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[00:00:00.280 – 00:00:07.920] How one adjusts to better living without chemistry, or how one stays abstinent and free of alcohol and learns how to enjoy it.

[00:00:07.920 – 00:00:18.080] Now, there are going to be certain barriers or certain hurdles to your long-term, happy, well-adjusted sobriety that each and every person has to sort

[00:00:18.080 – 00:00:21.040] of face as they leave a treatment center like Brighton Hospital.

[00:00:21.040 – 00:00:27.160] Now, again, we’ll put our famous Brighton man here going over the hurdles.

[00:00:27.160 – 00:00:37.340] Uh, and the first hurdle that you’re going to encounter, not too big, not too difficult to deal with, are simply those problems

[00:00:37.340 – 00:00:39.800] that have to do with problem, problems of the body.

[00:00:39.800 – 00:00:47.960] Now, by and large, this is becoming less and less of a problem simply because people come to Brighton Hospital far earlier than we used to see them.

[00:00:47.960 – 00:00:57.860] There was a time when I could sit here and wait for people to come down the hall, and you’d hear them all slosh as their 20 or 30 pounds of water, uh, rotated back and forth in their abdomen.

[00:00:57.860 – 00:00:59.860] Their livers were down south of their navel.

[00:00:59.860 – 00:01:04.040] Their pancreases were dried up to rye crisp, and they weren’t terribly healthy people.

[00:01:04.040 – 00:01:14.060] This day and age, uh, we see rarely any permanent irreversible liver damage, rarely any permanent irreversible brain damage, so these don’t really represent the

[00:01:14.060 – 00:01:15.240] problems they used to.

[00:01:15.240 – 00:01:20.620] Now, frankly, this is also because most of us are volunteering earlier for treatment.

[00:01:20.620 – 00:01:30.620] This is a principle known as benevolent coercion, where somebody takes a two-by-four and hits you right between the eyes and, and gives you some good reasons to stay sober, you know, like

[00:01:30.620 – 00:01:35.460] losing your job or your family or, uh, some of the minor things that seem to get our attention.

[00:01:35.460 – 00:01:43.500] So we’re getting people far healthier so that we don’t really have the major heart and liver and brain problems that we’ve had in the past.

[00:01:43.500 – 00:01:51.120] Of course, there are some pro- problems of the body that we skip over rather quickly, but I think they at least deserve, uh, some mention.

[00:01:51.120 – 00:02:01.140] A long time ago, about 10 years ago now, Bill W., in the last years before he died, was really concerned about two facts.

[00:02:01.140 – 00:02:06.540] One of them I’ve made a great deal of noise about, which is simply the fact that not all alcoholics get treatment.

[00:02:06.540 – 00:02:15.040] In fact, probably nine out of 10 alcoholics never get any treatment, go relentlessly on their way to the terminal illness, and die.

[00:02:15.040 – 00:02:25.360] So, uh, uh, he was concerned about the fact that of the one in 10, at least half or better of those were failing in treatment, even though they were going to AA,

[00:02:25.360 – 00:02:35.380] even though they were trying very hard, uh, even though they were taking all kinds of expensive and not so expensive therapy, and still, there were a couple of kinds of alcoholics that

[00:02:35.380 – 00:02:36.580] weren’t doing very well.

[00:02:36.580 – 00:02:46.600] And it sort of seemed that since these groups seemed to never go away, that perhaps they actually represented a special problem in the alcoholic population that did have

[00:02:46.600 – 00:02:47.660] a physical basis.

[00:02:47.660 – 00:02:56.160] Well, the first one simply had to do with the fact that, uh, we had a lot of problems with people when they first left the hospital.

[00:02:56.160 – 00:03:06.520] We had people who would come in five or six weeks after they left the hospital, and their chin would be dragging on the floor, and they would have tears in the corners of their eyes, and they would be absolutely

[00:03:06.520 – 00:03:10.000] the most dejected, depressed person you ever wanted to see.

[00:03:10.000 – 00:03:20.060] And you’d say, “Well, gee, what’s the matter?” And they’d say, uh, uh, “Well, I just got promoted to vice president of the corporation,” and, “I just inherited $2 million,” and, “I just won the local

[00:03:20.060 – 00:03:30.100] TV quiz program.” And you’d say, “Well, gee, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.” So about five or six weeks later, they come into the office, and they’re slapping their knee, and they’re telling jokes, and they are just the

[00:03:30.100 – 00:03:32.880] most cheerful, euphoric people you ever wanted to see in your life.

[00:03:32.880 – 00:03:33.780] And what happened?

[00:03:33.780 – 00:03:39.220] Well, the income tax people took away the inheritance, the car cracked up, uh, and the company failed.

[00:03:39.220 – 00:03:47.860] And you really got the idea that alcoholics were demonstrating, uh, e- emotions that didn’t seem a who- to have a whole lot to do with what was going on.

[00:03:47.860 – 00:03:51.680] Well, this led to a rather dangerous kind of game.

[00:03:51.680 – 00:04:01.700] Uh, we sort of suspected for many, many years now that alcoholics have had mood swings that go up and go down and go up and go down, and we got

[00:04:01.700 – 00:04:05.140] to playing a game known as tranquilizer and antidepressant roulette.

[00:04:05.140 – 00:04:15.260] Now, this meant that when they came up, uh, in the office, uh, uh, with their chin dragging on the floor, and they really didn’t look too good, uh, we’d say, “Well, my, they’re terribly

[00:04:15.260 – 00:04:15.760] depressed.

[00:04:15.760 – 00:04:25.880] We’ll put them on an antidepressant,” which worked out fine until they came in six weeks later, walked across the floor, up the wall, across the ceiling, and sat down three inches off

[00:04:25.880 – 00:04:26.400] the chair.

[00:04:26.400 – 00:04:29.560] And we’d say, “Well, gee, they’re a little bit over-antidepressed.

[00:04:29.560 – 00:04:39.660] Maybe we ought to tranquilize them.” So then we would put them on a tranquilizer, which worked out fine until we– they came in six weeks later with a chrome-plated 44 pointed at their

[00:04:39.660 – 00:04:42.980] temple, and you had to tackle them at the door before they pulled the trigger.

[00:04:42.980 – 00:04:48.360] So this kind of treatment put more therapists on the couch than it did any alcoholic any good.

[00:04:48.360 – 00:04:55.480] So we finally decided that what we needed was a drug that acted both like a tranquilizer and an antidepressant.

[00:04:55.480 – 00:04:59.440] So we went to the drug companies, and they mixed a little of this, and they mixed a little of that.

[00:04:59.440 – 00:05:01.180] Nothing seemed to work too well.

[00:05:01.180 – 00:05:11.460] So finally, one of the largest drug companies in the country, uh, underwent a great deal of research to find the ideal drug that acted both like a tranquilizer and an antidepressant.

[00:05:11.460 – 00:05:21.260] And after two years of hard work, they published this very knowledgeable scientific paper that said that there was only one drug that they knew of that did this job well, and that was booze.

[00:05:21.260 – 00:05:24.780] So we ended up right back where we started.

[00:05:24.780 – 00:05:34.040] So, uh, we then had to sort of go back and see if maybe we couldn’t find out what’s, what was causing this sort of thing.

[00:05:34.040 – 00:05:44.200] Now, we knew that in alcoholics who had had repeated severe withdrawals, in alcoholics who had had, uh, the intermittent binge drinking kind of drinking, uh,

[00:05:44.200 – 00:05:48.240] where it had gotten quite severe and life-threatening, that a couple of other things happened.

[00:05:48.240 – 00:05:58.500] We had people who, two or three years after their last drink, uh, at one of these low spots, would have something like the death of a household pet occur, and suddenly,

[00:05:58.500 – 00:06:03.800] uh, simply go out and either attempt or actively and successfully commit suicide.

[00:06:03.800 – 00:06:13.868] Now- Uh, this really led us to believe that perhaps, you know, when a person got mildly depressed on the bottom of one of these troughs, that they actually, without warning, had suicidal

[00:06:13.868 – 00:06:14.488] impulses.

[00:06:14.488 – 00:06:21.708] And oftentimes, when you have a four hundred horsepower missile parked in your garage, you have all the wherewithal to act on it if you want.

[00:06:21.708 – 00:06:31.868] And we know from highway safety studies that at least probably twenty-five percent of the fifty percent of the fatal automobile accidents that we as alcoholics cause on the highways

[00:06:31.868 – 00:06:39.388] are people who have nothing to drink for a couple of years who simply commit suicide, uh, with, uh, the nearest, uh, tool available.

[00:06:39.388 – 00:06:47.028] Now, the other thing we had was people many years after their last drinking who simply got excited on top of one of these peaks.

[00:06:47.028 – 00:06:57.148] And lo and behold, their blood pressure would go up, their pulse would become rapid, they’d start to have tremors, uh, they’d start to have epileptic seizures, and literally, they would be replaying

[00:06:57.148 – 00:06:59.948] all of these symptoms of, uh, of withdrawal.

[00:06:59.948 – 00:07:03.568] And this is what the old-timers used to call a dry drunk.

[00:07:03.568 – 00:07:06.488] They weren’t talking about thinking about having a drink.

[00:07:06.488 – 00:07:11.668] They were talking about having the DTs without having a drink for the last five or ten or fifteen years.

[00:07:11.668 – 00:07:21.828] Well, this, uh, led us back to this whole thing of maybe the whole thing gets started here when the alcoholic drinks, his brain adapts to the alcohol,

[00:07:21.828 – 00:07:26.168] he plateaus out for a few days, and then he goes through withdrawal.

[00:07:26.168 – 00:07:36.268] And lo and behold, you know, what you start in motion, uh, uh, has to continue because nature simply doesn’t stop doing what it does at an arbitrary baseline right here.

