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We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it evidentlay has't done so yet.
Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experiementation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore non-alcoholic. If anyone, who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people.
Here are some of the methods we have tried: drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums---we could increase the list ad infinitum.
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How many of these methods of controlling our drinking have we tried? How many of our own methods have we tried? How did they work? For how long did they work? People who are not alcoholic do not devise methods to control their drinking. People who are not alcoholic can always control the amount they drink. This is a good test to determine if we are alcoholic.
The authors are not abolitionists or reformers, they are merely people who have faced the same problem we face and have tried the same sort of things we have tried to control their drinking.
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We do not like to brand any individual as an alcoholic bu tyou can quickly diagnose yourself.
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In AA we diagnose ourselves. Are we alcoholic or not? Does our drinking fit the pattern described? Do we need to further authenticate what is written in this book?
31:12-32:2
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Try to drink and stop abruptly. Try it more than once. It will not take long for you to decide, if you are honest with yourself about it. It may be worth a bad case of jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition.
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This advice is to help us admit our powerlessness over alcohol then we will do what it takes to find a Power greater than ourselves. If we still believe we have some power over alcohol then we may waste our time attempting to adopt some new code of morals or a better philosophy of life in the insane belief that our newest plan will work even when all our other plans have failed.
This in one way to find out if we are alcoholic once and for all, if we are not alcoholic then we should be able to control our drinking or quit althogether. If our experiment at controlled drinking fails it should smash the delusion that we have some power over alcohol.
A full knowledge of our condition is a humbling thing. We are powerless over alcohol. Left to human resources we are unable to control our destructive drinking. With nowhere else to go we can turn to a Power we may not have enen thought was available to us. Until we have a humble understanding of our inability to help ourselves we are resistant to turn to this Power.
Source:
The Annotated AA Handbook
a companion to the Big Book
Frank D.