Dry alcoholics?
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: WA, USA
Posts: 2,591
Dry alcoholics?
Hey everyone. I have heard the term dry alcoholic used around the boards but have not heard a definition. Could someone please enlighten me as to this term means? Thanks.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Texas
Posts: 4,469
I think it refers to an alcoholic that is not drinking but has the same behaviors that they did when they were drinking. I hear it in meetings referring to people who do not work the 12 steps. Hope this helps.
Old & Sober Member of AA
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Nursing Home in Brick, New Jersey
Posts: 5,174
I went right to the source...AA definition of dry alcoholic.
This should really clear it up for you.
Dry Drunk - Dry Drunk Syndrome
"Dry Drunk" has been described as "A condition of returning to one's old alcoholic thinking and behavior without actually having taken a drink." Or as one wise old drunk put it, if a horse thief goes into A.A. what you can end up with is a sober horse thief. Or a personal favorite: you can take the rum out of the fruit cake, but you've still got a fruit cake!
Those who quit drinking but are still angry about it, wind up living miserable lives and usually make everyone else around them miserable too. If it has been said once in an Al-Anon meeting, it has been whispered thousands of times, "I almost wish he would go back to drinking."
"Dry Drunk" has been described as "A condition of returning to one's old alcoholic thinking and behavior without actually having taken a drink." Or as one wise old drunk put it, if a horse thief goes into A.A. what you can end up with is a sober horse thief. Or a personal favorite: you can take the rum out of the fruit cake, but you've still got a fruit cake!
Those who quit drinking but are still angry about it, wind up living miserable lives and usually make everyone else around them miserable too. If it has been said once in an Al-Anon meeting, it has been whispered thousands of times, "I almost wish he would go back to drinking."
Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 170
I DONT CARE WHAT YOU HEARD, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ASKING SUCH A QUESTION. ENLIGHTEN ME YOU SAY, I DONT CARE IF YOU NEED TO BE ENLIGHTENED. YOUR THE PERSON THAT SHOULD TAKE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHO'S DRY AND WHO'S NOT.
Hi felly79,
Does that help at all? Being dry basicly means needing drink or as tanyapmc said maybe someone that needs to take the 12 steps. Just to clarify the paragraph above is a sample LOL
Hi felly79,
Does that help at all? Being dry basicly means needing drink or as tanyapmc said maybe someone that needs to take the 12 steps. Just to clarify the paragraph above is a sample LOL
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: WA, USA
Posts: 2,591
Yes, 1cor13, being yelled at usually is a motivation for me.
BTW, while I was googling "dry drunk" I ran into a quote that I find interesting:
"A society that believes that Prozac, homelessness, and billionaires are a natural part of the design of life as humans is a really sick society/a dis-eased culture - a very wounded bunch of human beings."
Perhaps we are not the sick ones, but the "normies" are the sick ones.
BTW, while I was googling "dry drunk" I ran into a quote that I find interesting:
"A society that believes that Prozac, homelessness, and billionaires are a natural part of the design of life as humans is a really sick society/a dis-eased culture - a very wounded bunch of human beings."
Perhaps we are not the sick ones, but the "normies" are the sick ones.
Old & Sober Member of AA
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Nursing Home in Brick, New Jersey
Posts: 5,174
Perhaps we are not the sick ones, but the "normies" are the sick ones.
Yes, 1cor13, being yelled at usually is a motivation for me.
Personally, I feel any question deserves an answer, and I don't bother to try to analyze the person asking.
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Old Home Terra
Posts: 4,272
Back to your question, my point is that simply not using alcohol is only the start. In AA-speak, this state of being physically sober, but emotionally all raw, psychologically twisted, and spiritually empty is known as being a "dry drunk". About the only thing that's changed at that point is that you aren't using alcohol -- you're still feeling, thinking, and behaving like a drunk.
Its been said, "...first I replaced God with Ego... then I replaced Ego with Alcohol..." ... Replacing the alcohol with ego gets you back to being a dry drunk again. Replacing ego with God gets you to being sober, healthy and happy.
"...So you've stopped using alcohol... NOW what are you going to do? Sit there in your misery, bleeding over everyone while chewing on those white knuckles?"
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
