According to the AA statistics in the Foreword to the Fourth Edition, some people got sober right away. Some got sober after a few slips. Some took a little longer but got better if they kept coming back.
In recovery we hear a lot of discouraging statistics. Only 10% recover. In some recovery circles it's supposedly 2%. Honestly, nobody really knows where a lot of those numbers come from. It's not like there's a polling station set up at meetings.
But these old-timers hung around AA for years. They watched people come in, they watched people leave, and they watched what happened.
What they observed was simple.
About half the people who came to AA and really tried stayed sober. About a quarter of the people who came in slipped, got back on the horse, and eventually stayed sober one day at a time if they kept trying. And the remaining quarter of the people who came in and couldn't quite give themselves to this simple program still picked up enough in those rooms to have a better life if they kept trying.
That's not a scientific study. It's just what they saw.
So this begs the question: How do you stay sober?
The word that jumps out is try.
Try to make the meetings. Try to do the steps. Try to get a connection with a Higher Power. Try to be honest. Try to keep an open mind. Try to be willing. Try to be useful. Try again when you screw it up.
Because we all know what happens when we stop trying and let one of these character defects get between us and our Higher Power, the fellowship, and the simple program that can save our lives.
Meeting Starter: What does "trying" look like for you today?
