Greetings, "We think drinking is but a symptom". It has not been all that easy for this alky to see that booze and dope was only ten percent of my problem. The longer I am clean and sober it seems like the more Subtle Symptoms start creeping around my space. Great News is that if my "Bottom " holds and I use the simple kit of tools laid at my feet, It actually does get better. Kind'a nifty. Holding on Just for Today. Toad
For me it was a symptom of availability....If it were there I drank it. If someone left theirs there, I drank that one also. If the store was still open I got there and sometimes drank it there. But be it here or there I drank it thank you. I have several other compulsions not nearly as dangerous.
Interesting post, Toad...my addiction to alcohol wasn't a symptom of anything but being addicted to alcohol. Neither my brain nor my body (as though they are somehow separate!!) needed any other reason to drink beyond the drive of the addiction to alcohol.
When the 12 steps & the fellowship & God, blessedly removed the active addiction...put the alcoholism in remission (since there is no cure and it can recur at any time)...then my other problems I had/have...whether consequences/fallout of the alcoholism or separate problems...could and can be dealth with.
The "drinking is but a symptom" theory, however, has since been refined by state-of-the art research and knowledge about alcoholism that simply was not available at the time. Alcoholism is no longer viewed as a symptom of something else; it is truly it's own problem that produces it's own symptoms.
But please do not misunderstand what I'm saying here...because the thinking and behavior that are a byproduct of the disease certainly become entrenched enough to pretty much morph into what may be perceived as "symptoms" of other problems, and certainly problems that we indeed still must vigilently attend to.