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495 HYGEIA

A LCO HO LICS Second of seven orticles on olcohol in personol ond public heslth. E IN Alcoholics Anonymous-more than if he has passed the thin tine that separates the un- 60,000 men and uremsn-have found a way controlled drinker from the controlled drinker. of life that for us has solved the problem of To others of us, the word “alcoholic,, and the AA aleoholism. definition of an alcoholic, came as a blessed relief. To some of us the word “aleoholic” presented a The thought had nagged us that no sane man would problem almost as great as our abnormal drinking. continue to drink as we were drinking. We had Our picture of the alcoholic : The stumbling creature drifted into the twilight zone of the mind where the of the skid roads of our bigger cities; the town real and the fancied were becoming entangled. We drunkard, half clown, hatf bogy maR, of-our smaller were beginning to fear that out-and-out insanity lay communities; or the hapless, hopeless, desperate just around the bend. “repeater” of the state and private hospitals, the To both groups bitter experience lent credence to “cures,? the workhouses. the suggestion that certain human beings were ,r,li

The majority of us weren’t that kind of drinker. allergic to alcohol; that certain persons were so I We maintained a home. We supported our families. constituted as to make them hypersensitive to the ifi

We had a position in the community. True, we drank effects of alcohol; that alcohol was a disease or a more than most people but that didn’t make us fit symptom, perhaps, of a deeper disease. ,,ilift . .li[ our concept of the alcoholic. This put new light on alcoholism. We were not For such of us Alcoholics Anonyrnous said: We wrestling merely with a moral problem. We were # believe that an alcoholic is simply an uncontrolled not simply affiicted by darkness of intellect, weak_ .’fllfl

drinker. We believe the alcoholic is one whose life ness of will and sheer orneriness of personality. :il r if; has become unmanageable because of his drinking. The next step was the attack on the obsession rfi

T[e believe that, if a man’s drinking is interfering common to alcoholics-that somehow, somewhere, seriously with a normal way of life in his domestic, sometime they will be able to drink in a controlled , ‘fl , triil

social or business affairs, that man might well ex- manner. Despite the alcoholic,s past, despite the amine himself honestly, objectively, to determine facts of the record, there is in the alcoholic-this ob-

497 JULY I948 session that tomorrow, that next time he can drink in is the result. And what is the result of this twenin moderation. ty-fourhour program and how does it work out? The true nature of the obsession began to appear It cuts down the problem of alcoholism from a when a cold and analytie exarnination of the alco- huge, complex, bewildering, life-long problem to the holic’s record was made in company with men and simple task of here and now. women whose own recol”ds presented a startling It closes the door on the past with its sighs over parallel. And what did the r”eccrd show? That over what might have been, its dolorous regrets over lost no considerable period had tl e alcoholic been able opportunity, its rankling remorse. to drink in a temperate mahner; that despite the It bars the door to the future with its daydreams devices he had tried-some elaborate, some inge- of epsy conquest, its castles in Spain, its substitunious, some just plain silly-and despite the seem- tion of the wish for the deed. ing safeguards he had set up, there was always but It introduces order into the life of the alcoholic. one ending to his experimertrs with alcohol-he had It demands an end to procrastination. drunk to excess. Because it is a chain of his own forging, a chain There was the further attack on the obsession in he is at liberty to toss aside if he will, the alcoholic the testimony of the group experience of Alcoholics finds the chain easy to bear. The days slip by. And Anonymous and in the flndings of the physician and the weeks. Then the months. thc psychiatrist, that once a man had passed the line The alcoholic realizes of a sudden that he has thet separatcs the uncontrolled drinker from the achieved a term of sobriety. Meanwhile his mind contrclled drinker, there was no returning; that has cleared. He sees the benefits of a life without ne-,-er again could he hope to drink in a controlled alcohol. His will to remain sober is strengthened by manner. each day of dryness. Here is the stark, factual picture for the alco- He has found a formula for cutting life to a size holi:: That never can he hope to drink except to ex- he can grapple with and he adopts it for all his cess; that as the years go on the little enioyment affairs. becomes less and, if he persists in drinking, the He has found new friends, close friends, friends material suffering, the physical suffering, the men- who understand him better than those of years standing. As one alcoholic tells it: “The difference between being in Alcoholics Anonymous and trying to stay dry by myself is the difference between being at liberty and in solitary confinement.” This group therapy is important, highly important. But the driving force of Alcoholics Anonymous is spiritual, a belief in and a dependence on a Higher

