He cannot picture life without alcohol. Some day he will be unable to imagine life either with alcohol or without it. Then he will know loneliness such as few do. He will be at the jumping-off place. He will wish for the end. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p.152 Reading the big book was one of the most …
Alcoholics Anonymous began in 1935. At the time, “treatment” for alcoholism didn’t exist; alcoholism was not considered a disease, and alcoholics were moral or psychological ‘failures.’ “The Cure” consisted of drying out spells, often aided by chemicals such as belladonna (now considered poison). Alcoholics who had the money spent time in sanatoriums, those who didn’t …
In clinical understanding and recovery common knowledge it’s said alcoholics stop maturing at roughly the time addiction takes hold. A man who starts drinking alcoholically at the age of 19, say, will react to the trials and glories of life as a 19 year old would, even when he’s a 70 year old codger. Alcoholism exercises some psychic freeze …
