The moment of change...
For me, as a 'real alcoholic' - see Chapter 3,'More About Alcoholism' in the book,'Alcoholics Anonymous' for further clarification.
The moment, as unwilling as I was, remembering that alcoholism is the only illness that'll tell you, you haven't got it, whilst at the same time killing you!
That I recognised and accepted that I suffered from, what is effectively, a two-fold illness/disease comprising of a physical allergy and a mental obsession called alcoholism. The only respite from which is absolute abstinence.
My life began to change for the better, until then I'd been in denial, using that and all that came with it, easily explained as the ISM's, of the word alcoholism. Worth noting that the alcohol part, is but a symptom of the disease.
The ISM'S being life, particularly mine, recovery followed by lasting sobriety is an individual responsibility, right! With all its faults and failings, successes and disasters, which we all, as human beings, have.
Denial, for me, meant drinking, which using Einstein's definition of insanity, i.e. if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.
Is not only an excellent description of insanity, but, in denial, the delusional life lead, certainly by me, if not all those in their drinking days, who suffer from alcoholism.
The moment of recognition and acceptance, not only changed all that but kept, and still does changing me and my life, together with my knowledge and understanding of the disease/illness but those, who like me, in my drinking days, still suffer from both it and denial.
Of course, those like me, who choose to use the 12 Step program of recovery outlined in the book,'Alcoholics Anonymous', will quite rightly point to the fact that recognition and acceptance form the basis of the first three steps. With whom I take no issue...
I can only share my own experience, strength and hope which came from my own recognition and acceptance, untarnished, for better or worse by any external, influences.
And that, for me, was the key, as I hope it is for many others, that provided the moment of change in me, as a person , that , in the natural order of things, lead on to recovery followed by, in my case, hopefully, one day at a time sobriety.