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[00:00:00.860 – 00:00:07.840] And we've had medical people, spiritual people throughout our history try to determine what alcoholism is. [00:00:07.840 – 00:00:10.140] There was a doctor named Dr. [00:00:10.140 – 00:00:20.230] Trotter that lived in England a long time ago, and he said that, "I believe alcoholism is an illness," but he couldn't explain what it was, [00:00:20.230 – 00:00:21.900] therefore they didn't have an answer for it. [00:00:21.900 – 00:00:22.800] Can you get a microphone? [00:00:22.800 – 00:00:23.000] Yeah. [00:00:23.000 – 00:00:24.619] We're having a little trouble hearing you.

[00:00:24.619 – 00:00:25.000] We'll try. [00:00:25.000 – 00:00:29.380] There was a doctor that lived here in the United States named Dr. [00:00:29.380 – 00:00:30.380] Benjamin Rush. [00:00:30.380 – 00:00:32.800] He's one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. [00:00:32.800 – 00:00:39.220] He wrote a paper on alcoholism, described the alcoholic, and he said he felt it was an illness, too. [00:00:39.220 – 00:00:43.400] But he couldn't name what it was, he couldn't determine it, so he had no solution. [00:00:43.400 – 00:00:50.460] It's only in this century that we have been able to find out what alcoholism is.

[00:00:50.460 – 00:00:55.599] And then once we found out what it is, then we could find a solution to it. [00:00:55.599 – 00:01:05.720] You know, I don't think we alcoholics today who are in AA realize how lucky, lucky we really are to be living in the period of time [00:01:05.720 – 00:01:11.520] when we found out what alcoholism is and we found out the solution to it. [00:01:11.520 – 00:01:22.180] And as I look at our history, which we're gonna be doing a lot of this weekend, I'm convinced in my mind that God got tired of seeing people like us die from alcoholism. [00:01:22.180 – 00:01:32.200] And He took various different people from around the world and gave us these pieces of information that allows us to recover [00:01:32.200 – 00:01:33.600] from that condition today. [00:01:33.600 – 00:01:38.030] And I think one of the first persons that He used was this little doctor called Dr.

[00:01:38.030 – 00:01:38.880] Silkworth. [00:01:38.880 – 00:01:40.760] When Dr. [00:01:40.760 – 00:01:44.560] Silkworth was in medical school, he became very interested in we alcoholics. [00:01:44.560 – 00:01:53.700] But when he got out of medical sch- medical school, he learned, like most doctors did, it was very difficult to make a living working with alcoholics. [00:01:53.700 – 00:01:57.560] Most doctors do not like to work with alcoholics. [00:01:57.560 – 00:02:03.180] They said then and they say today that an alcoholic will not tell you the truth. [00:02:03.180 – 00:02:05.800] That's certainly true, isn't it?

[00:02:05.800 – 00:02:12.280] And they said they will not do what we tell them to do, and that's certainly true, isn't it? [00:02:12.280 – 00:02:16.800] But they said the main reason we don't want to work with them is they won't pay their bills. [00:02:16.800 – 00:02:20.960] So Dr. [00:02:20.960 – 00:02:30.140] Silkworth, in order to find a way to make a living, had to go off into another field, but always interested in we alcoholics. [00:02:30.140 – 00:02:32.600] And he became very successful in his field. [00:02:32.600 – 00:02:41.280] But in the late, late 1930s or not 1920s, we had, of course, the great stock market crash. [00:02:41.280 – 00:02:48.160] And Silky had everything he owned invested in the stock market, and he lost it just like everybody else did.

[00:02:48.160 – 00:02:52.940] Lost the good job he had, and he had to find a job somewhere. [00:02:52.940 – 00:03:02.920] And Charlie Towns from the Towns Hospital, who Silky had met before through his interest on, in alcoholics, offered him a job. [00:03:02.920 – 00:03:13.340] And he said, "Why don't you come to work here and I'll pay you thirty dollars a week and room and board, and you can help me in working w- with other alcoholic or working with alcoholics." So [00:03:13.340 – 00:03:23.380] Silky went to work in the Towns Hospital in 1930, and he began to work with people like us, and he began to see us come into the hospital, terrible, [00:03:23.380 – 00:03:25.160] terrible physical and mental condition. [00:03:25.160 – 00:03:35.220] And he began to withdraw us from alcohol, build the body up and et cetera, and sixty or n- thirty, sixty, ninety days later, he would see us leave the hospital in reasonably [00:03:35.220 – 00:03:35.860] good shape.

