Restored To Sanity
February 25, 2009 by Mark
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
The solution…
The sentence that ends page 32 and begins page 33 in AA’s 12&12 would no doubt have pi**ed me off had I read it when I was drinking.
“Few indeed are the practicing alcoholics who have any idea how irrational they are, or seeing their irrationality, can bear to face it.”
Call me an irrational alcoholic? Oh heck no! I might have been willing, as it says, to term myself a “problem drinker,” but the suggestion I was mentally ill would have sent me over the top. Add to it that my family was not equipped to say more than I might have a problem with booze, for which they got denial in return, and there was nothing to offer any solution to me. I was doomed. Sane drinking had been eliminated and insanity was firmly in place.
I no doubt would have also rebelled at the thought of “sanity” being defined as “soundness of mind.” I would like to think that if someone had added the fact that soundness of mind meant not picking up the first drink because that was the one that got me drunk, I might have listened.
I wouldn’t bet on it…
Sanity = Soundness of mind = Not picking up the first drink.
Therefore I don’t get drunk nor do I black out. And, no, it isn’t the seventh, or the twelfth, drink that gets me drunk. I’ve lost the power of choice regarding the consumption of alcohol.
