Excerpted from AA World Services Pamphlet - 'Is AA For You?'
Copyright © 1973, 1998 by A.A. World Services, Inc.  All Right Reserved.
Find it by clicking on the link below.
http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org

1.  Have you ever decided to stop drinking for a week or so, but only lasted for a couple of days?
2 - Do you wish people would mind their own business about your drinking-- stop telling you what to do?
3 - Have you ever switched from one kind of drink to another in the hope that this would keep you from getting drunk?
4 - Have you had to have an eye-opener upon awakening during the past year?
5 - Do you envy people who can drink without getting into trouble?
6 - Have you had problems connected with drinking during the past year?
7 - Has your drinking caused trouble at home?
8 - Do you ever try to get "extra" drinks at a party because you do not get enough?
9 - Do you tell yourself you can stop drinking any time you want to, even though you keep getting drunk when you don't mean to?
10 - Have you missed days of work or school because of drinking?
11 - Do you have "blackouts"?
12 - Have you ever felt that your life would be better if you did not drink?

From the Primary Text of AA - Alcoholics Anonymous  ( "The Big Book" )
3rd. Edition - Copyright © 1939, 1955, 1976 by AAWS, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

From Chapter 4 - We Agnostics

...If, when you honestly want to, you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic.  If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.  ...

From Chapter 3 - More About Alcoholism

Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics.  No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows.  Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people.  The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.  The persistence of this illusion is astonishing.  Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.

We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics.  This is the first step in recovery.  The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.

We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking.  We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control.  All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief - were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization.  We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness.  Over any considerable period we get worse, never better. ...

From Chapter 2 - There Is A Solution

... The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution.  We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action.  This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism. ...