stugotz

Then I'll take Alcoholic for 200 Alex......

Supercrew

Ok, So what was Supercrew when he thought he was just a heavy drinker but ended up in handcuffs?

He was an Alcoholic Alex.

You are correct sir! Alcoholic is the answer!

(It's funny how free I feel when I own it. And it's making all the difference.)

RobbyRobot

--"Though there is no way of proving it, we believe that early in our drinking careers most of us could have stopped drinking. But the difficulty is that few alcoholics have enough desire to stop while there is yet time. We have heard of a few instances where people, who showed definite signs of alcoholism, were able to stop for a long period because of an overpowering desire to do so. Here is one.

A man of thirty was doing a great deal of spree drinking. He was very nervous in the morning after these bouts and quieted himself with more liquor. He was ambitious to succeed in business, but saw that he would get nowhere if he drank at all. Once he started, he had no control whatever. He made up his mind that until he had been successful in business and had retired, he would not touch another drop. An exceptional man, he remained bone dry for twenty-five years and retired at the age of fifty-five, after a successful and happy business career. Then he fell victim to a belief which practically every alcoholic has - that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men. Out came his carpet slippers and a bottle. In two months he was in a hospital, puzzled and humiliated. He tried to regulate his drinking for a while, making several trips to the hospital meantime. Then, gathering all his forces, he attempted to stop altogether and found he could not. Every means of solving his problem which money could buy was at his disposal. Every attempt failed. Though a robust man at retirement, he went to pieces quickly and was dead within four years.

This case contains a powerful lesson. Most of us have believed that if we remained sober for a long stretch, we could thereafter drink normally. But here is a man who at fifty-five years found he was just where he had left off at thirty. We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol." --[BB 1st Ed pg32-33]

I'm an alcoholic. There are many myths which yet survive preaching alcoholics can't stop drinking, and if they do stop, they are not alcoholics. That myth has been smashed into oblivion for me, you know. Alcoholics can "stop drinking" for what ever reason they may find in their head for a time, in their heart for a desire, in their lives for a better deal, but one day will be the day that the alcoholic drinks again and in this case a long time indeed passed.

What we can't do is stay stopped even with abstinence because of the alcoholic mind. Sobriety requires living a sober life. And so a spiritual solution is required for living a sober life. I think the many myths of alcoholism will continue because each new alcoholic person picks up the same useless deluded thinking that is the essence of the illness of alcoholism.

Thinking that alcoholics cant stop drinking is a dangerous slippery slope. We can stop. It will make no difference to our alcoholism though from just stopping the drink itself from finding its way into our sorry guts. It wont be enough. What we can't do is live a good sober life simply by just stopping drinking. Been there and done that.

-- "Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power." --[BB 1st Ed. pg43]

To each our own path, you know. We all have only today to make descions that create our tomorrows. Choose wisely. We dont always get another chance to do it right.

Rob

cat1961

Yes! And that's more of a reason to quit drinking!

When drinking takes over your life, you loose control of your life and your actions.

MelindaFlowers

I'm sorry Supercrew but *buzzzzz* you don't get the $200.

You forgot to say "What is an alcoholic?

LOL!