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Old 01-25-2008, 12:25 AM
  # 5 (permalink)  
nandm
Life the gift of recovery!
 
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Home is where the heart is
Posts: 7,061
xxiii:2-3, 6-8, 11

2-3
Convincing testimony must surely come from medical men who have had experience with the sufferings of our members and have witnessed our return to health. A well known doctor, chief physician at a nationally prominet hospital specializing in alcoholic and drug addiction, gave Alcoholics Anonymous this ltter:
The authors hoped that the opinion of a physician with such appropriate experience would help convince us that their program of recovery will work for us.

*NOTE:
Dr. Silkworth's proper title was Medical Director.

6.
About four years ago I attended a patient who, though he had been a competent business man of good earning capacity, was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless. In the course of his third treatment he acquired certain ideas concerning a possible means of recovery. As part of his rehabilitation he commenced to present his conceptions to other alcoholics, impressing upon them that they must do likewise with still others.
Though this man would be respected, he nevertheless has become a hopeless alcoholic. Alcoholism affects people of every race, creed, nationality, religion, social and economical class, moral standing, ability, intelligence and occupation.

*NOTE:
Bill W. is the patient referred to.

Bill W. was in the treatment center for the third time! There they would dry him out, nurse him back to health, explain to him the grave nature of his malady, suggest that he refrain from further drinking and send him home. After varying lengths of time, he would resume drinking and require further treatment.

Bill gained knowledge of the nature of alcoholism from Dr. Silkworth. He was presented with the solution to his problem by his friend Ebby T. He combined these two components with a practice of carrying this solution to others.


Source: Annotated AA Handbook
A Companion to the Big Book
by Frank D.
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