There Is A
Solution, Chapter 2
From:Alcoholics Anonymous
We, of
Alcoholics Anonymous, know thousands
of men and women who were once just as
hopeless as Bill. Nearly all have
recovered. They have solved the drink
problem.
We are
average Americans. All sections of
this country and many of its
occupations are represented, as well
as many political, economic, social,
and religious backgrounds. We are
people who normally would not mix. But
there exists among us a fellowship, a
friendliness, and an understanding
which is indescribably wonderful. We
are like the passengers of a great
liner the moment after rescue from
shipwreck when camaraderie, joyousness
and democracy pervade the vessel from
steerage to Captain's table. Unlike
the feelings of the ship's passengers,
however, our joy in escape from
disaster does not subside as we go our
individual ways. The feeling of having
shared in a common peril is one
element in the powerful cement which
binds us. But that in itself would
never have held us together as we are
now joined.
The
tremendous fact for every one of us is
that we have discovered a common
solution. We have a way out on which
we can absolutely agree, and upon
which we can join in brotherly and
harmonious action. This is the great
news this book carries to those who
suffer from alcoholism. An illness of
this sort and we have come to believe
it an illness involves those about us
in a way no other human sickness can.
If a person has cancer all are sorry
for him and no one is angry or hurt.
But not so with the alcoholic illness,
for with it there goes annihilation of
all the things worth while in life. It
engulfs all whose lives touch the
sufferer's. It brings
misunderstanding, fierce resentment,
financial insecurity, disgusted
friends and employers, warped lives of
blameless children, sad wives and
parents anyone can increase the list.
We hope
this volume will inform and comfort
those who are, or who may be affected.
There are many.
Highly
competent psychiatrists who have dealt
with us have found it sometimes
impossible to persuade an alcoholic to
discuss his situation without reserve.
Strangely enough, wives, parents and
intimate friends usually find us even
more unapproachable than do the
psychiatrist and the doctor.
But the
ex-problem drinker who has found this
solution, who is properly armed with
facts about himself, can generally win
the entire confidence of another
alcoholic in a few hours. Until such
an understanding is reached, little or
nothing can be accomplished.
That the
man who is making the approach has had
the same difficulty, that he obviously
knows what he is talking about, that
his whole deportment shouts at the new
prospect that he is a man with a real
answer, that he has no attitude of
Holier Than Thou, nothing whatever
except the sincere desire to be
helpful; that there are no fees to
pay, no axes to grind, no people to
please, no lectures to be endured
these are the conditions we have found
most effective. After such an approach
many take up their beds and walk
again.
None of us
makes a sole vocation of this work,
nor do we think its effectiveness
would be increased if we did. We feel
that elimination of our drinking is
but a beginning. A much more important
demonstration of our principles lies
before us in our respective homes,
occupations and affairs. All of us
spend much of our spare time in the
sort of effort which we are going to
describe. A few are fortunate enough
to be so situated that they can give
nearly all their time to the work.
If we keep
on the way we are going there is
little doubt that much good will
result, but the surface of the problem
would hardly be scratched. Those of us
who live in large cities are overcome
by the reflection that close by
hundreds are dropping into oblivion
every day. Many could recover if they
had the opportunity we have enjoyed.
How then shall we present that which
has been so freely given us?
We have
concluded to publish an anonymous
volume setting forth the problem as we
see it. We shall bring to the task our
combined experience and knowledge.
This should suggest a useful program
for anyone concerned with a drinking
problem.
Of
necessity there will have to be
discussion of matters medical,
psychiatric, social, and religious. We
are aware that these matters are from
their very nature, controversial.
Nothing would please us so much as to
write a book which would contain no
basis for contention or argument. We
shall do our utmost to achieve that
ideal. Most of us sense that real
tolerance of other people's
shortcomings and viewpoints and a
respect for their opinions are
attitudes which make us more useful to
others. Our very lives, as ex-problem
drinkers, depend upon our constant
thought of others and how we may help
meet their needs.
You may
already have asked yourself why it is
that all of us became so very ill from
drinking. Doubtless you are curious to
discover how and why, in the face of
expert opinion to the contrary, we
have recovered from a hopeless
condition of mind and body. If you are
an alcoholic who wants to get over it,
you may already be asking What do I
have to do?"
