Originally Posted by
sobermax 
I have some difficulty admitting that I am insane (certainly my drunken behaviour is, but I have managed to get by professionally / socially without being committed) and this ego-suppression seems to smack of brainwashing to me.
In the context of AA I believe that they are talking about insanity with the definition of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Not the asylum.
As in each time I drink I may expect that things won't go to hell yet they always did.
For me to think I could control my drinking is certainly insane.
So for me it was smashing the notion that the status quo in my life was acceptable if I wanted things to get better. For me that was not dying or going to jail, thats about it. Couldn't keep doing the same stuff............... Thus the word I hate but that was necessary, change.
Brainwashing, yeah I hear ya, I thought that early one but I just went with the admission that I was so f'ed up my brain could use a good washing :-)