[00:03:35.860 – 00:03:41.720] And then a month or two or three or four later, he'd see us come back in in worse shape than we were before. [00:03:41.720 – 00:03:45.440] Continually going in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out. [00:03:45.440 – 00:03:52.320] He also noticed some people that he worked with who drank like we drank, but did not go in and out, and in and out, and in and out. [00:03:52.320 – 00:03:57.880] He also noticed other people who drank moderately and safely. [00:03:57.880 – 00:04:02.800] And he began to say there's something different about these alcoholics. [00:04:02.800 – 00:04:04.780] There's something different about the body. [00:04:04.780 – 00:04:10.780] Apparently, alcohol does something to them that it doesn't do to normal people.

[00:04:10.780 – 00:04:20.880] And he began to develop this little idea that when you put alcohol in your body, it produces an actual physical craving that makes it impossible for us to stop [00:04:20.880 – 00:04:21.399] drinking. [00:04:21.399 – 00:04:27.180] But he also said even in those days, that's not the real problem with the alcoholic. [00:04:27.180 – 00:04:32.020] He said the real problem is that the alcoholic cannot keep from drinking. [00:04:32.020 – 00:04:41.840] He said, people who are heavy drinkers, people who are moderate drinkers, if they want to quit drinking, they just quit and it doesn't bother them at all. [00:04:41.840 – 00:04:52.160] But he said, it seems as though the alcoholic, after they quit, the mind begins to play tricks on them and begins to think about [00:04:52.160 – 00:04:54.140] one or two drinks and how it makes them feel.

[00:04:54.140 – 00:05:03.490] And he said that idea becomes so powerful that it overcomes the idea that they can't drink, and they take a drink and end up drunk every time. [00:05:03.490 – 00:05:11.560] He said, now, if you can't drink safely and if you can't keep from drinking, then you're powerless over alcohol. [00:05:11.560 – 00:05:20.110] Now, we don't know whether Bill Wilson is the first one he told that to or not, but we know Bill is probably the first one to act on that information. [00:05:20.110 – 00:05:23.700] Then after Bill got sober, and after Dr. [00:05:23.700 – 00:05:33.590] Bob got sober, and after Bill Dodson got sober, and after The First Forty got sober based on that information and decided to write the book, they went to see Dr. [00:05:33.590 – 00:05:43.600] Silkworth and said, "Will you let us put that information in the book so that other alcoholics can see what their problem is, too?" And they said, "Will you write some of it [00:05:43.600 – 00:05:53.680] for us?" And the doctor said, "Yeah, you can use it, and I'll write some of it under one condition: that we will call it the doctor's opinion."

[00:05:53.680 – 00:05:54.780] He said, "I can't prove it. [00:05:54.780 – 00:06:04.892] There's no facts behind it, so we'll just have to call it an opinion." And he said, "By the way, don't use my name." He said, "They'll [00:06:04.892 – 00:06:15.052] throw me completely out of the medical profession if you use my name on this deal." In 1956, when they came out with the second edition, [00:06:15.052 – 00:06:18.022] 1955 and '56, they came out with the second edition. [00:06:18.022 – 00:06:27.292] By that time, the Medical Association, the American Psychi- Psychiatric Association, had recognized the fact that alcoholism is an illness. [00:06:27.292 – 00:06:28.752] And Dr. [00:06:28.752 – 00:06:38.752] Silkworth said in the second edition, "You can put my name in it now." So for the second and third, you've got Silkworth, but in here you don't.

