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Old 12-29-2007, 11:17 PM
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nandm
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Home is where the heart is
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Exclamation Methods to control drinking

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 evidently hasn't done so yet.

Despite all we can say, may who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self-deception and experimentation, 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.
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.

If you suspect you are an alcoholic please take a moment to look through the recovery programs listed on this link. There is help for your problem, many of us are living proof that we do not have to die an alcoholic death. There is hope.
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-programs.html

The above quote was taken from The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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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