Alcoholism as a Biochemical Addiction to a Sedative Drug – Joe M.

Good evening, and I hope that this does not take too long. I would begin by saying that it was my privilege just about 20 years ago to have met a man who, in my opinion, knew as much or more than any other given individual in this field of alcoholism. His name was Walter Green. He was a medical doctor and a recovered alcoholic. The little Doc, as he was very fondly called by everyone who knew him, had lost everything through his own drinking. Beginning with his license to practice medicine. He lost that and from there he went down and he wound up on Michigan Avenue in Detroit, Michigan bumming nickels for drink. And I can hear him say now that very often, even though the people didn't recognize him, he put his hand out to former patients that he had treated when he was a young intern at Detroit Receiving Hospital not very far from there. Well, the little doc had a beautiful expression. He says, you don't get AA, it gets you. Well, it got him, and he got well. And he went back to the top of his profession. And he became the medical head of the hospital in Brighton, Michigan. And he had developed a series of talks on alcoholism which he gave to his patients there. Now, Dr. Green dedicated his entire life from his own recovery on, he dedicated his whole life only to alcoholic men and women. And he treated approximately 6,000 of them before he himself died of cancer some years ago. I would submit for your consideration that this little man knew what he was talking about. He had the experiential knowledge of having been there himself and he had the knowledge, mixed with a lot of love, of his patients that he had collected over the years. He used to say this, A lie can be wiped out with truth. Ultimately you can explode a lie or a myth or a fallacy with truth One thing is much more dangerous than any lie ever could be and that's the half-truth And there's no field on earth in which there are more half-truths than this one of alcoholism. So he used to say, what can be known should be known. Because if we don't work with solid truth and solid knowledge, death is the result. Alcoholism is a terminal illness. If an alcoholic does not stop drinking, the drinking will ultimately stop him. so Doc used to say in that magnificent simplicity of his it's rather nice to know what you're sick with so you know what it is you're getting well from and then he used to try to explain alcoholism at least the fact that we do know about it what it does based on a knowledge of alcohol what it gives and what it doesn't alcoholism is one of the oldest illnesses known to mankind it's been around a long, long time mentioned in scripture and mentioned in a lot of other ancient writings. It is, in my opinion, the most complex. We don't even know what causes it. And I can hear Doc saying this as if he just said it five minutes ago. The causes and cures for cancer will be long forgotten even before we come to a knowledge of the causes of alcoholism. We do know the causes with drinking. You can find out why people start drinking but those things are not the causes of compulsive drinking here's where many professionals make a mistake they conclude that what causes drinking is causative of alcoholism or compulsive drink it isn't so at all it's the most complete illness known it affects body mind emotion and soul in other words when you catch this disease you get sick all over and it's one about which we know the least uh i heard a man as recently as last night say that in the beginning of his own recovery he figured he knew everything about alcoholism and now after quite a few years of recovery 20 some he said i think i'm beginning to learn a few things about it and so it is a very baffling thing but to get back to basics the facts about alcoholism what can be known should be known because the results of a half-truth are always tragic one of the first myths that Doc used to try to explode is a popular belief that practically everybody holds on to if we can send the alcoholic to some professional who can tell him why he drinks, he won't have a drinking problem. I would like to bet that many of you in this room when your problem was discovered and when it was acknowledged that there was some trouble with drinking here were sent to psychiatrists and spent a lot of money and a lot hours trying to find out why you drank. And if a man or woman is smart enough they can get to the basic reasons of why you started to drink but that doesn't dissipate the problem has any of you in this room ever gone to a dentist and said quick doctor tell me why my tooth hurts and after he explains why all the ins and outs of molecular structure of cells and saliva and food and decay and all of that sort of thing supposing he explains exactly why you have a toothache have any of you ever said thank you doctor and walked out? A knowledge of causes does not dissipate the problem. It doesn't dissipate the problem at all. Proper therapy does. You may know why you have appendicitis, but that's not going to take care of it. Surgery will. You may know WHY you broke your leg. You weren't careful skiing. But knowledge of why you broke your leg is not going to heal it proper therapy is