[00:07:36.268 – 00:07:46.368] And so we now know that once we start the brain chemicals going up and down with alcohol, when we stop, they simply go up and down in exactly the kind of pattern we were talking

[00:07:46.368 – 00:07:46.728] about.

[00:07:46.728 – 00:07:56.768] Well, then we needed something that would turn off these particular chemicals, and we thought, well, maybe we’d have a fairly good chance since we knew that a protein

[00:07:56.768 – 00:08:03.928] in the brain breaks down into these two substances, and the third substance that’s given off is nicotinic acid or vitamin B3.

[00:08:03.928 – 00:08:14.028] Now, we thought if we put a whole lot of vitamin B3 into a person’s diet and it got into the brain, that it would stop churning out this excess, and this would come back down

[00:08:14.028 – 00:08:15.328] to normal, and it did.

[00:08:15.328 – 00:08:22.848] Uh, and all of a sudden, the dry drunk syndrome in people who had had eight or ten bouts of dry drunks, uh, simply disappeared.

[00:08:22.848 – 00:08:28.008] But the surprising thing was that the suicides and the depressions disappeared, too.

[00:08:28.008 – 00:08:38.468] And we now have a hunch that by altering the chemistry here, something else is altered in the brain that makes B3 the only other substance that acts both as a tranquilizer

[00:08:38.468 – 00:08:39.508] and an antidepressant.

[00:08:39.508 – 00:08:45.348] Now, it works best only in those people who have had severe and repeated withdrawals.

[00:08:45.348 – 00:08:47.468] The higher you start, the farther you fall.

[00:08:47.468 – 00:08:50.748] So it really doesn’t have a great deal to offer to the beginners.

[00:08:50.748 – 00:08:55.608] It doesn’t have a great deal to offer to the amateurs in the ranks of the professional indoor drinkers.

[00:08:55.608 – 00:09:05.848] But for those old-timers who have gone through one set of shakes after the other, who are troubled by mood swings, insomnia, uh, intermittent loss of appetite,

[00:09:05.848 – 00:09:13.848] uh, uh, suicidal depressions, uh, dry drunk syndrome, uh, B3 has worked in better than fifty percent of these cases.

[00:09:13.848 – 00:09:20.588] So where we think this is wise, we’re gonna help you through the physical hurdle by advising that you take vitamin B3.

[00:09:20.588 – 00:09:29.208] Now, there’s one other very small group, and this represents, oh, maybe one alcoholic in every three hundred and fifty or four hundred.

[00:09:29.208 – 00:09:39.328] Now, this is the individual who actually had a physical problem that produ– uh, that caused at least part of the alcoholism that we can trace back and discover.

[00:09:39.328 – 00:09:49.568] Now, we knew for a long time that there were certain people who, uh, simply were quite bright, seemed to be quite normal,

[00:09:49.568 – 00:09:55.068] uh, but once they got into school, uh, in the more complicated grades, they simply came apart.

[00:09:55.068 – 00:10:02.168] They were thinking about today, tomorrow, next week, next month, uh, vacation, uh, summer vacation, all at the same time.

[00:10:02.168 – 00:10:03.688] They couldn’t concentrate.

[00:10:03.688 – 00:10:07.648] They had a very short inte- attention span, and they did absolutely lousy in school.

[00:10:07.648 – 00:10:17.888] And then by some magic, when they got into junior high at about the age of nine or ten, somebody introduced them to cooking wine or beer out behind the, uh, woodshed, the garage,

[00:10:17.888 – 00:10:21.288] or the barn, and lo and behold, their problem was solved.

[00:10:21.288 – 00:10:26.848] All they needed was a little bit of this magic brew, and their grade point average went up to A plus.

[00:10:26.848 – 00:10:36.888] They sailed through high school and graduated at the top of their class, went into college, and went through all kinds of complicated training, and lo and behold, uh, also

[00:10:36.888 – 00:10:39.508] then later on in life discovered that they were alcoholic.

[00:10:39.508 – 00:10:47.968] Now, they came to a treatment center like this, and somebody told them they’d better stop drinking, and they, being intelligent people, thought that that was a reasonably good thing to do.

[00:10:47.968 – 00:10:49.248] But what happened?

[00:10:49.248 – 00:10:59.408] The moment they returned to this highly technical, highly specialized job that they had, they couldn’t concentrate, uh, they couldn’t, uh, didn’t have a long enough attention

[00:10:59.408 – 00:10:59.888] span.

[00:10:59.888 – 00:11:09.908] And lo and behold, they were faced with the prospect of either taking some chemical that would either substitute for alcohol, Librium, Valium, Equanil, Miltown,

[00:11:09.908 – 00:11:19.228] Ser- uh, Serax, Atarax, Vistaril, and the whole Heinz Fifty-seven variety, or be unable to achieve at the level that they were achieving at before.

[00:11:19.228 – 00:11:26.808] Well, a person can only take this so long, and they’re either going to go to booze in cap- pill or capsule form, or they’re going to go to booze itself.

[00:11:26.808 – 00:11:31.788] So eventually, these people end up relapsing time after time after time.

[00:11:31.788 – 00:11:38.728] And this really represented a very small segment of the alcoholic population who represented the perpetual losers.

[00:11:38.728 – 00:11:41.188] There didn’t seem to be enough effort.

[00:11:41.188 – 00:11:51.548] There didn’t seem to be enough treatment to, uh, to be able to, uh, allow these people to handle the decision between failing at something they like to do or drinking

[00:11:51.548 – 00:11:56.688] or taking the chance on drinking or sedation in order to keep on doing the things they’d been trained to do.

[00:11:56.688 – 00:12:01.768] So, uh, being achievement-oriented, most of these people went right back to drinking.

[00:12:01.768 – 00:12:03.468] Well, now we went back to why.

[00:12:03.468 – 00:12:13.528] Now, frankly, and fortunately for those people who have this particular problem, one of the, uh, uh, heirs of a rather large fortune in this country came up

[00:12:13.528 – 00:12:14.748] with this particular problem.

[00:12:14.748 – 00:12:21.408] So needless to say, the foundation that the company had, uh, donated a great deal of money to research this particular problem.

[00:12:21.408 – 00:12:31.512] Now, uh- We really knew that in certain people, uh, nerve cells are protected

[00:12:31.512 – 00:12:36.952] from one from the other by a very complicated fatty material.

[00:12:36.952 – 00:12:47.012] And in lower animals and people who, uh, have a little bit deficient equipment up here, this fatty tissue can tend to be pretty thick

[00:12:47.012 – 00:12:50.032] simply because there’s a lot of free space that can be filled up.

[00:12:50.032 – 00:13:00.072] Now, I don’t know if this was the origin of the term fat head, but it certainly co- uh, confirms it, that in those people with very complicated central nervous systems,

[00:13:00.072 – 00:13:02.412] this fatty layer tends to get thinner and thinner.

[00:13:02.412 – 00:13:12.572] So that finally it can get so thin that when we start an impulse down one of these nerve fibers, we simply get short-circuiting and cross irritation, and

[00:13:12.572 – 00:13:18.892] instead of firing off one or two nerve bundles, we fire off whole branches and whole large centers of the brain.

[00:13:18.892 – 00:13:28.932] Now, when we finally realized that this was perhaps the cause, we said, “Well, gee, that looks a little bit like epilepsy, so let’s go ahead and get people with this kind of problem, uh, attach,

[00:13:28.932 – 00:13:34.052] attach them up to a brainwave machine and see what happens.” And I guess you all know what happened.

[00:13:34.052 – 00:13:35.452] It looked like epilepsy.

[00:13:35.452 – 00:13:45.452] So being the brilliant scientists that they were, they said, “If it looks like epilepsy, let’s treat it like epilepsy.” So they got some pills that were commonly used for treating epilepsy, started these people

[00:13:45.452 – 00:13:51.112] on these particular capsules, and lo and behold, all of their scatterbrain thinking disappeared.

[00:13:51.112 – 00:13:52.792] They were able to concentrate.

[00:13:52.792 – 00:14:02.792] They didn’t need alcohol or any other kind of sedative in order to be able to function, and they were able to be relieved of this terrible decision about, uh, either sedate myself,

[00:14:02.792 – 00:14:05.892] uh, and succeed or not sedate myself and fail.

[00:14:05.892 – 00:14:14.512] Uh, being the scientists that they were, after a couple of years, they said, “You know, uh, keeping people on four capsules of Dilantin a day is a little dangerous.

[00:14:14.512 – 00:14:17.292] It does some strange things to the bone marrow and so forth.

[00:14:17.292 – 00:14:20.572] Uh, so why don’t we see if three will do the job?” And it did.

[00:14:20.572 – 00:14:23.892] So in a year or so, they said, “Why don’t we try two?” And it did.

[00:14:23.892 – 00:14:27.172] Then they dropped it down to one, and everybody went back to drinking again.

[00:14:27.172 – 00:14:33.272] So we now recommend, uh, two capsules of Dilantin, uh, for those people who have this particular kind of history.

[00:14:33.272 – 00:14:40.652] Now, again, it’s not difficult at all to recognize people with the electrical scatterbrain, uh, uh, kind of pattern.

[00:14:40.652 – 00:14:46.592] And those of you who need these kinds of chemical supports will have it suggested to you before you leave.

[00:14:46.592 – 00:14:55.552] And we certainly have probably here the staff who has had more to do with these kinds of, uh, aids to sobriety than any place else in the world.

[00:14:55.552 – 00:14:59.532] But very frankly, these are not cures for alcoholism.

[00:14:59.532 – 00:15:01.892] These are not going to solve all the problem.

[00:15:01.892 – 00:15:08.352] If they do anything at all, they’re simply going to bring you back up to zero so you can start even with everybody else.

[00:15:08.352 – 00:15:11.252] Okay, now so much for the problems of the body.

