“Despite all we can say, many who are real alcoholics are not going to believe they are in that class. By every form of self deception and experimentation they will try to prove themselves exception to the rule, therefore non-alcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right about face and drink like a gentleman are hats are off to him.” pg 31 Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
How many times have we tried to prove to ourselves and others that we were the exception and therefore not an alcoholic? Nobody wishes to admit defeat. Nobody wishes to admit that we are bodily and mentally different from our fellows. In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous it talks about the lengths we go to try and prove everyone, mainly ourselves, wrong. Perhaps we try to control our drinking by not drinking on weekdays, cutting back or by only drinking wine. We might even swear off drugs and alcohol all together. Is this not an attempt to prove we are normal? Are we not trying to control and enjoy our drinking when the best we can hope for is to be able to manage it for a little while? This is the insanity of this disease of alcoholism. We try to make things work that don’t. We try the same thing over and over again expecting different results. We try different approaches hoping it will work. If when you drink you can’t stop, you don’t know where it will take you or you know exactly how it will go but you still do it there is a good chance you are a alcoholic. If you try controlled drinking for awhile and you find you can’t stop or have and enjoy just 1 that’s probably a good indicator as well. Nobody can declare you an alcoholic besides yourself but if you find you are at the breaking point and you want help, here are good places to start…Find local AA meetings, look up drug rehab blogs, research drug rehabs in California, or rehab programs in California. Whenever someone searches for help there is no bad choice to make for starting the recovery process besides no choice.