the answer to any problem however Doc says just to clear the air there are reasons why people drink alcohol but he said there are reasons why people drink everything so let's go into the things we drink and why we drink them the very first thing that crosses human lips is water why do we drink it we have to. We have to! What I think they say, you can only go so many days without water and you'll die. Most of the human body is composed of water. It has to be replenished and so on. So basically water flakes first. We drink it because it is necessary that we drink it. The next thing we are given is milk. And milk is drunk because we have to drink it it is so essential to life for some animal species the human animal included this is what biologists call us they call us milk drinkers the technical name is mammal that's from the latin word mama which means breast the source of milk mammals are milk drinker and we drink milk for the sustenance of health. It sustains health to such a degree it's been called nature's perfect food. All right, these two beverages here, water and milk, since they are absolutely essential to human life, they're called natural. These are the natural beverages. But we humans, unlike a whole lot of other animals, drink a lot of others beverages for different reasons. One of the very first things we drink after water and milk is something sweet. Soft drink, soda, hot chocolate, anything sweet. And the reason is so simple. In the very young, among the taste buds, there is a definite preference for sweetness. And so usually our parents give us something sweet when we're very young. The reason? It is pleasing. It pleases taste. We drink it because it tastes good. There's no deep, probing, psychological reason for that. Even though they try to dazzle us with technical language, it is drunk for oral gratification. All that means is that it tastes Good. And that is why we drink it. As Dockery used to say, We please a desire, we do not fulfill a need. We please a desire. And I think this is probably the basic reason for drug usage. It pleases a desire, it makes one feel good, but there's no need for that. It isn't necessary. All right, the next thing we're introduced to, especially here in the Western world, is coffee. Now please watch the difference between drinking coffee and drinking these other three things up here, water, milk, and soda. the drinking of coffee has to be learned you have to acquire a taste for coffee and the reason you have to learn to drink coffee it is not necessary and it does not taste good why in the name of heaven do we drink it the very first reason explains why we do practically everything curiosity curiosity coffee is a big people drink they drink it and don't give up any and when we get old enough to ask we're told we can't have it because it's not good for us so we want some and when they're not good and when you beg enough and enough and enough somewhere along the line the mother or the father will take a little bit of coffee cut it with milk or cream put a little sugar in sweeten it and some people when they really acquire a taste for coffee actually believe that sugar ruins the taste it ruins the tastes Sugar is put into the coffee of the young because of their preference for sweetness in order to get them to drink it. So, in other words, we take a sip, we slake our curiosity, we are doing what the big people do. That, by the way, is your first step out of infancy, doing something that big people don't do. The second reason coffee is drunk is simply because it's customary. The drinking of tea is customary in Ireland, Scotland and England and so on. Drinking of coffee is perfectly customary here. In fact, the coffee break is so customary it's written into some labor management contracts here in the United States. And as Doc Green used to say, an AA meeting without a coffee urn is perhaps a serious break. Convidiality. There is a certain social aspect to the drinking of coffee. Why do we have a coffee break? so that people can sit around and have conversation while they're having a cup of coffee. You don't drink coffee usually through the day because you're thirsty, but simply because it is the coffee break and everyone sits around and has one. All right. Now we come at long last to alcohol, the great mysterious thing. Why do people drink? People drink for a whole lot of reasons, but they're just as simple as all of these. they're just as simple and completely uncomplicated as all the rest the drinking of alcohol is a learned process just like the drinking of coffee is a learn process it is not necessary and it doesn't taste good it comes in beverage form that normally is not acceptable especially to young palates we have to acquire a taste for alcoholic beverages some people drink it all their lives and never acquire a taste word but they drink it anyway which is a little bit perverse for starters anyway why do people drink alcohol number one curiosity it's a big people drink even the law says in some places used to be universal in the united states couldn't drink it they were 21 then it became 18 now it's back to 19 in someplaces and so on and so forth uh well somewhere along the line you're going to taste alcoholic beverages that