It is the
purpose of this book to answer such
questions specifically. We shall tell
you what we have done. Before going
into a detailed discussion, it may be
well to summarize some points as we
see them.
How many
time people have said to us: "I
can take it or leave it alone. Why
can't he?" "Why don't you
drink like a gentleman or quit?"
"That fellow can't handle his
liquor." "Why don't you try
beer and wine?" "Lay off the
hard stuff." "His will power
must be weak." "He could
stop if he wanted to."
"She's such a sweet girl, I
should think he'd stop for her
sake." "The doctor told him
that if he ever drank again it would
kill him, but there he is all lit up
again."
Now these
are commonplace observations on
drinkers which we hear all the time.
Back of them is a world of ignorance
and misunderstanding. We see that
these expressions refer to people
whose reactions are very different
from ours.
Moderate
drinkers have little trouble in giving
up liquor entirely if they have good
reason for it. They can take it or
leave it alone.
Then we
have a certain type of hard drinker.
He may have the habit badly enough to
gradually impair him physically and
mentally. It may cause him to die a
few years before his time. If a
sufficiently strong reason ill health,
falling in love, change of
environment, or the warning of a
doctor becomes operative, this man can
also stop or moderate, although he may
find it difficult and troublesome and
may even need medical attention.
But what
about the real alcoholic? He may start
off as a moderate drinker; he may or
may not become a continuous hard
drinker; but at some stage of his
drinking career he begins to lose all
control of his liquor consumption,
once he starts to drink.
Here is a
fellow who has been puzzling you,
especially in his lack of control. He
does absurd, incredible, tragic things
while drinking. He is a real Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is seldom
mildly intoxicated. He is always more
or less insanely drunk. His
disposition while drinking resembles
his normal nature but little. He may
be one of the finest fellows in the
world. Yet let him drink for a day,
and he frequently becomes
disgustingly, and even dangerously
anti-social. He has a positive genius
for getting tight at exactly the wrong
moment, particularly when some
important decision must be made or
engagement kept. He is often perfectly
sensible and well balanced concerning
everything except liquor, but in that
respect he is incredibly dishonest and
selfish. He often possesses special
abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and
has a promising career ahead of him.
He uses his gifts to build up a bright
outlook for his family and himself,
and then pulls the structure down on
his head by a senseless series of
sprees. He is the fellow who goes to
bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep
the clock around. Yet early next
morning he searches madly for the
bottle he misplace the night before.
If he can afford it, he may have
liquor concealed all over his house to
be certain no one gets his entire
supply away from him to throw down the
wastepipe. As matters grow worse, he
begins to use a combination of
high-powered sedative and liquor to
quiet his nerves so he can go to work.
Then comes the day when he simply
cannot make it and gets drunk all over
again. Perhaps he goes to a doctor who
gives him morphine or some sedative
with which to taper off. Then he
begins to appear at hospitals and
sanitariums.
This is by
no means a comprehensive picture of
the true alcoholic, as our behavior
patterns vary. But this description
should identify him roughly.
Why does
he behave like this? If hundreds of
experiences have shown him that one
drink means another debacle with all
its attendant suffering and
humiliation, why is it he takes that
one drink? Why can't he stay on the
water wagon? What has become of the
common sense and will power that he
still sometimes displays with respect
to other matters?
Perhaps
there never will be a full answer to
these questions. Opinions vary
considerably as to why the alcoholic
reacts differently from normal people.
We are not sure why, once a certain
point is reached, little can be done
for him. We cannot answer the riddle.
We know
that while the alcoholic keeps away
from drink, as he may do for months or
years, he reacts much like other men.
We are equally positive that once he
takes any alcohol whatever into his
system, something happens, both in the
bodily and mental sense, which makes
it virtually impossible for him to
stop. The experience of any alcoholic
will abundantly confirm this.
These
observations would be academic and
pointless if our friend never took the
first drink, thereby setting the
terrible cycle in motion. Therefore,
the main problem of the alcoholic
centers in his mind, rather than in
his body. If you ask him why he
started on that last bender, the
chances are he will offer you any one
of a hundred alibis. Sometimes these
excuses have a certain plausibility,
but none of them really makes sense in
the light of the havoc an alcoholic's
drinking bout creates. They sound like
the philosophy of the man who, having
a headache, beats himself on the head
with a hammer so that he can't feel
the ache. If you draw this fallacious
reasoning to the attention of an
alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or
become irritated and refuse to talk.
