Staying Sober
There’s only one real reason I can ever have for taking a drink, and that’s because I want to.”
This remark at a meeting sums up AA’s position on why we drink. We never really drink because of pressures and troubles. We drink because we want to, because we feel like taking a drink.
It’s true that a serious crisis, like going into bankruptcy, may make us conscious of an urge to drink. But we know that we’re also likely to have such urges in the face of good fortune. The alcoholic who would drink over a bankruptcy would also probably get drunk if he or she won the lottery.
By refusing to accept all of these alleged “reasons” for drinking, AA simplified our problem so we can deal with it. We either want to drink or we don’t want to drink, period. Even if we want to drink—and some members do—AA can show us how to stay sober and eventually lose such desires.
Nothing has the power to make me drink today. It is only my own willfulness that can destroy my sobriety.
© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation
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