In a nutshell this about sums up my alcoholism and the disease itself. Very basic explanation by good Doctor Silkworth, of the problem, the solution and the prescription. The script is given to the apothecary; AA's 12 steps; the medicine for the illness.

"Men and women drink essentially because they like the affect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. 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 drinks-drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many people 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." Pgiv Doctors Opinion AA book.