“We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals usually brief were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.” (From the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, chapter three.)
For many alcoholics and addicts, drinking and using began as something fun and exciting that they did with friends and at parties. Over time, the ability to control one’s consumption evaporates, for some people, it never exists. Most alcoholics and addicts struggle for years in an attempt to rediscover those days and again have that control. As this passage from chapter three of the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous states, “no real alcoholic ever recovers control.”
The decision to get clean and sober begins with the alcoholic and the addict but isn’t a path that they must take alone, nor should they. There are 12 step meetings and drug rehab centers all over the world and a single call to one of them, or even a loved one to ask for help is a beginning…