Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
There’s a well known saying in A.A. that “only an alcoholic can identify with another alcoholic.” That’s why we have hundreds of different 12 Step fellowships—Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Codependents Anonymous, Food Anonymous, Sex, Love Addicts Anonymous and so on.
In the 12 Step rooms today we can witness all kinds of addictions and, in many cases, people who suffer from more than one kind of addiction. Furthermore, when one overcomes one addiction, often another substitute addiction arises.
In many 12 Step fellowships, it is difficult and sometimes forbidden to share and discuss these other afflictions because of Tradition Five: “Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.”
Many addicts feel that identification, one type of addict with another addict of the same type is vital to securing the confidence of the one who suffers and that the addict who is making the approach has a real solution to the addiction. However, there are many cases where a Big Book sponsor does not share the same addiction, but has been able to identify with another type addict and successfully show them how to recover using the Big Book as a recovery text. For example, we know of a Big Book sponsor in Alberta, who is an alcoholic but has successfully shown food addicts, sex addicts, drug addicts, emotion addicts, self-mutilation addicts, and others how to recover. There are other examples of these kinds of Big Book sponsors throughout Canada, United States and the UK.
In the Big Book of A.A., the jay-walker story makes an excellent case for using the Big Book as a recovery text for treating any and all addictions.
On pages 37-38 in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous it says:
“Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with a passion, say, for jay-walking. He gets a thrill out of skipping in front of fast-moving vehicles. He enjoys himself for a few years in spite of friendly warnings. Up to this point you would label him as a foolish chap having queer ideas of fun. Luck then deserts him and he is slightly injured several times in succession. You would expect him, if he were normal, to cut it out. Presently he is hit again and this time has a fractured skull. Within a week after leaving the hospital a fast-moving trolley car breaks his arm. He tells you he has decided to stop jay-walking for good, but in a few weeks he breaks both legs.”
“On through the years this conduct continues, accompanied by his continual promises to be careful or to keep off the streets altogether. Finally, he can no longer work, his wife gets a divorce and he is held up to ridicule. He tries every known means to get the jaywalking idea out of his head. He shuts himself up in an asylum, hoping to mend his ways. But the day he comes out he races in front of a fire engine, which breaks his back. Such a man would be crazy, wouldn’t he?”
“You may think our illustration is too ridiculous. But is it? We, who have been through the wringer, have to admit if we substituted alcoholism (or any addiction) for jay-walking, the illustration would fit exactly. However intelligent we may have been in other respects, where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane. It’s strong language but isn’t it true?”
What terms and phrases can we substitute for drinking, drink, alcohol, alcoholic when working with other addictions?
| Alcoholism | Alcoholic | Alcohol | Drink | Drinking |
| (Mind-altering) Substance Addiction | Addict | Drugs, Cocaine, Crack, Marijuana | Use | Using |
| Nicotine | Smoker | Cigarettes | Puff | Smoking |
| Food Addiction | Over-Eater | Food | Bite | Over-eating |
| Anorexia/Bulimia | Anorexic / Bulimic | Food | Restrict | Restricting/Binging-Purging |
| Sugar Addiction | Addict | Sugar/Carbohydrates | Bite | Sweet Eating |
| Gambling Addiction | Gambler | Gamble | Bet | Betting |
| Sex Addiction | Sex & Love Addict | Sex, Love, Fantasy | Act or Thought | Acting Out / Obsessive Thinking, Fantasizing |
| Codependence | Care-Bear | Relationships | Care, Act or Thought | People-Pleasing, Bullying, Blaming, Controlling, Manipulating |
| Emotions Addiction | Addict | Feelings | Care, Act or Thought | Worrying, Raging, Anxiety |
| Self-mutilation Addiction | Self-harmer/Cutter | Self-mutilate | Cut | Cutting |
| Debt Addiction | Addict | Money | Purchase | Spending |
| Hoarding Addiction | Addict | Stuff, Collectibles | Accumulate | Accumulating |
Do you have experience working with other additions using the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous as your recovery text? If so, please share your experience with us and tell what terms and phrases do your substituted for Alcoholism, Alcoholic, Drink and Drinking.
I am 34 years clean and sober and can still be the Jaywalker and I pay the price for it every time.
Thank God for Alcoholics Anonymous and you’all for carrying the message.
Tom K
I define my sobriety. I don’t need someone else to. I’m allowed to smoke marijuana and be sober. it’s 2025. I also take Xanax and Adderall and Sonata and I’m sober in AA.
