Alcoholics especially should be able to see that instinct run wild in themselves is the underlying cause of their destructive drinking.

We shall claim that our serious character defects, if we think we have any at all, have been caused chiefly by excessive drinking.

Our reputations hadn't suffered, because we were certain few knew of our drinking.

After coming from our first meeting, or perhaps after we have finished reading the book "Alcoholics Anonymous," we usually want to sit down with some member of the family and readily admit the damage we have done by our drinking.

Not a part of A.A., this worldwide fellowship consists of spouses and other relatives or friends of alcoholics (in A.A. or still drinking).

"The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."

He read aloud, "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking."

You may already have asked yourself why it is that all of us became so very ill from drinking.

He does absurd, incredible, tragic things while drinking.

We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking.

Step over to the nearest barroom and try some controlled drinking.

Though there is no way of proving it, we believe that early in our drinking careers most of us could have stopped drinking.

A man of thirty was doing a great deal of spree drinking.

His family was re-assembled, and he began to work as a salesman for the business he had lost through drinking.

I had no intention of drinking.

Still no thought of drinking.

The best reason first: If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking.

He is under constant fear and tension -- that makes for more drinking.

After a while, turn the talk to some phase of drinking.

He often gets entirely out of hand when drinking.

He enjoys drinking.

Our next thought is that you should never tell him what he must do about his drinking.

Unless they actually need protection from their father, it is best not to take sides in any argument he has with them while drinking.

We thought, on the whole, we were pretty good women, capable of being nicer if our husbands stopped drinking.

Their young minds were impressionable while he was drinking.

But I'm sure this man is done drinking.

Whenever you want to, you control your drinking.

This is not to say that all alcoholics are honest and upright when not drinking.

He remarked: "I'm mighty glad you fellows got over your drinking.

But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking.

He had, of course, the familiar alcoholic obsession that few knew of his drinking.

He found himself surprisingly well received, and learned that many knew of his drinking.

Goes off his head completely when he's drinking.

Three -- The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.

He plans various ways of drinking.

The only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking.

The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.

The broker had gone to Akron on a business venture which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again.

He saw that he had to place the outcome in God's hands or he would soon start drinking again, and all would be lost anyhow.

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums -- we could increase the list ad infinitum.

He made up his mind to quit drinking altogether.

Here was the threat of commitment, the loss of family and position, to say nothing of that intense mental and physical suffering which drinking always caused him.

Especially when he has before him a way to stop his drinking and abuse if he really wants to pay the price.

They are abetted in this blindness by a world which does not understand the difference between sane drinking and alcoholism.

For most of us, self-justification was the maker of excuses; excuses, of course, for drinking, and for all kinds of crazy and damaging conduct.

By now the newcomer has probably arrived at the following conclusions: that his character defects, representing instincts gone astray, have been the primary cause of his drinking and his failure at life; that unless he is now willing to work hard at the elimination of the worst of these defects, both sobriety and peace of mind will still elude him; that all the faulty foundation of his life will have to be torn out and built anew on bedrock.

I could eat little or nothing when drinking, and I was forty pounds under weight.

I simply couldn't stop drinking, and no human being could seem to do the job for me.

My employer -- unreasonable, unjust, overbearing; threatens to fire me for drinking and padding my expense account -- self esteem (fear); security.

State that you know about his drinking, and that it must stop.

The tyrant alcohol wielded a double-edged sword over us: first we were smitten by an insane urge that condemned us to go on drinking, and then by an allergy of the body that insured we would ultimately destroy ourselves in the process.

We have not lost everything in life through drinking and we certainly do not intend to.

We shall at once think of a few people who know all about our drinking, and who have been most affected by it.

He wants to quit drinking and you want to help him, even if it be only a matter of good business.

We would not even do the cause of temperate drinking any good, for not one drinker in a thousand likes to be told anything about alcohol by one who hates it.

We, who have recovered from serious drinking, are miracles of mental health.

We are careful never to show intolerance or hatred of drinking as an institution.

Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.

My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing all day and almost every night.

Why don't you try some more controlled drinking, bearing in mind meanwhile what we have told you about alcoholism?"

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums -- we could increase the list ad infinitum.

You have passed happy evenings together chatting and drinking before your fire.

Then, for good measure, we add dramatic descriptions of that part of our drinking behavior which our friends probably know about anyhow.

Next day found me drinking both gin and sedative.

They should wait for the end of his next drinking bout.

Sometimes these excuses have a certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc an alcoholic's drinking bout creates.

He is remorseful after serious drinking bouts and tells you he wants to stop.

If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right-about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him.

For practicing A.A.'s remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking.

He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink.

Now and then the family will be plagued by spectres from the past, for the drinking career of almost every alcoholic has been marked by escapades, funny, humiliating, shameful or tragic.

If he is not communicative, give him a sketch of your drinking career up to the time you quit.

These were reefs upon which many of us came to shipwreck during our drinking careers.

Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people.

Though there is no way of proving it, we believe that early in our drinking careers most of us could have stopped drinking.

But drinking caught up with me again and my generous friend had to let me go.

"Here lies a Hampshire Grenadier Who caught his death Drinking cold small beer.

First off, they can be told that the majority of A.A. members have suffered severely from self-justification during their drinking days.

But drinking does complicate sex relations in the home.

If he does not want to stop drinking, don't waste time trying to persuade him.

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums -- we could increase the list ad infinitum.

By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression.

You avoid the subject of drinking, even with your own parents.

Golf permitted drinking every day and every night.

Ministers and doctors are competent and you can learn much from them if you wish, but it happens that because of your own drinking experience you can be uniquely useful to other alcoholics.

For an hour, the two friends told him about their drinking experiences.

