Alcoholics Anonymous

by Alcoholics Anonymous

Stopped here on 2/24/25; start here on 03/03/25

the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind.

who is very jittery or befogged.

the entire absence of profit motive, and their community spirit, is indeed inspiring to one who has labored long and wearily in this alcoholic field.

that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker.

Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol.

They are restless, irritable and discontented,

unless

Restless, irritable, and discontented. Itchy bitchy and twitchy

These men were not drinking to escape; they were drinking to overcome a craving beyond their mental control.

may be the manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a distinct entity.

As the whisky rose to my head I told myself I would manage better next time, but I might as well get good and drunk then. And I did.

Eating to stuffness if I eat too much. Overeating begets more eating.

like that. The door opened and

Common sense would thus become uncommon sense.

We are people who normally would not mix.

You

We know

Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. If

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.

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.

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 was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet.

and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed.

ourselves.

A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, “a design for living” that really works.

GOD = Good Orderly Direction

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 are like men who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones.

In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse.

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.

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 and 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.

Then he fell victim to a belief which practically every alcoholic has—that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men.

This case contains a powerful lesson. Most of us have believed that if we remained sober for a long stretch, we could thereafter drink normally.

normal so far as we can see, except for a nervous disposition.

All went well for a time, but he failed to enlarge his spiritual life.

“Suddenly the thought crossed my mind that if I were to put an ounce of whiskey in my milk it couldn’t hurt me on a full stomach. I ordered a whiskey and poured it

This is RATIONALIZATION

He had much knowledge about himself as an alcoholic. Yet all reasons for not drinking were easily pushed aside in favor of the foolish idea that he could take whiskey if only he mixed it with milk!

But there was always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel with our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink.

we are obliged to admit that our justification for a spree was insanely insufficient in the light of what always happened.

there was little serious or effective thought during the period of premeditation of what the terrific consequences might be.

Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with ...

But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience. Let us take another illustration.

Fred is partner in a well known

humiliating experience, plus the knowledge he had acquired, would keep him sober the rest of his life. Self-knowledge would fix it.

The story he told is most instructive, for here was a chap absolutely convinced he had to stop drinking, who had no excuse for drinking, who exhibited splendid judgment and determination in all his other concerns, yet was flat on his back nevertheless.

Not only had I been off guard, I had made no fight whatever against the first drink.

Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power.

heresies.

We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn’t apply to our human problems this same readiness to

change our point of view. We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn’t control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn’t make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn’t seem to be of real help to other people—was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight? Of course it was.

God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be?