Our job as a fellowship (read 12-step group) is to help the individual discover their own personal truth.
Wither or not you were a continuous hard-drinker, a black-out drinker, or a binge drinker, none of these qualify, quantify or otherwise classify you as an alcoholic.
The idea that "you are an alcoholic when you say you are" is a mute point in final argument. Ultimately, the lines were drawn long ago, and the individual has likely crossed them without knowing. Hence, they became an alcoholic despite their unwillingness to admit it.
This brings forth the point, that an alcoholic faced with the "truth" about themselves and their condition and offered a permanent solution to the malady will likely seek the solution "with the desperation of a drowning man". But how does one come to their own personal truth?
It is our job as a fellowship to help the individual to determine this, the facts are there, the truth is the truth and it is unchanging, the only task we have is to present it. It is my belief that we as a fellowship often fail the new comer in this regard. Believing that they will somehow "see themselves in our story", we often engage in countless war story sessions hoping that someone will match up and we can hook them. However, wouldn't it be far easier for us to help lead them to their own truth? Help them to see where they crossed that line from hard drinker to "real" alcoholic?
Wither or not you were a continuous hard-drinker, a black-out drinker, or a binge drinker, none of these qualify, quantify or otherwise classify you as an alcoholic.
The idea that "you are an alcoholic when you say you are" is a mute point in final argument. Ultimately, the lines were drawn long ago, and the individual has likely crossed them without knowing. Hence, they became an alcoholic despite their unwillingness to admit it.
This brings forth the point, that an alcoholic faced with the "truth" about themselves and their condition and offered a permanent solution to the malady will likely seek the solution "with the desperation of a drowning man". But how does one come to their own personal truth?
It is our job as a fellowship to help the individual to determine this, the facts are there, the truth is the truth and it is unchanging, the only task we have is to present it. It is my belief that we as a fellowship often fail the new comer in this regard. Believing that they will somehow "see themselves in our story", we often engage in countless war story sessions hoping that someone will match up and we can hook them. However, wouldn't it be far easier for us to help lead them to their own truth? Help them to see where they crossed that line from hard drinker to "real" alcoholic?
Your Truth