Page 17 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

labored long and wearily in this alcoholic field. They
believe in themselves, and still more in the Power which
pulls chronic alcoholics back from the gates of death.

Of course an alcoholic ought to be freed from his physical
craving for liquor, and this often requires a definite hospital
procedure, before psychological measures can be of
maximum benefit.

We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the
action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a
manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of
craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the
average temperate drinker. 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, their reliance upon things
human, their problems pile up on them and become
astonishingly difficult to solve.

Frothy emotional appeal seldom suffices. The message
which can interest and hold these alcoholic people must
have depth and weight. In nearly all cases, their ideals must
be grounded in a power greater than themselves, if they are
to re-create their lives.

If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital for
alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand
with us a while on the firing line, see the tragedies, the
despairing wives, the little children; let the solving of these
problems become a part of their daily work, and even of
their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not
wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this
movement. We feel, after many years of experience, that
we have found nothing which has contributed more to the
rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement
now growing up among them.