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 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 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.
We are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones.
Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make
alcoholics of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable
remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always
by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree
there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic.
Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn�t done so yet.
Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to
believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and
experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule,
therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his
drinking can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats
are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to
drink like other people!
Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting
the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning,
drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during
business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy,
drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job,
taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with or without a
solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books,
going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to
asylums - we could increase the list ad infinitum.