law was rather crazy sort of a thing anyway have any of you in this room ever heard anybody or have you ever said yourself let's say you're 15 16 years old and you're at a high school dancing somebody says how about a beer and you say gee i'd love to have one but i can't it's illegal i'm 21. it is so silly no one pays attention we have all tasted alcoholic beverages before our 21st year we we satisfy that curiosity somewhere along the line somebody will take a little whiskey for a little water or ice in it to cut it. A little sugar to sweeten it. I used to say a little garbage to make it pretty. We call that a cocktail. Take a sip, you're doing just what the big people do. And this too we associate with adulthood. Your first step out of infancy is a sip of coffee. Your first steps into the adult world of the macho human being is drinking booze. And I think that some so-called adults are still children at heart. We, for some reason or other, think that drinking alcohol is somehow the manly, the adult thing to do. A little bit crazy. Custom dictates the use of alcohol. Ladies and gentlemen, alcohol has been associated with hundreds of human traditions and customs. It is customary to drink at weddings. We toast the bride in champagne. and if there are any of you at whose heartstrings romance still tugs you know the word honeymoon comes from booze in the Scandinavian countries they celebrate weddings for a lunar month of complete moon 28 days now during that month that moon they drink a beverage called need m-e-a-d which is an alcoholic beverage made out of honey if you can imagine that this month this moon is called then the marriage month or the honeymoon now if you'd imagine drinking that for 28 days maybe you can appreciate the expression the honeymoon is over at the end it is customary to drink at birth death weddings wakes celebrations graduations anniversaries feast days holydays holidays Sundays Mondays Tuesdays Wednesdays we're coming to christmas eggnog is a traditional christmas thing mulled wine in england uh i think they had something in dickens christmas carol about bob cratchit having a little bit of wine to share with his family around the tom and jerry we have the mint julep around may associated with the kentucky derby i saw that on the cover of an airline magazine may i meant jewel we have We have the Tom Collins in summer, etc. And the apple wine of Germany, the Oktoberfest, you know, when the wines are brought into being, and so on and so forth. It is customary to drink alcohol associated with highlights of human life than it has been for centuries. Conviviality? Good Lord. Alcohol produces a whole lot more conviviality than coffee. In fact, the Jews refer to wine as the gift of God that gladdens the hearts of men. Wine is always associated with joyous occasions. It does produce conviviality, and it produces it in a very physical way, which we'll see in a minute. It does make people kind of happy. It is drunk for escape. Now, here's where the professionals have so dazzled us with that he's drinking to escape. There's nothing wrong with that. You know why I have a sweater on the night? It's cold out. It is so natural to seek to escape the unpleasant by substituting the pleasant for it. If you're thirsty, you take a drink of water. It's cool, you put on a sweater. It rains, you come in. To seek to escaped unpleasant things is the most normal natural thing on earth my friends alcohol provides escape from unpleasant things and many people drink it for that the anxieties of the day men and women for generations have had a pre-dinner cocktail or aperitif as they call it in europe it relaxes you for one of the most important events of the day the evening meal which you eat together which is a social convivial type of happening it is the gift of God that gladdens the hearts of men and for those who can for those who can take it alcohol has proven to be a fine escape some people escape the tensions of life or the vacation a day off jogging running it's perfectly normal and ordinary to seek to escape unpleasantness by substituting unpleasantness. Sometimes unpleasantness can take the form of husbands, wives, jobs, kids, bosses, anything. And it's a marvelous escape from this thing. Anyway, pain. Pain used to be a major reason why people drink. Have you ever used the expression, boy he was feeling and no pain left. That's been said for centuries. He's feeling no pain. And my friends, there is a biochemical reason for this. Alcohol is a painkiller. It kills pain. It really, really does. But we have infinitely better painkillers than alcohol today so that's not quite a valid reason for over-drinking especially. I've always said if somebody you work with comes in at 8.30 in the morning drunk and you ask him why and he looks at you and says receding gums that is not a very valid reason for being drunk at 8.30 in the morning we simply have better painkillers than alcohol so that's kind of a as always you know there's an ad that says give your cold to contact it'll be a whole lot more pleasant if you give it to old granddad euphoria is the sixth and final and most sensible, normal, ordinary reason why everybody drinks beverage alcohol. Ladies and gentlemen, euphoria is a Greek