Veritas1

"We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed."

The delusion that we are like other people, "or presently may be", has to be smashed.

What purpose does the "or presently may be" have in this sentence?
It seems like a duplication.

Help me to understand it. Thanks!

Gottalife

Presently maybe means at some future point, perhaps when conditions are ideal, we have physically recovered, the debts are paid, the career is back on track and a worthy occasion comes along like a wedding maybe, then just perhaps it will be possible to have a drink without the usual problems. It is almost a subconcious thing, a faint hope, a sneaky remnant of denial that we might not be alcoholic after all.
It is so insidious at provides subtle, even unconscious reasons why we don't need to do that particular step, admit that wrong, make that amends, why we don't really have to completely give ourselves to this simple program. Then we discover that half measures availed us nothing. It is why they use such strong language as smashed. It is that important.

Hope that helps.

Veritas1

Thank you very much. It does help.

The presently may be, would be for situations that you described.

tomsteve

i found the wroters and editors of the BB to be very good at manipulating me into agreeing with the truths they wrote. all them" suggestions" i found i "needed" to do to get sober.

i started goin through the BB once replacing the "musts" with"need". my attitude started changing just reading it.

foodie1

English is such a non-sensical language! Presently can mean at this present moment, or in a little while, soon, shortly. So Gottalife's explanation is spot on. There can never be a formula of situations in our lives where we think drinking is acceptable, ever.

aNewEternity

Billdub's diction can be a head scratcher from time to time. still an immensely talented writer o/c.

slowbill

paralysis through analysis...we are drunks and cannot drink...if we do we die, go to jail or go insane

awuh1

For me the word “presently”, as its used here, means "in the near future". I think Bill had the notion that perhaps, one day, there might be a “cure” for alcoholism. On the very next page in the book Bill writes; “Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing a making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet.”

keepfinding2

No purpose.

Use a black sharpie to highlight it.

Veritas1

Thanks everyone.

DayTrader

FWIW, the "refers to sometime in the future" was how I interpreted it for a while but that didn't really make sense. If Bill was referring to the future, why wouldn't he just say "in the future?" -- I think he would have........ so......

I read that now to mean, "if we're like others or 'may be' like other ppl...." I was always looking for wiggle room, especially anything to prove I didn't have a problem. Here (IMO) Bill's saying if we think we're like others or even might like others - that notion has to be smashed. "Presently" refers to now, not the future - IMO.

Tommyh

We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.


ok,I look to see where that quote came from.
It comes from chapter 3,more about alcoholism
that chapter deals with the thinking preceding
the first drink and second part of step 1
our lives had become unmanageable.

seeing it in the context it was written in helps
me see it better and understand it better.

first off,if we alcoholics think we can drink
like other people [we see drinking] we are delusional.
We are not in our right mind.
If we think we can someday enjoy and control
our drinking [we are still delusional and not in our right mind]
it is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.

The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.

notice the last paragraph starts off with the word idea
then obsession
then illusion
then insanity
then death

any time we entertain the thought of a drink with success,nip it in the bud.It plainly shows me where it will lead me if I don`t get it stopped right away.

so,the presently may be quote can fall under Dr Silkworth`s classification of alcoholics in the Dr`s Opinion

There is the type who always believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without danger.

that is a part of our alcoholic insanity,and many oldtimers fall prey to this kind of thinking