ANONYMO US Power-God, as the alcoholic understands Him. No attempt will be made here at ampliflcation of this statement because this phase of the Alcoholics Anonymous program is a highly individualistic one, a concept and a relationship that each alcoholic works out for himself. Alcoholics Anonymous was founded 12 years tal anguish grow worse. If there is any semblance ago in Akron, Ohio, in a providential meeting of sanity left in the alcoholic, he sees the need for between an Akron surg:eon and the New York ina decision. With the help of men and women whom vestment counselor who first had the thought of the he recognizes as having been through the same program. meatgrinder he has experienced, the alcoholic is The New Yorker was bemoaning the fact that aided in arriving at the one proper decision-to he couldn’t persuade’other alcoholics to accept the put alcohol out of his life. means by which he had achieved sobriety after a When a man embraces the way of life of Alco- spectacular career in alcoholism. holics Anonymous,.he makes no promise, he takes The surgeon suggested maybe the New Yorker no pledge that never again will he drink. had been operating in the belief that in talking with We say to him: “Can you quit drinking for twen- other alcoholics, he was conferring the favor; that ty-four hours?” he was Lady Bountiful with the basket of groceries “Certainly,” h€ says. “Anybody can quit drinking visiting the poor. Out of their discussion came the for twenty-four hours.” recognition that the sober alcoholic, in talking with “Well,” we say, “that’s all we want you to strive the drinking alcoholic, is conferring the favor on for-to quit drinking for twenty-four hours'” himself. And then we add: “Twenty-four hours at a time'” This has become basic in AA procedure-that we To the alcoholic the prospect of living out his life seek to aid other alcoholics primarily to aid ourwith never another drink opens a dim and dubious selves. This has proved out the adage that he who vista. It seems an endless, difficult trail. seeks to teach others convinces himself. But the thought of staying dry just for today, It has put our whole teaching program on a selthat seems simple, comparatively easy. And it is. fishly realistic basis. It has kept excesses of zeal to This may strike some as a childish device, a play- a minimum. It has forestalled smugness with its ing with words, a paltering with a problem’ fatal dryrot. It has tempered the evangelistic spirit Wt at we in Alcoholics Anonymous are interested with humility and humor. (Cotztinued on page 520)

