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I posted this as part of a response on another thread but thought it might be useful as a separate thread.
Alcoholism is a 3 part illness:
Physical - phenomenon of craving. We only get this when we drink alcohol. Introducing alcohol into our system generates a physical response - craving for more alcohol. This is why we cant control how much we drink once we have started drinking. We are POWERLESS when we have been drinking.
Mental - obsession/insanity. That somehow we will be able to drink normally. That this time it will be different, we will control our drinking. That we need to experience that sense of ease and comfort we would get from a few drinks. We are at certain times without defence against this obsession therefore against the first drink. We make an insane decision to drink despite the consequences of doing so. We are POWERLESS over alcohol even when we have not been drinking.
Spiritual - malady. The feelings of restlessness, irritability and discontent we feel when not drinking. Feeling disconnected, "wrong", unable to cope with life, resentful, fearful etc. We are disconnected from any higher power therefore POWERLESS.
The spiritual malady drives the mental obsession. If we do not feel comfortable without alcohol our alcoholic mind will tell us that the solution to our discomfort is to drink. This may be a conscious or unconscious process.
Stopping drinking solves the problem of the physical element of alcoholism but does nothing to change the mental and spiritual aspects of the illness.
Therefore an alcoholic who merely stops drinking will, sooner or later, give into that mental obsession driven by an untreated spiritual malady (LACK OF POWER), and drink again.
This is why just not drinking and going to meetings will never be a solution. We need to treat the spiritual illness, ie through the spiritual awakening (connection with a POWER) as the result of the 12 steps. Thus we treat the mental obsession and this means that we do not take in alcohol and thus do not trigger the phenomenon of craving (which remains in us all no matter how long we have been sober).
Alcoholism is a 3 part illness:
Physical - phenomenon of craving. We only get this when we drink alcohol. Introducing alcohol into our system generates a physical response - craving for more alcohol. This is why we cant control how much we drink once we have started drinking. We are POWERLESS when we have been drinking.
Mental - obsession/insanity. That somehow we will be able to drink normally. That this time it will be different, we will control our drinking. That we need to experience that sense of ease and comfort we would get from a few drinks. We are at certain times without defence against this obsession therefore against the first drink. We make an insane decision to drink despite the consequences of doing so. We are POWERLESS over alcohol even when we have not been drinking.
Spiritual - malady. The feelings of restlessness, irritability and discontent we feel when not drinking. Feeling disconnected, "wrong", unable to cope with life, resentful, fearful etc. We are disconnected from any higher power therefore POWERLESS.
The spiritual malady drives the mental obsession. If we do not feel comfortable without alcohol our alcoholic mind will tell us that the solution to our discomfort is to drink. This may be a conscious or unconscious process.
Stopping drinking solves the problem of the physical element of alcoholism but does nothing to change the mental and spiritual aspects of the illness.
Therefore an alcoholic who merely stops drinking will, sooner or later, give into that mental obsession driven by an untreated spiritual malady (LACK OF POWER), and drink again.
This is why just not drinking and going to meetings will never be a solution. We need to treat the spiritual illness, ie through the spiritual awakening (connection with a POWER) as the result of the 12 steps. Thus we treat the mental obsession and this means that we do not take in alcohol and thus do not trigger the phenomenon of craving (which remains in us all no matter how long we have been sober).
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A man takes a drink. Then the drink take a drink. Then the drink take the man.
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