Big Book Study - Post #11
Jim K
Good morning and welcome back everyone!
We're at Page 30 - Chapter 3, "More
(Truth)
About Alcoholism".
This is where we will discuss, in depth, the state of mind that precedes the first drink. Let's take the time to examine what "insanity" means in this context: less than whole; not necessarily crazy, but rather an inability to see the truth in life. "Sanity"
on the other hand means with a complete or whole mind -- an ability to see the truth in life.
"No person likes to think that he is bodily or mentally different from
his fellows." This is a truth most of us had been unwilling to accept.
Now here is the real insanity: "The idea that somehow, someday he will
control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker."
This is the great lie that we pursue; this is the mental obsession. To accomplish this we try a myriad of different formulas with the same result. An inability to see the truth in life? - you bet!
"The persistence of this illusion(untruth)
is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death."
Next paragraph -"The
delusion (untruth)that
we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed."
Non-alcoholics don't break out in handcuffs when they drink. They are able to metabolize alcohol where the alcoholic is unable.
On pages 32
to 43, four examples of the state of mind that precedes the first drink will be illustrated. Bill's writing style is one where the same point will be made repeatedly to reinforce that idea. It is important to note that he is spending an entire chapter on Step
2's insanity. It is very important that we understand the state of mind that precedes the first drink - the insanity of alcoholism.
Paragraph 2, page 32 - Example #1 is "A Man of Thirty."
The points Bill brings up are these: "Once he started he had no control
whatever." Using will power he quit but here was the insane idea:
"Then he fell victim to the belief which practically every alcoholic
has - that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men."
This man was dead by the next paragraph. At paragraph 1 on page 33 Bill utilizes his other literary device - he summarizes: (this is the "Pickle theory") ...once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.
"Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol."
You can make a pickle out of a cucumber but the process cannot be reversed.
Page 34, paragraph 2 - Here is the paragraph which discusses the efficacy of using willpower to stop drinking. The cunning, baffling and powerful nature of our disease usually torpedoes any effort based on willpower.
In our next post, we will start out with the second of the four examples "Jim
the Car Salesman" and we'll begin on page 35 - paragraph 2.
Have a great day!
Jim K. - The
Into Action Group of Manhattan
6:30pm Wednesdays at St. Francis
De Sales Church
135 East 96th Street (Near Lexington
Avenue)
On Manhattan's Upper East Side
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