RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘spiritual malady’

Real Alcoholic or Excessive Drinker?

06 Sep

All alcoholics are excessive drinkers, but not all excessive drinkers are alcoholics.

The AA Recovery program was intended for chronic, hopeless alkies who have given up hope of ever quitting drinking, getting a life, or becoming a responsible, contributing member of society. The Big Book defines ALCOHOLIC for us so we can decide if we are the sort who needs a spiritual upheaval to be relieved of the obsession to drink.
A REAL ALCOHOLIC—as defined in our textbook—must have both of these conditions present at the same time:
1) The obsession of the mind—Cannot resist taking a drink even though he/she knows once they start they will experience the abnormal reaction. This is the “mentally ill” portion mentioned on page 64 – a.k.a., “INSANITY”
Combined with:
2) An abnormal reaction of the body —This is the physically ill portion mentioned on page 64—the physical allergy. Once any alcohol is taken into his or her system, something happens in the body that doesn’t happen to the average individual—a physical phenomenon of “craving” develops, This craving makes it virtually impossible for him to stop, even if he wants and/or needs to stop.

These are conditions that ONLY A SPIRITUAL SOLUTION CAN SOLVE.

Just because you’re sitting in an AA meeting, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are an alcoholic. A “cute” anecdote gets said occasionally, “normies don’t end up in AA meetings.” That’s a ‘black & white’ / ‘either, or” statement. …and it’s misleading for the alcoholic looking for a real solution. Life has grey areas. Many people endure meetings to fulfill a court or treatment center obligation. They don’t want or need to be there—and they tell us.
Moderate drinking is impossible for every serious problem drinker and real alcoholic.

The pioneers of A.A. were concerned about ‘alcoholics of our type.’

Back to the Big Book:
Big Book coverP.30, More About Alcoholism—”We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness.”
Pg.10, Bill’s Story— “I had to be, for I was hopeless.”
Pg. xxv, Doctor’s Opinion— “… was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless.”  “I personally know scores of cases who were of the type with whom other methods had failed completely.”
Pg.43, More About Alcoholism— “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.”
Pg. 20, There Is A Solution— “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.
Pg. 92, Working With Others— “If you are satisfied that he is a real alcoholic, begin to dwell on the hopeless feature of the malady.”  
Pg.94, Working With Others— “The more hopeless he feels, the better.”
Pg.44, We Agnostics— “To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety.”

…and so many more references.

If YOU can take your time and just choose not to drink, FINE. But DON’T confuse the newcomers in meetings—many who ARE hopeless—with YOUR version of sobriety. That’s dangerous and you may be risking their life. Some who go back out and ‘slip’ don’t make it back—they fall over the brink because of all the weak messages from non-alcoholics.

_____________________________________________________
ETC, a recovered (but not cured of the allergy) alcoholic in Oregon

 
No Comments

Posted in AA Meetings, non-alcoholics, Spiritual illness

 

This Business of Resentments

22 Jun

Compiled by Barefoot Bob Hardison

If we want to recover from alcoholism, the BigBook says, “We saw that these resentments must be mastered,” and here’s why:

  1. Resentment is the “number one” offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease. (pg 64)
  2. It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility. (pg 66)
  3. It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to unhappiness (pg 66)
  4. To the precise extent that we permit these [deep resentment], do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. (pg 66)
  5. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. (pg 66)
  6. We found that it [this business of resentment] is fatal. (pg 66)
  7. For when harboring such feelings [resentment] we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. (pg 66)
  8. [When we harbor resentment] the insanity of alcohol returns. (pg 66)
  9. [When we harbor resentment] we drink again. (pg 66)
  10. For alcoholics these things [including resentment] are poison. (pg 66)
  11. We began to see that the world and its people really dominated us. In that state, the wrong-doing of others [resentment], fancied or real, had power to actually kill. (pg 66)
  12. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. (pg 70)
  13. We have commenced to see their [resentment's] terrible destructiveness. (pg 70)
  14. Never forget that resentment is a deadly hazard to an alcoholic. (pg 117)
  15. The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, frustration, and fear. (pg 145)


After all this, it can’t be denied that the Big Book paints a really definite picture of the result of holding resentments. Is it possible that the more we have them, the more we are moving toward our next drink, since we have used alcohol before to help us deal with them? We must honestly ask ourself if we are earnestly seeking to get rid of resentments in our life, or do we hold on to some, considering them unavoidable. It’s something to think about.

 
No Comments

Posted in Resentments, Surrender

 

“DISEASE” is a Concept / Metaphor, not a Definition

25 Apr

Bill Wilson addressed the annual meeting of the National Catholic Clergy Conference on Alcoholism in 1961: “We have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking, it is not a disease entity. For example, there is no such thing as heart disease. Instead there are many separate heart ailments, or combinations of them. It is something like that with alcoholism. Therefore we did not wish to get in wrong with the medical profession by pronouncing alcoholism a disease entity. Therefore we always called it an illness, or a malady—a far safer term for us to use.”

AN ILLNESS

The closest the book Alcoholics Anonymous comes to a definition of alcoholism appears on p. 44, at the conclusion of the first paragraph of the “We Agnostics” chapter, where we are told that alcoholism “is an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.”

It is mentioned first on page 64 in discussing alcoholism:
“Resentment is the ‘number one’ offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally
and physically.”

Dr. Silkworth, in “The Doctor’s Opinion” offered a strong description of the alcoholic. not some theoretical explanation of “alcoholism.”

In A.A.’s pamphlet, 44 Questions, this is the answer to the question What is Alcoholism?

“There are many different ideas about what alcoholism really is. The explanation that seems to make sense to most A.A. members is that alcoholism is an illness, a progressive illness, which can never be cured but which, like some other illnesses, can be arrested. Going one step further, many A.A.s feel that the illness represents the combination of a physical sensitivity to alcohol and a mental obsession with drinking, which, regardless of consequences, cannot be broken by will power alone”

The nature of alcoholism as a disease is often considered an “outside issue.”

Tradition Ten— “ Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.” So Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole has no official opinion on it.

It is used as a ‘concept’ rather than a medical definition.

This helps show that we are sick and need help—it is not a moral deficiency or a behavior problem. A newcomer CAN UNDERSTAND THAT and it is then easier to accept his predicament (a painful death or going insane or recovery on a spiritual basis).

Many A.A. members just use the term ‘disease’ because it’s been carried over from treatment, hospitals, NA—it has become customary, and it works for a general understanding of some of the alcoholic’s problems.

“Use of this metaphor (the word ‘disease’) removes the stigma generally attached to alcoholism in society, allowing A.A. participants to see themselves as ‘sick’ rather than ‘bad.’ “  (Conrad and Schneider, 1980)

For more information: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/5691
(a link to a piece from Glenn Chesnut in ‘AA History Lovers Group’)

ETC—a recovered (but not cured) alcoholic in Oregon
 
No Comments

Posted in Spiritual illness