One Day at a Time

No Denying The Truth

Modern psychology uses the term “Denial” which many of us are surprised to learn isn't even an AA concept - not in the Big Book, anyway. Yet it is thrown around the rooms so much one would think it is.

Is there something akin to "denial" that fits alcoholics? I am happy to report that there is - and it is MORE fitting. It is a term which carries a bit more gravity – and is more fitting to most alcoholics than a size ten shoe.

The term is “Delusional” - and yes that IS in the Big Book. There is an inside joke amongst some of us that, “Denial is for Al-Anons. Alcoholics are DELUSIONAL”.

No offense to Al-Anons. Most people with whom I hang, in the AA fellowship, also LOVE Al-Anon - me included.

If the difference between the two words escapes you now – just think of someone you know, say a parent who thinks their bratty little kid is the most well behaved kid in the school and just can’t understand why all the teachers give him a C in conduct. That’s denial.

Now think of the parent who thinks their bratty little kid is the most well behaved kid in the school can’t understand why all the teachers give him a C in conduct and is taking the matter to the Supreme Court because little Tommy is actually "in training" for the Oval Office . That’s delusion and now you get the idea.

There are two lines in "Alcoholics Anonymous" that acknowledge the phenomenon of folks not being willing to admit to the BOTH conditions of alcoholism which characterize the real alkie, “Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows.” (30:0)

Even alcoholics don’t like to admit that there is something different about their bodies (ALLERGY) and their minds (OBSESSION) than other people.

Modern psychology has done a good job of getting folks to believe that their brains may need an overhaul and of course it stands to reason they would concentrate in that area - they are licensed brain mechanics.

But it is NOT in their best interests to embrace the allergy theory because to do so would admit that their treatments are incomplete for the real alcoholic. That is VERY bad for business.

But only AA tries to show where the body is also different – and therefore we have no outside support in this area. Well not until such time as treatment for the allergy becomes profitable to them. In the mean time people are unwilling to admit to BOTH conditions because they aren't LEARNING of both condition

They  called it – seventy two years ago – and folks today are still as unwilling to admit to what we call the “real alcoholic” and can only help those for whom brain medicines and behavior modification therapies have efficacy. They cannot help the real alcoholic recover.  Consequently invented the absurd and historically untrue notion that alcoholics can NEVER recover.

As someone who finally became open-minded and willing to learn from AA - I became as convinced as convinced can be since the descriptions of those two conditions so closely paralleled my own experience that I was able to use the Program of recovery fashioned out of ages old spiritual practices, customized specifically for people like me – by people like me. I also know from my own experience that not only can most alcoholics recover, but they can do so without the help of the profiteers.

AA are the professionals when it comes to alcoholism. Medical Science, while it has its value, however limited, are the Johnnie-come-latelys in the field. They were left behind in 1935 when a Stockbroker and a butt Doctor got together and started the wholesale distribution of a solution that worked for them and now for millions of others. Modern science has not caught up yet -  despite their trying and now their lying .

Peace and Love,

Danny S