Disease or Cure?

runnergirl · Senior Member

Disease or Cure?

turninggrey · MIP Old Timer

Hey RG
Yes, its very common to think this. Very common. It never works. Myself and millions of other alcoholics have tried every version of this idea that you could have a single drink. You could do it a few times, then you or someone else ends up in a hospital because you decide 2 is ok then 3......................... RG, it really sounds like you are on the right path. You are going through all the phases we all go through. Have you identified your Higher Power yet? That always takes time so you can't rush it, but you really have to ask your HP for help on this. Ask your HP for help in all the weak moments, but also thank your HP for all your strong moments. Keep up the good work!
Tom

Larry_H · MIP Old Timer

The Big Book on Page 30 in the chapter More About Alcoholism tells us

The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.

Larry,
--------------
I never got up in the morning and said: 'God, it's gorgeous outside. I think I'll just get drunk and pee all over myself, maybe I'll just shame my family - Y'know what? It's so pretty, I'll just pass some bad cheques too.' - Charlie C.

Rob84 · MIP Old Timer

Alcoholism is the disease that tells us we don't have it.

We all have those thoughts, we tend not to recall the pain with sufficient force.

Whe we have these thoughts we need to play the movie (in our mind ) all the way to the "Horror story" ending that will likely occur.

Good subject,

Take Care, Rob

Just Toni · MIP Old Timer

Hi RG,

The good news is that these "obsessive" thoughts lessen to almost extinction, as times goes by.....that is how I have experinced this condition......today I see only a Skull and Crossbone on any container of Alcohol.

But that does not mean that I will not have that "obsessive thought.... today"....my Sobriety is contigent directly to my Spiritual life.....in this 24 Hours....

So happy you asked that question.....

Great topic for all of us, 24 hours sober, or 24 years sober...it still relates.....

I have an etched memory of what it was like, just glance back on occasion, and thank my HP, every single time I do, with a silent but very loud THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS LIFE TODAY...

Good to see you here today....

Toni

SteveP · MIP Old Timer

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I can guarantee you that I used to have those thoughts all the time. Some good event would occur and I thought that I could celebrate with just one, that somehow this time would be different. I never had that one drink, one always led to another. I now know, thanks to AA is that what that was my obsession with alcohol manifesting itself and then the phenomenon of craving kicking in.

Steve

whitewhineoh · Veteran Member

This is where I am SO glad I have been going to meetings every day. Because I absolutely have had that thought. And you know what? From everyone I have talked to, so has every alcoholic. There's that line I keep hearing about, "I have a disease that tells me I don't have a disease..." If I hadn't heard SO MANY people say that after a month a year, five years, whatever, they were SURE they could have just one, they tried and relapsed. Sometimes they went on a bender that night or sometimes it took up to two months to work themselves up to the point where they used to be with alcohol, but every single one of them ended up as bad as they were before, often worse. If I hadn't heard that so many times from people's stories, I'm SURE I would have tried having "just one" by now. I am 13 days sober, and I have not been sober that long since college! I don't even remember it. But I feel like, "Well see, I really CAN stop any time I want! So that means I can drink whenever I want!" Seems perfectly logical to me, but if that were true, I would have, y'know, NOT gotten drunk on occasion too.

I figure, as much as I want that to be true, I've already proven repeatedly that I CAN'T have one and leave it alone. How many times do I need to repeat the same experiment and get the same results before I believe them?

Bottom line is I don't want that to be true. With every cell in my body I want to be able to drink like a "normal person", whatever that is. But I also know that the people I see in AA who have been sober a number of years seem just so HAPPY that I'm willing to take their word for it. They obviously know something I don't about how to live a happy life. Anyhow, that's my two cents for today. XOXO Hope you're having a good day!

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

whitewhineoh wrote:

This is where I am SO glad I have been going to meetings every day. Because I absolutely have had that thought. And you know what? From everyone I have talked to, so has every alcoholic. There's that line I keep hearing about, "I have a disease that tells me I don't have a disease..." ....
Bottom line is I don't want that to be true. With every cell in my body I want to be able to drink like a "normal person", whatever that is. But I also know that the people I see in AA who have been sober a number of years seem just so HAPPY that I'm willing to take their word for it. They obviously know something I don't about how to live a happy life. Anyhow, that's my two cents for today. XOXO Hope you're having a good day!

Quoted for truth! This my newbie friends, is all that you need to know. Go to meetings every day for a couple of years. Keep bringing the body and the mind will eventually follow. And even if it doesn't, your mind is not your friend anyway and the good folks at your AA meeting are. biggrin

Aquaman · MIP Old Timer

Laurie,
The way AA sees it. Disease without a cure; only treatment that results in remission.

The way I see it...