[00:15:11.252 – 00:15:20.412] The next particular set of hurdles, much higher and much more difficult to deal with, are the problems that have to do with the mind.

[00:15:20.412 – 00:15:28.832] Now, the first hurdle that you’re going to have to go over is going to come at about the time that you’re ready to go home.

[00:15:28.832 – 00:15:33.292] Now, this is something that we in the treatment field call reentry.

[00:15:33.292 – 00:15:43.492] Now, reentry is kind of a tough period of one’s life simply because, number one, you’ve been out of touch with the real world for two or three weeks, and number two, you’re going to have to make adjustments

[00:15:43.492 – 00:15:44.412] on two levels.

[00:15:44.412 – 00:15:47.512] Now, the first level is the general public.

[00:15:47.512 – 00:15:52.092] You know, what are people going to think about me being an alcoholic?

[00:15:52.092 – 00:16:01.012] Now, there certainly are some people out there who are self-righteous and literally have to feed like parasites on the misfortunes of others.

[00:16:01.012 – 00:16:11.052] And when you come by, you know, on your way to an AA meeting, they’re gonna draw themselves up to full height, look down the full length of their nose and say, “Oh, you’re an alcoholic, are you?” They might even sit

[00:16:11.052 – 00:16:14.672] across the street in their car and take roll on who’s going to the AA meeting.

[00:16:14.672 – 00:16:16.232] But, you know, that’s their problem.

[00:16:16.232 – 00:16:18.772] That’s not yours, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

[00:16:18.772 – 00:16:24.032] Now, there is a great deal of misinformation and myth about alcoholism out there, too.

[00:16:24.032 – 00:16:30.252] So that there are people, you know, who believe that, you know, leprosy comes first and alcoholism comes second.

[00:16:30.252 – 00:16:36.752] So you may walk into a room and suddenly find people breaking their necks to get to the other side for fear they’re gonna catch it from you.

[00:16:36.752 – 00:16:40.412] You know, and that makes you feel a little self-conscious and nervous, too.

[00:16:40.412 – 00:16:50.572] But I think, uh, far more important is the fact that after doing a great deal of research in this area, we know that the most widely held attitude about your

[00:16:50.572 – 00:16:54.992] alcoholism is total, complete, a hundred percent apathy.

[00:16:54.992 – 00:17:01.392] Most people don’t care whether you’re an alcoholic or not, as long as you’re the one who’s got it.

[00:17:01.392 – 00:17:07.432] So, uh, very frankly, I don’t think you have to worry too much about the, uh, the general public attitude.

[00:17:07.432 – 00:17:12.032] It’s been changing over the last few years, and all of the changes have been positive.

[00:17:12.032 – 00:17:15.352] The alcoholic now is treated instead of fired from work.

[00:17:15.352 – 00:17:20.252] Uh, it looks like in most of the states of the union, he’s going to be treated instead of put in jail.

[00:17:20.252 – 00:17:29.212] And from, uh, now on, I think we can expect that social attitudes except in the hardcore is going to change very, very slowly in a positive direction.

[00:17:29.212 – 00:17:32.272] Now, the second area is far more sensitive.

[00:17:32.272 – 00:17:37.492] Now, this is the area where we talk about those people who are meaningful to us in our lives.

[00:17:37.492 – 00:17:44.332] The person we’re married to, our own children, our employer, our foreman down at the plant.

[00:17:44.332 – 00:17:49.852] These are people who know you well enough so that they know how to hurt you pretty bad if they really put up their mind to it.

[00:17:49.852 – 00:18:00.432] Now, you know, we’ve been here for two and a half, three weeks undergoing a rather amazing transformation, have made a lot of earth-shattering

[00:18:00.432 – 00:18:10.452] decisions about our future life, and we’re going out that door knowing how much re- resolve and how much effort and how much change has go- uh, come over our

[00:18:10.452 – 00:18:10.892] lives.

[00:18:10.892 – 00:18:12.772] But, you know, nobody else does.

[00:18:12.772 – 00:18:19.312] None of those meaningful people in your life have been here, uh, uh, seeing these changes occur.

[00:18:19.312 – 00:18:29.492] And, you know, you run out there and, uh, you suddenly, uh, stumble on the bottom step of the stairs as you’re coming home at night, and you fall up against the front of the house,

[00:18:29.492 – 00:18:34.742] and the front door opens, and a face that you dearly love comes out and goes .

[00:18:34.742 – 00:18:35.712] That hurts.

[00:18:35.712 – 00:18:45.872] You know, uh, you get downtown, and here’s something you’ve been waiting to have show up that you’ve been saving your money for, and lo and behold, here it shows right

[00:18:45.872 – 00:18:47.312] there in the glass window of the shop.

[00:18:47.312 – 00:18:50.342] And you dash in, and you say, “I want to buy it,” and you reach in your p-

[00:18:50.447 – 00:18:55.547] Wallet, and there it is, one dollar, so that you can’t get yourself in any trouble while you’re downtown.

[00:18:55.547 – 00:19:02.987] Uh, there seems to be a great deal of indication that people don’t have as much faith in you as, than you have in yourself.

[00:19:02.987 – 00:19:13.107] You know, you call in and you’ve got flu, a temperature of 104, your tongue is white, your tonsils are meeting in the midline, you wheeze every time you take a breath, and you’re not too sure that your next

[00:19:13.107 – 00:19:14.367] breath is gonna be your last.

[00:19:14.367 – 00:19:24.447] And guess who bothers to drop by but the plant nurse who just happens to be in the neighborhood and thought that she would drop in, and she almost looks hurt that you’re home dying

[00:19:24.447 – 00:19:25.287] in bed, you know.

[00:19:25.287 – 00:19:32.007] Uh, so, uh, you get all of these little indications that people really haven’t got a great deal of confidence in you.

[00:19:32.007 – 00:19:36.747] Well, if you look at this whole situation of re-entry, it takes several ingredients.

[00:19:36.747 – 00:19:37.907] You know, understanding.

[00:19:37.907 – 00:19:47.907] A lot of people come back here, you know, three sheets to the wind and say, “Well, really, Doc, the reason I’m back in trouble is nobody understood how hard I was trying, and nobody understood all the things

[00:19:47.907 – 00:19:58.247] I was going through.” And certainly, uh, all of these slights, smelling your breath, checking up on you when you miss work, uh, uh, keeping your wallet a little bit deflated,

[00:19:58.247 – 00:20:06.707] all reflect a little lack of trust and a little lack of, you know, uh, uh, uh, real belief that you’ve achieved what you think that you have at this particular point.

[00:20:06.707 – 00:20:14.247] So certainly, again, there’s a, a great deal of lack of understanding and trust, uh, uh, in this re-entry period.

[00:20:14.247 – 00:20:17.627] And a lot of people get into trouble, and they start drinking again.

[00:20:17.627 – 00:20:25.807] But I know I, I– many of you haven’t thought of it in this particular way, that you’re the ones who came to Brighton Hospital.

[00:20:25.807 – 00:20:30.147] You’re the ones who have underwent rather exhaustive kind of treatment.

[00:20:30.147 – 00:20:38.667] You’re the ones who understand, as I do, and the other people who’ve been involved in your treatment, the kinds of amazing transformations that have come over your life.

[00:20:38.667 – 00:20:48.727] So that frankly, if there’s going to be understanding and support and trust introduced into the re-entry period, we’re the ones who are going to have

[00:20:48.727 – 00:20:49.227] to do it.

[00:20:49.227 – 00:20:56.507] We’re going to have to be willing to forgive the slights, the smelling of the breath, the checking up on us as we come home.

[00:20:56.507 – 00:21:02.727] We’re gonna have to be willing to understand that the people that are closest to us haven’t undergone this transmu- uh, formation.

[00:21:02.727 – 00:21:04.587] You know, we’ve lied to them occasionally.

[00:21:04.587 – 00:21:07.787] Uh, we played a few nasty tricks in our lives.

[00:21:07.787 – 00:21:13.307] And it may take six months or a year before they really believe that all of these things have actually happened.

[00:21:13.307 – 00:21:20.147] So if there’s going to be any sympathy, understanding, and trust in the re-entry period, we’re going to have to introduce it.

[00:21:20.147 – 00:21:22.087] We’re going to have to provide it.

[00:21:22.087 – 00:21:27.487] And only when we do are we going to be able to survive this very difficult period of time.

[00:21:27.487 – 00:21:30.787] All right, now, now you’ve survived re-entry.

[00:21:30.787 – 00:21:39.167] Now we go right on to the next, uh, very exciting period of one’s life, which is when we go into AA, and suddenly we become, you know, the pigeon.

[00:21:39.167 – 00:21:42.767] And there is nothing like having a new pigeon around an AA group.

[00:21:42.767 – 00:21:52.847] Suddenly, people are offering you rides, giving you, uh, fantastic quantities of understanding, willing to, uh, stay up half the night talking to you on the telephone or someplace else.

[00:21:52.847 – 00:21:55.927] And all of a sudden, you are the center of attention.

[00:21:55.927 – 00:22:03.267] And here you are going down to these AA meetings to all of those nice people, being the center of attention, and forgetting what you’re down there for.

[00:22:03.267 – 00:22:05.667] You aren’t collecting one check mark at all.

[00:22:05.667 – 00:22:14.447] You’re going down to see my friends that I can talk to, who love me, who understand me, and you don’t bother to remind yourself that I’m an alcoholic and I shouldn’t take a drink.

[00:22:14.447 – 00:22:24.507] So at the end of four months, when you finally, uh, perhaps made a satisfactory adjustment so far as re-entry is concerned, and you’ve had an absolutely delightful

[00:22:24.507 – 00:22:31.167] time being, uh, taken into AA, uh, the pain and suffering that brought you here to Brighton Hospital disappears.