[00:06:38.752 – 00:06:41.652] Let's look at what the doctor had to say for just a little bit. [00:06:41.652 – 00:06:43.872] Let's go to Roman numeral page 24. [00:06:43.872 – 00:06:46.272] That's XXIV. [00:06:46.272 – 00:06:50.572] And I didn't know that when I got sober. [00:06:50.572 – 00:06:59.022] He said, "The physician who at our request gave us this letter has been kind enough to enlarge upon his views in another statement which follows. [00:06:59.022 – 00:07:09.332] In this statement, he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe, that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind." [00:07:09.332 – 00:07:17.892] Now, we know there's no must in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, but there are a lot of musts in this book called Alcoholics Anonymous, and there's one of the first one.

[00:07:17.892 – 00:07:25.092] We must believe that the body is, uh, of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as the mind. [00:07:25.092 – 00:07:34.672] Now, this is the first time we can find anywhere in written history a reference to the fact that the body is affected as well as the mind. [00:07:34.672 – 00:07:39.652] Everything up until this time, they have talked about the mind only. [00:07:39.652 – 00:07:44.372] Weak will, moral character, sin, and et cetera. [00:07:44.372 – 00:07:50.692] But here we says that, see a statement that says the body is quite as abnormal as the mind. [00:07:50.692 – 00:08:00.652] I think he's telling us two things, that the body is affected also, but I think he's also saying the mind is abnormal when it comes to alcohol. [00:08:00.652 – 00:08:07.592] We react to it different physically and also mentally in an abnormal manner.

[00:08:07.592 – 00:08:09.792] And we'll talk about both of those. [00:08:09.792 – 00:08:12.772] The first one we're gonna look at is the body. [00:08:12.772 – 00:08:23.112] It said, "It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality or were outright mental defectives. [00:08:23.112 – 00:08:28.752] Now, these things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us." You betcha. [00:08:28.752 – 00:08:29.972] Yeah. [00:08:29.972 – 00:08:32.612] "But we're sure that our bodies were sickened as well. [00:08:32.612 – 00:08:38.612] In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.

[00:08:38.612 – 00:08:42.112] The doctor's theory that we have an allergy to alcohol interests us. [00:08:42.112 – 00:08:49.512] As laymen, our opinions to its soundness may, of course, mean little, but as ex-problem drinkers, we can say this explanation makes good sense. [00:08:49.512 – 00:08:59.692] It explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account." Now, if the purpose of a textbook is to transfer information from the mind of one human being [00:08:59.692 – 00:09:09.912] through the written word to the mind of another human being, then it stands to reason the transference of that information is gonna be based upon the understanding of the words [00:09:09.912 – 00:09:10.692] that are used. [00:09:10.692 – 00:09:20.732] If the writer of the book uses a certain word and understands it this way, the reader of the book reads that word and understands it this way, [00:09:20.732 – 00:09:26.892] a different understanding, then the information that comes through is gonna be garbled and incomplete information.

[00:09:26.892 – 00:09:33.362] And there seems to be a few key words in the big book that many of us have had difficulty with. [00:09:33.362 – 00:09:39.392] And I think the first word we've had a real problem with is this word allergy. [00:09:39.392 – 00:09:43.972] You know, most of us when we come here, we assume already we know what an allergy is. [00:09:43.972 – 00:09:44.692] I know I did. [00:09:44.692 – 00:09:54.992] And I knew if you were allergic to something, and you got around it or you ate it or you drank it or something like that, that there would be some physical [00:09:54.992 – 00:09:58.352] manifestation or indicator of that allergy. [00:09:58.352 – 00:10:07.332] For instance, if you eat strawberries and you're allergic to them, you'll break out in a rash, the rash being the manifestation of that allergy.

[00:10:07.332 – 00:10:16.032] If you're allergic to milk and you drink it, you'll have a bad case of dysentery, the dysentery being the manifestation of that allergy. [00:10:16.032 – 00:10:23.712] If you're allergic to certain plants such as ragweeds and you get around them, your eyes, nose itch, water, and you start sneezing. [00:10:23.712 – 00:10:29.572] The itchy, watery eyes, nose, and the sneezing, that's the manifestation of that allergy. [00:10:29.572 – 00:10:35.832] So I knew if you were allergic to something, there would be something there that you could see. [00:10:35.832 – 00:10:39.852] So they came to me and they said, "Charlie, you've got an allergy to alcohol. [00:10:39.852 – 00:10:45.792] You'll never be able to safely drink it again." And I said, "How in the hell can I be allergic to alcohol? [00:10:45.792 – 00:10:53.852] I'm drinking a quart a day." How can you possibly drink that much of something you're allergic to?

