Step by Step
Sunday, May 19, 2013
" ...(W)hat 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." - Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 2, p 21.
Today, I will not search in futile desperation for a reason to deny my addiction by twisting the Big Book's reference to a "real alcoholic." If, for example, I drank only beer, how can I be an alcoholic? If I drank only on weekends or even one day a weekend, how can I be an alcoholic? If I drank only to relax or calm my nerves, how can I be an alcoholic? If I never lost a job, a spouse or partner, if I never got nailed for DUI or spent a night in the county jail's drunk tank, am I "better" than the "real alcoholic" who drank every day, or to the "real alcoholic" whose job history makes him now virtually unemployable or to the "real alcoholic" who has ended up in jail so many times that he has his name engraved in the cell? Today, may I understand and finally accept that because I lost control over drinking regardless of how much or how often I drank, I am as much the "real alcoholic" as the one who now is serving a long-term prison sentence for what he did when he was drunk. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
" ...(W)hat 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." - Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 2, p 21.
Today, I will not search in futile desperation for a reason to deny my addiction by twisting the Big Book's reference to a "real alcoholic." If, for example, I drank only beer, how can I be an alcoholic? If I drank only on weekends or even one day a weekend, how can I be an alcoholic? If I drank only to relax or calm my nerves, how can I be an alcoholic? If I never lost a job, a spouse or partner, if I never got nailed for DUI or spent a night in the county jail's drunk tank, am I "better" than the "real alcoholic" who drank every day, or to the "real alcoholic" whose job history makes him now virtually unemployable or to the "real alcoholic" who has ended up in jail so many times that he has his name engraved in the cell? Today, may I understand and finally accept that because I lost control over drinking regardless of how much or how often I drank, I am as much the "real alcoholic" as the one who now is serving a long-term prison sentence for what he did when he was drunk. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013
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