We know the truth, not only by the reason, but by the heart. --Blaise Pascal

Newcomer
I'm not sure I qualify to be in this program. I wasn't that bad---I hear stories that are so much worse than mine.

Sponsor
There's a joke about a group of friends standing at their drinking buddy's graveside with his widow, all of them shaking their heads and saying, "I don't understand it---he wasn't that bad."
Who qualifies for the Twelve Step program? The answer doesn't lie simply in the quantities of a substance consumed or in the frequency of an unwanted behavior. More telling is whether or not we have a choice. It's useful to make a list of times we remember using in spite of intentions not to and a list of times when using took us places we never meant to go, made us do things we never meant to do. Perhaps we'll recall many such situations, perhaps only a few. The number is less important than our willingness to look back at our memories, and the feelings accompanying them, without censoring ourselves. Something inside us brought us here; it's up to each of us to take an honest look at what that was.

Today, I look honestly at times when I have been powerless over this addiction. I acknowledge the ways it has made my life unmanageable.

--If You Want What We Have