This quote from the Big Book sums it up pretty well:
Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistance of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursie it into the gates of insanity or death. We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery.
If we are to be fair when some one speaks of moderation, we need to take a step back before we say or type a single word.......... Were we not right in thier shoes?
Were we not already knowing we had a problem, but simply not fully able to pull our selfs out of a state of denial?
I recall saying to numerous friends and family after an extra embarassing drunken show I had put on for the world "Well I will never do that again, I will just watch myself and control my drinking in the future." All the while I was saying crap like that to others in the back of my head......... I KNEW!!!! I could not admit it to yself nor to anyone else.... but I KNEW!!!!
Even after I came out and said "I am an alcoholic, but I am a maintenance drinker and functional, I just need to be careful with my drinking." I still was that little boy whistling in the dark saying to myself "I still got control, I can still drink safely and control it."
You know if just one single person who shows up here saying they plan on moderating finally quits all together before they hit a really savage bottom because they remember what some of us said here that is awesome!!! We could actually save one persons life, or possibly even more.
Let them come, let them continue with that grand illusion we all had the great obsession of every abnormal drinker, the thing is they may not need to reach the points of insanity some of us had to reach before we stopped. Sadly though as so many of us do, we continue to march forward through those gates of insanity and onward to death!