50 Popular Questions for Group Discussions

A new A.A. quiz program, designed to spark personal opinions, has met with enthusiastic response from members of the Grand Rapids Group. The questions are thought provoking, instructive and, we feel, purposeful. So far, we have carried the quiz through six consecutive meetings of our own Group, and loaned it to neighboring groups.

As we all know, there is no authority in A.A. except the “Big Book”, so the 50 questions included in our quiz are merely stimulants for individual thinking and group discussion. The method of procedure is flexible, depending on the chairman’s whim. Here we have a master list of the questions, printed on small cards, which are passed out to the members. The chairman can then call for the questions in sequence, or skip around at will.

Our experience has been that members who have never before ventured an opinion, gave forth with amazing interpretations to the questions. When a topic is thoroughly exhausted, the quiz moves on.

Quiz Questions:

1. What is Alcoholics Anonymous?
2. What is an alcoholic?
3. Does it matter when or how you became an alcoholic? … Yes, or No. … Why?
4. How many types of prospects are there for Alcoholics Anonymous?
5. What event or series of situations made you decide you had to do something about your drinking problem?
6. Is A.A. a magic formula for staying sober? alcoholic? … a method for learning controlled drinking… A new way of life?
7. Is there any difference between being on the “water wagon” or on the A.A. Program?
8. What are some of the indications of an alcoholic? … General and personal.
9. Is alcohol (or drinking) the cause of our troubles, or the result?
10. During your last drinking days, did you have a feeling of being cut off from life and worthwhile people? … Did you care?
11. Did your association with A.A. help you regain your self-respect… or were you secretly ashamed?
12. Does it matter much if you contact another A.A. before or after you take the first drink?
13. What is the 13th Step?
14. Have you read the Big Book-Alcoholics Anonymous? … What did you get out of it?
15. Why is the loneliness of an alcoholic licked by the comradeship of A.A.?
16. Is anonymity vital to the success of A.A.?
17. How far do your responsibilities go toward helping the individual compulsive drunkard who asks for help?
18. Explain how practicing the 12th Step can help promote an understanding of the 2nd Step?
19. Why is the 10th Step more important to our mental rather than our physical well-being?
20. Did you make direct amends to anyone?
21. Why do you resolve to practice AA, for only 24 hours a day?
22. Does sobriety bore you?
23. Does an “open mind” refer to understanding of the spiritual phase of the program, personal behavior, or what?
24. Why is the A.A. Program the world’s strangest commodity? … You can’t sell it … You can’t buy it … The only way you can keep it, is to give it away… Explain.
25. Is there such a thing as a dry drunk? … How do you cure it?
26. Why should we realize that every morning we are potential, or possible, drunkards for that day?
27. Has the A.A. program taught you that you have more trouble with yourself than anyone else you know?… If so, is this humility? … Spiritual awakening? … Honesty?
28. Why do you pray only for knowledge of Gods will for you, and for the power to carry that out?
29. In A.A. parlance, what is meant by “H-o-w?”
30. Why is progress preferred to perfection in the A.A. program?
31. What is meant by the expression “Watch Your Humility”?
32. Some alcoholics say they simply can’t surrender … Did you? If so, explain how you did it.
33. What are your credentials for membership in A.A.?
34. When someone asks you to “Come on, have a drink!” Do you say “I’m not drinking because I’ve got a bad heart, flat feet, etc.” or, “I’ve quit because I learned I can’t handle alcohol.” or, “I’m a member of Alcoholics Anonymous!”
35. Compare Fear versus Desire as they apply to an A.A. prospect.
36. Does sobriety make the price of one drink too high?
37. Can you give the A.A. Prayer? … Explain what it means?
38. In case you could get away with a secret slip, would it be helpful or harmful to your conscience to report it at a meeting?
39. Does the fact that the word “alcohol” is used only twice in the 12 steps have any special significance to you?
40. In relation to the A.A. Program, explain the meaning of the statement. … “A rear view mirror is useful, but using it too much can be dangerous.”
41. Does it embarrass you to be the only one in a business or social gathering who doesn’t drink?
42. Just how honest and fearless was your “Searching and Fearless Moral Inventory?”
43. When you get an A.A. prospect who needs hospitalization, how do you go about getting him into a hospital? … How do you finance him? With your money? … His money? … Group subscription?
44. Give three reasons why you’ve been sober today.
45. Does tolerance, or lack of it, affect your relations with others? … And in turn affect you?
46. Is it a daily battle for you to stay in the Program?
47. Explain the difference between selfishness and self-enlightenment in relation to the A.A. Program.
48. Does a “slip” constitute one drink or a drunk?
49. What is your understanding of the expression, “Working the AA. Program on faith.”?
50. Do you believe peace of mind can be a daily accomplishment, or can it only be attained through a lifetime of right living?

This is a discussion page. Ideas advanced here are only suggestions, put forward to help furnish group discussion topics, without any intention of reaching fixed conclusions or dogmatic “rights” and “wrongs.”

R.M., Grand Rapids Michigan, Grapevine July 1948