Astonishing, Absolutely Astonishing

From “More About Alcoholism,” page 30;

“Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows.”

It is no longer unbelievable, to me, the lengths some of us go to to delude ourselves into being something other than a real alcoholic. I believe that is the true reason behind all the contradictory profundity that is heard in AA meetings all over the world. That, and some level of attention need seemingly inherent in every alcoholic.

“Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people.”

And we’ll continue to “work” at these vain attempts even while professing to be in recovery yet at the same time denying the simplest of facts inside the rooms – God doesn’t give me more than I can handle – how ridiculous…

“The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.”

You made a choice not to drink? Now that you have a few months, or even a year or two “dry,” now you have developed the ability to choose whether to drink or not?

“Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree…

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.”

Scientist are ya’?