Out From Under: Treating Your Own Addictions

101 RECOVERY THINGS TO DO FROM A. A.
Reprinted with permission from A.A. World Services, Inc.

1) Stay away from that first drink
2) Attend AA regularly
3) Use the 24 hour plan
4) Remember, your illness is incurable, progressive, and fatal
5) Do first things first
6) Don't become too tired
7) Eat a balanced diet at regular hours
8) Find a sponsor
9) Use the telephone
10) Be active—don't sit around
11) Use the Serenity Prayer
12) Change old routines and patterns
13) Don't become too hungry
14) Practice control of your angers
15) Avoid loneliness
16) Air your resentments
17) Be willing to help wherever needed weren't that good
18) Be good to yourself; you deserve it
19) Easy Does It
20) Get out of the "if only" trap
21) Remember how it was
22) Beware of emotional extremes
23) Help another in his recovery
24) Try to turn your life and your will over to your higher power
25) Avoid all mood-changing drugs
26) Turn loose of old ideas
27) Avoid drinking occasions
28) Replace old drinking buddies with new AA buddies
29) Read the Big Book
30) Try not to be dependent
31) Be grateful
32) Get off the "pity pot"
33) Seek knowledgeable help
34) Face it; you are powerless over
alcohol
35) Try the Twelve-Steps
36) Let Go and Get God
37) Keep an open mind
38) Find courage to change through the example of others who have done so
39) Don't try to test your will-power
40) Live today, not yesterday or tomorrow
41) Avoid emotional entanglements
42) Remember: alcohol is cunning, baffling, and powerful
43) Be humble
44) Rejoice in the manageability of your life
45) Share your experience, strength and hope
46) Share your recovery
47) Dump your garbage regularly
48) Get plenty of restful sleep
49) Stay sober for yourself, not someone else
50) Practice rigorous honesty
51) Progress is made One Day At A Time

52) Develop an Attitude of Gratitude
53) Accept the fact that you dare not take that first drink
54) Think about those you have harmed
55) Make amends where possible
56) Take a daily inventory of your shortcomings
57) Avoid self-righteousness
58) Put aside jealousy
59) Meditate
60) Share your happiness
61) Respect other's anonymity
62) Be responsible
63) Don't judge yourself or others
64) Avoid nostalgic sadness
65) Don't place conditions on your sobriety
66) Don't dwell on the "Good Old Days"
67) Seek God's will for you
68) Listen
69) Keep It Simple
70) Admit it when you are wrong
71) Beware of complacency
72) Have faith
73) Avoid gossip
74) Laugh
75) When you feel shaky, call an AA buddy
76) Replace guilt and remorse with gratitude
77) Believe only the best of everyone
78) Share your pain
79) User your sponsor
80) Recognize and correct your shortcomings
81) Carry the message of AA
82) Practice the "I am responsible"
concept
83) Beware of phoniness in yourself
84) Think positive
85) Put your own welfare first
86) Believe in a power greater than yourself
87) Make a searching and fearless inventory of yourself
88) Share your inventory with someone else
89) Seek peace of mind—this is true serenity
90) Don't "put down" anyone
91) Accept life as it comes
92) Believe that you are not alone
93) Don't take another's inventory
94) Develop self-restraint
95) Don't fear change
96) Remember your last drunk
97) Think the drink through
98) Beware of self-deception
99) Look upon problems as challenges
100) Take life a day, an hour, even a minute at a time
101) You can be as happy or unhappy as you want to be