p. xxix
We must understand, if we are going to deal with alcoholics, that practicing alcoholics cannot differentiate the true from the false. To most of them, what they are doing is absolutely normal. To the alcoholic mind, it is all the normal people who are abnormal. We surround ourselves with people of our own kind, diluting our minds into thinking that we are different. As far as the practicing alcoholic is concerned, it is the normal drinkers who are abnormal. We can see that drinking is injurious and gets us into trouble, but we really cannot differentiate the true from the false, because to us, we are doing what we consider normal. An obsession of the mind is an idea so powerful that it overcomes all other ideas to the contrary. It's so strong that it will make you believe something that isn't true. When we drank we had a couple of drinks and it made us feel better. So our minds put those two thoughts together. Feel bad… take a drink and feel better. That is a mental addiction not a physical one. The mind says it’s OK to take a drink and the mind really believes it is OK. The mind says it will be different this time… the mind believes it. That is
“BELIEVING A LIE”.
Any alcoholic who believes he can drink successfully believes a lie. The obsession of the mind causes us to believe a lie and take the first couple of
drinks. As soon as we put the first drink in our bodies, the allergy of the body takes over triggering the phenomenon of craving and we cannot stop. The one thing that you and I can do for the practicing alcoholic is to help them see the allergy of the body and the obsession of the mind that they are experiencing. I didn't know about these two problems when I was drinking.
READ: Page xxviii, paragraph 4 at “To them” to end of 1st paragraph, page xxix
IF YOU:
CAN’T DRINK BECAUSE OF THE ALLERGY OF THE BODY
AND
CAN’T QUIT BECAUSE OF THE OBSESSION OF THE MIND
THEN:
YOU ARE POWERLESS OVER ALCOHOL
p. xxx - borrowed from Joe & Charley
NORMAL PERSON: For the normal social drinker, (this is approximately 8 people out of 10, today) you have a line on the drawing that represents these people who can drink safely and are at ease with alcohol. Alcohol is no problem for them. They take a drink and put it in their system and the mind and the body recognizes what it is. The enzyme production begins and the enzymes start to attack the alcohol and begin to metabolize or break it down. The enzymes break it down to the first state, a chemical called acetaldehyde. Later, after a time, it is broken down to a chemical called diacidic acid and finally over more time to acetone. Acetone is rapidly broken down to a simple carbohydrate which is made up of water, sugar, and carbon dioxide. In normal people, the breakdown of acetone to simple carbohydrates occurs quickly. The body can use the sugar. Sugar has calories and it has energy. Interestingly enough they are empty calories. They are not any of the things necessary for life, such as amino acids,
vitamins, etc., but it is a form of energy the body can use. The body burns up the sugar and stores the excess as fat, the water is dissipated through the urinary and intestinal tracks, and the carbon dioxide is expelled through the lungs. For the normal person, alcohol is broken down (metabolized) at a rate of about 1 oz. per hour. ABNORMAL PERSON: These are the 1-2 out of 10 who cannot drink safely or who have a DIS-EASE with alcohol. By the way, that's all the word disease means; something that separates you from a sense of ease, something that separates you from the normal thing that happens to most people. When we alcoholics put a drink in our bodies, the same thing starts to take place for all of us. The mind and body recognize what it is. The enzyme production starts and attacks the alcohol and breaks it down first to acetaldehyde… then to diacidic acid, and finally over more time to acetone. It seems that in the body of the alcoholic, the enzymes necessary to break it down from acetone to the simple carbohydrates, are not there in the same qualities and quantities as in the body of the non-alcoholic. Therefore, the rate acetone is broken down to simple carbohydrates is a much slower operation which keeps the level of acetone up in our bodies for a longer period of time. It is the acetone in our bodies that creates the physical craving. For the alcoholic, alcohol is broken down (metabolized) at a significantly slower rate of ¾ oz. per hour, or ½ oz. per hour or even 1/5 oz. per hour depending on the enzyme production which is directly related to the stage of alcoholism we are in. The medical profession today has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that acetone ingested into the human system, that remains there for any appreciable period of time, will produce an actual physical craving for more of the same. As the craving is produced, the body then begins to say to the mind, "Let me have more of that stuff you just put in there." So, instead of having the one drink we intended to have, the body says, "Give me the second drink… the third drink… the fourth drink… the sixth drink." Now, the first drink was caused by the mind… but those after, were caused by the body. We think that one of the most interesting things recently discovered is this: the medical profession has proven that alcohol ingested into the human system over a period of time is an actual destroyer of human tissue. As we drink more and more, we destroy more and more human tissue in all parts of the body. But it seems as though the first two organs of the body that are attacked, in most cases, happens to be the liver and pancreas. They have also proven today, that the enzymes necessary to metabolize alcohol come from the liver and the pancreas. As we drink we begin to damage the organs of the body, the enzyme production becomes less and less and less and the phenomenon of craving becomes harder and harder and harder. So you see we not only have a disease, we have a progressive disease, guaranteed to get worse as time goes by because we are destroying the organs of the body that are necessary to metabolize alcohol. We also know that as we grow older, everything that the body produces begins to shut down. So, as we get older, the enzyme production
becomes less due to the age factor. Therefore our disease is a progressive
disease whether we drink or not. The fact that we are allergic to alcohol is academic, if we don’t take the first drink. We need to understand that the main problem and the solution are going to be within the mind, even though the body is going to get worse with age.
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