[00:22:31.167 – 00:22:39.927] And lo and behold, there it is in all of its glory, the psychological drive to drink saying, “Go ahead and take a drink.” And there is nothing there to tell you no.

[00:22:39.927 – 00:22:46.887] And one of the most common places for a relapse is four months, simply because of this particular fact.

[00:22:46.887 – 00:22:49.567] The things that scared you sober disappeared.

[00:22:49.567 – 00:22:52.447] You didn’t do your homework when you went to AA.

[00:22:52.447 – 00:22:58.867] You didn’t take your medicine, which is to remind yourself that I am an alcoholic and I’m not going to take my next drink.

[00:22:58.867 – 00:23:01.907] And there you are left with nothing to defend yourself with.

[00:23:01.907 – 00:23:06.147] And lo and behold, you’ll end up drinking and back in the cups and back over here again.

[00:23:06.147 – 00:23:07.047] Well, that’s great.

[00:23:07.047 – 00:23:17.227] Now you’ve made your re-entry period, and you’ve gone to AA and you’ve kept your mind on the ball and you’ve reminded yourself over and over and over again that I’m an alcoholic and I’m not going to drink.

[00:23:17.227 – 00:23:19.307] You’d think that by now things were gonna ease up.

[00:23:19.307 – 00:23:23.027] Well, they really haven’t because now things are going real well.

[00:23:23.027 – 00:23:25.767] You know how to abstain from alcohol.

[00:23:25.767 – 00:23:31.447] Things are going better at home and at work and everything else because you’ve made a satisfactory re-entry.

[00:23:31.447 – 00:23:34.307] And things are going absolutely beautifully.

[00:23:34.307 – 00:23:37.387] I can remember the, uh, Ann Arbor program that we had.

[00:23:37.387 – 00:23:47.207] You’d have guys come in there and say, “Doc, I don’t know how this has happened, but I’ve got money like I’ve never had before.” And I have to point out to them that they’d had a four-dollar-a-day habit or greater.

[00:23:47.207 – 00:23:52.767] And, you know, once you stop, uh, uh, drinking all that money up, it accumulates at a rather great, uh, pace.

[00:23:52.767 – 00:23:56.467] And I had guys come in, you know, saying, “Doc, you know that old bag I was married to?

[00:23:56.467 – 00:24:06.527] He has become one of the, uh, through some miraculous transformation, uh, one of the most understanding, uh, loving, uh, uh, wives that are, uh, that you ever wanted to see.”

[00:24:06.527 – 00:24:10.707] And then you had to point out again that, you know, the situation was somewhat artificial.

[00:24:10.707 – 00:24:16.587] Uh, and probably she was that way all the time, but, uh, the situation doesn’t wasn’t, wasn’t ripe.

[00:24:16.587 – 00:24:23.987] And, uh, the circumstances of playing nursemaid to a practicing alcoholic are somewhat not conducive to a, a good relationship.

[00:24:23.987 – 00:24:27.267] So all of a sudden, things start getting better and better.

[00:24:27.267 – 00:24:31.147] Here you are at the top of the mountain at the eighth or ninth month.

[00:24:31.147 – 00:24:36.327] You’re looking down in the valley, and you know, starting to blinking in the sunlight is that first-year medallion.

[00:24:36.327 – 00:24:39.047] Uh, you can just see it, and you can almost touch it.

[00:24:39.047 – 00:24:39.917] Here you are.

[00:24:39.917 – 00:24:41.587] You’ve made all kinds of amends.

[00:24:41.587 – 00:24:43.787] Your financial problems are straightening out.

[00:24:43.787 – 00:24:46.507] Staying sober isn’t really that hard anymore.

[00:24:46.507 – 00:24:48.487] You know how to get the check marks in your head.

[00:24:48.487 – 00:24:50.807] Your personal problems are straightening out.

[00:24:50.807 – 00:24:52.867] Your tax problems are straightening out.

[00:24:52.867 – 00:24:55.387] Your bill collector problems are straightening out.

[00:24:55.387 – 00:25:02.731] And things are absolutely rosy, and you’re ready to go down there and finish-Finish off that first year of sobriety, but you’re, you know, you’re kind of tired.

[00:25:02.731 – 00:25:08.631] You want to stop and take a deep breath, and you slowly turn around and look over your shoulder, and what are you confronted with?

[00:25:08.631 – 00:25:11.731] All the wreckage you haven’t bothered to take care of yet.

[00:25:11.731 – 00:25:21.351] All the people you’ve hurt, all of the things that, uh, opportunities you’ve wasted, all of the mo- uh, money that you’ve misspent, all of the problems that you’ve created.

[00:25:21.351 – 00:25:28.751] And, you know, this can be such a shattering experience at the pinnacle of success that many people have to go out and get drunk simply to forget the whole thing.

[00:25:28.751 – 00:25:38.731] So frankly, one of the other things we have to do between the fourth and the eighth month is simply bit by bit and in an organized and structured fashion, uh, take care of the wreckage.

[00:25:38.731 – 00:25:43.331] Mend our personal bridges one at a time, mend them slowly.

[00:25:43.331 – 00:25:45.791] Now, most of us are like we were when we were teenagers.

[00:25:45.791 – 00:25:47.911] We don’t like to clean our drawers.

[00:25:47.911 – 00:25:49.591] We don’t like to clean our closets.

[00:25:49.591 – 00:25:55.311] We don’t like to clean the garage, and we don’t like to clean the basement because that’s a pretty big chore, and that’s a mess.

[00:25:55.311 – 00:25:55.931] You know what I mean?

[00:25:55.931 – 00:26:05.951] But frankly, we have to do it bit by bit and in an organized fashion so that it doesn’t come all collapsing in on us at once and cause such a great

[00:26:05.951 – 00:26:08.371] disaster in our lives that we go out and drink again.

[00:26:08.371 – 00:26:18.411] Now, you’ve gotten through the easy reentry period, and you finally got adjusted to AA, so you know how to stay sober, and you cleaned up the garage and the basement and the, and the

[00:26:18.411 – 00:26:21.531] closet so that you don’t trumbl- uh, trip over all the wreckage.

[00:26:21.531 – 00:26:26.411] And I still have to tell you about something that you could trip over anytime the rest of your life.

[00:26:26.411 – 00:26:31.611] Now, this is the body of what you have been taught an alcoholic has to be.

[00:26:31.611 – 00:26:38.011] This is what you have had programmed into your head, that Frankenstein monster labeled alcoholic.

[00:26:38.011 – 00:26:43.751] Uh, the thing that’s labeled alcoholic because you knew somebody in your neighborhood who was a skid row bum.

[00:26:43.751 – 00:26:54.191] Uh, the thing that was labeled alcoholic by your teacher in school, by your minister in church, uh, by your, uh, uh, peers that you drank with, by the law enforcement officers,

[00:26:54.191 – 00:26:55.351] uh, in town.

[00:26:55.351 – 00:27:05.811] But whatever it is, and we’ve talked about this before, it’s one of the most hideous, erroneous, terrifying, monstrous images of what alcoholism, uh, could possibly

[00:27:05.811 – 00:27:06.411] be about.

[00:27:06.411 – 00:27:16.011] Now, if you don’t deal with that while you’re here in the hospital, you’re going to go out believing way down in your subconscious that you’re one of these terrible things.

[00:27:16.011 – 00:27:20.911] And when you believe that you’re one of these terrible things, uh, then you’re going to feel guilty.

[00:27:20.911 – 00:27:28.551] Now, you’re no longer denying alcoholism, but you swallowed something that’s got barbs and fish hooks, and it doesn’t sit down there too well.

[00:27:28.551 – 00:27:34.991] So every now and then, Frankenstein’s monster comes up to the conscious level, and we start to feel guilty about it.

[00:27:34.991 – 00:27:42.471] And if we feel guilty, we tend to compensate for guilt, and we compensate in very dangerous ways that’ll get us back to drinking again.

[00:27:42.471 – 00:27:43.691] What are these ways?

[00:27:43.691 – 00:27:46.171] Well, we can compensate with good works.

[00:27:46.171 – 00:27:52.831] The individual who had seven months in AA suddenly becomes the 12-step expert of the local community.

[00:27:52.831 – 00:28:03.051] He’s working, you know, eight days, eight, eight days a week, twenty-seven hours a day, and then within five or six weeks, he’s ph– or she is physically exhausted, emotionally collapsed,

[00:28:03.051 – 00:28:04.551] financially broke, and drunk.

[00:28:04.551 – 00:28:09.771] Uh, of course, we can compensate, uh, by getting away from, uh, our alcoholism.

[00:28:09.771 – 00:28:14.431] You know, we got to be alcoholic married to Joan, so we dump her and marry, marry Jane.

[00:28:14.431 – 00:28:18.831] We got to be an alcoholic working for Ford, so we quit there and go to work for GM.

[00:28:18.831 – 00:28:22.451] We got to be an alcoholic in Michigan, so we move to California.

[00:28:22.451 – 00:28:30.711] But Frankenstein’s monster follows us right along, and we get just as drunk in California, just as drunk married to Mary Jane, and just as drunk working for GM.

[00:28:30.711 – 00:28:34.071] So that frankly, that’s not going to work out very well either.

[00:28:34.071 – 00:28:37.371] Well, maybe you can, uh, compensate financially.

[00:28:37.371 – 00:28:42.091] You know, my poor family’s gotten along on this poor twenty-five thousand dollar house.

[00:28:42.091 – 00:28:44.481] I’ll move them to a fifty thousand dollar house.

[00:28:44.481 – 00:28:50.551] And they’ve gotten along in this poor 1954 Ford, so I’ll buy them a 1974 Ford.

[00:28:50.551 – 00:28:58.511] And in six weeks, the bills are here, the income’s here, and any self-respecting alcoholic’s going to go out and get drunk to forget the whole thing.

