I got this set of responses in my PM box this morning from a member of the forum. Feel free to add your own reflections on this chapter. It's better to do this kind of study out in the open, so that everyone can benefit from it, so asked this member if I could post their responses, and they did give me permission. I've color-coded this post - hopefully that makes it more readable. The questions are in black bold, myownhell's answers are in blue, my reflections are in green. :)

What were Dr. Silkworth's qualifications? (Pg. XXIII)

I have specialized in the treatment of alcoholism for many years.

This means for me that this person had a really big experience with alcoholics. But the difference between him and other doctors may be was tha he had this type of experience which showed him that in alcoholism there is something more than lack of moral or something like that. And this made him to have a questions, to see deeper in the nature of alcoholism. And I really think that he had specific sense to see, to feel, to want to know and so on.

What must we believe to be essential in defining Alcoholism? (Pg. XXIV)

In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered
alcoholic torture must believe that the body of the alcoholic is
quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that
we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted
to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright
mental defectives. These things were true to some extent, in fact,
to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our
bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.
Here this is interesting the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind My body is abnormal. I start drinking and I cant stop. Its not abnormal, because of the consequence of drinking cirrhosis and other illness, its abnormal, because when I start to drink, something happens and I cant stop. I have to drink untill I am so death and so far away from reality I have to drink untill I lose consciousness.

I drank in exactly the same way. Once I started, I couldn't stop until I was completely drunk. By the time I stopped, I was drinking a gallon of vodka every day - by all rights I should be dead. I wanted to quit, and I tried all sorts of methods, but they didn't work. So there had to be a physical factor involved - it wasn't JUST a matter of mental control, or willpower. Alcoholics are somehow physically different than social drinkers.

What explains things for which we cannot otherwise account? (Pg. XXIV)

The doctors theory that we have an allergy to alcohol interests us.

Allergy I liked this definition - An allergy is a reaction of your immune system to something that does not bother most other people. Alcohol really not bothers other people I mean non-alcoholics can drink one and they dont want to continue. They can stop. But I couldnt stop. This physical reaction others dont have it.

In my opinion, calling alcoholism an allergy is a good comparison, but it does break down if you push the analogy too far. Some people get over allergies, but we learn later in the Big Book, that alcoholics never get over alcoholism. If we practice the 12 Steps, we are granted a daily reprieve.

But on one level, the idea of an allergy is a good one: a foreign substance enters our bodies and makes us suffer, both physically and spiritually.

How does the doctor explain the allergy in his letter? (Pg. XXVI)

We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action
of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an
allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and
never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types
can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having
formed the habit and found they cannot break it, once having lost
their selfconfidence, their reliance upon things human, their
problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.

This is it. The phenomenon of craving. Strong word. Only alcoholics have it. This phenomenon of craving is the allergic reaction. Craving, which is stronger than anything I remember that one time when I was drinking at home my mother understood and she took alcohol from me. At this moment I really wanted to kill her. I dont know what happened that night, because I really was too drunk, but at the morning the house was a mess, my mother had wounds from me, my father had too. They were trying to take away the alcohol from me, but at this moment I really can kill somebody. And its because this phenomenon of craving had showed up.

Only alcoholics can understand how powerful that craving is, and how it can make you do very stupid and dangerous things - violent things. I got very angry myself, when I didn't have enough to drink. One or two drinks was never enough - once I had a few, I was immediately on a search for more. Many times, I drove drunk to the liquor store because of the powerful craving.

Why, according to the doctor, do men and women drink? (Pg. XXVII)

The effect produced by alcohol. This effect, which makes me calm, happy , I can relax, tell jokes, have fun with others, I can talk with other people. When I am sober I cant move my tongue, but when I drink I can.

In other words, alcohol was fun! Lets be honest: for most of us alcoholics, drinking was the greatest pleasure of our lives! Why else would it hold such an attraction? I always felt that alcohol freed me to be the person I really was - I was witty and intelligent, the life of the party, etc. Drinking was the elixir of life!

How does the doctor describe the "cycle" of alcoholism? (Pg XXVII)

They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can
again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at
once by taking a few drinksdrinks which they see others taking
with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as
so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass
through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful,
with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and
over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change
there is very little hope of his recovery.

God, Doctor Silkworth really could see the nature of the alcoholism. I felt it so many times. I was happy, after that the phenomenon of craving developed and I couldnt stop. At this moments I even didnt want to stop but in the morning I was asking What happened? And I blamed myself, I was trying to understood what happened last night, last day, last week because I didnt remember anything. And It was like hell and I thought and promise never again. Ive almost survive never again! And only after few days I did it again.

I went through this cycle many, many times. I tried to quit on my own, only to relapse every single time, and every relapse became more and more demoralizing.

What, according to the doctor, is required to recover? (Pg. XXVII)

Entire psychic change. One feels that something more than human power is needed to produce the essential psychic change. So I have body which kills me. When I start to drink I cant stop until I am dead .. when I stop I cant stay stopped .. so I have no power in me, but I need entire psychic change that comes from something bigger than human power.

Yes. This is the reason for practicing the 12 Steps: to bring about a complete psychic change, which relieves us of our obsession for alcohol. Frequently you hear people talk about staying away from the people, places, and things that were associated with drinking. That's not bad advice for newcomers, but ITS NOT THE PROGRAM!!! This is very important to understand.

We cannot hide from alcohol our entire lives, unless we move to the North Pole, maybe. Many of us live with family members that are either social drinkers, or full-blown alcoholics. Does that mean we cant be sober ourselves? Because we cant or wont remove them from our lives? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Our sobriety does not depend on people, places, and things. It depends on a program that brings about a complete psychic change, in which alcohol no longer has the strangle-hold on us it did once.

Does the doctor hold that alcoholism is simply a problem of mental control? (Pg. XXVIII)

I do not hold with those who believe that alcoholism is entirely a problem of mental control

Thanks God he doesnt think that alcoholism is a problem of mental control. At the beginning, when I started to go on meetings, others told me that if one person is allergic to peanuts, he knows that he must not eat peanuts, because he can die and he just stay away from peanuts and doesnt eat. But I knew, even before AA I knew that I cant drink, because I everytime got drunk and I hurt people and myself and so on, but I continue even when I wanted to stop. Its not matter of mental control, because my mind is abnormal too.

As the Big Book says later on, the problem is centered in the mind, but its not about mental CONTROL. All of us alcoholics that have tried to stop on our own will attest to the fact we have no control at all. Even when were not drinking, all we can think about is the next time we CAN drink (until we experience that psychic change).

What do all classes of alcoholic have in common? (Pg. XXVIII)

All these, and many others, have one symptom in common: they
cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of
craving. This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the
manifestation of an allergy which differentiates these people, and
sets them apart as a distinct entity. So, I start drinking because my mind tells me that this time it will be different I start drinking because I remember the effect and I want it, when I start after that I develop this phenomenon of craving and cant stop which means that I am absolutely powerless over alcohol and I have to find power.

Exactly. Notice that the First Step says, "We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol..." To understand the craving that we experience is to begin to understand the First Step. We are powerless over ALCOHOL, not ALCOHOLISM. In fact, if we practice the 12 Steps, we discover a Higher Power that relieves us of our alcoholism and transforms our lives for the better.

The next set of study questions is here...

There Is A Solution - Study Questions

-- Edited by Q on Thursday 8th of August 2013 08:09:58 AM

-- Edited by Q on Thursday 8th of August 2013 08:17:36 AM