Alcoholics Anonymous Drunkenness is on the decline in this country. But a tragic few still abuse the harmless pleasures of moderate drinking. For the first time, ILLUSTR.ATED investigates an experiment to help chronic inebriates

By WILLI FRISCHAUER

For a few days I have lived in a world of Then, in quick succession, members intervened trembling hands, twitching faces and stumbling in police court cases at Worthing and Hasting on feet, among a group of self-centered, talkative behalf of people charged with being drunk and yet hesitant people, whose moral and physical disorderly. Without revealing their names, they powers of resistance had reached rock bottom. I told the magistrates that, in their opinion, the have spent my time with men and women accused could be cured. superficially normal but actually in the grip of a The anonymous witness at Hastings malignant, soul-and-body-destroying disease. All Police Court was a man who had risen to a high my companions were chronic alcoholics. I met position among his fellow-citizens, but had been them at “Hangover House,” a clinic in a south on the brink of disaster through his addiction to coast holiday resort. alcohol. He succeeded in re-establishing himself By meeting them I am able to lift one as a useful member of society. Like all members corner of the veil of secrecy which has covered of Alcoholics Anonymous, he frankly describes the mysterious organization Alcoholics himself as an ex-alcoholic. He now reveals his Anonymous, with its hundred thousand identity as Mr. E.C.V. Symonds. “Less than a members in the United States and many year ago,” he says,”l was a three-bottle a day branches in Britain. For the first time in the man, drinking pernod, vodka, calvados history of the organization, created to help anything to get strong drink.” inebriates rid themselves of the craving for Mr. Symonds conquered his craving, harmful drink, a member is prepared to shed his joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and does not now anonymity. lt was his house and his work which touch alcohol. Like all members, he is enabled me to investigate the scourge of determined to help others overcome their alcoholism in this country. handicap. An expert in “natural therapy” and Do not think that they are the least “hypnotism, “Vernon” (members of Alcoholics worried by the ordinary man who occasionally Anonymous are only known by their Christian over-celebrates in the local. They are concerned names) has gone further than the fellowship in with the men and women whose drinking is not his determination to combat alcoholism and to only destructive of themselves but an help individual drunkards. embarrassment to those in what is popularly While Alcoholics Anonymous known as “the trade.” Every licensee in the concentrates on a spiritual cure, Vernon adds country will confirm that it is the habitual very practical measures which, strictly speaking, alcoholic who gives the business a bad name are outside the province of the organization^ The and leads to misguided agitation for Prohibition. basis for his curative efforts are the “twelve It is an obvious irony that America during its steps” which can be described as the Prohibition days saw the birth of the bootleg constitution of Alcoholics Anonymous. First of liquor rackets and an all{ime high in crime and these is “honest self-appraisal”: We admitted drunkenness. that we were powerless over alcohol – that our a Until few weeks ago, Alcoholics lives had become unmanageable. Anonymous was only a cypher, an address – The next points consist of statements of ‘BM/AAL, London, W.C.l.’ Few people knew belief in a greater power which can restore anything about the organization. Even alcoholics to sanity: a “humble request to God” “interested parties” had difficulty in tracing it.