Once in a
while he may tell the truth. And the
truth, strange to say, is usually that
he has no more idea why he took that
first drink than you have. Some
drinkers have excuses with which they
are satisfied part of the time. But in
their hearts they really do not know
why they do it. Once this malady has a
real hold, they are a baffled lot.
There is the obsession that somehow,
someday, they will beat the game. But
they often suspect they are down for
the count.
How true
this is, few realize. In a vague way
their families and friends sense that
these drinkers are abnormal, but
everybody hopefully awaits the day
when the sufferer will rouse himself
from his lethargy and assert his power
of will.
The tragic
truth is that if the man be a real
alcoholic, the happy day may not
arrive. He has lost control. At a
certain point in the drinking of every
alcoholic, he passes into a state
where the most powerful desire to stop
drinking is of absolutely no avail.
This tragic situation has already
arrived in practically every case long
before it is suspected.
The fact
is that most alcoholics, for reasons
yet obscure, have lost the power of
choice in drink. Our so called will
power becomes practically nonexistent.
We are unable, at certain times, to
bring into our consciousness with
sufficient force the memory of the
suffering and humiliation of even a
week or a month ago. We are without
defense against the first drink.
The almost
certain consequences that follow
taking even a glass of beer do not
crowd into the mind to deter us. If
these thoughts occur, they are hazy
and readily supplanted with the old
threadbare idea that this time we
shall handle ourselves like other
people. There is a complete failure of
the kind of defense that keeps one
from putting his hand on a hot stove.
The
alcoholic may say to himself in the
most casual way, "It won't burn
me this time, so here's how!" Or
perhaps he doesn't think at all. How
often have some of us begun to drink
in this nonchalant way, and after the
third or fourth, pounded on the bar
and said to ourselves, "For God's
sake, how did I ever get started
again?" Only to have that thought
supplanted by "Well, I'll stop
with the sixth drink." Or
"What's the use anyhow?"
When this
sort of thinking is fully established
in an individual with alcoholic
tendencies, he has probably placed
himself beyond human aid, and unless
locked up, may die or to permanently
insane. These stark and ugly facts
have been confirmed by legions of
alcohoholics throughout history. But
for the grace of God, there would have
been thousands more convincing
demonstrations. So many want to stop
but cannot.
There is a
solution. Almost none of us liked the
self- searching, the leveling of our
pride, the confession of shortcomings
which the process requires for its
successful consummation. But we saw
that it really worked in others, and
we had come to believe in the
hopelessness and futility of life as
we had been living it. When,
therefore, we were approached by those
in whom the problem had been solved,
there was nothing left for us but to
pick up the simple kit of spiritual
tools laid at out feet. We have found
much of heaven and we have been
rocketed into a fourth dimension of
existence of which we had not even
dreamed.
The great
fact is just this, and nothing less:
That we have had deep and effective
spiritual experiences* which have
revolutionized our whole attitude
toward life, toward our fellows and
toward God's universe. The central
fact of our lives today is the
absolute certainty that our Creator
has entered into our hearts and lives
in a way which is indeed miraculous.
He has commenced to accomplish those
things for us which we could never do
by ourselves.
If you are
as seriously alcoholic as we were, we
believe there is no middle-of-the-road
solution. We were in a position where
life was becoming impossible, and if
we had passed into the region from
which there is no return through human
aid, we had but two alternatives: One
was to go on to the bitter end,
blotting out the consciousness of our
intolerable situation as best we
could; and the other, to accept
spiritual help. This we did because we
honestly wanted to, and were willing
to make the effort.
A certain
American business man had ability,
good sense, and high character. For
years he had floundered from one
sanitarium to another. He had
consulted the best known American
psychiatrists. Then he had gone to
Europe, placing himself in the care of
a celebrated physician (the
psychiatrist, Dr. Jung) who prescribed
for him. Though experience had made
him skeptical, he finished his
treatment with unusual confidence. His
physical and mental condition were
unusually good. Above all, he believed
he had acquired such a profound
knowledge of the inner workings of his
mind and its hidden springs that
relapse was unthinkable. Nevertheless,
he was drunk in a short time. More
baffling still, he could give himself
no satisfactory explanation for his
fall.
