Alcoholics Anonymous History and the Bible: Alcohol

Alcoholics Anonymous History
Alcohol – Foe or Fodder?
Alcoholic and Addictions Problems – An Issue of “More” Gone Riot

How to Help the Alcoholic

Usually I am writing about helping the alcoholic defeat his alcohol problem by joining Alcoholics Anonymous, relying on the Creator for the solution, and moving toward the new alcoholic offering him the same spiritual solution. That solution is as much available to the addict and any person with life-controlling problems, as to the alcoholic himself.

But I also write extensively about the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. And that is the history of how the original Alcoholics Anonymous program in Akron achieved a documented 75% success rate the offered a long-sought solution for alcoholics and those having problems with their drinking. See When Early AAs Were Cured and Why. (http://www.dickb.com/alcoholismcured)

The real problem, however, is certainly neither alcohol nor drugs. Nor is the real problem either the alcoholic or the addict. The real problem is “More.” Also known as “too much.” Also “out of control.” And the “more” is the insistent demand of our system for more—more to drink, more to smoke, more to inject, more to swallow, more to eat. The “more” finally goes riot. There is no end to what I call the real alcohol and drug problem—the problem of the three D’s and the R.

Drink, Drunk, Disaster, Return. We drink, ultimately getting “drunk.” We get “drunk” expecting to feel good or solve our problems. If we are a repeating drunkard, after time we encounter disaster after disaster after disaster. We never seem to understand that the alcoholic as a “more” problem. He sees a drink and expects joy—a joy that comes from the buzz. Then he gets drunk, never knowing when enough is enough; so he gets very drunk. His experience should tell him that his drunkenness always produces disaster—accidents, fights, criminal conduct, domestic and job issues, physical illness, and so on. But he can’t see the disaster; so he walks out of the accident, the fight, the domestic battle, and the illness. And he returns—again and again and again. He returns, like the sow to the mire, like the dog to his vomit; and sees the same result over and over again. Some think this “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the result to be different. But I differ. I’m one of those guys—recovered for sure. But I think we do the same thing over and over KNOWING the result will be the same. That’s the insanity. Reasonable people don’t court a known disaster. Drunks and addicts do. A.A. has posited that the alcoholic is crazy. For him to be crazy for more is the assured equivalent of being nuts!

You can help him by eliminating the “more.” But how? Very simple: Take the fodder away and you defeat the foe. You can’t drink or ingest more if you don’t drink or ingest anything. But how to do that? Very simple: Get your sanity restored and decide that alcohol just isn’t for you. It makes you break out in spots—auto accidents, jail, the shakes, bizarre behaviors and trouble.

How to Remove the Fodder

Early A.A. had a simple, simple, simple, solution: Don’t drink, and ask God for help. Early A.A. believed that the alcoholic had a chance to end the “more” syndrome if he didn’t rely on his own habits, inclinations, memory, and reasoning. He needed to have his reasoning restored. It was not until sanity had returned that the drinking stopped for those who wanted to stop. And for those folks, Dr. Bob had a simple answer: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!”

Today, as long as people think a “god” can be a tree or a light bulb or a group or not-god at all, they eliminate the early A.A. solution. They substitute nonsense deities for Almighty God. Can they stay away from alcohol? Many do. So it’s a choice. You can seek God’s help and get well, or you can try something else. I have found that God has sufficiently restored my sanity that I don’t want alcohol. I don’t need alcohol. I don’t drink alcohol. And alcohol is not my foe. Drinking too much too often with too many troubles is the result I don’t want or get. God has made that possible. See God and Alcoholism (http://www.dickb.com/Godandalcoholism.shtml).

Gloria Deo

dickb@dickb.com