One of my favorite readings in the BB is the Doctor’s Opinion. Whenever I find my mind getting stalled or stale, I know all I have to do is to take the book out and turn to that chapter.
To me it was one of the early inspirations of hope, when I came in. It still is.
One of the things it did for me was to help me understand what was wrong with me. It explained for me why I couldn’t stop drinking and what alcohol was doing to me. It ended that old blame game I had going on in my mind. I learned that I was not the moral leper I thought I was and that I was not as weak willed either. Will power and my thinking had nothing to do with my alcoholism.
But, it also helped me to understand something about the man who wrote this, Dr. Silkworth. In fact, as I was glancing through this writing this evening, I ran across something I thought was very interesting. Near the end, the doctor writes, “When I need a mental uplift…”. He goes on to describe one of his difficult cases with an alcoholic. How a man, who seemed beyond all hope was turned around by the help he received from AA. To me, really inspiring.
That phrase, “When I need a mental uplift” was right on the money. I was sitting here thinking and opened the book and read those words, which lifted me out of my own thoughts. How often, during the course of any given day, I could use this very thing; a mental uplift. And how did he do it? He thought of one of the early successes in AA. That story he followed up with was key to his being able to lift himself out of whatever low point he was in at the time. How many stories I have seen over the years have I seen? I could start with my own and then go to hundreds of others. What a formula he offered to me this evening.
In short order, he ends it with advice to an alcoholic like me. Read the book and pray.