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Old 01-25-2013, 08:14 AM
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KnowHope
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Thump
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Originally Posted by newby1961 View Post
Me to except I am a bit befuddled by the very beginning when it talks about the different types. An alcoholic and a drunk. So because I drank to escape and at times I could stop drinking that means I am a drunk but not an alcoholic? Well trust me I have several people who will testify against that. I also have several detoxes and treatment centers who would also beg to differ. Anyway for this alcoholic as long as I know I am one that is all that matters.
Have a great weekend guys and gals.
Certainly alcoholics can drink for escape. Bill talks about crossing that point into drinking to oblivion, and that was me too.

As I see it, in this context "drunks" is being used as a moniker for the hard drinker, which the Big Book distinguishes from the real or chronic alcoholic. Everyone's favorite subject on the boards...but here is one place in the BB:

[1] "Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason—ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor—becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.

[2] But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink..."
The "moderate drinker" is also described on p. 20, and the description of the "real alcoholic" continues on from p. 21.

You can also find the same underlying distinction used in The Doctor's Opinion and through the different kinds of husbands in To Wives.
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