[00:28:58.511 – 00:29:03.451] Uh, so that this again is a way that one can sacrifice his sobriety in a pretty big hurry.

[00:29:03.451 – 00:29:11.811] Now, the last one doesn’t cost you s– your sobriety, but it may cost some of you, uh, some pretty close scrapes, and those are the people who compensate verbally.

[00:29:11.811 – 00:29:22.151] You’ll go into an AA meeting someday, and there’s going to be somebody there who is going to tell you for the next three or four hours what a low, despicable, rotten,

[00:29:22.151 – 00:29:24.811] reject of a human race they are.

[00:29:24.811 – 00:29:29.891] And if you run into two and they play can you top this, you’re in for a very bad evening.

[00:29:29.891 – 00:29:32.311] And these are like hunting and fishing stories.

[00:29:32.311 – 00:29:39.911] The longer they are from reality, the livelier the stories get, and the less accurate they are, the less close they are to reality.

[00:29:39.911 – 00:29:47.391] So frankly, a person who is doing that is already seriously, uh, uh, in trouble so far as his sobriety is concerned.

[00:29:47.391 – 00:29:52.311] So, so far as problems of the mind are concerned, remember reentry.

[00:29:52.311 – 00:29:53.371] Get ready for it.

[00:29:53.371 – 00:29:58.391] Uh, remember that you’ve got to do your homework the first four months, and keep reminding.

[00:29:58.391 – 00:30:02.451] Clean up the wreckage so you don’t trip over it and, uh, sacrifice your sobriety.

[00:30:02.451 – 00:30:12.831] And deal with what you think an alcoholic is so that you can deal with the guilt that goes along with it and therefore, uh, have some clear shot at, uh, long-term sobriety.

[00:30:12.831 – 00:30:22.431] Now finally, the last hurdle, and perhaps even the highest, and we’re really now beginning to just give this the attention that it deserves, is the problems of the spirit.

[00:30:22.431 – 00:30:30.631] Now again, one of the most meaningful people in many of our lives is our higher power however we identify it.

[00:30:30.631 – 00:30:40.831] And very frankly, when one becomes an alcoholic in our society, conditioned as we are to feel terribly guilty about it, there’s a great deal of alienation between us and things very

[00:30:40.831 – 00:30:41.461] spiritual.

[00:30:41.461 – 00:30:49.743] And yet it’s also extremely difficult for anybody to stay sober the rest of their life without a spiritual parachute or without spiritual support.

[00:30:49.743 – 00:30:53.323] Now, I, for five years, really did the church a favor.

[00:30:53.323 – 00:31:00.063] I felt that if I went in, uh, to any established church, that I would strict, uh, threaten the structural integrity of the building.

[00:31:00.063 – 00:31:04.803] And so I just simply stayed away so that these churches wouldn’t be falling down all over the place.

[00:31:04.803 – 00:31:07.803] Now, frankly, it took a trip over to Guest House.

[00:31:07.803 – 00:31:17.823] In fact, it took several trips over to Guest House to find out that, yo, uh, at least in my higher power, somebody had bothered to write a New Testament, uh, and, uh, that there was

[00:31:17.823 – 00:31:22.803] a second chance for people who had problems like this, and then things got along a whole lot better.

[00:31:22.803 – 00:31:33.023] But certainly you’re going to have to get your spiritual house in order because frankly, to remind oneself that I’m an alcoholic day in and day out for the rest of my natural

[00:31:33.023 – 00:31:35.923] life, uh, I’m gonna run out of personal motivation.

[00:31:35.923 – 00:31:46.123] And there are times that we’ll talk about in a few minutes that do require that we borrow some spiritual gas, that we use spiritual parachutes to get us over the spots that we couldn’t

[00:31:46.123 – 00:31:47.943] possibly get over ourselves.

[00:31:47.943 – 00:31:51.363] Well, that’s all any of you have to do after you leave Brighton Hospital.

[00:31:51.363 – 00:31:58.423] Now, there are occasionally people who come back who say, “Well, gee, Doc, I’ve been sober two years or five years, and here I am.

[00:31:58.423 – 00:32:08.423] I have had a slip,” or, “I have had a fall.” You know, when somebody is running a race like this, I don’t feel terribly bad as long as they run the best race they can, and that they’re ready to back

[00:32:08.423 – 00:32:10.823] to start at the starting line and start over again.

[00:32:10.823 – 00:32:20.863] So certainly, at least having some idea of the race course and having some idea of the problems that you’re going to encounter, I think Brighton prepares you to handle these, uh,

[00:32:20.863 – 00:32:24.103] in probably a much better way than if you didn’t know they were coming.

[00:32:24.103 – 00:32:26.663] Okay, what have we done for you?

[00:32:26.663 – 00:32:35.523] It’s nice to brag now and then, and I think, uh, uh, you may be able to use this toolkit a little better if you really realize what we’ve done.

[00:32:35.523 – 00:32:45.403] Now, the first thing we’ve done is simply sort of caught you when certain motivating forces, uh, brought you into the ho-ho-into the hospital.

[00:32:45.403 – 00:32:48.183] You know, your employer said you’re gonna get fired if you don’t get treated.

[00:32:48.183 – 00:32:50.813] That’s, uh, uh, one good way of case finding.

[00:32:50.813 – 00:32:55.463] The judge says you can either go to jail or Brighton, and that, uh, motivates you reasonably to come here.

[00:32:55.463 – 00:33:02.883] Uh, uh, but, uh, uh, most people who come into treatment, uh, don’t come through voluntary, uh, uh, means.

[00:33:02.883 – 00:33:09.723] Uh, and even in the old days, it was simply because one or two more drinks and the liver was going to go, and it was a life or death sort of thing.

[00:33:09.723 – 00:33:13.323] So most people volunteer through one method or another.

[00:33:13.323 – 00:33:17.563] Now, the next thing happened, oh, probably within two or three days.

[00:33:17.563 – 00:33:21.523] This is where you were on the medical ward, and you were detoxified.

[00:33:21.523 – 00:33:31.783] Now, frankly, in a country where the death rate is one in twenty people who, uh, undergo withdrawal, primarily because, uh, the vast

[00:33:31.783 – 00:33:38.603] majority of these people are treated in such medi-major medical centers as the county jail, a local motel, or home.

[00:33:38.603 – 00:33:45.963] Uh, but anyone in this room who has dried out twenty-one times has had somebody die somewhere in this country in their place.

[00:33:45.963 – 00:33:54.383] So the simple fact that you’re sitting in that chair listening to me represents a rather, uh, uh, a major statistical miracle.

[00:33:54.383 – 00:33:55.123] You’re alive.

[00:33:55.123 – 00:33:56.323] You can hear me.

[00:33:56.323 – 00:34:03.143] There are many other people with this disease who are not alive and, uh, who are never going to have the opportunity to progress any further.

[00:34:03.143 – 00:34:13.203] Uh, the fact that you did this with some comfort, uh, the fact that you did this with, uh, uh, uh, very little, if any in-instance of delirium tremens anymore,

[00:34:13.203 – 00:34:18.663] where this used to be a relatively common thing, and when it did occur, it lasted for days and days and days.

[00:34:18.663 – 00:34:26.083] Uh, we consider ourselves in really bad shape if we have two or three or four episodes a year, and if they last any more than a day or so.

[00:34:26.083 – 00:34:34.763] So that frankly, uh, the fact that you survived to this point in this short a period of time, uh, reflects, uh, one of the major contributions that have been made.

[00:34:34.763 – 00:34:42.603] Now, the next thing is to get your attention, and this is to motivate yourself to do something about your problem.

[00:34:42.603 – 00:34:47.623] Now, the only way you’re going to do this is to understand your problem and understand it well.

[00:34:47.623 – 00:34:54.423] This is one of the diseases in your life, like diabetes and a few other, where you’re going to have to treat yourself.

[00:34:54.423 – 00:35:04.583] And frankly, most people going out of that door of Brighton Hospital after their stay here know more about alcoholism than the average practicing physician, and I think a great

[00:35:04.583 – 00:35:07.143] deal more than the average practicing psychiatrist.

[00:35:07.143 – 00:35:12.543] So frankly, uh, you’re going to have to, to all intents and purposes, be your own doctor.

[00:35:12.543 – 00:35:22.743] Uh, you’re going to have to say no when somebody finds an easy solution to your problem, like Librium, Valium, Equanil, Miltown, Serax, and Visteril, which again can cause cirrhosis of the liver, damage

[00:35:22.743 – 00:35:26.443] your brain, cause peripheral neuritis exactly the same way as alcohol does.

[00:35:26.443 – 00:35:36.663] So frankly, we spend a great deal of time drumming the information into your head, which are going to allow you to, number one, be able to handle your disease, and number two, to understand

[00:35:36.663 – 00:35:41.963] enough about it so that you’re willing, uh, to do those things that are necessary for long-term control.

[00:35:41.963 – 00:35:47.743] Now, the next area we’ve had a lot of controversy about over the last several years.

[00:35:47.743 – 00:35:54.363] You may not be aware of this, but many major medical centers used to have alcoholism treatment, uh, areas.

[00:35:54.363 – 00:35:55.943] The University of Michigan did.

[00:35:55.943 – 00:36:01.643] Uh, uh, Wayne County, Cook County, many hospitals had alcoholism therapy wings.

[00:36:01.643 – 00:36:04.243] Now, here we brought you into the hospital.

[00:36:04.243 – 00:36:07.263] We got you through withdrawal one way or the other.

[00:36:07.263 – 00:36:10.303] And as I say, uh, uh, I think the statement made by Dr.

[00:36:10.303 – 00:36:20.883] Green, uh, before this platform even existed in this hospital was true even today, that most alcoholics survive not because of their treatment, but in spite of it, frankly, because,

[00:36:20.883 – 00:36:23.763] uh, medical detoxification is not too sharp yet.

