Tag Archives: AA

The Anthropomorphism of Addiction

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Remember that we deal with alcohol, cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us.  (Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st. Edition,
How It Works, Page 58)(Emphasis added)

As we can see from the quote above, the anthropomorphism of alcoholism comes directly from The Big Book. For centuries man has debated the question of what alcoholism is or is not. Current American Medical Association dogma states that alcoholism is a disease.

The AMA

1. endorses the proposition that drug dependencies, including alcoholism, are diseases and that their treatment is a legitimate part of medical practice (http://www.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/alcohol/alcoholism_treatable.pdf, retrieved 12/24/11)

However, AA itself has never directly endorsed the idea that Alcoholism is a disease. In fact, as late as 1960, Bill Wilson stated,

We have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking, it is not a disease entity For example, there is no such thing as heart disease. Instead there are many separate heart ailments, or combinations of them. It is something like that with alcoholism. Therefore we did not wish to get in wrong with the medical profession by pronouncing alcoholism a disease entity. Therefore we always called it an illness, or a malady—a far safer term for us to use.(Emphasis added). (National  Clergy Conference on Alcoholism, Volume 12, P199, Retrieved from http://www.silkworth.net/religion_clergy/01052.html, 12/30/2011 at 7:55 AM) (Emphasis added)

Entity? Alcoholism is not a “disease entity”? What does that mean exactly? I understand that Bill W’s spoke these words an eternity ago in relation to current thinking on drug and alcohol addiction. By giving life to alcoholism, by referencing it as a cunning, baffling, powerful disease entity we give it an unnerving presence.

How many times have you heard an addict or alcoholic sharing their experience by mentioning that the disease had its claws into them or stole from them or wanted something from them, etc.? I am not sure it is healthy for us to refer to our disease in human or satanic terms.

By giving life to the disease, have we not disassociated our culpability for our actions and the resultant effects on our friends and loved ones? Is that wise? Is it morally or spiritually correct? I don’t pretend to know the answers to any of these questions. I have no clinical training and am trying to remember to take my inventory and leave you, dear reader, to your own.

I have never referred to my disease as being caused by anyone but me. No cunning, baffling disease entity made me do anything. Some of it is genetic (nature) and some of it environment (nurture). The nature vs. nurture argument has long been debated. I believe that we are products of both nature and nurture. But that’s it.

So, devil, get ye gone. I’ll have no part of you nor will you of me. I have faced the facts that I can’t use alcohol or drugs in safety and am man enough to know that it was me in every flawed aspect of myself that wanted and did what I did to me, my family and my friends. Now I have to live with it.

Peace out,
M
In Recovery Blog Facebook Page

Progress, Not Perfection

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Progress, man’s distinctive mark alone,
Not God’s, and not the beasts’: God is, they are,
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.
- Robert Browning (A Death in the Desert)

 I ran across this quote the other day when I was searching for another Browning quote,

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,

Or what’s heaven for? (Andrea del Sarto)

and I thought they form an interesting pair in their relationship with each other and in consideration of my ongoing recovery.

They say that if you aren’t working on your recovery, you are working on your relapse and, from previous experience, I believe this is an apt expression. The most important part of the work is to completely stop what you ought not do. No “dalliance” with this step in recovery is acceptable. You’re either in or your out. Perfection, not progress, is the rule.

In every other aspect, recovery is always a work in progress. God and animals need make no progress, they merely are and that is all they ever need be. Man alone attempts progress, as Browning aptly stated. At ten months of sobriety, I have progressed exponentially during my ten months of sobriety. While progress, not perfection is the rule, my sobriety requires perfect progress. Therefore, my grasp must be within my reach or there is no heaven.

Peace out,

M
In Recovery Facebook Page

Nothing Good Ever Happened in a Bar

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Glittering generalities was one of the seven main propaganda techniques identified by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1938 (http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/proptech.htm, Retrieved 10/09/2011 @ 2:14 PM)

Nothing good ever happened in a bar.

How’s that for a glittering generality? I heard the thought in question, at a meeting on 10/8/2011 at the No-Frills meeting of the Friendship Center in Derry, NH. A group of us who knew each other from a secret Facebook group for AA (so clandestine that if I told you the name I would have to kill you) went to this meeting in order that we could actually meet each other and put faces to the avatars on our Facebook accounts.

I wrote the saying down with the idea that it was a great statement and made total sense, worthy of amplifying from this bully pulpit. However, reason sank in when I began to try to add some meat to its bones.

The fact is that good things do happen in bars. I’ve heard great music in bars, met awesome people, watched exciting sports events, eaten delicious meals, enjoyed laughter and camaraderie with my peers, danced the night away with abandon (and my wife), and so forth.

I know that many bad things have happened in bars, both to others and me. Many of us have sown the seeds of driving under the influence, vehicular homicide, destruction of property, domestic violence, adultery, and other poor and criminal behavior. The good thing is that I no longer have to worry about engaging in any of the above while under the influence because I just don’t drink today. However, many people (shall we call them normal?) have had wonderful things happen in bars without the attendant bad things that could have happened and didn’t.

We need be careful of glittering generalities; propaganda is always propaganda, even when it seems to make sense. Question everything and then decide for yourself. Debate principles of various programs vis-à-vis what books state, what people say and even your own thoughts on any given day. Examine and reexamine as you move forward; a meaningful idea must have more than thought behind it – a fact isn’t a fact unless we have good evidence to back it up. Avoid the use of “no one,” “nothing,” “never,” “all” and “every” to the extent possible.

The idea that the Twelve Steps of AA or NA (or any other step program) is sacrosanct, an immutable law of life, is simply untrue. The only part of our recovery we need to do perfectly is to stop doing what is ruining or killing us (times however many things we are doing that we ought not to do). The rest may or may not apply as we grow within and through our own recovery program. Everyone’s program is different, just as is everyone’s journey to and through sobriety.

The truisms that guide us are not always as “true” as we might think. Whenever you hear something in the halls and think, “That’s a wonderful concept, a real chestnut to keep for another day,” perhaps you might be best to think, “That’s a chestnut for another day, but before I eat it, let me roast it and see how it tastes after I’ve had it cooking for a while.”

Peace out,
M
In Recovery Facebook Page