The Lonely Disease

Alcoholism has been described as "the lonely disease," and very few recovered alcoholics argue the point...It is an observable fact, that our chief use of alcohol was egocentric -- that is, we poured it into our own bodies, for the effect we felt within our own skin.

Sometimes, that effect momentarily helped us to behave sociably, or temporarily assuaged our inner lonesomeness...The lonely road ahead looked bleak, dark, and unending.

It was too painful to talk about; and to avoid thinking about it, we soon drank again. We discover [in AA] -- but can hardly dare to believe at first -- that we are not alone. We are not totally unlike everybody, after all.

c. 1998 AAWS, Living Sober, pp. 33-4
AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AAOnline.net)
June 11, 2006

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