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We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
Frothy emotional appeal seldom suffices.
In 1937, Dr. Silkworth published his theory that alcoholism is the manifestation of an allergy. This allergy, which causes the phenomenon of craving, occurs only in alcoholics.
Once we develop the phenomenon of craving, we can never return to non-alcoholic drinking. Any amount or type of alcohol in any of it's forms or uses, beer, wine, hard liquor, aperitifs, wine in cooking, alcohol in desserts or medications, stands to trigger the overpowering desire for more alcohol.
Failing repeatedly to stop on our own destroys our self-confidence. Wives, parents, families, doctors, psychiatrists, and friends all fail in their attempts to help us break the cycle of addictive drinking. We are left facing the inability of human resources to give us release. Our lives become unmanageable. We are seemingly hopeless.
Everyone who loves or cares about us begins to plead with us to quit drinking. We may be angered with their meddling and ignore their pleas. We may sincerely want to quit and swear off for a time, but we always return to drinking. The authors have been where we are and offer to show us what they have done to recover. Perhaps we could listen. They propose to show us how to access a Power that will recreate our lives.
Definitions:
Allergy: an abnormal reaction, an increased sensitivity.
Phenomenon: an observable but unexplainable fact.
Temperate: moderate in indulgence.
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In nearly all cases, their ideals must be grounded in a Power greater than themselves, if they are to re-create their lives.
We would not see the need to recreate our lives if we could just modify our behavior and were then able to manage our lives successfully once again. This is why the admission of powerlessness over alcohol ---- the unmanageability of our lives --- is essential to our recovery.
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We feel, after many years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.
Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable, and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks --- drinks which they see others taking with impunity.
Once again the doctor draws upon his years of experience to recommend Alcoholics Anonymous.
Definition:
Altruistic: unselfish concern for others.
Impunity: without punishment.
This description of alcoholism is here to help us take our first step. It describes our behavior so clearly that we can see that our own experience closely parallels that of an alcoholic. The description ends with an illustration of the baffeling nature of alcoholism -- that we continue to drink even when we truly desire to stop.
After a while we lose the ability to tell the true from the false. We go insane. Not being able to tell the true from the false is a perfect definition of insanity. Being insane, we are unable to see that our alcoholic life is abnormal to the extreme. Being insane, we believe the false to be true. We believe that we will be able to control our drinking and put our lives in order on our own. If this were the truth, then most of us would have done just that.
Alcohol was our solution to our feelings of restlessness, irritability and discontent. It was a solution that produced remorse a solution that caused even more trouble, a solution that failed.
Source:
The Annotated AA Handbook
A companion to the Big Book
By Frank D.