Step One - Blogshop # 5

There is less glaze on the top of a Krispy Kreme doughnut than there is on the eyeballs of someone listening to an improperly Twelve Stepped AA trying to explain alcoholism to him. And that means an absolute inability to take step one at all.

Many people in AA aren’t even a hundred percent sure that they have actually taken Step One. I know. I was one. You too right?

I get to speak with them - folks from all over the world. They are unsure about their their sponsors. They are unsure about the Step itself and they are unsure of how to "work with others' - take someone through the steps beginning with this Step One - just as unsure as their own sponsor was with them - which is why they are in the mess they now find themselves - “UNRECOVERED” and addicted to a "fellowship of the meeting" instead of being a productive and free member of a "Fellowship of the Spirit - using God a given power to help others by carrying the "this"* to other alcoholics.

Oh, I know, they call it “still recovering” and tag on to that some humble sounding explanation that goes against everything the Big Book's AA proposes - but that it is just to serve as a less embarrassing way way of saying the same thing, is it not? Damned right. Who wants to say, "I've been coming back for years and years and I haven't done shit so I have not actually recovered like it says I would in the Big Book."

All of confusion in the Fellowship - the relapses, the lies, the intermixing and dilution of this Fellowships and the death and misery we see stems from the dumbing of the membership - not knowing how to take someone through step one, whether or no they themselves has taken step one or where step one even is in the Big Book. Have you ever heard someway say, I have to take step one every day . . . . Yada Yada”.

Well there just may go a good example of someone who does not know squat about AA, recovery or Twelve Steps and is way more dangerous to the real alcoholic in an AA meeting than a “slip under a skirt” a “slippery place” or a “not enough meetings” and would probably act appalled and bristle stiffer than the nape hairs on the neck of a sexually excited wild boar at the very suggestion that anyone actually learn how to describe that word - "ALCOHOLIC".

# We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.

They did? What is "powerless over alcohol" anyway? Is it the same as "powerless over people places and things? Hell no!

Is it "One is too many and a thousand isn't enough" Oh puhleeze! What is this --- a frakin' special-ed class?

Thank God we have the book, "Alcoholics Anonymous" to teach us.

I find it best to generalize and just keep it to the way the Big Book describes alcoholism. Which is not to say to be incomplete in the description - more complete actually since there are two sides to the alcoholic coin and not merely the "pancreatic" side featuring acetone, acetic acids, sugar, carbohydrates and all the rest. When non-alcoholics or true alcoholics are made to understand that physical side alone the typical response is very often something akin to "Well then just don't drink - no matter what" ought to solve it - and of course that would be a good solution if the description of that particular persons condition ended there.

But a true alcoholics condition does not end there. There is also the mental, obsessive side - and that means that true, real alcoholics will drink - no matter what!

The key to being able to diagnose alcoholism - in ourselves and having the ability to show others how to diagnose it as well is being able to describe it as you are trying to do. Until I had gained that ability I was pretty much useless this Fellowship - coffee making, putting away chairs and launching pithy and humorous "shares" in meetings aside.

I explain it just like the Big Book does -- that alcoholism is a two-fold malady - most people have been told "three fold" and are surprised - and even disappointed and even a bit pissey to learn that "Alcoholics Anonymous" does not agree - mental and physical - characterized by (i) an obsession of the mind coupled with (ii) an abnormal reaction of the body which some term as an "allergy". Others prefer "abnormal reaction".

I know that some people call it a “three fold disease”. Some say that and some do not, and God knows perhaps there is a variety of alcoholism that spoans three 'folds'. - but in any event that idea is not proposed or supported by the AA “Big Book”.The Big Book co-authors do however say that in addition to alcoholism, alcoholics are also suffering from a second condition they term as a “spiritual malady” and that when the spiritual malady is overcome there is a consequential solving of the mental and physical aspects as well.

Ergo, the solving of the spiritual problem first is so powerful that recovery from alcoholism occurs as well. This can easily be understood by reading the book in it’s entirety but is especially apparent with such ideas as, “we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.” (64:3)

A real alcoholic must have both of these conditions present simultaneously:

1) Obsession of the mind - Cannot resist taking a drink even though he/she knows once they start they will experience the abnormal reaction. This is the "mentally ill" portion mentioned on page 64 - or if your prefer - "INSANITY"

Combined with:

2) Abnormal reaction of the body - This is the physically ill portion mentioned on page 64. Once any alcohol whatever is taken into his/her system, something happens in a physical sense that is without comparable effect on the average individual - a physical phenomenon of "Craving" develops - which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop, even if he or she wants and or needs to stop.