[00:10:53.852 – 00:11:04.002] And I said, "Besides that, when I drink alcohol, I don't break out in a rash, and I don't have a bad case of dysentery." Once in a while I might, [00:11:04.002 – 00:11:06.532] depending on what I'd been drinking, but usually I didn't. [00:11:06.532 – 00:11:09.641] Nor did it make my eyes, nose itch. [00:11:09.992 – 00:11:11.102] Water and cause me to sneeze. [00:11:11.102 – 00:11:12.992] And I said, "I don't understand what you're talking about. [00:11:12.992 – 00:11:22.892] You need to explain that to me." And they said, "Well, you don't need to understand." They said, "All you gotta know is you can't drink it." Well, today, I think I know why they told me that. [00:11:22.892 – 00:11:26.432] I don't think they understood it a bit better than I did.

[00:11:26.432 – 00:11:35.672] And I went from person to person to person to person trying to get somebody to explain this allergy to me, and all they would say is, "What difference does it make? [00:11:35.672 – 00:11:37.512] Forget the damned allergy. [00:11:37.512 – 00:11:39.492] Don't drink, and you'll be all right. [00:11:39.492 – 00:11:48.562] Keep coming to meetings." Now, if you're, if you're an alcoholic like I am with a keen intellectual alcoholic mind- … [00:11:48.562 – 00:11:54.492] and you get a question like that dangling out here in front of you, if you don't get the answer to it, sooner or later, it's gonna drive you out of your mind. [00:11:54.492 – 00:12:01.212] And one day, in sheer desperation, I went to a source of information that has never failed me since that time. [00:12:01.212 – 00:12:02.432] I went to the dictionary.

[00:12:02.432 – 00:12:12.452] And I looked up the word allergy, and I found several different definitions of it, the, the way you do with any word, depending on how you use it, but I think I found the one that [00:12:12.452 – 00:12:21.292] fit me exactly when it said an allergy is an abnormal reaction to any food, beverage, or substance of any kind. [00:12:21.292 – 00:12:23.792] An abnormal reaction. [00:12:23.792 – 00:12:33.532] So I began to look back over my drinking history to see where I was abnormal, and to my amazement, I didn't– I found out I don't know what's normal and what's abnormal. [00:12:33.532 – 00:12:41.912] The only thing I knew about drinking was the way I drank and the way those people drank who drank with me, and if they didn't drink like I did, we didn't drink together. [00:12:41.912 – 00:12:52.272] So to find out what's normal to see if I'm abnormal, I have to go to the normal social temperate moderate drinker, those who drink alcohol [00:12:52.272 – 00:12:54.832] and do not get in trouble with it.

[00:12:54.832 – 00:13:02.132] And I asked them to describe to me how they feel when they take a drink, and they said, "Well, we come home from work tired, tense, wrought up from the day's work. [00:13:02.132 – 00:13:04.391] We can have a couple of drinks before dinner. [00:13:04.391 – 00:13:07.072] We begin to get a relaxing, comfortable feeling. [00:13:07.072 – 00:13:15.912] We'll go ahead and have dinner, and we probably won't drink anymore that night." Well, I don't feel that way when I drink alcohol. [00:13:15.912 – 00:13:24.772] Whenever I take a drink of alcohol, it passes over my lips. [00:13:24.772 – 00:13:27.332] My lips begin to tingle immediately. [00:13:27.332 – 00:13:30.552] Hits my teeth, and they kind of chatter up and down.

