Gamblers Anonymous

Complacency
Author : GA

There are three times when we should pay this illness all the respect that it is due. The first is when we feel good and strong and things are going well for us. The second is when we are down and things are not going our way. The third is all the times in between.

At any GA meeting, ask the members present the following question: “If you are not complacent about your recovery, will you please stand up?” Everyone will jump to his or her feet. Strange condition this complacency! No one admits to being complacent. Isn’t this the very nature of complacency itself, to never believe you are complacent but to easily identify it in others?

Ask yourself these questions:

Do you continue to look at the Twenty Questions and continuously review the Recovery Program? Is your answer that you used to look at it daily, but now you are more experienced and no longer need to? That’s complacency.

Do you feel that you are ahead of newer members in understanding of the GA way, and cannot learn from them? That’s complacency!

Do you believe that you have learned more than some of the older members, forgetting that it was they who helped in your early recovery? That’s complacency!

There are so many different faces of complacency. One thing for sure about complacency is that it is very easy to spot in others - but difficult to spot (or accept) in ourselves.

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