More: Alcoholism (Continued)
C: The first example that we're going to see is a fellow who fell victim to a belief, and he believed a lie. The man of thirty. Joe?
J: This whole chapter is going to be a series of little essays, which is actually going to pinpoint the state of the mind of the individual before the first drink. It's going to bring out--these stories will point to the insanity preceding the first drink. It's trying to show us a little more about the specifics of this (which) is the point at which we're going to have (to have) the help.
(p. 32, par. 3) 'A man of thirty was doing a great deal of spree drinking. He was very nervous in the morning after these bouts and quieted himself with more liquor. He was ambitious to succeed in business, but saw that he would get nowhere if he drank at all. Once he started, he had no control whatever.'
We can see he was alcoholic. (p. 32, par. 3) 'He made up his mind that until he had been successful in business and had retired, he would not touch another drop. An exceptional man, he
remained bone dry for twenty-five years and retired at the age of fifty-five, after a successful and happy business career. Then he fell victim to a belief which practically every alcoholic ha---that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men. Out came his carpet slippers and a bottle. In two months he was in a hospital, puzzled and humiliated. He tried to regulate his drinking for a while, making several tripe to the hospital meantime. Then, gathering all his forces, he attempted to stop altogether and found he could not. Every means of solving his problem which (top of p. 33) money could buy was at his disposal. Every attempt failed.
Though a robust man at retirement, he went to pieces quickly and was dead within four years.'
When you see that this men fell victim, he believed a Lie. He believed that he could drink. This is the state of the mind preceding the first drink. This is the insanity of alcoholism. The insanity is to believe a lie.
I always--we always say, if you believe a lie, the truth will set you free. The truth is you can't drink. But we believe that we can
drink. It's totally impossible for us to drink on the truth. For me to drink on the truth I would have to do something like this.
I would have to go down to the liquor store or the nearest bar, walk in there and say, mister, I drank some of this almost twenty-five years ago and it damn near killed me. I ended up in the nut house. I lost my wife, and lost my job. How much would you charge me for another bottle of it. (laughter) That's the truth.
The only way I could go in there is to believe a lie. This time it's not going to hurt me. I would have to believe the lie. So this man believed a lie. He fell victim to that belief. Even though we can see the progression in him. Even though he could stop at one time, this time when he tried to stop he couldn't. Because we can see the progression of his illness at this time, and it killed him.