Since we’re using the Big Big as the reference for treating addiction, think about the progression it makes in defining the problem. First it highlights hopelessness as it relates to the powerlessness over the 2nd drink due to the allergy. Then it demonstrates the powerlessness over the first drink due to the obsession. That is the problem the program addresses, the obsession. First it shows the peculiar mental twists as they relate to alcohol. It takes all the way to p. 52 before it shows the impact on my life that the obsession has EVEN IF I STOP DRINKING. Half of the pages required to outline the program are dedicated to the obsession to drink before it is finally hinted that the problem is bigger than just alcohol.
No matter what the addiction, it’s the same spiritual problem no matter the substance or process BUT the AA process of identification begins with the drinking problem, starting with the allergy.
I do this for a living with far more demons than just alcohol but I’m not just relying on my story. I’m a trained counselor. When I’m in AA, I am just a run of the mill alcoholic with a story to tell. It’s a story of conformity to the program once I finally discovered the depth of our literature based program. Until then it was a story of discontented sobriety trying to make AA conform to my ideas, my old ideas. If I don’t need the specific particular AA of our literature, no one stops me from doing it my special way. It’s just unfortunate that when I did take what I wanted and left the rest, I still called it AA.
I’m a jaywalking alcoholic.
Keep it simple seems to keep working for me. This is Ludicrous.
If the analogy of jay-walking can be replaced by alcoholism, why is it such a huge leap for you to see that it can apply to any and all addictive patterns?
I do not doubt that the 12 step solution can be applied to any number of other problems besides alcoholism. Indeed, I am not an alcoholic but belong to two other 12 step fellowships and have experienced my own set of miracles after applying the steps as outlined in the Big Book, which are suggested as a program of recovery.
However, I am appalled that the OP reproduced several paragraphs from Chapter 3, More About Alcoholism, and then purposely misquoted the text. I would ask that the OP review the meaning of quotation marks. I had to pull out my copy of the Fourth Edition and turn to p. 38 to be absolutely sure I wasn’t myself misremembering. I had no recollection of the authors referring to other addictions. It’s certainly not in my copy. Which edition and printing was the OP quoting from?
The irony is that the OP could have made the same point using original text from the Big Book in an accurate and genuine fashion. Again, referring to my own copy, the authors state in the Foreword to the First Edition “and besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all.” (p. xiii)
Furthermore, a recovered alcoholic whom the authors refer to as Fred states in part, “quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems.” (p. 42)
The 12 steps per se are a shorthand representation of spiritual principles, with the first 164 pages of the book containing the precise instructions on how to effectively apply these principles in our lives. There is no argument about whether this suggested program of recovery can be applied to other addictions or “problems”, unless one wishes to challenge the very integrity of the First 100 and their collective experience. However, one should maintain some fidelity when referring to the text, and not “quote” from it unless one is willing to quote from it.
I have in my possession (and available on line in pdf format) a copy of a letter written roughly a decade ago from the World Service Office of another 12 step fellowship to its various intergroups explaining that A.A.W.S. had contacted them requesting that persons not read from the Big Book in meetings and change the words, nor that passages be taken from the book and read as excerpts out of context. Misquoting a book out loud is not in itself copyright infringement so this is not a question of illegal misdeeds. Nevertheless, given that this program asks us to live by a set of spiritual principles, including a life of rigorous honesty, and given that the request from A.A.W.S. seems both reasonable and feasible, should we all who have turned our wills and our lives over to the care of a higher power and commerced to live by the spiritual principles espoused in this book not make our best efforts to comply? For these reasons, I implore my fellow travelers who trudge the Road of Happy Destiny with me: Accept the Big Book as it was written by the authors and maintained by A.A.W.S. As you study the text, adapt the concepts as needed to provide relevance for you and your specific problem(s), but don’t rewrite the book. Such behavior is rather arrogant and prideful and disrespectful toward the original 12 step fellowship that has allowed us all to discover a Fourth Dimension of Existence. Again, I write as a recovered addict who is not a member of that original fellowship and will most likely never meet requirements for membership (I fail the membership tests). But I sure do love that book and I sure am grateful to those pioneers who generously made this program so available to any and all.
In a spirit of being helpful…we substitute terms and phrases related to alcoholism to include ANY acting-out or obsessive-compulsive addiction patterns such as, drugs and all mind altering substances, sugar/food/overeating, nicotine, gambling, sex / love / fantasy /pornography, over /working / tasking, electronic media (i.e. smart phones, video games, “internet click-bait”) social media, self-harm / mutilation, anorexia, bulimia, over-spending / debting, under-earning, cluttering / hoarding, emotions, codependency—and anyone can certainly increase this list and all are welcome. Our format quotes from the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, our basic recovery text. Our notes, commentary, and gender-inclusive changes are formatted in italics. For further study, it is suggested that you get a copy of the “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous.
