I recently returned from a 12 Step conference whose focus was entirely on the Big Book.  The other speakers at the conference were wonderful and helped show in detail how the Big Book’s words were relevant to the compulsive eater.

In my books and articles, as well as when I lead Retreats, I don’t spend a lot of time reading paragraphs from the Big Book and then “interpreting” them for alcoholics and addicts.  I assume most of the people who read my writings or attend the events know how to read the book and have – hopefully – already read the Big Book.

In my conversations with the other leaders at that event, I began to wonder if some of my writings might give off the idea that my philosophy somehow diverges from what is in the Big Book.  If anything in my writings has given that impression, then I have missed the mark.  What I have always attempted to do in my talks and writings is to show how what is written in the Big Book is exactly what is needed to recover from “that seemingly hopeless state of mind and body” called addiction.

One of my favorite pieces of 12 Step literature is a pamphlet from A.A. called “A Member’s Eye View of Alcoholics Anonymous.”  It was written by a gentleman named Allen McG., who was an A.A. member from Los Angeles.  The pamphlet was (and is) a transcript of a talk he gave in 1968 to graduates of a program for alcohol and substance abuse counselors.  For me, it was – and is – one of the best explanations of the Steps and the recovery process written in this generation (it can be found online here). 

After reading it a number of times, it became very clear that while there were many pithy and well-formed observations, the “meat” of the pamphlet was simply a re-statement of the Steps and what is written in the Big Book.  However, it spoke in a language of my time, and in a manner a little less religious and a little more real-world.  It even folded in scientific and psychological talk at times, which gratified me to know there were other people who thought about things the way I did.

I give this pamphlet to newcomers and also direct people having problems with the Big Book to read it as well.  Why?  For me, the most important words have to not just be written, but also read – or more accurately absorbed.  If truth be told, a lot of the Big Book, with its arcane language, male dominated view, and proximity to the Christian roots of A.A. can be off-putting to newcomers.  I feel this pamphlet helps guide them to seeing the Steps and 12-Step recovery process with modern eyes.  Then, a slight nudge gets them pointed to the Big Book and the Steps with a little less critical judgment.

This is what I tried to do with all of my writings.  I attempt to take all that I learned in 35+ years of 12-Step recovery, hundreds (thousands?) of hours of Big Book study and find a way to restate it in a way someone who had been previously turned off to the Big Book might be able to hear.  For the people who came in having hit a hard enough bottom (like myself), accepting the Big Book as written was not a problem.  They accepted it, followed it, were relieved of the obsession and have been sober ever since.  In that case, they have no need for my help.

The articles you will find on this website are geared for the person who has had a problem not only getting sober, but staying sober in the long term.  It was for them that I wrote these articles – and in the way I wrote them.  Hopefully they, and anyone else who will read it, will understand that all of this it is not to be a substitute for the Big Book, but instead a complement to the Big Book.  It is a “jumping off” place as it were, to point those toward the “source material.”

I have embarked on a new project:  a Big Book commentary meant to take the reader through the Big Book and speak about how it is germane to modern day addiction.  Whether it will be another book or merely a series of essays, I don’t know.  My feeling is to let the writing itself set the pace and length. 

Stay tuned to these pages for more on this subject.