Page 12 - This is A.A. an Introduction to the A.A. Recovery Program

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facts about ourselves and our drinking realistical-
ly and honestly. We had to admit that we were
powerless over alcohol. For some of us, this was
the toughest proposition we had ever faced.
We did not know too much about alcoholism.
We had our own ideas about the word “alcoholic.”
We tied it up with the down-and-out derelict. We
thought it surely meant weakness of will, weak-
ness of character. Some of us fought off the step
of admitting that we were alcoholics. Others only
partially admitted it.
Most of us, however, were relieved when it
was explained to us that alcoholism was an ill-
ness. We saw the common sense of doing some-
thing about an illness that threatened to destroy
us. We quit trying to deceive others — and our-
selves — into thinking that we could handle alco-
hol when all the facts pointed the other way.
We were assured from the beginning that no
one could tell us we were alcoholics. The admis-
sion had to come from us — not from a doctor or
a minister or wife or husband. It had to be based
on facts which we ourselves knew. Our friends
might understand the nature of our problem, but
we were the only ones who could tell for sure
whether or not our drinking was out of control.
Frequently we asked: “How can I tell if I am
really an alcoholic?” We were told that there
were no hard and fast rules for determining alco-
holism. We learned that there were, however,
certain telltale symptoms. If we got drunk when
we had every reason to stay sober, if our drink-
ing had become progressively worse, if we no
longer got as much fun from drinking as we
once had — these, we learned, were apt to be
symptoms of the illness we call alcoholism.
Reviewing our drinking experiences and their
consequences, most of us were able to discover
additional reasons for recognizing the truth
about ourselves.
Quite naturally, the prospect of a life without
alcohol seemed a dreary one. We feared that our
new friends in A.A. would be dull or, worse yet,
wild-eyed evangelists. We discovered that they
were, instead, human beings like ourselves, but
with the special virtue of understanding our
problem — sympathetically, without sitting in
judgment.
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