# 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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-67/)), and "we think fear ought to be classed with stealing. It seems to cause more trouble." ([p. 68](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-68/))
- The book traces fear to self-reliance that failed: "Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us?" ([p. 68](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-68/))
- Fear stays on the daily watch list. Step Ten: "Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear." ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/)) Chapter 10 names fear among "The greatest enemies of us alcoholics" ([p. 145](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-73/)), and "we are liable to drink if we are afraid to face" our creditors ([p. 78](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-78/)).

## Where fear starts: self ([p. 62](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-62/))

Chapter 5 names selfishness as "the root of our troubles" ([p. 62](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-63/))

## The fear inventory ([pp. 67–68](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-67/))

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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-67/)) It was "an evil and corroding thread; the fabric of our existence was shot through with it." ([p. 67](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-67/)) The resentment list had already asked where we had been "selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened" ([p. 67](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-68/))
4. **Ask why.** "We asked ourselves why we had them. Wasn't it because self-reliance failed us?" ([p. 68](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-68/)) Self-reliance "was good as far as it went, but it didn't go far enough." ([p. 68](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-68/))
5. **The better way.** "We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves." ([p. 68](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-68/)). "The verdict of the ages is that faith means courage." ([p. 68](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-73/)). After a full Fifth Step: "Our fears fall from us." ([p. 75](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-75/))
- **Step Nine.** Fear of creditors has to go "no matter how far we have to go" ([p. 78](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-78/)). In Chapter 11 the man Bill met, identified in a footnote as Dr. Bob ([p. 155](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-155/)), set out "to tell those he feared what his trouble had been" ([p. 156](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-156/)) and was "surprisingly well received" ([p. 156](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-156/)).
- **The Promises.** "Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us." ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/))
- **Step Ten.** Watch for "selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear" ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/)); "When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them." ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/)) Of liquor, once sanity returns: "We are neither cocky nor are we afraid." ([p. 85](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-85/))
- **Step Eleven.** The nightly review asks "Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid?" ([p. 86](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-88/)).

## Fear in the rest of the book

- **Bill's story.** After a hospital stay, "Fear sobered me for a bit." ([p. 8](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-8/)) It didn't last: the "insidious insanity of that first drink" ([p. 8](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-155/)). Six months sober, alone in a hotel lobby and tempted by the bar, "Fear gripped him." ([p. 154](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-154/)) What he did next was look for another alcoholic to help ([p. 154](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-154/)).
- **The bedevilments.** Among the problems the book wants solved: "we were full of fear" ([p. 52](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-52/)).
- **To wives.** The wife "who trembles in fear of the next debauch" ([p. 104](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-104/)); the "paralyzing fear" that he'll lose his job ([p. 116](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-116/)); and the relief when spiritual principles work in the home, "the ensuing lack of fear, worry and hurt feelings" ([p. 116](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-116/)). It also warns that "The slightest sign of fear or intolerance may lessen your husband's chance of recovery." ([p. 120](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-120/))
- **To employers.** "The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear." ([p. 145](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-58/)), and Step Four is "a searching and fearless moral inventory" ([p. 59](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-59/)). Members found that without a full Fifth Step they "had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty" ([p. 73](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-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
- Chapter 5, "How It Works" ([pp. 62–68](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-62/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- Chapter 6, "Into Action" ([pp. 73–88](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-73/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
- Chapter 8, "To Wives" ([pp. 104](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-104/), 116, 120): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt8.pdf
- Chapter 10, "To Employers" ([p. 145](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-145/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt10.pdf
- Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" ([pp. 154](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-154/), 156): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt11.pdf
- The full books are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

## 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.*