Today a number of us talked about one of the most important chapters in the BB. I say “one”, because there are so many important entries in this great book. And the one we were pulled back to read again and again is the Doctor’s Opinion, by one of the most important physicians to treat the alcoholic. People like ourselves.
One of the most important things about this is what Bill W. had to say, which the doctor emphasized. Bill said that we must believe we’re as physically abnormal as we are mentally. The doctor talked about that abnormality, which really is saying, what was later confirmed by the AMA. Alcoholism is a disease passed along in our genes by our family. There is no cure for this disease. Once it is obviously within us it will be there for the rest of our lives.
He describes us as being restless irritable and discontented until we can drink again. He states that we are not drinking to escape. We are drinking to overcome a craving beyond our mental control. And that’s exactly what I came to realize, when I finally came into this program. I had no idea what was wrong with me, except that I drank beyond my control. In fact not knowing what was wrong, since I couldn’t stop, I decided to end my life. I couldn’t go on. That’s when someone suggested there might be a way out.
I had no idea what an alcoholic was or that I was one. When I read this chapter it opened my mind for the first time. So this was what I had. A disease called alcoholism. I felt like I had been freed for the first time in my life. What a relief. I think I thought I was insane. Well, I was, I think. But there was something more wrong with me. It was at the root of my problem. I was, like the doctor said, physically ill as well as mentally. That’s where alcohol had taken me.
The very fact that there are social drinkers in the majority in comparison, tells us all a lot about what is really going on. And the doctor then tells us what the beginning of a solution to our problem is. He called it a psychic change. And finally he tells us that he and others believed that there had to be something more than the human power to bring about the psychic change within the alcoholic, which will relieve this person from the life threatening craving for that next drink.
Reading this chapter is always encouragement for someone like me. It continues to be a reminder of why I came here and why I need this program. It lets me know what is definitely wrong with me and what the beginning of the solution for someone like me is. And I know it can open the mind of any alcoholic, if he or she is seeking help for what is wrong with them. It definitely did that for me.
Anyway it made me grateful for the talk we all had about what was wrong with us. Like myself, there was a lot of expression of gratitude, not just for the Doctor’s Opinion, but for what this program has done for us all. The spiritual solution, the spiritual awakening, which the doctor referred to as the psychic change. “Something more than the human power”. The introduction for each and everyone of us into the Second Step. To come to believe in a Power Greater than ourselves, whatever that is for each of us. Whatever makes sense to us. The restoration to sanity.
All this is good for me to be reminded of what I need to do. I need to say thanks to those who made me go back and reread the Doctor’s Opinion. I believe this came from my Higher Power and I need to express my thanks.