Big Book Study

[bluidkiti]

Big Book Study - Post #5

Good morning! Welcome back!

While we continue to study the forewords and the Doctor's Opinion,
remember that we are using the 4th Edition. (The page numbering
prior to Chapter 1 differs from edition to edition, since forwords
are added.)

We're at paragraph 1, page xxiv, right after the first letter
written by Dr. Silkworth.

"...the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind."
This was a radical idea for 1935. The primary reason for the lack of
signature by Dr. Silkworth was his reluctance to face his peers with
such radical ideas. It was the Depression era, and Dr. Silkworth was
lucky to have a position. No sense jeopardizing it. Further down, it
is restated: "...any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this
physical factor is incomplete."

Throughout the book, notice that Bill expressess certain points in
several different ways to reinforce the importance or significance
of that point. He does this with the allergy theory. Having
an "allergy" means that we react abnormally to something. In our
case, we react abnormally to alcohol.

(Some drunks claim to break out in handcuffs when drinking. Other
claim to break out in strange spots ? a strange town, a strange
neighborhood, or jail.)

Dr. Silkworth continues to expand on his ideas on page xxvi.
Paragraph 2 is important here:

"...the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a
manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is
limited to this class and never occurs in the average temperate
drinker."

We are different than other people. Normal drinkers do not develop
the phenomenon of "craving." We metabolize alcohol in a different
way than the normal drinker. They don't experience the physical
craving which comes after the first drink is taken. They can have
the one or two that we, as a class, cannot. They don't suffer from
the mental obsession that precedes the first drink.

Paragraph 3, at the bottom, is where "...restless, irritable and
discontented" comes from.

Continuing at the top of page xxvii, "the sense of ease and
comfort...drinks they see others taking with impunity" (without
repercussions). Normal drinkers don't have this physical malady;
they can drink "with impunity" and we can't.

The last sentence of the top paragraph gives us an example of what
we will see throughout the book ? what the spiritual awakening is:
"...unless this person can experience an entire psychic change (also
known as a "spiritual awakening") there is very little hope of his
recovery."

Strong words. Over and over we will see that CHANGE is the hallmark
of recovery from alcoholism.

Turn to page xxviii. Silkworth describes five types of alcoholics:

"the psychopaths who are emotionally unstable..."
"There is the type of man who is unwilling to admit that he cannot
take a drink..."
"There is the type who believes that after being entirely free from
alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without danger."
"There is the manic-depressive type..."
"Then there are types entirely normal in every respect except in the
effect alcohol has upon them."
Here's the important point: "All these, and many others, have one
symptom in common: they cannot start drinking without developing the
phenomenon of craving...the manifestation of an allergy..."

That first drink gets us drunk.

With our next post, we'll start with Chapter 1 - Bill's Story.

Until then think about this: there is only one place in the main
text of the Big Book where the word "pot" appears. No, it isn't the
kind you smoke. What is it's meaning? We'll reveal the meaning with
our next post.

Have a great day!

Jim