[00:36:23.763 – 00:36:33.803] But we get you through detoxification, and then we move in the psychologist and the psychiatrist and the social worker and the legal aid and the, uh, debt aid, and, uh, all of these

[00:36:33.803 – 00:36:35.883] people would, uh, go to work on you.

[00:36:35.883 – 00:36:37.183] We’d get you back to health.

[00:36:37.183 – 00:36:39.043] We’d get your liver back to normal health.

[00:36:39.043 – 00:36:41.683] We’d get you back so your brain was functioning fine.

[00:36:41.683 – 00:36:43.423] Uh, your appetite was back.

[00:36:43.423 – 00:36:44.843] You were sleeping in good shape.

[00:36:44.843 – 00:36:46.943] Uh, your debts were straightened out.

[00:36:46.943 – 00:36:48.743] Your legal problems were straightened out.

[00:36:48.743 – 00:36:55.543] Uh, we’d give you vocational rehabilitation, and you know, take a practicing lawyer and teach him how to weld and all kinds of useful things like that.

[00:36:55.543 – 00:37:02.563] And finally, we’d have you at the door in three or four months, uh, absolutely a paragon of good health.

[00:37:02.563 – 00:37:03.903] No problems.

[00:37:03.903 – 00:37:07.103] Uh, absolutely ideal lifestyle.

[00:37:07.103 – 00:37:12.763] One that we felt no alcoholic in their right mind would trade in on another drink.

[00:37:12.763 – 00:37:17.023] Of course, in this whole period of time, nobody had bothered to tell the person not to take a drink.

[00:37:17.023 – 00:37:23.563] So they walked out the door of the hospital, ran into old George, their drinking buddy, who says, “Charlie, I haven’t seen you in weeks.

[00:37:23.563 – 00:37:30.043] Why don’t we go across to the tavern?” And lo and behold, there they are, smashed to the gills fifteen minutes after they’ve left the hospital.

[00:37:30.043 – 00:37:37.463] Well, you know, all of my colleagues got together, and we’re easy to threaten anyway, and we said, “You know, them alcoholics ain’t got no gratitude at all.

[00:37:37.463 – 00:37:39.282] We do all them nice things for them.

[00:37:39.282 – 00:37:40.683] We nurse them back to health.

[00:37:40.683 – 00:37:40.693] We do-“

[00:37:40.834 – 00:37:41.894] Solve all their problems.

[00:37:41.894 – 00:37:45.434] Uh, we do all of these great things for them, and they simply go out and get drunk.

[00:37:45.434 – 00:37:50.454] So we think we’ll shut down these things, and since they haven’t got any gratitude, we just won’t bother with them at all.

[00:37:50.454 – 00:38:01.274] Well, at about the same time, there was another school of thought that says, “You know, somebody ought to bother to tell these people not to drink,” which means that they had to alter their value systems so

[00:38:01.274 – 00:38:04.254] that they could adjust to better living without chemistry.

[00:38:04.254 – 00:38:08.074] Now, of course, these were low-budget operations like Brighton Hospital here.

[00:38:08.074 – 00:38:13.914] We used to sit up here and flip a coin to see who was gonna go out and get the day-old bread, who was gonna pay the phone bill, and so forth.

[00:38:13.914 – 00:38:19.034] This was a real low-cost, semi-volunteer kind of, uh, uh, operation.

[00:38:19.034 – 00:38:22.574] And we had people in here, and they went to AA meetings.

[00:38:22.574 – 00:38:32.594] They, they sat through lecture after lecture after lecture and talk after talk and group therapy, and finally, we produced people who were absolutely committed to

[00:38:32.594 – 00:38:33.634] not drinking again.

[00:38:33.634 – 00:38:38.034] They went out the door, and they were met with the bill collectors at the road.

[00:38:38.034 – 00:38:43.954] Uh, they made the one corner and were hit by the, uh, uh, uh, subpoena or the divorce decree.

[00:38:43.954 – 00:38:47.094] Uh, when they made the next corner, their liver fell out on the pavement.

[00:38:47.094 – 00:38:54.094] Their pa- pancreas shriveled up, and, you know, troubles like that would make anybody drink, so that they went out and got drunk in fairly good fashion, too.

[00:38:54.094 – 00:39:04.124] And it was only when we started combining both, which you see represented here at Brighton Hospital, where we handle the physical and the real, uh, lifestyle kind of problems and at the same

[00:39:04.124 – 00:39:10.974] time, uh, show you how to li- live life, uh, without better living through chemistry, that things seem to work.

[00:39:10.974 – 00:39:21.084] In fact, at this particular point, it looks as though the success rate on this kind of treatment approach, the approach that you have here, is beginning to very slowly edge up towards about 80%.

[00:39:21.084 – 00:39:26.494] But one of the most important things about treatment is what I’m going to talk about now.

[00:39:26.494 – 00:39:28.314] What happens when the person leaves?

[00:39:28.314 – 00:39:31.374] This is what we call aftercare.

[00:39:31.374 – 00:39:35.934] And frankly, we can do all kinds of things.

[00:39:35.934 – 00:39:43.334] We can have you come back here once a month and charge you $25 for a, a, a, a visit, and that’ll probably keep you sober for a while.

[00:39:43.334 – 00:39:48.614] Uh, we can have you come back and pay $10, uh, once a month and go through a group therapy session.

[00:39:48.614 – 00:39:50.174] That may keep you sober for a while.

[00:39:50.174 – 00:39:57.154] There are even people in this world that go back and pay $25 just to throw up once every three or four months, and that keeps them sober for a while.

[00:39:57.154 – 00:40:07.334] And routinely, every 20 years in Michigan, uh, some Korean, uh, gets his, uh, Ford battery coil charged up and goes out and starts electrocuting alcoholics

[00:40:07.334 – 00:40:12.374] while they’re drinking, and then you go back and get electrocuted every four months, uh, and that seems to work out for a while.

[00:40:12.374 – 00:40:22.994] But, you know, looking over all of these things, uh, one of the best aftercare systems that, uh, uh, we know of, and I’m talking about almost everyone in the field,

[00:40:22.994 – 00:40:24.254] is Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:40:24.254 – 00:40:33.094] Now, we really ignored doing something for a long time, which was simply to evaluate Alcoholics Anonymous so that we’d have something, uh, really to talk about.

[00:40:33.094 – 00:40:39.394] And, you know, there were many people who say, “Well, don’t go to AA,” because it was an amateur organization.

[00:40:39.394 – 00:40:41.454] It doesn’t have any scientific basis.

[00:40:41.454 – 00:40:46.774] It sort of grew by topsy, and it really isn’t dignified with a whole lot of science or anything else.

[00:40:46.774 – 00:40:51.354] Well, frankly, uh, AA had in its founders, uh, Dr.

[00:40:51.354 – 00:40:58.744] Carl Jung, who, along with Sigmund Freud, was probably one of the most noted psychiatrists of the day, so that there is some scientific footing.

[00:40:58.744 – 00:41:02.414] One of the original founding members was an MD himself.

[00:41:02.414 – 00:41:12.454] Several other MDs contributed to the thinking that went into AA, and the fundamental underlying, uh, thoughts of the 12 steps go back as far

[00:41:12.454 – 00:41:18.894] as 500 AD, so that they really have their roots very, very deep in man’s, uh, spiritual thinking.

[00:41:18.894 – 00:41:26.234] Well, this really means then that maybe AA, uh, didn’t arrive at a 40% success rate all by accident.

[00:41:26.234 – 00:41:30.054] There might be some things in there that make it a relatively useful tool.

[00:41:30.054 – 00:41:40.154] Well, I think we began to see this more as high-priced scientists like physicians and, uh, clergy and clinical psychologists and psychiatrists

[00:41:40.154 – 00:41:41.314] got to be alcoholic.

[00:41:41.314 – 00:41:44.094] Then we began to see the value of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:41:44.094 – 00:41:48.834] In fact, there are four psychiatrists, alcoholic psychiatrists, in this state.

[00:41:48.834 – 00:41:55.614] There are many more alcoholic psychiatrists, but there are four who are staying sober, and the only four who are staying sober are members of AA.

[00:41:55.614 – 00:42:00.894] So, uh, that gives you some kind of a way of measuring, uh, uh, this particular instrument.

[00:42:00.894 – 00:42:09.994] But let’s kind of take a look at AA as a, uh, as a treatment method then, rather than as a movement, and it may give you some clues as to how to better use it.

[00:42:09.994 – 00:42:18.754] Now, AA is really a three-sided treatment system, and part of this we really haven’t bothered to look at until just recent years.

[00:42:18.754 – 00:42:27.674] Now, the most obvious is simply how we stay abstinent or how we keep from taking the next drink.

[00:42:27.674 – 00:42:29.834] Now, I’ve already talked about this on Wednesday.

[00:42:29.834 – 00:42:31.394] This is the check mark system.

[00:42:31.394 – 00:42:41.594] This means that I go into a meeting, sit down at a table with nine or 10 other people who are alcoholic and say, “I’m sitting across from George, Charlie, John, Martha,

[00:42:41.594 – 00:42:51.634] and Jane because I am an alcoholic, and I don’t want to take my next drink.” If I do that regularly, if I do it earnestly, and if I do it every seven days, I’m not gonna take

[00:42:51.634 – 00:42:52.214] another drink.

[00:42:52.214 – 00:42:52.954] Well, that’s fine.

[00:42:52.954 – 00:42:54.074] Now I’m sober.

[00:42:54.074 – 00:42:59.534] I’m abstinent, but I really haven’t made much of any adjustment to, uh, a life without alcohol at all.

[00:42:59.534 – 00:43:05.394] So there certainly has to be a personal rehabilitation system.