[00:13:30.552 – 00:13:35.392] Strikes my tongue, and I can feel it begin to grow and expand and swell. [00:13:35.392 – 00:13:38.612] Hits my cheeks, and they kind of flutter in and out. [00:13:38.612 – 00:13:49.592] At the same time, it's passing through my sinus cavities up into my forehead, and I begin to get a feeling up here in my forehead, which is absolutely indescribably wonderful. [00:13:49.592 – 00:13:51.252] Now, I haven't even swallowed the damn stuff yet. [00:13:51.252 – 00:13:52.202] I just got it in my mouth. [00:13:52.202 – 00:13:57.992] When I swallow that alcohol, it starts down through my esophagus. [00:13:57.992 – 00:13:59.672] Great things begin to take place.

[00:13:59.672 – 00:14:03.952] The first thing that happens is my chest begins to grow and expand and gets bigger and bigger. [00:14:03.952 – 00:14:07.572] Hits my stomach and just literally explodes like a bomb. [00:14:07.572 – 00:14:11.362] Immediately, I feel it racing through my arms, and they get longer and longer. [00:14:11.362 – 00:14:14.332] Hits my hands and fingers, and they begin to tingle and vibrate. [00:14:14.332 – 00:14:17.612] Same time it's racing through my arms, it's racing through my legs. [00:14:17.612 – 00:14:18.672] They're getting longer and longer. [00:14:18.672 – 00:14:25.972] I'm getting taller and taller, and it hits my feet and toes, and they get a hot, intense, burning, exciting, get up and go somewhere and do something feeling.

[00:14:25.972 – 00:14:31.672] I don't understand a comfortable, relaxing feeling when you have a drink. [00:14:31.672 – 00:14:39.632] I- These people told me something that blew my mind for me. [00:14:39.632 – 00:14:50.322] They said, "Charlie, whenever we have a couple of drinks, we begin to experience a feeling of [00:14:50.322 – 00:15:00.432] rest or, or feel, a feeling of dizziness, a feeling of being out of control." And they said, "We don't like that feeling." "Therefore, one [00:15:00.432 – 00:15:08.302] or two drinks is all we want to drink." How many times have you and I tried to get them to drink more, and they say, "Oh, no, no, I feel this already"? [00:15:08.302 – 00:15:12.552] Or, or, or, or, "No, no, no, no, no, this is making me dizzy. [00:15:12.552 – 00:15:17.712] I don't want any more." Well, today, I realize that's the normal reaction to alcohol.

[00:15:17.712 – 00:15:22.732] You see, for most people, when they put alcohol in the system, it hits the stomach. [00:15:22.732 – 00:15:29.852] It immediately goes into the bloodstream, immediately goes to the brain, and for a normal drinker, it acts as a downer. [00:15:29.852 – 00:15:31.371] It's a sedative. [00:15:31.371 – 00:15:35.892] It is supposed to give them a slightly tipsy out of control feeling. [00:15:35.892 – 00:15:45.872] Now, when it goes into my stomach, into my bloodstream, into my brain, instead of me getting a slightly tipsy out of control feeling, alcohol for me acts as an upper. [00:15:45.872 – 00:15:46.732] It's a stimulant. [00:15:46.732 – 00:15:51.972] And my brain gets a very exciting in control feeling.

[00:15:51.972 – 00:15:52.992] Mm-hmm. [00:15:52.992 – 00:15:55.032] They have two drinks, and they want to go to bed. [00:15:55.032 – 00:15:58.652] I have two drinks, and by God, I want to go to town immediately. [00:15:58.652 – 00:16:03.172] So I react to it differently mentally. [00:16:03.172 – 00:16:13.552] And another thing they told me is that when we have a couple of drinks, not only we get a slightly tipsy out of control feeling, they said we begin to experience [00:16:13.552 – 00:16:15.052] a feeling of nausea. [00:16:15.052 – 00:16:23.512] And they say, "We don't like that feeling, and therefore, one or two drinks is all we want to take." How many times have you tried to get them to drink more and they say, "Oh, no, no, no.