JULY I948 Alcoholics Anonymous friends, experienced friends, and the recting the alcoholic to consult our (C onti.nued fr om p ag e 497 ) j:rcentives of regained self respect, the group. It has restrained more than one well- sense of achievement and of grouP Sometimes desperate wives or Parmeaning sobered alcoholic from be- approval by which this personality ents have asked that members of our coming a t’reformer,” a fanatic or a change may be effected. group call uninvited on the alcoholic, plain pest. Man being a social creature hungers engage him in conversation about There is sound psychologY in our for companionship, for fellowship. He baseball, the high cost of living or the work with other alcoholics. Seeing reaches the fullness of his powers, the threat of the atomic bomb, and then, an alcoholic on his bed of pain, fresh fullness of his content in that society presto, switch the subject to alcoholfrom the horrors of a ringtailed, which is a larger picture of himself. ism. chandelier-hanging binge emphasizes So it is for the alcoholic who comes T’his subterfuge just does not work. sharply to the sober alcoholic the con- into Alcoholics Anonymous. T’here is We are not sleight of hand performers trast between his present well-being complete understanding of the suffer- nor high pressure salesmen. Such a and his chaotic past. ing he has undergone; there is sYm- procedure, we have found, maY well And with each new man or woman pathy, without cond,pscension; pity, antagonize the alcoholic and set his the sober alcoholie brings into Alco- w”ithout the alloy of superiority; a fel- mind against Alcoholics Anonymous holics Anonymous comes a heightened low feeling khich preaches most as a band of meddling busYbodies. sense of responsibility, a deeper satis- forcibly by example. Alt that we ask of the alcoholic is faction and a buttressed resolve to “Al1 walks of 1ife” is an ancient and that he know the reason for our comcontinue living without alcohol. hackneyed phrase. Yet in truth there ing, that he give us a few minutes that Many a psychiatrist has suggested is no other phrase to desclibe the we may tell our story. to the alcoholic that interest in a 60,000 men and women in Alcoholics We know that most alcoholies have hobby might make it easier for him Anonymous. Alcohol is no respecter long since ceasd to enjoy drinkingto refrain from aicohol. of persons. Which is why we number I[e know that most alcoholics are We in Alcoholics Anonymous agree in our ranks members from nearlY seeking a way out of their alcoholic heartily. But we suggest that the evely trade, every occupation, evelY trap. hobby be one to which the alcoholic profession, every station and every The comic verse about the overcan devote the rest of his life, a hobby class. whelming love of “one drunken gent in which his interest will never flag. In the early days of the movement for another” has a deal of truth in iL The hobby? Building himself into the most of the men who eame to us were There is a bond between alcoholics. kind of personality . he has always 40 and over, most of the women in Within minutes the alcoholic and the wanted to be. Seeking to live his own their 30s. As word of our Progpam AA members are “talking turkeY.” concept of the perfect life. spread, the average age of entrants . Often the prospect admits his alco- We have seen alcoholics tackle les- began to drop. We started to attract holism but is fearful it will become ser hobbies. ‘We have seen how, after men in their 30s, women in their known he has joined Alcoholics the first flare of enthusiasm, there late 20s. Anonymous. We can assure him, and was a lessening ilterest finally a posi- Since the end of the war there has with honesty, his fears are groundless. tive distaste-and then, more drinking. been an influx of younger men dnd It is accepted group practice that no Not so with the hobby which is him- women, just two, three, four years past member divulges the membershiP of self. Nor does Alcoholics Anonymous their majority. Confirmed alcoholics another member unless he has definite rest content with suggesting this hobby at that age? Certainly. Ihese young and specific permission to do so, and to the new member. It provides a folk have found they can not drink in then only under unusual circumseries of exercises in self discipline, a controlled. manner. Rather than stances. Anonymity is observed and the help and counsel of his new waste years in a vain struggle with preserved. alcohole they have courageously ac- Many times the first visit brings the cepted the fact of their alcoholism and alcoholic into our group. Again it may are building lives in which alcohol be the alcoholie’s obsession persuades will play no part. him that he can handle the Problem. lhe war didn’t make alcoholics of Or it may be he is not ready to make them. It simply speeded up the process. a decision to quit drinking. But the Young men away from the restraints seed has been planted, and usually we of home began their alcoholic careers hear from him later-if he doesn’t did at an earlier age. Young women, bored meanwhile. with a comparatively manless exist- If the alcoholic is not yet readY, he ence, turned tcr dririking at “hen is not badgered to join us. We have parties,” and the customary percentage learned that the man who joins under found they were alcoholic. duress has small chance of success. We How does one become a member of are content to wait until he makes up Alcoholics Anonymous? In most of his mind. When that comes, we know the 1,200 communities where we have he is well on his way to victory. groups, there is a listing in the tele- Alcoholics Anonymous is a grouP phone book. If no telephone is listed of people bound together by their inin your communif, a telephone call terest in solving a problem common to the city editor of your local daily to them. It is a fellowship rather than paper usually brings the information. an organization in the formal sense Or interested pelsons may addl’ess the of that word. It has no officers, no ini- Alcoholie Foundation, P. O. Box 459, tiation fees, no dues. It is open to any- Grand Central Annex, New York CitY. one who has an alcoholic problem and For the relative or friend who a sincere desire to solve it. wishes to help an alcoholic and who It is a matter of record that our prohesitates at bringing up the subject gram can solve the alcoholic’s probwe suggest the familY PhYsician or Iem. As a footnotg’we’d like to add clergyman as an efiective agent in di- that it’s fun, too.