Page 20 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

phenomenon of craving. This phenomenon, as we have
suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy which
differentiates these people, and sets them apart as a
distinct entity. It has never been, by any treatment with
which we are familiar, permanently eradicated. The only
relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.

This immediately precipitates us into a seething caldron of
debate. Much has been written pro and con, but among
physicians, the general opinion seems to be that most
chronic alcoholics are doomed.

What is the solution? Perhaps I can best answer this by
relating one of my experiences.

About one year prior to this experience a man was brought
in to be treated for chronic alcoholism. He had but partially
recovered from a gastric hemorrhage and seemed to be a
case of pathological mental deterioration. He had lost
everything worthwhile in life and was only living, one might
say, to drink. He frankly admitted and believed that for him
there was no hope. Following the elimination of alcohol,
there was found to be no permanent brain injury. He
accepted the plan outlined in this book. One year later he
called to see me, and I experienced a very strange
sensation. I knew the man by name, and partly recognized
his features, but there all resemblance ended. From a
trembling, despairing, nervous wreck, had emerged a man
brimming over with self-reliance and contentment. I talked
with him for some time, but was not able to bring myself to
feel that I had known him before. To me he was a stranger,
and so he left me. A long time has passed with no return to
alcohol.

When I need a mental uplift, I often think of another case
brought in by a physician prominent in New York. The
patient had made his own diagnosis, and deciding his