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What does the Big Book say about fear?

In short:

  • Fear is part of the Fourth Step inventory, right after resentment. The word "touches about every aspect of our lives" (p. 67), and "we think fear ought to be classed with stealing. It seems to cause more trouble." (p. 68)
  • The book traces fear to self-reliance that failed: "Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us?" (p. 68) Its answer is trust in God: "We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear." (p. 68)
  • Fear stays on the daily watch list. Step Ten: "Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear." (p. 84) Chapter 10 names fear among "The greatest enemies of us alcoholics" (p. 145).
  • The book ties fear to drinking more than once: hidden memories keep a man "under constant fear and tension—that makes for more drinking" (p. 73), and "we are liable to drink if we are afraid to face" our creditors (p. 78).

Where fear starts: self (p. 62)

Chapter 5 names selfishness as "the root of our troubles" (p. 62) and lists what drives it: "Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate." (p. 62) The Third Step decision is the first relief. As members relied on God, "we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn." (p. 63)

The fear inventory (pp. 67–68)

The book's sample resentment list on page 65 has "(fear)" written beside several of the injuries. Then:

  1. Notice it. "Notice that the word 'fear' is bracketed alongside the difficulties with Mr. Brown, Mrs. Jones, the employer, and the wife." (p. 67) It was "an evil and corroding thread; the fabric of our existence was shot through with it." (p. 67)
  2. See our part. Fear "set in motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune we felt we didn't deserve. But did not we, ourselves, set the ball rolling?" (p. 67) The resentment list had already asked where we had been "selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened" (p. 67).
  3. Write fears down, even without a resentment. "We reviewed our fears thoroughly. We put them on paper, even though we had no resentment in connection with them." (p. 68)
  4. Ask why. "We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us?" (p. 68) Self-reliance "was good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough." (p. 68) Some had great self-confidence, "but it didn't fully solve the fear problem, or any other. When it made us cocky, it was worse." (p. 68)
  5. The better way. "We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves." (p. 68) Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, "does He enable us to match calamity with serenity" (p. 68). "The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage." (p. 68)
  6. Ask for it to be removed. "We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear." (p. 68)

Note what the book doesn't say: it doesn't say fear disappears at once, or that a believer feels none. It says we "commence to outgrow" it (p. 68).

Fear in the action Steps (Chapter 6)

  • Step Five. Newcomers who hid parts of their story "only thought they had lost their egoism and fear" (p. 73). After a full Fifth Step: "Our fears fall from us." (p. 75)
  • Step Nine. Fear of creditors has to go "no matter how far we have to go" (p. 78). In Chapter 11 the man Bill met, identified in a footnote as Dr. Bob (p. 155), set out "to tell those he feared what his trouble had been" (p. 156) and was "surprisingly well received" (p. 156).
  • The Promises. "Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us." (p. 84)
  • Step Ten. Watch for "selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear" (p. 84); "When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them." (p. 84) Of liquor, once sanity returns: "We are neither cocky nor are we afraid." (p. 85)
  • Step Eleven. The nightly review asks "Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid?" (p. 86) Through the day, saying "Thy will be done," we are "in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions" (p. 88).

Fear in the rest of the book

  • Bill's story. After a hospital stay, "Fear sobered me for a bit." (p. 8) It didn't last: the "insidious insanity of that first drink" (p. 8) came back. Fear by itself didn't keep him sober.
  • Bill, away from home on a failed business trip (a footnote identifies him, p. 155). Six months sober, alone in a hotel lobby and tempted by the bar, "Fear gripped him." (p. 154) What he did next was look for another alcoholic to help (p. 154).
  • The bedevilments. Among the problems the book wants solved: "we were full of fear" (p. 52).
  • To wives. The wife "who trembles in fear of the next debauch" (p. 104); the "paralyzing fear" that he'll lose his job (p. 116); and the relief when spiritual principles work in the home, "the ensuing lack of fear, worry and hurt feelings" (p. 116). It also warns that "The slightest sign of fear or intolerance may lessen your husband's chance of recovery." (p. 120)
  • To employers. "The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear." (p. 145)

"Fearless"

The book also uses the word as a demand: "we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start" (p. 58), and Step Four is "a searching and fearless moral inventory" (p. 59). Members found that without a full Fifth Step they "had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty" (p. 73).

Phrases about fear that aren't in the book

The acronym for fear as false evidence appearing real isn't in the Big Book or anywhere else in our sources (searched: "false evidence"). See: Does the Big Book say fear is "false evidence appearing real"? "Fear of Fear" is the title of a member's story in the fourth edition (2001), p. 289, not program text.

Later history (dated)

In 1957, writing of A.A. as a whole, Bill named "Pride and fear and anger" as "the prime enemies of our common welfare" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). That is about the fellowship's unity, not an individual's inventory. See: Where is "resentment is the number one offender," and what does it mean?

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
All our sources (searched for "false evidence") — various
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapters 1, 4–6, 8, 10, 11 8, 52, 58–59, 62–68, 73, 75, 78, 84–88, 104, 116, 120, 145, 154, 156 1939
"Fear of Fear" (a member's story, title only) 289 fourth edition (2001)
A.A. Comes of Age (Tradition One talk) — 1957

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.