[00:43:05.394 – 00:43:13.554] Now, alcoholism is one of those kinds of illnesses where we couldn’t hire anybody to follow you around all day long.

[00:43:13.554 – 00:43:19.294] Nobody could, uh, sleep under your bed, watch you every time you go downtown to keep you from having another drink.

[00:43:19.294 – 00:43:25.274] So frankly, you have to have some equipment, and you have to exert a great deal of the effort on your own behalf.

[00:43:25.274 – 00:43:35.694] And this is what these sometimes mystical and sometimes difficult-to-understand 12 steps are all about, and they’re not terribly hard to understand at all.

[00:43:35.694 – 00:43:44.634] Uh, you start at the beginning, and there’s the first step which says that if you aren’t– if, uh, if you, uh, don’t have a drinking problem, then you’re not inclined to do anything about it.

[00:43:44.634 – 00:43:53.398] Now, I want you to be very careful the next time you look at those 12 steps And there’s nothing about the first step that asks you to admit that you’re an alcoholic at all.

[00:43:53.398 – 00:44:00.018] It asks you to admit that you’re powerless over alcohol, so you can call yourself a setaholic if alcoholic makes you turn blue.

[00:44:00.018 – 00:44:09.578] Uh, but certainly, uh, to qualify to join this particularly unique sorority and fraternity, all you have to do is say, “I have a drinking problem.” Okay.

[00:44:09.578 – 00:44:13.018] Uh, once you’ve done that, you feel kind of guilty about the whole thing.

[00:44:13.018 – 00:44:19.118] And perhaps by coming to a place like Brighton, you can get things arranged around so that you feel less guilty about it.

[00:44:19.118 – 00:44:29.118] But even the best of us in a treatment center like this, with the kind of counseling that we have, is going to come out with just a little bit of tinge of guilt about being an

[00:44:29.118 – 00:44:29.818] alcoholic.

[00:44:29.818 – 00:44:36.298] Now, this is where we go into step two and three, which simply says, if you can’t handle it yourself, borrow a spiritual parachute.

[00:44:36.298 – 00:44:42.268] Turn anything that you can’t handle over to whatever higher power, uh, uh, you’re now doing business with.

[00:44:42.268 – 00:44:50.058] Uh, that kind of reminds me, excuse me, Father, of a joke over at Guest House, where a Jesuit priest fell over a cliff, and he was falling down.

[00:44:50.058 – 00:44:55.398] His life was fa- flashing before his eyes, you know, and all of a sudden he reached out and grabbed ahold of a branch.

[00:44:55.398 – 00:45:05.578] And here he is, 12,000 feet from the top of the mountain and 18,000 feet from the gulf down there, and he looks up into the heavens, and he says, uh, uh, “Is there anybody up there that can help me?” And the clouds part,

[00:45:05.578 – 00:45:15.818] you know, and a voice comes down and said, “Let go of the branch, my son.” And he thought that over for a while, and all of a sudden looked up and says, “Is there anybody else up there?” Uh, uh, frankly,

[00:45:15.818 – 00:45:21.638] as I say, uh, that’s why I say whatever higher power you happen to be doing business with at the right, at the present time.

[00:45:21.638 – 00:45:32.078] Uh, now, once you’ve gotten denial and guilt handled, uh, uh, you now get into the business I talked about of cleaning out the garage and cleaning out the drawers

[00:45:32.078 – 00:45:33.358] and cleaning out the basement.

[00:45:33.358 – 00:45:36.758] Uh, there’s a certain amount of wreckage that needs to be looked at.

[00:45:36.758 – 00:45:41.918] So what you do now is you open up the garage door and take a look and see what kinds of problems are in there.

[00:45:41.918 – 00:45:47.578] Uh, you pull open the drawers one at a time in a systematic way and see what kind of a mess you gotta deal with.

[00:45:47.578 – 00:45:52.718] Then you, uh, this is a rather traumatic kind of, uh, thing.

[00:45:52.718 – 00:46:02.718] So you, uh, again, uh, whatever you can’t handle on your own, you turn over to another spiritual parachute and, uh, uh, have the whatever guilt and so forth is engendered, uh, taken

[00:46:02.718 – 00:46:03.658] care of in that fashion.

[00:46:03.658 – 00:46:06.098] Then you have to do something about it.

[00:46:06.098 – 00:46:10.438] You know, it isn’t, it isn’t, uh, the whole job to look in the drawer and see that it’s dirty.

[00:46:10.438 – 00:46:11.538] You gotta clean it up.

[00:46:11.538 – 00:46:20.978] So now you go through, uh, a rather, uh, well, uh, time-worn system that has worked out successfully for dealing with the wreckage.

[00:46:20.978 – 00:46:28.698] And finally, when it’s all done, and what you can’t deal with, we also, again, use a spiritual parachute to pass it on to get rid of it.

[00:46:28.698 – 00:46:30.898] And finally, you get to the 12 step.

[00:46:30.898 – 00:46:38.238] Now, there’s an awful lot of people who leave Brighton Hospital and would like to go from the first to the 12 step and not bother with all that nonsense in between.

[00:46:38.238 – 00:46:47.998] But it’s quite necessary because the 12 step really isn’t going to occur to you in its best and most fruitful form until you’ve been sober for a year or two.

[00:46:47.998 – 00:46:57.998] And one morning you’re gonna get up and look in the mirror and say, “You know, by golly, I’m grateful I’m alive, and I’m grateful to those people who took me out to Brighton Hospital, and I’m grateful to

[00:46:57.998 – 00:47:02.118] those people who treated me, and I’m grateful to every one of those people who have helped me ever since.

[00:47:02.118 – 00:47:12.277] And I would like to express this gratitude.” And all of a sudden, you come to the horrible realization that there is no way that you can pay back those people who were instrumental in helping you.

[00:47:12.277 – 00:47:22.498] Now, they’ve all either been sober longer than you have, they got more money than you’ve got, they’re driving better cars than you’ve got, or they would be embarrassed if you tried to, uh, show your gratitude

[00:47:22.498 – 00:47:23.038] in any way.

[00:47:23.038 – 00:47:28.998] Now we’ve got a major need to show people that we are really grateful and no way of expressing it.

[00:47:28.998 – 00:47:36.438] Now, I’ll say this, that to be able to express it without causing problems is one of the experiences in your life that you would never forget.

[00:47:36.438 – 00:47:42.498] One of the men who were instrumental, in fact, he was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Hospital.

[00:47:42.498 – 00:47:52.518] Uh, he was the man who said, “Why don’t you go down to that bunch down at the YMCA on Wednesday night?” And, uh, then he acted as my cheering section till, uh, I got through with, you know, “Uh, what are you

[00:47:52.518 – 00:47:53.298] doing down here, kid?

[00:47:53.298 – 00:48:03.388] Why don’t you go out and drink, uh, for maybe 10 more years, and then we’ll let you in.” Or, “I’ve spilled more than you’ve drank in your lifetime,” and all that kind of stuff, because, you know, they didn’t use to have a kindergarten for AA in the old

[00:48:03.388 – 00:48:03.798] days.

[00:48:03.798 – 00:48:09.078] Uh, but very frankly, the son of this man developed the pro- problem about 10 years later.

[00:48:09.078 – 00:48:13.237] He was a mayor of one of the small towns over here, and I was able to help him out.

[00:48:13.237 – 00:48:17.318] And as I say, that kind of gratitude just defies all kinds of de- description.

[00:48:17.318 – 00:48:20.678] But you’ve still gotta have a way for this gratitude to go.

[00:48:20.678 – 00:48:24.458] And where it goes is into a rather interesting banking system.

[00:48:24.458 – 00:48:31.438] You know, when you were down, when you needed help, there were a whole lot of us around who were ready and strong enough to help you.

[00:48:31.438 – 00:48:40.748] We reached down, we gave you the time, we gave you the understanding, we gave you the things that you needed most, uh, to turn yourself around and head on to a life of sobriety.

[00:48:40.748 – 00:48:46.098] Now, as I say, at the time you’re ready to pay this back, all of us are in pretty good shape.

[00:48:46.098 – 00:48:47.958] We had to be to help you in the first place.

[00:48:47.958 – 00:48:53.738] But we have it on very good authority that by that time, we’re not gonna run out of new alcoholics.

[00:48:53.738 – 00:49:03.768] There are still gonna be plenty of them around, and all we expect you to do is to pay back into this pool, this bank from which you made the withdrawal, the very same kind of help and

[00:49:03.768 – 00:49:06.618] understanding and consideration that you got in the first place.

[00:49:06.618 – 00:49:09.018] And that’s what the, uh, 12 step is all about.

[00:49:09.018 – 00:49:19.058] Now, finally, the area that nobody talks about, and this is the general rehabilitation activities that go on in AA.

[00:49:19.058 – 00:49:26.418] Now, one of the things that happens in an alcoholic’s life is that he kind of gets, or she kind of gets, the values upside down.

[00:49:26.418 – 00:49:36.418] You know, when you’re trying to convince people you don’t have a problem when you’re dying, when you’re trying to con- convince people you are sober when two officers in their right mind arrested you,

[00:49:36.418 – 00:49:46.418] when you’re trying to con a judge out of taking your driver’s license away, when you’re trying to con an employer out of firing you, when obviously he’s got all the evidence, you’ve got 14 wheelbarrows full of notes that

[00:49:46.418 – 00:49:50.458] they’ve taken on you, you know, you really have your values up, uh, inverted a little bit.

[00:49:50.458 – 00:49:54.318] And most alcoholics aren’t invested with a great deal of honesty.

[00:49:54.318 – 00:49:58.294] Now, this really isn’t a closed meeting, staying sober kind of activity.

[00:49:58.294 – 00:50:08.294] You know, you’re sitting around the coffee back there, and you say, “Gee, I think I’m going to go into bu- business with Clarence,” you know, and they say, “Well, gee, that’s great.” “And this is the way I’m going to set it up.” And somebody says, “Wait

[00:50:08.294 – 00:50:08.634] a minute.