So he
returned to this doctor, whom he
admired, and asked him point-blank why
he could not recover. He wished above
all things to regain self-control. He
seemed quite rational and well-
balanced with respect to other
problems. Yet he had no control
whatever over alcohol. Why was this?
He begged
the doctor to tell him the whole
truth, and he got it. In the doctor's
judgment he was utterly hopeless; he
could never regain his position in
society and he would have to place
himself under lock and key or hire a
bodyguard if he expected to live long.
That was a great physician's opinion.
But this
man still lives, and is a free man. He
does not need a bodyguard nor is he
confined. He can go anywhere on this
earth where other from men may go
without disaster, provided he remains
willing to maintain a certain simple
attitude.
Some of
our alcoholic readers may think they
can do without spiritual help. Let us
tell you the rest of the conversation
our friend had with his doctor.
The doctor
said: "You have the mind of a
chronic alcoholic. I have never seen
one single case recover, where that
state of mind existed to the extent
that it does in you." Our friend
felt as though the gates of hell had
closed on him with a clang.
He said to
the doctor, "Is there no
exception?"
"Yes,"
replied the doctor, "there is.
Exceptions to cases such as yours have
been occurring since early times. Here
and there, once in a while, alcoholics
have had what are called vital
spiritual experiences. To me these
occurrences are phenomena. They appear
to be in the nature of huge emotional
displacements and rearrangements.
Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which
were once the guiding forces of the
lives of these men are suddenly cast
to one side, and a completely new set
of conceptions and motives begin to
dominate them. In fact, I have been
trying to produce some such emotional
rearrangement within you. With many
individuals the methods which I
employed are successful, but I have
never been successful with an
alcoholic of your description."*
Upon
hearing this, our friend was somewhat
relieved, for he reflected that, after
all, he was a good church member. This
hope, however, was destroyed by the
doctor's telling him that while his
religious convictions were very good,
in his case they did not spell the
necessary vital spiritual experience.
Here was
the terrible dilemma in which our
friend found himself when he had the
extraordinary experience, which as we
have already told you, made him a free
man.
We, in our
turn, sought the same escape with all
the desperation of drowning men. What
seemed at first a flimsy reed, has
proved to be the loving and powerful
hand of God. A new life has been given
us or, if you prefer, "a design
for living" that really works.
The
distinguished American psychologist,
William James, in his book
"Varieties of Religious
Experience," indicates a
multitude of ways in which men have
discovered God. We have no desire to
convince anyone that there is only one
way by which faith can be acquired. If
what we have learned and felt and seen
means anything at all, it means that
all of us, whatever our race, creed,
or color are the children of a living
Creator with whom we may form a
relationship upon simple and
understandable terms as soon as we are
willing and honest enough to try.
Those having religious affiliations
will find here nothing disturbing to
their beliefs or ceremonies. There is
no friction among us over such
matters.
We think
it no concern of ours what religious
bodies our members identify themselves
with as individuals. this should be an
entirely personal affair which each
one decides for himself in the light
of past associations, or his present
choice. Not all of join religious
bodies, but most of us favor such
memberships.
In the
following chapter, there appears an
explanation of alcoholism, as we
understand it, then a chapter
addressed to the agnostic. Many who
once were in this class are now among
our members. Surprisingly enough, we
find such convictions no great
obstacle to a spiritual experience.
Further
on, clear-cut directions are given
showing how we recovered. These are
followed by three dozen personal
experiences.
Each
individual, in the personal stories,
describes in his own language and from
his own point of view the way he
established his relationship with God.
These give a fair cross section of our
membership and a clear-cut idea of
what has actually happened in their
lives.
We
hope no one will consider these
self-revealing accounts in bad taste.
Our hope is that many alcoholic men
and women, desperately in need, will
see these pages, and we believe that
it is only by fully disclosing
ourselves and our problems that they
will be persuaded to say, "Yes, I
am one of them too; I must have this
thing."
~~Copyright Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Ins.~~
Top of Page