What We Have Learned About Alcoholism

The first thing we have learned about alcoholism is that it is one of the oldest problems in history.  Only recently have we begun to benefit from new approaches to the problem.  Doctors today, for example, know a great deal more about alcoholism than their predecessors did only two generations ago.  They are beginning to define the problem and study it in detail. While there is no formal “A.A. definition” of alcoholism, most of us agree that, for us, it could be described as a physical compulsion, coupled with a mental obsession.

We mean that we had a distinct physical desire to consume alcohol beyond our capacity to control it, and in defiance of all rules of common sense.  We not only had an abnormal craving for alcohol, but we frequently yielded to it at the worst possible times.  We did not know when (or how) to stop drinking.  Often, we did not seem to have sense enough to know when not to begin.  As alcoholics, we have learned the hard way that willpower alone, however strong in other respects, was not enough to keep us sober.  We have tried going on the wagon for specified periods.  We have taken solemn pledges.  We have switched brands and beverages.  We have tried drinking only during certain hours.

But none of our plans worked.  We always wound up, sooner or later, by getting drunk when we not only wanted to stay sober, but had every rational incentive for staying sober. We have gone through stages of dark despair when we were sure that there was something wrong with us mentally.  We came to hate ourselves for wasting the talents with which we had been endowed and for the trouble we were causing our families and others.  Frequently we indulged in self-pity and proclaimed that nothing could ever help us.

We can smile at those recollections now, but at the time they were grim, unpleasant experiences.