word that means a sense of well-being. People drink alcohol because it makes them feel good. Alcohol does what no other beverage does. It makes you feel good." King's ransoms have been spent Trying to find out, well, why does he drink? Why does she drink? That is the basic, basic reason. This is why the human being will spend $2.50 on an exotic cocktail when he could buy a case of root beer for the same price. The reason is so simple. One martini does what all the root beer in the world can't do. It makes you feel good. Makes you feel Good. Now, why do you want to feel good? now psychiatrists can have their day but why do people drink basically and fundamentally to feel good and you can couple that with any of these other things it's a wedding you could choose to drink ginger ale to toast the bride and you would be taking part in the ceremony and the tradition but if you have a couple of smashes of champagne you not only please the bride you please yourself you feel good What is there about this magic substance that makes you feel good? What is it? Basically, it's a chemical composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. C2H5OH is the chemical formula for the type of alcohol that we drink. Now, this will not degenerate into a chemistry lesson. I don't know any chemistry. I know just about as much as the average layman. We all know that H2O is water. I think we have all come to learn that canine pee comes from the south end of a dog, but I believe that that would be the extent of the knowledge that most of us have. Now, the only reason I mention that H20 is, we're going to see a little bit about it later. C2H5OH, a carbohydrate. It's a quick source of energy, but it is not a food. Alcohol is not an energy source. It is not food. What it's in may be beer, for example. comes from grain here is five percent alcohol the rest the other 95% may contain foodstuffs and so on but alcohol no alcohol is handled by one organ of the human body the liver and it handles it at the rate of three-quarters of an ounce an hour about now you can either accelerate or decelerate that process there's no such thing as a hangover cure the only thing you get when you give black coffee to a drunk as a wide awake drunk all of these things do nothing alcohol is handled by the liver at a steady rate approximately an ounce an hour what is it it's a solvent any decent cleaner for example has alcohol in it it has been known to remove stains from desks desks stomachs paychecks bankrolls careers marriages families and lives most alcoholics die because they don't receive proper treatment this is the best solvent known it's an irritant you cut yourself and spill a little alcohol on the cup you will move quickly it has been looked upon as a stimulant but it isn't and we look upon it as a statement because of nutty things people do when they drink it and people do wacky things when they uh there's a fellow in aa his standard reply to waiters or waitresses who ask him would you care for a drink he always says no thank you i'm allergic to it and one day a waitress said what do you mean by that he said when i drink i break out in spots houston anchorage new york he does nutty things when he drinks people do that and for that reason people have looked on alcohol as a stimulant actually it isn't it's an antiseptic a nurse always purify your arm or your leg or wherever else they stick needles into you before they give you the needle it's a poor anesthetic but for centuries it was the only one we had you hear a lot of garbage from pulpits about the moment in which the Roman soldiers offered a sponge full of cheap wine to Christ on the cross that was meant as an act of simple human kindness to alleviate his pain. Cheap, almost vinegary wine into which they mixed another drug called myrrh was standard equipment with those Roman soldiers that had to execute people. They gave them a bang of that and then nailed them and waited for them to die. It helped to keep down the screaming. Basically, in its drinkable form, The chemical C2H5OH is a sedative drug. And alcoholism is addiction to that drug. Now, that's this whole talk in one sentence. If there are any alcoholics in the room and you've wondered what's wrong with you, that's what's right. That's wrong. An alcoholic is one who is addicted to a seditive drug. Now, how do we know that? What is addiction? everybody uses a word the books written about it I think that addiction is a mystery nobody knows what it is nobody knows what life is nobody know what God is you know we do with mysteries we look and we describe what we're looking at that's called a descriptive definitions thousands of books been written about electricity nobody really knows what it is when they've torn atoms apart and everything we know enough about it to make lights to power nuclear submarines with it but nobody knows what it is what's life we know the difference between a live dog and a dead dog the principle of life has gone from the dead dog we know enough about life to prolong it we know about it to alleviate some of its miseries and to cure others nobody knows when it is what do we know about God well a little bit but it's practically nothing we see God through what he's done we look and we