I have used the Big Book to overcome early childhood trauma, domestic violence, incest, resentment, at my perpetrators, codependency, and other emotional defects as they are brought into my awareness by God. I have also used outside help, but am and remain a Primary Purpose sponsor in these areas.
Yesss Indeeed…The Solution can and will help in ALLL areas…we are Blessed to be walking proof
Indeed.
God bless AA
While Bill W. was visiting a doctor in 1938 he thumbed through a magazine and read an article about a jay-walker. The jay-walker had been in and out of mental institutions. Anyway Bill recognized the insanity of doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results, and decided to put the story in the Big Book for the sole purpose of identifying the insanity of Alcoholics.
Also, I think in the big book it says that we “cannot use any form” of alcohol.” So I tell people that they need to abstain from any mind or mood altering drugs. And then I refer to the jaywalking story to illustrate and discuss all the other types of problems, like codependency, sex addiction, spending, etc that we and others have, and that these issues can all be recovered from by a psychic change as a result of the 12 steps.
You’re wrong. I can take Xanax and Adderall just fine thank you
I have to agree… There is no better person than another who has experienced the same situation to help said person to get through their state of being “strangely insane”. It also takes hard work honesty and willingness. I love that we can be comfortable in the rooms of AA or any of the A’s to share about our adventures as well as the tools that we use on a daily basis to deal with our issues Personally I think that all people should try going through the 12 steps with sponsor. Insane or not it is my belief that everyone living could benefit from the process. For me it is the best thing I have ever done for myself please get help before someone gets hurt or even dies.
Ridiculous? It’s an extremely accurate portrayal of an addict. A drug is a drug. An addict is an addict. Alcohol, heroin, crack. Geez are we that rigid that we can’t change the word alcoholic to addict. Yeah we are, where addicts! The first symptom I display is my resistance to look at another point of view.
That rigidity bugs me. People tend to forget the Big Book clearly states “Take what you need and leave the rest”. My road to sobriety is MY road to sobriety and won’t be exactly like yours. Stop trying to force me into thinking it’s your way or the highway. I like meetings but…sponsors, for me at least? Not so much. And I agree…an addict is an addict no matter what the substance or behavior.
No where in the Big Book does it say “ Take what you need and leave the rest”
I use the paragraph quoting here are some of the methods we have tried. Then I focus how I used drugs to treat my alcoholism because I’m a lightweight drinker. But I know I have the allergy to alcohol. It’s not about the substance it’s about my thinking.
I love and identify completely with The Jay walker. It really help my partner to understand the insanity and the predicament I was in. Thank you author, whom ever you are.
God bless all here.
The guy is from new Jersey he was 15 in 39
You dont have to loose all your teeth to be a dentist
Thank you for that, I like it a lot and intend on using it tomorrow in Primary.
Timothy: Do the math…if he’s 90 years old now in 2014, then he would have have been 16 years old in 1939 when the Big Book was published. It’s not likely he was the contributor of this story to the Big Book. Best to treat the old fellow with kindness and love…he’s probably losing some his mental abilities.
I am wondering who wrote the Jay Walker , we have a person at our group who is a self proclaimed ICON! This person says he has been around since the beginning of AA and even part of the Oxford Group he is claiming 56 years of sobriety and says he is 90 years old . Is there any way you could tell me who wrote the Jay Walker?
There is power in anonymity. it could have been any one of us and any addictive substance or behavior. Although we work all the steps all the time once we are helped by the program, i am now doing step 12 in my two main fellowships, service at a higher level — to affect the most people, with of course personal service ongoing.
This is a true definition of insanIty – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Been sober since July 27,2009
I have worked with all kinds of addicts. I keep it simple. I use "addiction" and "addict" as substitutes for alcoholism and alcoholic. I prefer "using" as a substitute for drinking when working with substance abusers. I use "acting-out" for non-substance abusers such as codependency. I also designate the different types of users by types–1, 2, or 3. Moderate users or Moderate Behavior I use the term "Type 1s". Hard users or Heavy Behavior I use the term "Type 2s" and for the real addict, I use the term "Type3s". So whenever we read alcoholic in the Big Book, I have the newcomer substitute the word with T3. This works for all and any addiction.
GREAT ADVICE THANX!