Page 9 - This is A.A. an Introduction to the A.A. Recovery Program

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What we have learned about alcoholism
The first thing we have learned about alcoholism
is that it is one of the oldest problems in history.
Only recently have we begun to benefit from new
approaches to the problem. Doctors today, for
example, know a great deal more about alco-
holism than their predecessors did only two gen-
erations ago. They are beginning to define the
problem and study it in detail.
While there is no formal “A.A. definition” of
alcoholism, most of us agree that, for us, it could
be described as a physical compulsion, coupled
with a mental obsession. We mean that we had a
distinct physical desire to consume alcohol
beyond our capacity to control it, and in defiance
of all rules of common sense. We not only had an
abnormal craving for alcohol, but we frequently
yielded to it at the worst possible times. We did
not know when (or how) to stop drinking. Often,
we did not seem to have sense enough to know
when not to begin.
As alcoholics, we have learned the hard way
that willpower alone, however strong in other
respects, was not enough to keep us sober. We
have tried going on the wagon for specified peri-
ods. We have taken solemn pledges. We have
switched brands and beverages. We have tried
drinking only during certain hours. But none of
our plans worked. We always wound up, sooner
or later, by getting drunk when we not only want-
ed to stay sober, but had every rational incentive
for staying sober.
We have gone through stages of dark despair
when we were sure that there was something
wrong with us mentally. We came to hate our-
selves for wasting the talents with which we had
been endowed and for the trouble we were caus-
ing our families and others. Frequently, we
indulged in self-pity and proclaimed that nothing
could ever help us.
We can smile at those recollections now, but
at the time they were grim, unpleasant experi-
ences.

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