describe what we're looking at but everything we know about God is always in negative terms we tell what he is not he is infinite which simply means he's not like us he's not finite and so on what's addiction we don't know what we know about it is what we see in all addiction there are two main characteristics number one is compulsive use the addict uses unlike everybody else he has no control over his youth that she always drinks too much all even now there are five basic addictions narcotics alcohol food gambling and work what we're interested in is the drinking now I told him not to drink and he got drunk he got broke the alcoholic doesn't want to drink as much as he does I have always used this as a thumbnail definition of the alcoholic I've always used this on brand new people who are wondering whether they are or not they you know you don't want to be one but just answer this question honestly forget about limitations imposed by husband wife child or parent forget all that just answer this question obviously have you ever in your entire life ever drunk more than you determined you were going to drink i am not talking about well i think i'll have a couple tonight and then uh you know it's a class reunion or surprise birthday party you drink four instead of three i'm not talking that bad at all have you ever seriously determined i will not drink more than have you never gone over that just yes or no if your answer is yes more than once that indicates compulsion the alcoholic literally drinks against his will you did not intend to drink more than three and you wound up on a four-day binge that's compulsions the second characteristic is progression what that means is this unless and until the drinking is stopped completely it can only get worse it can only get worst once contracted all compulsion lasts until death there is no such thing as a cured alcoholic now there's a great big thing in AA the difference between recovered and recovering I think the whole bloody thing is a waste of words recovered means you've gotten well doesn't mean you can't get weller it just means you have gotten over your illness people who say that they're recovered are not implying but they're cured at all i compare recovery from alcoholism like recovery from a broken bone i think that while you're in the hospital and while you are wearing a cast you are recovering but when they take it off your your well doesn't mean you can't break it again and once you recover from alcohol isn't doesn't mean you can't get drunk again just means that for now you've gotten well all right once there it lasts until death what that means is if you can reactivate it by drinking again and number two it gets worse until death the baffling mystery of alcoholism is that somehow or other it progresses whether you drink or not now i'm not going to try to explain that we'll just try to comment on it later alcoholism is addiction to a sedative drug now we have seen at least a layman's definition of addiction it's a phenomenon whereby someone uses a substance compulsively and once he contracts that affliction it lasts until death and it gets worse all right now let's go back the first statement alcohol sensitive drug how we prove that that's a statement and doc green in that magnificent simplicity of his he says communication can take place in any number of ways but you learn this when you study in English in first year high school the most powerful way to communicate to anybody is through comparison and contrast you can show someone for example the beauty of gratitude by showing the ugliness of ingratitude contrast or if you want if you know something I don't know and you want to communicate it to me compare it with something that I do know and that's what doc Green does he shows that alcohol is a sedative drug by comparing its action to the action of another accepted anesthetic sedative drugs eater all right now we're all familiar with the word ether we know what it is anesthetic used in hospitals i i don't think that there's anybody doesn't know what ether is and i think that most of us would accept the fact that uh we could refer to an anesthetized rabbit as the ether bunny and I promise that that's the last of that anyway I remember once giving this chalk talk in Annapolis Maryland to a group of military and civilian personnel from an eastern region and when this talk was over an old German biochemist came up and explained why ether and alcohol do the same thing. I went through all the comparisons that Doc Green had gone through, and then this man came up and just put a formula on the board and showed why they do exactly the same things. C2H5OH we'll go back to the chemistry now, is a molecule of ethyl alcohol, the kind we drink. And this little man and came back up to the blackboard after the talk was over. He said, let me show you why. And he wrote C2H5OH on the board, as I've written it right here just now. And he said, do you know what ether is? I said, no. He said it is two of them, H-O-C2-H5. So he said ether is twice as strong as alcohol. but he said even more than that in ether there is no H2O and he blotted out the middle here the two H's the formula for ether C2H5O, C2OH5 so he concluded by saying ether is twice the