had met once before. She lived not far from my new home. After the retreat, we traveled together. Unfortunately, she wasn't doing well at the time, and I ended up telling her my story.
One hot afternoon, a few days later, she called me. She was having some type of crisis. I was napping. I didn't say much, but I suggested that she read page 38 in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book.
I fell back to sleep. Then, about forty-five minutes later, my friend called back. She told me she'd had a spiritual experience of sorts after reading that page. Within a few days, we started to go through R.A.'s Step Presentation. I used the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book to work all Twelve Steps. We both had to leave town again in a week, so we did it all in four or five days.
WOW! Doing the Twelve Steps that way was so intense and God-guided, a complete gift in spite of myself.
With her connections and knowledge of the city, we were able to start an R.A. group within the next few months. Over the five years, I lived there, we never had a large group, but we consistently found people to work with and join us. That's where my husband went through the Twelve Steps after I introduced him to R.A.
When we moved again, I didn't have the drive to start another group. It's not an easy thing for me. We were here years before I began to talk to someone about R.A. She encouraged me to take her and a friend through R.A.'s Step Presentation. We started working the Twelve Steps by using the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" that are in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. Her connections led us to a church where we could hold meetings.
I talked to another friend yesterday. She also wants to hear about R.A.'s program. We are getting together soon.
I know R.A.'s program works. I know God is in charge. I know I want what the pioneers had. I know working with others is the absolute key.
I'm praying for willingness and God's guidance, God's courage. I want to share R.A.'s message of hope, sanity, and recovery. I do. I am grateful for the opportunity to write my story. It's incredibly helpful to remember where I came from and what I want for my life.
Telling my story is also vital to maintaining my recovery. You are certainly under no obligation. Like the pioneers, I only hope that you will try to help others when you find a solution to your own difficulties.
My sponsor kept reading me a passage from R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. On page 75, in the third paragraph, it says, "We know what you are thinking. You are saying to yourself: 'I'm jittery and alone. I couldn't do that.' But you can. You forget that you have just now tapped a source of power so much greater than yourself. To duplicate, with such backing, what we have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience and labor."
|
|
|
Within a few days, we started to
go through the Twelve Steps
using the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" that are in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. |
|
On my way to my new home, I went to a retreat. There I met a woman I had met once before. She lived not far from my new home. After the retreat, we traveled together. Unfortunately, she wasn't doing well at the time, and I ended up telling her my story.
One hot afternoon, a few days later, she called me. She was having some type of crisis. I was napping. I didn't say much, but I suggested that she read page 38 in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book.
I fell back to sleep. Then, about forty-five minutes later, my friend called back. She told me she'd had a spiritual experience of sorts after reading that page. Within a few days, we started to go through R.A.'s Step Presentation. I used the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book to work all Twelve Steps. We both had to leave town again in a week, so we did it all in four or five days.
WOW! Doing the Twelve Steps that way was so intense and God-guided, a complete gift in spite of myself.
|
|
| Doing the Twelve Steps that way was so intense and God-guided, a complete gift in spite of myself. |
|
|
When we moved again, I didn't have the drive to start another group. It's not an easy thing for me. We were here years before I began to talk to someone about R.A. She encouraged me to take her and a friend through R.A.'s Step Presentation. We started working the Twelve Steps by using the pioneers' original "clear-cut directions" that are in R.A.'s Multilith Big Book. Her connections led us to a church where we could hold meetings.
I talked to another friend yesterday. She also wants to hear about R.A.'s program. We are getting together soon.
I know R.A.'s program works. I know God is in charge. I know I want what the pioneers had. I know working with others is the absolute key.
I'm praying for willingness and God's guidance, God's courage. I want to share R.A.'s message of hope, sanity, and recovery. I do. I am grateful for the opportunity to write my story. It's incredibly helpful to remember where I came from and what I want for my life.
Telling my story is also vital to maintaining my recovery. You are certainly under no obligation. Like the pioneers, I only hope that you will try to help others when you find a solution to your own difficulties.
R.A.’s “How To Begin…” Guides
To find out more about our Twelve Step Fellowship, and how you can get started working the Twelve Steps of our Solution Focused Program of Recovery, we suggest that you visit our website and Download R.A.'s "How To Begin…" guides. This includes R.A.'s Newcomer Guide, "How To Begin Living In The Solution."
For more information about Recoveries Anonymous visit our website at www.R-A.org
To find out more about our Twelve Step Fellowship, and how you can get started working the Twelve Steps of our Solution Focused Program of Recovery, we suggest that you visit our website and Download R.A.'s "How To Begin…" guides. This includes R.A.'s Newcomer Guide, "How To Begin Living In The Solution."
R.A.’s Solution Focused Books
Move up to the next step in your search for recovery by downloading and reading the PDF versions of R.A.'s Solution Focused Books. We do not charge for the PDF versions of our books. Instead, we give the passwords needed to open our books to thank those who support our efforts to help others. You can show your support by making a small, one time, tax-free contribution to R.A., or, if you truly cannot afford to make a contribution at this time, by filling out our Feedback Form.
If you are reading this, you have probably spent a lot of time and energy trying things that did not work out the way you hoped they would. Doesn't it make sense to invest a little more time and energy in this time-proven method of finding the recovery you've been seeking? As the pioneers promise in the Multilith Big Book: ''It works—it really does. Try it.''
R.A. Is Self-supporting
If R.A. has helped you, please consider making a contribution in support of our efforts to help others.
For more information about Recoveries Anonymous visit our website at www.R-A.org
Copyright © 2024 R.A. Universal Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
Please do not reply to this e-mail.
This e-mail is not sent from a valid address. E-mails sent to this address are not received or answered. To contact us, please go to our website at www.R-A.org and click the "Contact Us" button.
Want to be removed from our mail list?
You have been sent this e-mail because you gave us your e-mail address and asked for information about Recoveries Anonymous. To update your e-mail address, use the link at the very bottom of this page. To be removed from our mail list, please click here.
Forward this newsletter to a Friend!
Please feel free to forward this E-Newsletter to friends and family who may be interested in R.A.
Did someone forward this E-Newsletter to you? To start getting your own copy, please click here.
Don't miss a single copy of There Is A Solution!
Remember to add RA-Newsletter@RA-News.org to your address book for uninterrupted delivery.
Is the print of our E-Newsletter too small?
Simply go to the "View" menu. Scroll down to "Text" and adjust the size. You can also try holding down the Control Key, and using the + and - Keys to enlarge or reduce the size of the page.
This e-mail is not sent from a valid address. E-mails sent to this address are not received or answered. To contact us, please go to our website at www.R-A.org and click the "Contact Us" button.
Want to be removed from our mail list?
You have been sent this e-mail because you gave us your e-mail address and asked for information about Recoveries Anonymous. To update your e-mail address, use the link at the very bottom of this page. To be removed from our mail list, please click here.
Forward this newsletter to a Friend!
Please feel free to forward this E-Newsletter to friends and family who may be interested in R.A.
Did someone forward this E-Newsletter to you? To start getting your own copy, please click here.
Don't miss a single copy of There Is A Solution!
Remember to add RA-Newsletter@RA-News.org to your address book for uninterrupted delivery.
Is the print of our E-Newsletter too small?
Simply go to the "View" menu. Scroll down to "Text" and adjust the size. You can also try holding down the Control Key, and using the + and - Keys to enlarge or reduce the size of the page.
R.A. Universal Services Inc., P.O. Box 1212, East Northport, NY 11731