Hiya aussie
A lot of folks become continuous hard drinkers yet are not alcoholic. Given sufficient reason they can quit or moderate.
The alcoholic finds no matter how great the wish need or desire, he is unable to leave it entirely alone. At certain times, the thought of a drink enters the mind, shoves all the sound reasoning aside with some neat tidy excuse for taking one, and, here is the alcoholic clincher - HE HAS LITTLE CONTROL OF THE AMOUNT HE WILL TAKE once started. This loss of control is the earmark of real alcoholism, and though some of us at times felt we were regaining control, these periods, usually brief, are inevitably followed by still worse benders. No real alcoholic ever regains control.
Heard of a fellow 26 years sober, was on vacation in the sun, thought why not what could one dear margarita hurt from here...woke up SIX WEEKS later laying beside a lawnmower running.
AA is not something that you 'go to' although members do meet regularly and open the meetings so new guys can find them. It entails a way of thinking and living that rips the focus away from me and my traumas and conditions and grievances and excuses and owees and issues, and demands rigorous truth facing, payment of debt moral financial and otherwise, forgiveness and self sacrifice and devoted service to others. Self control self confidence, self discipline - these are of no use with alcoholism, they are a liability in fact. We couldn't wield them if we had em. AA teaches the willingness to try adopting an attitude of right reliance on that fabled and mysterious god creator entity presence thing - whatever our personal conception of it turns out to be, for our defense. Along with a few simple rules measures and tips, it's that easy to become sober.
The trouble lies in the willingness to adopt such measures
Measures which "no alcoholic who is still drinking would dream of taking - unless he has to to stay alive himself". Most of us hoped against hope we were not real alcoholics. It is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker, that somehow, some day, he will be able to control and enjoy his drinking as he once did. By the time most of us come seriously around AA, those days are pretty well gone. We are facing total annihilation, insanity, lockup, death. The less people tolerate us the more we withdraw, faring forth only to find solace in charity, our hands out, usually for money lol...the dark chilling vapor which is loneliness sets in....we will wish for the end. Counselors love us
So much endless material to work with
Cheers! There's a huge amount of fun in it...undisclosable in print...it is we ourselves who were making a hard go of life! Regards to Barleycorn Down Under!...i remember staring at him upside down....i know what he really looks like...lol