There is a Solution (Continued)
C: (p. 22, par 5) 'We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for him to (top of p. 23) stop. The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this.'
'These observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body.' As we talked last night, if I don't ever take the first drink, I cannot trigger the allergy. If I don't trigger the allergy, then the craving will never be produced, and I won't end up drunk, and sick, and in all kinds of trouble. Now, it seems as though... I cannot keep from taking the first drink. There is something within my mind that seems to tell me it's okay to drink when it's obvious that it isn't.
So the real problem is not the fact that I'm allergic to alcohol. The real problem is the fact that my send keeps telling me: it's alright to drink alcohol. So the real problem centers in the mind, rather than in the body. (p. 23, par. 2-3) 'If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis. Sometimes these excuses have a certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc an alcoholic's drinking bout creates. They sound like the philosophy of the man who, having a headache, beats himself on the hoed with a hammer so that he can't
feel the ache. If you draw this fallacious reasoning to the attention of an alcoholic, he will laugh it off, or become irritated and refuse to talk.'
'Once in a while he may tell the truth.' Strange as it may seem, we--once in a great while--we do tell the truth. (laughter) I was talking to a lady the other day in Al-Anon. Her husband is still drinking.
She said, Charlie, all he does is lie, lie, lie. How can you tell when one of you guys are lying. I said, honey, you watch him closely. When you see his lips moving then he's probably lying to you. (laughter)
That's about true, (but) sometimes we do tell the truth. (p. 23, par. 3) 'And the truth, strange to say, is usually that he has no more idea why he took that fires drink than you have. Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they often suspect they are down for the count.'
Remember, an obsession of the mind is an idea that is so strong it overcomes all other ideas, and it makes you believe a lie, something that's not true. The great obsession of every alcoholic is someday, somehow, we're going to beat the game. We try every way in the world to beat it. We just know that we can. But the truth is we can't.
The truth is we can't. The obsession of the mind is what takes us back to drinking.
Page twenty-four. Squiggly writing. (p. 24, par. 2) 'The fact is that most alcoholics for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness
with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.'
Joe made the statement last night that in order for will power to work, the mind has got to see something wrong with what it's wanting to do. But if the mind doesn't see anything wrong with what it's wanting to do, then will power is nonexistent. At certain times, our mind cannot remember with sufficient force the suffering and the pain and the humiliation of the last drunk. It always say this time it's going to be different. This time we're not going to get drunk and got in Jail. This time we're not going to get drunk and get in a car wreck. We're going to have two drinks and enjoy ourselves like other people.
We really believe that we can do that. (p. 24, par. 2-3) 'We are without defense against the first drink.'
'The almost certain consequences that follow taking even a glass of beer do not crowd into the mind to deter us. If these thoughts occur, they are hazy and readily supplanted with the old threadbare idea that this time we shall handle ourselves like other people. There is a complete failure of the kind of defense that keeps one from putting his hand on a hot stove.' When I was growing up, (like) most kids, back during the depression, we were all relatively poor people.
In my family we've never really changed that tradition. (laughter) Certainly we were that way when we were growing up. I remember, we always heated with either wood or coal. On Saturday night every kid had to take a bath whether you liked it or not. You had to have one whether you needed it or not. Mother would always put an old zinc washtub behind the heating stove in the living room. She heated the water on the kitchen stove, then she would bring it in and put it in the washtub.
The oldest kid would take a bath first, and then the next, and the next, and the next. By the time you got to the littlest one, that old water was getting kind of cruddy, you know. But you still had to take a bath. I'll never forget. One night in the middle of the winter, I was behind that heating stove, in that tub taking a bath. I leaned over and when I did I stuck my rear against that stove. Now, that thing raised a blister on my rear end about the size of my hand, and it hurt like hell. You know, I've never had an obsession of the mind to stick my ass on a hot stove since. (laughter)
Never have I had that. But alcohol has burned me repeatedly, over and over and over end over, and hurt me just as bad. Yet, the obsession of the mind says, Charlie, it won't burn you this time. Always the obsession of the mind says, it's going to be okay. The kind of defense that keeps us from normal dangerous situations, painful, hurtful situations, that defer-e isn't there when it comes to alcohol. There's something missing in our heads.