to remove shortcomings; a decision to make have a couple of drinks. At once I get a craving amends to all persons wronged. for more and my capacity is great. When ‘time’ is The monthly journal: The A.A. called at a pub I move on in search of more Grapevine, published in the United States, puts liquor. Why, when ever the night clubs close I it like this: “Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship make my way to Covent Garden, where the of men and women who share their experience, pubs for the market people open early in the strength and hope with each other that they may morning.” solve their common problem and help others to This man’s latest debauch lasted a full recover from alcoholism. The only requirement fortnight until he was eventually picked up by for membership is an honest desire to stop Vernon, who took him to his clinic. Covered in drinking. A.A. has no dues or fees. lt is not allied mud, the doctor had literally dragged himself with any sect, denomination, politics, through a dozen gutters. His experience is organization or institution; does not wish to typical. A well-known woman author and engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor alcoholic told me that she disliked the taste of opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to liquor but that she drank two bottles a day until stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve her collapse. And an accountant who in his sobriety.” normal moments looks “as sober as a judge,” That is the catechism of the “alkies” – as confessed that after a domestic conflict he drank alcoholics call themselves in America. They hold eau-de-Cologne and switched to lighter fuel meetings once or twice a week, discuss their before ending up with methylated spirits. experiences, exchange ideas, strengthen each It is with such situations that Alcoholics other’s beliefs and offer moral support to fellow- Anonymous must cope. They insist that most members. lt has been like this since the doctors, clergymen, psychologists and probation movement began in Ohio in 1935, when a officers who are called in to help an alcoholic, stockbroker and a doctor, both alcoholics, have the disadvantage of not really resolve to cure each other. Within a year, there understanding his mind” “Only a habitual were forty members. Today there are more than drunkard can understand his fellow-sufferer,” is 100,000 in the United States. After the war, the view of A.A. The secretary of the British British groups began to function, chiefly in branches, who calls himself “Dick,” is satisfied London, Manchester, Bolton and along the south with the progress and success of the fellowship. coast. “We now number around 500 members,” he told it At first was chiefly hurried notes me, “and meet regularly to discuss our scribbled in a police cell by a drunken man, or problems. Yes, lwas an alcoholic myself.” calls from patients in mental homes which The small membership of Alcoholics brought members of A.A. to the side of a new Anonymous in Britain is a testimony to the aspirant for membership. Now alcoholics sobriety of the people. Charges have been Anonymous is open to a wider circle. Their steadily declining for many decades. telephone number is appearing in the new A well-known publican said that directory this month. Ring Bishopsgate 9657, drunkenness is today the least of his trade’s and your call will be answered by Alcoholics worries. Only very occasionally does he have to Anonymous. deal with customers who have overstepped the Medical authorities, in fact, are not quite mark, and long experience in observation across agreed on what constitutes alcoholism. But my the bar enables him to discover a potential inquiries have produced a startling common trouble-maker long before the man himself denominator. All the self-confessed alcoholics I realizes that he is getting “under the influence.” met hate alcohol in their sober moments. They Practically every one of these customers know that it is the enemy, and that they are is outside the demoralization, pernicious real of powerless once they begin to drink. real alcoholism. For the true alcoholic, many “For months I keep off it,” said a experts claim, there is no cure – except rigid successful doctor when I met him at the clinic. teetotalism. Doctors in this country are now “Then by accident, or because of some upset, I experimenting with a new drug, antabuse, and

are reporting a fair average of success. This gardening, exercise their bodies, take steam drug turns people against the taste of alcohol, baths and electrical treatment, eat mostly fruit but it is too early yet to say whether it can and vegetables, and enjoy the companionship of achieve a permanent cure. Such results, fellow-sufferers. ln no circumstances are drugs according to Alcoholics Anonymous, can only be administered. A drop of alcohol to calm down a obtained by an act of faith, as their fellowship “bad case” is the limit. suggests. Emphasis is still laid on re-education, My investigations show that the most and hypnosis plays its part. But it is essential to difficult aspect of such a spiritual cure is the “first develop in the alcoholics, a strong feeling for his step.” lt is extremely difficult foe an alcoholic fellow-alcoholic, and in this respect Vernon who has reached a low moral and physical recalls some spectacular successes. “On one standard after prolonged indulgence to “snap out occasion,” he told me, “A patient was in bed of it.” Even if his bout lands him in jail his anxiously awaiting the visit of a business cravings persists because he faces another partner. The latter, alas, arrived very drunk. personal crisis from which the only escape There being no other bed free, the patient got up seems to be renewed alcoholic insensibility. As to vacate his own to the greater sufferer.” soon as the victim of alcohol is released he Such reaction seems to show that the again begins to “drown his sorrows” to sink his principles of Alcoholics Anonymous are sound. shame and dishonour. Alcoholism, it is said, is a mental defect which That is where a combination of spiritual rigid application of all available will power is best approach and physical treatment comes in. “l able to counteract. One an alcoholic can it have been through all myself,” Vernon summon up enough moral courage to keep explained, when I visited his clinic, where he away from that first drink he will steer clear of treats no more than four patients at a time. the dark and dangerous passage which leads “Therefore I am never amazed, never surprised him through the mists of alcohol fumes down the by alcoholics; I am not unconcerned with their road to demoralization- and mental and physical worries but I do not pander to their tendencies of destruction. egocentricity. Neither, frankly, will I stand any ln this country, as in the United States, nonsense from the recalcitrant.” the pioneering work of Alcoholics Anonymous is His view is that all appearances of an watched with the closest interest by religious “institution” should be avoided. His own home is bodies, doctors, psychologists, social workers a pleasant country house standing in its own and the police. grounds. Here patients, distinguished, dignifiedlooking people, go for walks, spend their time

Source: lllustrated, April 8, 1950

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