Step by Step #essentialsofrec

“I never knew which came first, the thinking or the drinking. If I could only stop thinking, I wouldn’t drink. If I could only stop drinking, maybe I wouldn’t think. But they were all mixed up together, and I was all mixed up inside. And yet I had to have that drink. You know the deteriorating effects, the disintegrating effects of chronic wine-drinking. I cared nothing about my personal appearance. I didn’t care what I looked like. I didn’t care what I did. To me, taking a bath was just being in a place with a bottle where I could drink in privacy. I had to have it with me at night, in case I woke up and needed that drink.” 

– Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Part II (“They Stopped in Time”), Ch 4 (“The Housewife Who Drank at Home”), p 337.

Today, I don’t care which came first, the delusional and irrational thinking or the drinking, because it doesn’t matter. Whether some deluded thinking misled me to alcohol for a clearer perspective or if excess drinking fueled a thinking problem is moot because, now, the two are intertwined. Thus, my thinking now cannot be that I can resume responsible drinking if I get my thinking in a logical sync. Nor can I believe that I could drink responsibly. Neither is possible. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does it matter? The chicken’s polluted; whatever comes out of him is also polluted. Today, I don’t care where my drinking thinking or thinking drinking came from. I need both corrected, and I’m where I need to be to get both. And our common journey continues. 

Step by step. – Chris M. 

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