[00:16:23.512 – 00:16:24.812] This is making me sick. [00:16:24.812 – 00:16:25.872] I don't want any more of it"? [00:16:25.872 – 00:16:28.872] That's the normal reaction to alcohol. [00:16:28.872 – 00:16:33.192] Alcohol is a toxic substance, a destroyer of human tissue. [00:16:33.192 – 00:16:44.312] When you put it in your body, your mind and your body is supposed to react to it with nausea and say, "Puke it up and get it out of here." When I put it in my body, instead [00:16:44.312 – 00:16:54.272] of my body experience a feeling of nausea, my body experiences an actual physical craving which demands more of the same. [00:16:54.272 – 00:17:04.812] Their body said, "Puke it up," mine said, "Put some more in here." So not only do I react to it differently mentally, but I also react to it differently physically.

[00:17:04.812 – 00:17:09.272] Now, the only difference between normal and abnormal is what do the majority of the people do. [00:17:09.272 – 00:17:17.852] If the majority, nine out of ten, react that way, one out of ten reacts the way I do, then my reaction is considered to be abnormal. [00:17:17.852 – 00:17:20.652] Therefore, I'm considered to be allergic to alcohol. [00:17:20.652 – 00:17:21.492] You can't see it. [00:17:21.492 – 00:17:26.816] You can only feel it, and only alcoholics feel it. [00:17:26.816 – 00:17:29.376] You see, I kept looking for the rash. [00:17:29.376 – 00:17:31.976] I kept looking for the dysentery.

[00:17:31.976 – 00:17:34.876] No, you don't see our allergy. [00:17:34.876 – 00:17:38.596] You feel it, and only we alcoholics feel it. [00:17:38.596 – 00:17:38.876] Joe? [00:17:38.876 – 00:17:41.096] Charlie said you'd get in trouble going to town. [00:17:41.096 – 00:17:43.016] You know, that's the trouble with trouble. [00:17:43.016 – 00:17:44.536] It always starts off with fun, isn't it? [00:17:44.536 – 00:17:48.176] How many of you ever went out to get drunk and, and, and to get into trouble?

[00:17:48.176 – 00:17:53.296] Now, we go out and, you know, get drunk and have a little fun, and that's the trouble with trouble. [00:17:53.296 – 00:17:54.696] It always starts out as fun. [00:17:54.696 – 00:17:56.556] At least that's the way it did with me. [00:17:56.556 – 00:17:57.976] So we're- You know- Go ahead. [00:17:57.976 – 00:18:02.796] You know, I just love to watch normal, social, temperate, moderate drinkers. [00:18:02.796 – 00:18:04.496] Fascinating to watch them. [00:18:04.496 – 00:18:07.156] Saw one on the airplane yesterday.

[00:18:07.156 – 00:18:08.556] Yeah, yeah. [00:18:08.556 – 00:18:11.296] He ordered a drink, got him a mixer with it. [00:18:11.296 – 00:18:12.116] Mm-hmm. [00:18:12.116 – 00:18:17.576] And he put his mixer in this, this glass with ice in it, poured his little bottle in there. [00:18:17.576 – 00:18:20.356] Now, they buy a little bitty bottle on airplanes. [00:18:20.356 – 00:18:25.616] I think it cost him four dollars today, and hell, there's not a drink in that bottle, period. [00:18:25.616 – 00:18:26.875] But anyhow, that's what they get.

[00:18:26.875 – 00:18:30.576] And he poured it in there, and then he took a little stick. [00:18:30.576 – 00:18:34.895] And he went through a stirring ceremony. [00:18:34.895 – 00:18:41.056] Now, I don't know much about stirring when it comes to drinking, but he stirred, and he stirred, and he stirred. [00:18:41.056 – 00:18:44.156] And after a while, he laid his little stick down. [00:18:44.156 – 00:18:46.476] And you know what he did then? [00:18:46.476 – 00:18:50.416] He picked up his magazine and started reading his damn magazine. [00:18:50.416 – 00:18:55.316] I'm sitting there watching him, saying, "Drink the damn stuff.

