Hi everybody, I'm Jackie, an alcoholic.

Bill W. was right when he said that we alcoholics go from one extreme to the other. Either we crave attention, and will go to any lengths to get it, like going into a bar and yelling, "Belly up to the bar folks -- drinks are on me!" That's something I often wanted to do, but could never afford it. I was lucky if I had enough money to get me drunk. Or we go the other way, and try to become invisible. That was me more often than not. Then we come into AA and stop drinking, accept the first 2 Steps, think we've turned our lives over to our Higher Power, and start Step 4. Then we start going to extremes again. Either it's "I dint do nuttin' cept drink too much" (which was me the first time), or, we play the "can you top this" game. The point I'm trying to make here is AA is a way of living in the world as it is, not as we would like it to be. So for me at least, I need to get these extremes out of my life. I can do this now by coming here online and sharing with you whatever is happening. If I am angry I can vent it, and it will pass a lot quicker. It's hard to be lonely if I'm here chatting. And if I'm happy, I can share that too, which does away with the need to go out and "celebrate" at the bar. Thank you!

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