“We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. …All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals – usually brief – were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced …that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.”
– Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 3 (“More About Alcoholism”), p 30.
Today, I do not have time to waste mulling the myth that I can become a responsible drinker by “controlling” my intake. My own history is etched in the words of the Big Book, and probably the histories of countless others: I lost control at some point, conned myself into thinking I could regain it only to plunge deeper into “incomprehensible demoralization.” Only when I understood and believed that my alcoholism is progressive, that it always gets worse and never better without total abstinence, did I come to take Step One: “Admitted (I am) powerless …” I am still powerless over alcohol and always will be, but I have power in sobriety and, today, I can flex that power to kill the myth that I can ever drink again with a simple choice: don’t drink. And our common journey continues.
Step by step. – Chris M.
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