This craving is abnormal and hence may be due to an "allergic" type reaction. It does not have to be called “allergy” - - whatever it is called is immaterial as long as acknowledgment of the physical craving is made - whatever the cause of it may be. Who gives a flying fig? Many people prefer to not use the term "allergy" since it has not yet been proven to fit the medical definition and some people real anal about stuff like this.

Others prefer to use the term "craving" instead. The word used is not important - only that the abnormal reaction of craving is acknowledged. Only alcoholics experience this reaction and it does not occur until alcohol is actually introduced into the system of the person afflicted.

The existence of only ONE of the above conditions often result in problem drinking, ie: drinking too much - too often - even to the point of damage to ones health, social position and livelihood but does not qualify as a real alcoholic.

Both conditions must be present - and only ten percent of the world's population has both of these conditions simultaneously

"If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic." (Alcoholics Anonymous", 44:1)

Since whether or not someone is a real alcoholic depends upon the existence of these two conditions simultaneously - then it is something only THEY can diagnose - because THEY are the only ones with the intimate details of their drinking history - even details which may not even be known to their closest friends and relatives.

Unfortunately this leaves the medical profession far outside of the ability to be of much help although they have been very helpful in assisting other types of "problem drinkers" overcome their difficulties. Many can moderate or stop entirely if given enough reason and assistance.

Alcoholism is distinct from "hard", "heavy" or "problem" drinking or other "addictions" including "drug addiction" in that the two components of mental, alcoholic obsession and physical allergy to ETOH (ethyl alcohol) in some form must be simultaneously present in the individual.

The obsession, a strange insanity that occurs as a "mental blank spot" immediately preceding the taking of a drink, guarantees that the person afflicted will take the drink even with the full knowledge that it will result in a craving for more (allergy) or even though he may not have intended to drink.

This is strangely supplanted for the idea that it is safe to drink despite experience that it may not be safe to drink without experiencing the phenomenon of craving (or "Allergy")

However intelligent, responsible and reasonable an alcoholic may have been in other areas of his life respects, introduce alcohol and they seem to be strangely insane. "These "Allergic" types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.

Recovery from the obsession (mental) component is possible but there is no known cure for the physical allergy portion. However breaking that one aspect is enough to sever the vicious cycle and allow sufferers to live normal lives - as long as they never put alcohol into out bodies thereby setting off the physical allergy (craving). Alcoholism is distinct from "hard", "heavy" or "problem" drinking or other "addictions" including "drug addiction" in that the two components of mental, alcoholic obsession and physical allergy to ETOH (ethyl alcohol) in some form must be simultaneously present in the individual.

Many people who abuse alcohol for entire lifetimes NEVER even become alcoholic by this description - just heavy alcohol abusers - although both lifestyles are undesirable - even deadly.

Some with a genetic predisposition start off slowly and eventually DO "cross the line". Until they do, they are what is known as "potential alcoholics" and if they continue will eventually "cross the line" and develop the physical allergy due to the overtaxing of their pancreas and livers. Once that occurs, and we know not when it does, there is no going back.

It is thought to bad a idea to proclaim any individual as alcoholic since only the individual knows their personal history well enough and so completely as to make that decision - qualify as "Alcoholic" or THOSE DESCRIPTIONS they wish to use since many other descriptions exist. Most people who use this description do so only after realizing that no other descriptions have been adequate.

So if you have been following along with these Blogshop this month then you ought to be able to tie in and see that in order to admit to being "powerless over alcohol" - just another way of saying "alcoholic' - one must know just what that means. It is in the first forty three page of the the Big Book, "Alcoholics Anonymous" where the co-founders of AA attempt to teach us just that very thing. Without that knowledge we are useless to ourselves and to others. Without it we do not see the horrible truth about the seriousness and fatality of the situation to the extreme degree necessary to take a drastic and extreme solution - like "GOD". God is just too damned drastic unless that is seen.

How do we know this? Here is how, on page forty four at the beginning of Step Two:

" In the preceding chapters you have learned something of alcoholism. We hope we have made clear the distinction between the alcoholic and the nonalcoholic. "

Well? Have you learned something of alcoholism from the preceding forty three pages. Do you know how to tell an alcoholic from a non-alcoholic? If you have then you can apply those to yourself and answer the question for yourself -and perhaps admit it that you are powerless over alcohol. If not, then out you go to a rehab.

Next Blogshop - STEP TWO:
# Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Peace,
Danny S - RLRA
Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

* 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.