The AA take in it is pretty 'extreme' but it has a point. If I am in drinking 'mode' I really don't have any power over alcohol - I tended to time it so I got drunk and fell asleep. I would find it extremely difficult just to have one glass of wine. And I know if I drink today that will be it - back on the booze. With 'extreme' alcoholics - those near the end in the early days of AA, there were individuals who really had absolutely no power of alcohol - and there are many today too of course. Those of us somewhere further back along the line on that continuum can I am sure admit that our power over alcohol is at best severely limited. Why else would we be addicted to the stuff? Why else would we be here?