The Doctor's Opinion (Continued)
J: (p. xxvi, par. 5) 'To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. ' Now he describes how this is triggered. He says: (p. xxvi, par. 5, xxvii, par. 1) 'They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience (top of p. xxvii) the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks--drinks which they see others taking with impunity.
After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery. '
C: Notice the use of the words: phenomenon of craving. Up until that time he is describing the way the mind feels while the person is sober. Then he said, after they have succumbed to the desire again, after they have put two or three drinks in their system, then the phenomenon of craving develops. So craving deals with the physical
body, not the mind. It's always used in the context of after we've had one, two, or three drinks. Then we can't stop. Now, Joe's going to go to the board, and he's going to talk a little bit about the other half of our disease.
J: The main part of our problem... is where all the work is going to be done. We illustrate this over here... with our little emotional barometer. Each and every individual... every human being... has) a very complex emotional life. All these things are part of tour emotional make-up, you know. We have loneliness, fear, and all these emotions and feelings are part of human life. And they all are supposed to be within us. They all play vital roles. Nobody's ever been perfect with them. We alcoholics are not the only persons who have problems with our emotions. All people have emotional problems. They become a problem. He says we become restless, irritable and discontent (p. xxvi, par. 5). I could add a whole lot of other things to that.
C: We're filled with shame, fear, guilt, and remorse over the things we did on our last drunk.
J: These things build up, and they become painful. As we said, we had problems with these things before--I did, as Charlie did-before I even had my first drink. I felt, out of it. I had these fears, and these little inadequate feelings about myself. While having one of those... someone offered me a few drinks. And I had a few drinks. I noticed when I had a few drinks... in return I felt a sense of ease and comfort. Alcohol is a downer. When I put alcohol in my system, alcohol suppressed these emotions. As an end result' I felt bettor.
So, right at that moment, to some extent, very subtly alcohol became a solution. I had a problem, which I'd had for quite a few years, or months, or period of time. I took a few drinks. A few drinks depressed it. So, alcohol became my answer, my solution. I don't have to feel that way any more. Next time I became restless, irritable, and discontented, I build up to that point, and I remembered what I did the last time. That'. an obsession. I remembered the solution. An idea that overcame all other ideas. So, I began to play that game very shortly... you know, we alcoholics are smart. It doesn't take us _ long to learn. If you have a problem, and that's the answer, you add those two things together. Plus. That's addiction.
C: Mental addiction.
J: Mental addiction, not physical addiction. Addiction means to add together. It's a part of the human process. It's a natural thing. Addiction is natural to every person. Say... your TV would break today. If you were new in town, you wouldn't know who to get to fix it. You would call a friend or go in the yellow pages to find you a repair person to come over to fix your TV Six months later when your TV broke again, the second time you wouldn't call a friend. You wouldn't go in the yellow pages. You would remember who fixed it the last time.
You go to the same beauty shop to repeat success, You go to the same barbershop. You buy the same kind of car. You buy the same product. It's repeating success. It's a part of the human being to do that. It's great unless we use it on the wrong thing. We use it every day in our lives. Except when we use it on this, alcohol, drugs, or food or something else like that.
We build up to this point. (In Joe's illustration, the point on the emotional barometer where it's necessary to drink.) Each and every one of us are unique here. That's why we're going to look at our own build-up. Each and every person has a unique build-up. No two people are the same. No two people have the same tolerance level. It finally
reaches this point and triggers. .. this obsession, an idea. All action--the action of drinking is like any other action-all action is born in thought.
You can't take a drink, unless it's proceeded by the thought to drink. It's the thought to drink that produces the drink. We become restless, irritable and discontent and it produces the thought to drink. The thought to drink overcomes all other ideas. It pushes out all other thoughts... and it takes over. We take a few drinks. This is the real problem. It's not the drinking, but the thought to drink.
The thought to drink makes us take a few drinks. Once we take a few drinks, once the alcohol enters the system, that's the end of our mental problem. It's no longer mental. Because once we put alcohol into the system, that goes over here and sets off the acetone and produces the phenomenon of craving. Now we're drinking because of the body. We take another drink, and another drink, and we go through the well known (stages of a) spree. Down here finally we've finished drinking and we come up for air.
We repeat our national anthem, I will never do that again. (laughter) We slowly build up, we have another emotional build-up. We're restless, irritable and discontented. We build up again, it triggers the obsession to drink again. The obsession makes us take a few drinks, and we
repeat this again. The doctor said, this is repeated over and over again.
C: We've got to remember. Just before we take that drink, our mind believes something that isn't true. Our mind believes that this time it's going to be okay. This time we're just going to have two. This time we're not going to get drunk. We can't remember that jailhouse, that car wreck, or whatever it is. If we could
remember it, we wouldn't drink. We believe something that isn't true. It says this time it'll be alight. Then we take the few drinks.
J: Okay, now, this is built in destruction because the mind is making us put alcohol into the system. The enzyme deficiency is getting worse. As the enzyme deficiency gets worse, the craving gets harder. As the craving gets harder, the drinking gets longer and harder. As the drinking gets longer and harder, the more emotional problems it creates over here (on the emotional barometer) to set it off. So, the mind is destroying the body, and the body in reverse is destroying the mind.