[00:18:55.316 – 00:19:01.696] What the hell did you get it for?" That's what we call alcohol abuse. [00:19:01.696 – 00:19:08.156] Now, that may be normal, but I call that sick to drink like that. [00:19:08.156 – 00:19:12.016] So I think I'll read this again. [00:19:12.016 – 00:19:16.276] It said, "The doctor's theory they have an allergy to alcohol interests us. [00:19:16.276 – 00:19:19.776] As laymen, our opinions to it soundness may, of course, mean little. [00:19:19.776 – 00:19:23.836] But as ex-problem drinkers, we can say that his explanation makes good sense. [00:19:23.836 – 00:19:31.356] It explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account." And the explanation of this explains many things which I couldn't otherwise account.

[00:19:31.356 – 00:19:35.546] It explained to me why I would go down by the bar with every intention of having two. [00:19:35.546 – 00:19:43.016] The next thing I know, it's midnight or one or two or three o'clock in the morning or the next day or the next week, and I wonder, "Well, what in the hell happened? [00:19:43.016 – 00:19:48.996] I just went down there to drink two." Well, this idea about this allergy to alcohol interested me. [00:19:48.996 – 00:19:51.616] Explained many things which I couldn't otherwise account. [00:19:51.616 – 00:19:55.896] Now let's go to Roman numeral page, uh, twenty-six. [00:19:55.896 – 00:20:02.036] A good textbook will never tell you anything if what it doesn't give you more information to back it up. [00:20:02.036 – 00:20:04.536] He's talked here about the allergy.

[00:20:04.536 – 00:20:07.856] Now let's go over to Roman numeral six, first paragraph. [00:20:07.856 – 00:20:10.016] Let's expand on that just a little bit. [00:20:10.016 – 00:20:18.916] It said, "We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholic is a manifestation of an allergy." I used to hate that word. [00:20:18.916 – 00:20:20.296] They called me chronic alcoholic. [00:20:20.296 – 00:20:20.836] I hated it. [00:20:20.836 – 00:20:22.536] Don't particularly like it today. [00:20:22.536 – 00:20:26.896] But I found out, too, that chronic just means something that you do over and over and over.

[00:20:26.896 – 00:20:30.216] So therefore, I was a chronic drinker or a chronic alcoholic. [00:20:30.216 – 00:20:39.636] And it is a manifestation of an allergy, and that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. [00:20:39.636 – 00:20:49.676] These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all, and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence to reliance upon things [00:20:49.676 – 00:20:54.136] human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve. [00:20:54.136 – 00:21:01.676] You know, this manifestation analogy that Charlie talked about, the phenomenon of craving after we take a few drinks. [00:21:01.676 – 00:21:04.476] And we don't have the craving before we take a few drinks. [00:21:04.476 – 00:21:11.216] It's only after we take a few drinks that the phenomenon of craving develops, and then we have to have more and more and more.

[00:21:11.216 – 00:21:13.766] And only alcoholics have that. [00:21:13.766 – 00:21:18.316] Non-alcoholics do not crave alcohol after they take a drink. [00:21:18.316 – 00:21:19.576] They just don't. [00:21:19.576 – 00:21:22.616] They get all they want to drink every time they drink. [00:21:22.616 – 00:21:22.646] Yeah. [00:21:22.646 – 00:21:29.036] Which is two or three maybe, and that's all they want because they don't have this phenomenon of craving that alcoholics have. [00:21:29.036 – 00:21:36.076] The action of strawberries on one who's allergic to strawberries is manifested by a rash.

[00:21:36.076 – 00:21:41.255] The action of milk on one who's allergic to milk is manifested by dysentery. [00:21:41.255 – 00:21:48.716] The action of ragweeds on one who is allergic to ragweeds is manifested by itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, and et cetera. [00:21:48.716 – 00:21:58.776] The action of alcohol on one who's allergic to alcohol is manifested by, and he refers to it as the phenomenon [00:21:58.776 – 00:21:59.476] of craving. [00:21:59.476 – 00:22:03.616] He uses the word phenomenon because he didn't understand it. [00:22:03.616 – 00:22:13.956] So what it is, it's manifested by an actual physical craving in the body that demands more of the same [00:22:13.956 – 00:22:15.336] after we once started.