James, Numer 1, I refuse to call alcoholism a disease. Alcoholics are just drunks. Nobody shoved the drinks down their throats, including mine. Drunks choose to use alcohol as a crutch, or escape, from a situation that they cannot contend with. Once they start to drink, their life is taken over by one wrong decision, after another.
If you insist that no one can become sober unless God intervenes, then I guess he has blessed me. I have my mind restored to pristine condition, have no hankering to ever take a drink of alcohol again, and the diseases that accompanied the 43 year binge, are all cured. A couple of good doctors had a hand in that last part.
AA is a support group that presents tools to fight the addiction to alcohol. For the drunk to even try to use these tools, he must believe that there is something bigger than the addiction, and in the days of Bill, they used God as that higher power. Today, AA sessions all over the country now use the term "higher power" instead of naming God.
A person does not have to humble himself to get the monkey off his back, but he does have to take control of himself, or he will be lost. An inflated ego is bad for any person, regardless of physical, or mental, condition. I can name one who considers himself above all others, that has a huge ego problem, but we all know who that is.
Alcoholism was made into a disease for the benefit of the doctors, so they could collect insurance payments from the drunks. Greed, pure greed. Also, they think it sounds better to have a disease, than just being a drunk. I was a drunk. No doubt about it. Some try to give an illusion of decency by calling it a disease. |
