"alcoholics" in the Big Book

My brother-in-law is a physician, and through his kindness and that of my mother I was placed in a nationally-known hospital for the mental and physical rehabilitation of alcoholics.

It relieved me somewhat to learn that in alcoholics the will is amazingly weakened when it comes to combating liquor, though it often remains strong in other respects.

While I lay in the hospital the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what had been so freely given me.

My wife and I abandoned ourselves with enthusiasm to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution of their problems.

W e, of ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, know thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill.

The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink.

Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences.

M ost of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics.

We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics.

We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking.

We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness.

Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics of

Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class.

But the difficulty is that few alcoholics have enough desire to stop while there is yet time.

Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years.

Certain drinkers, who would be greatly insulted if called alcoholics, are astonished at their inability to stop.

We, who are familiar with the symptoms, see large numbers of potential alcoholics among young

“Two of the members of Alcoholics Anonymous came to see me.

Most alcoholics have to be pretty badly mangled before they really commence to solve their problems.

At first some of us tried to avoid the issue, hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics.

Hence we are at pains to tell why we think our present faith is reasonable, why we think it more sane and logical to believe than not to believe, why we say our former thinking was soft and mushy when we threw up our hands in doubt and said, “We don’t know.’’ When we became alcoholics, crushed by a selfimposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing.

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness.

It destroys more alcoholics than anything else.

They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.

Small wonder many in the medical profession have a low opinion of alcoholics and their chance for recovery!

Of course, we sometimes encounter people who do not understand alcoholics.

Most alcoholics owe money.

We doubt if, in this respect, alcoholics are fundamentally much worse than other people.

Passing all understanding is the patience mothers and wives have had with alcoholics.

We alcoholics are undisciplined.

P ractical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.

This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics!

Ministers and doctors are competent and you can learn much from them if you wish, but it happens that because of your own drinking experience you can be uniquely useful to other alcoholics.

When you discover a prospect for Alcoholics Anonymous, find out all you can about him.

Make it plain he is under no obligation to you, that you hope only that he will try to help other alcoholics when he escapes his own difficulties.

On your first visit tell him about the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.

You will be most successful with alcoholics if you do not exhibit any passion for crusade or reform.

But point out that we alcoholics have much in common and that you would like, in any case, to be friendly.

Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do.

A spirit of intolerance might repel alcoholics whose lives could have been saved, had it not been for such stupidity.

Some day we hope that Alcoholics Anonymous will help the public to a better realization of the gravity of the alcoholic problem, but we shall be of little use if our attitude is one of bitterness or hostility.

We want the wives of Alcoholics Anonymous to address the wives of men who drink too much.

As wives of Alcoholics Anonymous, we would like you to feel that we understand as perhaps few can.

Of those who keep on, a good number will become true alcoholics after a while.

He probably has several alcoholics among his own acquaintances.

Show him that as alcoholics, the writers of the book understand.

Many of Alcoholics Anonymous were like that.

For years we have been working with alcoholics committed to institutions.

Since this book was first published, A.A. has released thousands of alcoholics from asylums and hospitals of every kind.

Still another difficulty is that you may become jealous of the attention he bestows on other people, especially alcoholics.

Though it is entirely separate from Alcoholics Anonymous, it uses the general principles of the A.A. program as a guide for husbands, wives, relatives, friends, and others close to alcoholics.

Alateen, for teen-aged children of alcoholics, is a part of Al-Anon.

We families of Alcoholics Anonymous keep few skeletons in the closet.

We alcoholics are sensitive people.

Many alcoholics are enthusiasts.

Even if he displays a certain amount of neglect and irresponsibility towards the family, it is well to let him go as far as he likes in helping other alcoholics.

Father will necessarily spend much time with other alcoholics, but this activity should be balanced.

Alcoholics who have derided religious people will be helped by such contacts.

He thought all alcoholics

Though he is now a most effective member of Alcoholics Anonymous, he still smokes and drinks coffee, but neither his wife nor anyone else stands in judgment.

This is not to say that all alcoholics are honest and upright when not drinking.

You ask, because many alcoholics, being warped and drugged, do not want to quit.

For most alcoholics who are drinking, or who are just getting

The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear.

Sometimes we alcoholics have an idea that people are trying to pull us down.

As a class, alcoholics are energetic people.

He may wish to do a lot for other alcoholics and something of the sort may come up during business hours.

You might let them know you have no quarrel with the alcoholics of your organization.

That company may harbor many actual or potential alcoholics.

Of course, this chapter refers to alcoholics, sick people, deranged men.

It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly like people in a sinking ship.

High and low, rich and poor, these are future fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.

They will approach still other sick ones and fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous may spring up in each city and hamlet, havens for those who must find a way out.

But what about his responsibilities—his family and the men who would die because they would not know how to get well, ah—yes, those other alcoholics?

Two days later, a future fellow of Alcoholics Anonymous stared glassily at the strangers beside his bed.

So, you see, there were three alcoholics in that town, who now felt they had to give to others what they had found, or be sunk.

Though they knew they must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober, that motive became secondary.

Alcoholics are being attracted from far and near.

A community thirty miles away has fifteen fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Being a large place, we think that some day its Fellowship will number many hundreds.* But life among Alcoholics Anonymous is more than attending gatherings and visiting hospitals.

Some day we hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find a Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination.

He had lived there but a few weeks when he found that the place probably contained more alcoholics per square mile than any city in the country.

And with such good effect that the doctor agreed to a test among his patients and certain other alcoholics from a clinic which he attends.

Some of them may sink and perhaps never get up, but if our experience is a criterion, more than half of those approached will become fellows of Alcoholics Anonymous.

May God bless you and keep you—until then. * Alcoholics Anonymous will be glad to hear from you.