The remainder of the book was devoted to thirty stories or case histories in which the alcoholics described their drinking experiences and recoveries.

One instance comes to mind in which a malicious individual was always making friendly little jokes about an alcoholic's drinking exploits.

That may be true of certain nonalcoholic people who, though drinking foolishly and heavily at the present time, are able to stop or moderate, because their brains and bodies have not been damaged as ours were.

After your man has gone along without drinking for a few months, you may be able to make use of his services with other employees who are giving you the alcoholic run-around -- provided, of course, they are willing to have a third party in the picture.

He tried to regulate his drinking for a while, making several trips to the hospital meantime.

But after his next binge, ask him if he would really like to get over drinking for good.

But don't remind him of this after he has been drinking, for he may be angry.

When our friend related his experience, the man agreed that no amount of will power he might muster could stop his drinking for long.

So we shall describe some of the mental states that precede a relapse into drinking, for obviously this is the crux of the problem.

Our men have sworn great solemn oaths that they were through drinking forever.

It may convince your husband he wants to stop drinking forever.

Will he take every necessary step, submit to anything to get well, to stop drinking forever?

When he sees you know all about the drinking game, commence to describe yourself as an alcoholic.

Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn't quite belong.

Maybe the society could have survived the abolition controversy, but it didn't have a chance from the moment it determined to reform America's drinking habits.

Tell him enough about your drinking habits, symptoms, and experiences to encourage him to speak of himself.

When our drinking had become much worse, money was only an urgent requirement which could supply us with the next drink and the temporary comfort of oblivion it brought.

How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him, for we know that the pains of drinking had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity.

Moreover, it is usually a fact that our behavior when drinking has aggravated the defects of others.

Our drinking has made us slow to pay.

Dad may feel that for years his drinking has placed him on the wrong side of every argument, but that now he has become a superior person with God on his side.

As we shall see, he now means a great deal to his community, and the major liabilities of thirty years of hard drinking have been repaired in four.

While drinking, he accepted a sum of money from a bitterly-hated business rival, giving him no receipt for it.

Because of resentment and drinking, he had not paid alimony to his first wife.

After two weeks of drinking, he had placed his toe on the trigger of a loaded shotgun -- the barrel was in his mouth.

Mrs. Jones -- she's a nut, she snubbed me; she committed her husband for drinking; he's my friend; she's a gossip -- personal relationship; self esteem (fear).

By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression.

But if you cannot or will not stop drinking, I think you ought to resign."

So our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking, if we have a legitimate reason for being there.

Near the end of that bleak November, I sat drinking in my kitchen.

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums -- we could increase the list ad infinitum.

We feel that elimination of our drinking is but a beginning.

Cessation of drinking is but the first step away from a highly strained, abnormal condition.

He is positive he can handle his liquor, that it does him no harm, that drinking is necessary in his business.

Be determined that your husband's drinking is not going to spoil your relations with your children or your friends.

At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail.

Couples are occasionally dismayed to find that when drinking is stopped the man tends to be impotent.

The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker.

Drinking isolates most homes from the outside world.

It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives.

It is probably true that you and your husband have been living too much alone, for drinking many times isolates the wife of an alcoholic.

As we look back, we feel we had gone on drinking many years beyond the point where we could quit on our will power.

His drinking may be constant or it may be heavy only on certain occasions.

For most normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship and colorful imagination.

Drinking occasionally, and understanding your own reactions, it is possible for you to become quite sure of many things which, so far as the alcoholic is concerned, are not always so.

At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail.

But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge.

Several of our crowd, men of thirty or less, had been drinking only a few years, but they found themselves as helpless as those who had been drinking twenty years.

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums -- we could increase the list ad infinitum.

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums -- we could increase the list ad infinitum.

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums -- we could increase the list ad infinitum.

When drinking, or getting over a bout, an alcoholic, sometimes the model of honesty when normal, will do incredible things.

But many of the suggestions given here may be adapted to help the person who lives with a woman alcoholic -- whether she is still drinking or is recovering in A.A.

If you desire to help it might be well to disregard your own drinking, or lack of it.

But there is another kind of hangover which we all experience whether we are drinking or not.

Do you want to stop drinking or not?

He proved to be a devil-may-care young fellow whose parents could not make out whether he wanted to stop drinking or not.

For most alcoholics who are drinking, or who are just getting over a spree, a certain amount of physical treatment is desirable, even imperative.

It mattered little whether we had sat on the shore of life drinking ourselves into forgetfulness or had plunged in recklessly and willfully beyond our depth and ability.

Even when he wanted to assert himself he could not, for his drinking placed him constantly in the wrong.

This should suggest a useful program for anyone concerned with a drinking problem.

If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty-two personal stories and think: "Yes, that happened to me"; or, more important, "Yes, I've felt like that"; or, most important, "Yes, I believe this program can work for me too."

Surveying his business or employment record, almost any alcoholic can ask questions like these: In addition to my drinking problem, what character defects contributed to my financial instability?

His disposition while drinking resembles his normal nature but little.

People have said we must not go where liquor is served; we must not have it in our homes; we must shun friends who drink; we must avoid moving pictures which show drinking scenes; we must not go into bars; our friends must hide their bottles if we go to their houses; we mustn't think or be reminded about alcohol at all.

Why sit with a long face in places where there is drinking, sighing about the good old days.

I had discharged him for drinking six weeks before.

Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: Job or no job -- wife or no wife -- we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God.

If he sticks to the idea that he can still control his drinking, tell him that possibly he can -- if he is not too alcoholic.

It is truly awful to admit that, glass in hand, we have warped our minds into such an obsession for destructive drinking that only an act of Providence can remove it from us.

Daylight found the master of the house and another friend drinking their morning coffee.