Page: 43
Step we are on: Step One
Chapter: More About Alcoholism
Subject: Mental Condition, Fred the Accountant, Insanity, Two Fold illness, Nervous, Pre-lapse, Relapse, Normal vs. Abnormal
Good morning we are wrapping up the chapter "More About Alcoholism". That also means we will have finished covering Step One in the Big Book.
Monday we will move on to Step Two when we begin Chapter 4 - page 44 - "WE AGNOSTICS.” (Not 'those" Agnostics, but "WE" - meaning you too)
I hope you can join us. Now let's finish up the last page in Chapter 3.
- What did they hope about Fred's story?
We hope it strikes home to thousands like him.
- Had he severely suffered from alcoholism?
He had felt only the first nip of the wringer.
- Do most alcoholics get off so easy?
Most alcoholics have to be pretty badly mangled before they really commence to solve their problems.
- They have to be put through the wringer, meaning subject to a severe trial or ordeal.
How do many doctors and psychiatrists feel about our conclusions?Many doctors and psychiatrists agree with our conclusions.
Many doctors agree with what's in this book. Certainly not all.
What did one such professional say? (The rest of the paragraph)
This "Professional" is Dr. Percy Pollick, a psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital - renounced psychiatric facility located in Manhattan.
"One of these men, staff member of a world-renowned hospital, recently made this statement to some of us: "What you say about the general hopelessness of the average alcoholic's plight is, in my opinion, correct. As to two of you men, whose stories I have heard, there is no doubt in my mind that you were 100% hopeless, apart from divine help. Had you offered yourselves as patients at this hospital, I would not have taken you, if I had been able to avoid it. People like you are too heartbreaking. Though not a religious person, I have profound respect for the spiritual approach in such cases as yours. For most cases, there is virtually no other solution."
- Once more, what?
Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink.
"Certain times." At other times we can establish a wedge between pain and obsessively taking that next first drink. This is what confuses many of us. We think since we managed to not-drink once, that we will also be able to do it again. It isn't necessarily so.
Alcoholics who have yet to recover, who are still ruled by anger and haven't yet gained mastery over their resentful nature, will drink. Period. (And if they are not true alcoholics, they'll stay dry while smoking, eating and sexing themselves to death.)* And anyone who is able to 'just not drink" - who can set up a defense, either through lifestyle changes, meetings, avoiding slippery places etc. - may have a problem, but they are not the "real alcoholic" described in this book. (And are not AA members. Not even if they say so.)
Alcoholics who have yet to recover, who are still ruled by anger and haven't yet gained mastery over their resentful nature, will drink. Period. (And if they are not true alcoholics, they'll stay dry while smoking, eating and sexing themselves to death.)* And anyone who is able to 'just not drink" - who can set up a defense, either through lifestyle changes, meetings, avoiding slippery places etc. - may have a problem, but they are not the "real alcoholic" described in this book. (And are not AA members. Not even if they say so.)
* Question: Can you name some other 'obsessions' that might perform the same function as alcohol? How about meetings, food, nicotine, caffeine, sex? What about antidepressants, service work, people-pleasing?
- Can human beings provide the alcoholic a defense from the next drink?
Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense.
- What is an alcoholic’s only certain defense?
His defense must come from a Higher Power.
But then, there reportedly are no “musts” in Alcoholics Anonymous.
There might be other defenses at certain times - but none with the certainty of a Higher Power, which to these men and woman meant an omnipotent being, the Creator they called God.
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