The Sponsor’s Opinion

Men and women enter into relationship’s essentially because they like the effect produced by so-called “romance*.” The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their romantic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of excitement and fulfillment which comes at once by taking a new lover – lovers which others seem to enjoy with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a “relationship,” emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution to pick the right partner next time. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope for their future. On the other hand-and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand-once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed to relationship hell, who had so many issues they despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds themselves easily able to control their desire to relieve their pain with a relationship, the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules**.

*Romance (as defined in the 1927 Webster’s Universal Dictionary of the English Language) 1.A fiction, a lie, a falsehood. 2.To tell extravagant stories. 3.To be romantic; to behave romantically or fancifully; to build castles in the air.

**Rules The applicable rules in this case are the Twelve Traditions of AA