[00:50:08.634 – 00:50:10.344] Do you realize what you’re doing to Clarence?

[00:50:10.344 – 00:50:12.674] You’re going to clip his wings in pretty bad shape.

[00:50:12.674 – 00:50:22.974] You’re playing some of your old tricks.” Uh, or you, uh, uh, begin to discuss something in general, uh, uh, uh, like, uh, weight or smoking, and it becomes

[00:50:22.974 – 00:50:27.874] quite obvious that your, your whole, uh, rationalization, uh, system is all upside down.

[00:50:27.874 – 00:50:35.094] And there are a lot of people who in AA will, with a great deal of charity and with a great deal of generosity, tell you that you’re full of it up to your ears.

[00:50:35.094 – 00:50:37.274] So we get our honesty tested every day.

[00:50:37.274 – 00:50:40.474] Uh, we get confronted on a systematic sort of basis.

[00:50:40.474 – 00:50:43.534] And we get ourselves straightened out simply through practice.

[00:50:43.534 – 00:50:49.694] Now, the next thing that we have problems with is in the social area.

[00:50:49.694 – 00:50:59.954] For those people who have been alcoholic for, oh, two, five, 10, 15 years, you know, to be a good practicing alcoholic, one has to,

[00:50:59.954 – 00:51:02.153] uh, take up social drinking alone.

[00:51:02.153 – 00:51:09.434] One has to isolate, uh, yourself rather effectively from, uh, society around you and those people who make you feel guilty and nervous.

[00:51:09.434 – 00:51:18.134] So that frankly, every recovering alcoholic is very much like those kids who just came back from Vietnam, from being in a prisoner of war camp for four or five years.

[00:51:18.134 – 00:51:21.394] We have forgotten how to deal with other people.

[00:51:21.394 – 00:51:27.674] We’ve, uh, made such a study out of driving them away that we haven’t got a whole lot of skills as to how to deal with them at all.

[00:51:27.674 – 00:51:37.934] So the average person going into an AA group sits down at the table and begins to look at his shoes under the table, you know, kind of looks around the table to make sure that they’re not going to, you know, uh,

[00:51:37.934 – 00:51:42.354] have any human sacrifices or, uh, observe any, uh, dark rites or anything.

[00:51:42.354 – 00:51:47.094] And, you know, after about five or six weeks of this, they look around and say, “You know, these people aren’t half bad at all.

[00:51:47.094 – 00:51:57.194] I could be friends with any one of them, and they seem to be quite warm and charitable.” And finally, after about, you know, four or five or six weeks, you’re sitting at a table with eight or nine friends.

[00:51:57.194 – 00:51:59.434] Now, that’s a new experience altogether.

[00:51:59.434 – 00:52:02.653] You know, there’s a lot of difference between friends and drinking buddies.

[00:52:02.653 – 00:52:04.434] And these people care about me.

[00:52:04.434 – 00:52:07.794] These people are willing to listen to me when I’m talking through my head.

[00:52:07.794 – 00:52:11.894] These people are willing to, uh, uh, offer all kinds of support.

[00:52:11.894 – 00:52:13.774] I can trust these people.

[00:52:13.774 – 00:52:23.854] And you know, that’s a very difficult thing for an alcoholic to do, is to trust somebody else, especially when, uh, you come from a life where you had to preserve your, uh, supply and where you had to,

[00:52:23.854 – 00:52:32.154] uh, uh, really worry about a great deal of problems about preservation and securing and, uh, placing strategically supplies of alcohol.

[00:52:32.154 – 00:52:42.154] So finally, at the time that you’ve learned to trust eight or nine other people, finally, when you’ve learned how to make friends again, you think you’re really doing well, and somebody comes along and taps you on the shoulder and

[00:52:42.154 – 00:52:46.134] says, “We have selected you to chair our next open meeting.” Boom.

[00:52:46.134 – 00:52:49.514] Me, up in front of all of those people that I don’t know?

[00:52:49.514 – 00:52:51.654] Well, usually it’s done like this.

[00:52:51.654 – 00:52:54.994] They adhesive tape a broom handle to your back so you won’t collapse.

[00:52:54.994 – 00:52:59.174] Uh, somebody usually has to hold the paper so you don’t shake it so loud in the loudspeaker.

[00:52:59.174 – 00:53:03.934] Your voice may go, so somebody has to ghost talk from behind the curtains in the front of the stage.

[00:53:03.934 – 00:53:06.684] But by one method or another, we get you through this.

[00:53:06.684 – 00:53:13.494] And lo and behold, there I was, able to handle a whole room full of people, half of whom I didn’t know, and do it successfully.

[00:53:13.494 – 00:53:17.554] So gradually, bit by bit, we learn that people aren’t all bad.

[00:53:17.554 – 00:53:20.074] We learn how to handle social situation.

[00:53:20.074 – 00:53:21.694] We go out, and we try them out.

[00:53:21.694 – 00:53:24.594] Some of them don’t work, so we come back and try again.

[00:53:24.594 – 00:53:34.334] But eventually, in exactly the same way that we take a person who’s been marooned on a desert island for five years, we slowly teach you how to become a member of the human race.

[00:53:34.334 – 00:53:36.274] Now comes the capper.

[00:53:36.274 – 00:53:41.854] Do you realize what a simple life an alcoholic’s got?

[00:53:41.854 – 00:53:44.514] The sun comes up in the morning, you get drunk.

[00:53:44.514 – 00:53:46.494] Uh, you get hired, you get drunk.

[00:53:46.494 – 00:53:47.913] You get promoted, you get drunk.

[00:53:47.913 – 00:53:49.294] You get fired, you get drunk.

[00:53:49.294 – 00:53:50.754] You get demoted, you get drunk.

[00:53:50.754 – 00:53:52.094] It’s Wednesday, you get drunk.

[00:53:52.094 – 00:53:53.574] Uh, the sun’s up, you get drunk.

[00:53:53.574 – 00:53:54.834] It’s raining, you get drunk.

[00:53:54.834 – 00:53:56.834] It doesn’t matter what happens.

[00:53:56.834 – 00:53:59.934] Uh, we have one solution for every problem.

[00:53:59.934 – 00:54:09.234] Now, maybe you haven’t thought of this, but when you go out that door, uh, sort of halfway committed to staying sober a day at a time, you’ve given up all of those solutions.

[00:54:09.234 – 00:54:12.633] You now have to develop a different solution for every one of those problems.

[00:54:12.633 – 00:54:15.614] That’s a rather chilling kind of thought.

[00:54:15.614 – 00:54:20.514] I’ve got now about 30 million problems that I’m going to have to develop a new solution.

[00:54:20.514 – 00:54:22.114] Well, you’re going to go into an AA meeting.

[00:54:22.114 – 00:54:23.874] Your knees are going to be shaking.

[00:54:23.874 – 00:54:26.474] You’re not sure whether you’re going to be able to make it at all.

[00:54:26.474 – 00:54:34.134] And you start ticking off one of these problems, and somebody says, “You know, I had the same problem, and this is what I did about it.” And this doesn’t solve your problem.

[00:54:34.134 – 00:54:35.514] It isn’t as simple as that.

[00:54:35.514 – 00:54:36.894] But it does do one thing.

[00:54:36.894 – 00:54:41.794] It says that another human being had the same problem, therefore I’m not all alone.

[00:54:41.794 – 00:54:45.794] And being alone is an alcoholic’s ma– one of the alcoholic’s major problems.

[00:54:45.794 – 00:54:54.254] Number two, that person is a human being just like me and was able to solve it, so therefore there’s hope for every one of these very knotty problems that I’ve got.

[00:54:54.254 – 00:55:04.594] So the two things that AA sells, uh, uh, in generous quantities at every meeting is hope and the fact that you, uh, know that there are probably going to be,

[00:55:04.594 – 00:55:07.094] uh, uh, many people who have shared the same kind of problem.

[00:55:07.094 – 00:55:17.194] Now, the next thing to do is to run around and have several people give you a bit here, you know, a spark plug here, a distributor there, and eventually you put together your own solution for every problem.

[00:55:17.194 – 00:55:20.574] You go out, and you test run it on the track of life.

[00:55:20.574 – 00:55:29.894] Uh, it may blow up, and you have to come back to the garage and build a new one, but eventually, you’re going to put together bit by bit a new solution for every one of these problems.

[00:55:29.894 – 00:55:33.094] If you don’t, you’re going to be right back in trouble again.

[00:55:33.094 – 00:55:43.354] Well, frankly, if I can go out and for a dollar a week, uh, get me a system that’s going to protect me against my psychological drive to drink so that I eventually

[00:55:43.354 – 00:55:45.834] will have very little, if any, real impulse to drink.

[00:55:45.834 – 00:55:53.914] It’s going to give me a basic philosophy of life that’s going to allow me not only to handle my alcoholism, but a great number of other major problems as well.

[00:55:53.914 – 00:56:00.794] And it is going to put me into an organization that’s going to keep my, uh, intellectual honesty right up on the snuff.

[00:56:00.794 – 00:56:04.854] It’s going to allow me to adjust back to a life with the mainstream of the world.

[00:56:04.854 – 00:56:10.134] And it’s going to, uh, give me the answers to cope with all of these hundreds of thousands of problems.

[00:56:10.134 – 00:56:12.634] You know, a system like that can’t be all bad.

[00:56:12.634 – 00:56:22.834] And the more people who begin to look at AA as a treatment model, the more people are going to stand up in front of groups like this and say, “This is the one treatment method

[00:56:22.834 – 00:56:28.374] that we can all uniformly recommend and hope that you’ll use.” And with that, I think we’d better adjourn for chow.

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