Understanding the Big Book
Like Duolingo, but for Understanding the Big Book. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
Free during early access · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Understanding the Big Book
- The primary purpose of the Big Book as a practical manual
- Distinguishing between types of drinkers based on the book's definitions
- The 'we' voice represents the first hundred members' collective experience
- The 'phenomenon of craving' (physical allergy) once drinking starts
- The book is designed to be a suggestion based on what worked for a group, not a set of rules from one author
- The 'mental obsession' that leads back to the first drink despite past trouble
- The significance of the collective 'we' voice in the text
- Identifying the core characteristics of the 'real alcoholic'
- The book's purpose is to show 'precisely' how to recover
- The text is meant to be a set of directions
- Alcohol triggers a physical 'phenomenon of craving' in the alcoholic
- The mental obsession overrides past memories of suffering
- This craving is described as an 'allergy' because it is an abnormal reaction not found in others
- Willpower is insufficient because the mind provides plausible excuses to drink again
- The physical reaction to alcohol that distinguishes an alcoholic from a moderate drinker
- The role of willpower in overcoming the mental obsession
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Understanding the Big Book the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Picture a person who drinks heavily but stops instantly when their doctor issues a stern warning. How would the book label them?
Get it right to open this lesson and 53 more in the app.
Where Understanding the Big Book takes you
Discover the core principles of recovery and how to apply the 12-step program to your daily life. This course breaks down the foundational text of Alcoholics Anonymous into simple, actionable insights.
- 1
Getting Started with the Program
- What is the Big Book?
- Admitting the Problem
- Finding Hope in Others' Stories
- The First Step to Change
- 2
Taking Action and Making Amends
- Looking Inward: The Moral Inventory
- Sharing Your Truth with Someone Else
- Cleaning Up the Past
- Fixing Broken Relationships
- Living One Day at a Time
- Helping Others to Stay Strong
- 3
Living the New Way of Life
- Building a Daily Routine
- Handling Difficult Emotions
- The Power of Prayer and Meditation
- 4
The Roots and Wisdom of the Book
- How the Big Book Was Written
- The Doctor's Opinion on Addiction
- Bill’s Story: The First Journey
- The Science of a Spiritual Experience
- Why the Program Still Works Today
4 sections · 18 units · 54 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Understanding the Big Book is taught in the The Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Understanding the Big Book today.
Download Tomo, search Understanding the Big Book, and play your first lesson in under a minute.