(sung to the tune of Jet Song)

Once you're a Drunk you're a drunk all the way,
From your first one-too-many 'till your liver rots away,
When youre a Drunk, they might put you away,
Better pull your head out, or a Drunk you will stay!
Youll be so alone, but you'll feel so connected!
You can get sober today, in your own way--forget the kooks in AA!

You're always a drunk
With a capital D,
Till you drown in your puke
in the bed you just peed.
When youre a Drunk,
You stay

A Drunk!

Thank you...I'll be here all weekend and please remember; be kind to you waitress and bar staff.

runnergirl · Senior Member

Itching and wiggling about this. Husband is heading out to a party with some friends of ours (birthday celebration at a bar) and I just told him I'd rather go to a meeting since we have the sitter. He's bummed. I'm bummed. But if I go to the party, I will want to drink and then I'll just be mad that I can't because I know I can do it normally now (right, right, I know... dumb). Not sure what to say other than this so absolutely totally depressing and painful. It SUCKS!

Thanks for the replies. I guess it helps to know it's something everyone feels... makes me keep that shred of doubt that I can do it that thus far has kept me sober.

ljc · MIP Old Timer

I guess Im not like others ...

I dont have a disease that tells me I dont have a disease.

I have a disease that tells me if I drink I will die. Its really that simple.

Do I ever think that I can have just one or 2 drinks. Yeah sure. I have those thoughts very rarely and they last about a split second when reality kicks in and I remember that Im powerless over alcohol and I cannot drink. Again, really very simple.

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

runnergirl wrote:

Itching and wiggling about this. Husband is heading out to a party with some friends of ours (birthday celebration at a bar) and I just told him I'd rather go to a meeting since we have the sitter. He's bummed. I'm bummed. But if I go to the party, I will want to drink and then I'll just be mad that I can't because I know I can do it normally now (right, right, I know... dumb). Not sure what to say other than this so absolutely totally depressing and painful. It SUCKS!

Thanks for the replies. I guess it helps to know it's something everyone feels... makes me keep that shred of doubt that I can do it that thus far has kept me sober.

Hey Laurie, it gets better. You won't always have to skip these events. Get a year or so

under you belt and It won't be that big of a deal. Your husband (and you) needs to have a consistent and realistic understanding about your sobriety. He doesn't get it. On one hand he doesn't like what happens when you drink too much but doesn't want to be inconvieneced by the changes that are necessary to treat this disease. It's really like having some kind of serious injury to your legs that requires a year of intense therapy to learn how to walk again. We have to learn how to do just about everything again, sober. And because there is a calendar of events, it takes a year to experience them sober. Once we get past that milestone, we gain a new kind of confidence (not overconfidence) about ourselves in all those situations. It just take's time and when we are new we have to buy time.

Avril G · Senior Member

It is NOT Alcoholics Anonymous who defined alcoholism as a disease, nor did AA state that there is a CURE. Checkout these 2 links, this disease debate has been talked about for many years, ever since Benjamin Rush MD classified alcoholism as a disease in 1784.

http://www.losingtom.org/alcoholism/disease.html

http://www.physiciansnews.com/commentary/298wp.html

The 'CURE' is only a 'cure' with total abstinance, which tells me that my disease can be held in 'remission' with treatment (i.e. total abstinance from alcohol, including any substances which contain alcohol)

I look at it like a diabetic, providing they treat their disease with diet, oral medication (or both) or inject insulin as prescribed, they will stay in remission from diabetes. WE ARE LUCKY!! Diabetes can change and become complicated even when taking treatment - with US. we cannot get any worse through going to AA, doing the programme, or using whatever other help is available which works for US.

Why do alkies piss and moan about it? If my doctor had told me I was allergic to strawberries and must stop eating them or risk my life, I would probably rebel for a short while, since I do LOVE them, but in order to save and improve my life I would do it.

US ALKIES piss and mopan about it, sometimes well into 'recovery' until we finally admit defeat, and stop trying to fight it. THEN we piss and moan about, 'WHY didn't I get this SOONER - I could have saved myself from all sorts of problems?'

They say theres 'nowt so queer as folx' - I'd add to this 'except alkies' biggrin

pinkchip · MIP Old Timer

Yes, that is common and the fact that it came at a moment where you wanted to congratulate yourself rather than when you were stressed and down is proof positive of how diseased the thinking really is. That is when I think most slips really occur...in those moments like you just described.

I really do think it is our alcoholic mindset which goes "Things are going really well Laurie (or insert my own name here). Let's find a way to fuck it all up!"

So yeah...I can identify with your thinking and it reaffims that I am indeed an alcoholic.

carlasober · Senior Member

Yes I have had those thoughts but by the grace of God, they did not stay there. Every blue moon, my disease will tell me that "you really was not that bad". Today I can recognize that statement as being a lie and it fleets away! You are not alone Keep Coming Back!