strength of alcohol but it's undiluted what I say is ether is a double shot without a chaser which makes it a little understandable and it's perfectly true in other words these two do exactly the same thing except ether does it quicker now let's take a look at it what does ether do if you've ever been in a hospital I can remember in the 8th grade I had my tonsils out and they used ether the very first thing that happens is a kind of dryness in the throat ether you see is very absorbent of moisture and it absorbs the moisture from your mucous membranes of the throat now if you've ever undergone surgery after two or three inhalations you simply want to pull the mask off and just gulp in fresh air bring it in but of course after a little teeny bit you begin to feel this strange thing that we call euphoria you feel good Why? Let's begin at the beginning. What Joaquin said, let's take an adult and give him ether and then we will take an adult and get him alcohol we will see that both do the same thing but before he went into that the dryness of throat euphoria so he said what's an adult what's a mature person everybody in the room has some sort of definition Cardinal Newman's classic definition of a gentleman, one who does not consciously cause pain. I think you have to have a certain amount of maturity to fit that definition. An adult certainly is someone who is sensitive to the sensitivities of other people. What is an adult? All those definitions are perfectly valid and are accurate. Dr. Green's definition was, an adult is someone who functions in life according to the formula i over e intellect governs emotions now actually we don't govern our emotions but what he's trying to say is what thomas aquinas calls us man is a rational animal that normally his functioning and his actions are dictated by reason rather than his feelings in the main all right he says now please let's watch what happens to that formula i over e when we introduce a drug to the brain that governs that formula all right the human brain we are all familiar with the fact that the brain is an organ inside the head it is composed of certain parts and those parts control functions the outermost part of the brain is where we have reason intellect the seat of judgment beneath that your emotions your imagination your memory as you go deeper into the brain you find obviously is more protected and it governs more delicate things the motor activity of the body the movement of all the inner workings of everything that goes on your sense of coordination is where it's visible the semi-voluntary functions some of the functions of the human body we have control over at some time and at other times we don't the blinking of your eyes at times you can control it and at times you can't you just blink instinctively when wind brings dust towards your eye there are the purely involuntary functions like the action of your intestines the action of your stomach as it handles food and then you have the innermost smallest most protected part of the brain governs those functions that we consider to be essential to life. Well, that word for life is vita. And what is essential to life, obviously, is therefore vital. Anything that is vital has to do with your life. What happens to that brain and the formula I over E that is within it when you drug it? What happens to the brain when you drug it?" All right, I know this sounds simplistic. This was not meant to be a science lecture. I don't know that much all we do know is that usually an anesthetic will hit the whole brain but step by step this is what Doc Green is trying to describe if ether were given slowly and put into a human system gradually the dryness in the throat now you feel euphoria he gives an almost mathematical formula for there's a man going to put a knife to your belly and you feel great why do you feel good in a situation that would normally terrify you if you weren't half anesthetized this is the simplest reason of all I over E except after D add a drug to the brain the first part that gets hit is the first party is vulnerable what controls reason the watchdog is asleep the worry work is gone you feel good because the drug just put to sleep what would make you feel bad so it's i over except after d now watch what the drug does to the intellect puts it to sleep and liberates the emotions when there's no control over your feelings they come out you have a reversal of the formula it's now e over i and you enter an excitement stage you enter an excitement stage um the important thing to remember is this when the emotions come out they come out drugged you see that's the next part of the brain it gets hit my friends you are not watching emotional supposing you entered uh an operating room and they were anesthetizing a patient and they stopped it right here and you looked at someone who was entering an excitement stage and they're babbling and saying goofy things you're not watching emotional behavior you're watching drugged emotional behavior what sense would it make if you were standing beside your mother let's say she's on operating table about to be operated on they stop the anesthetic here and she's saying very crazy things how many of you would say good heavens she needs a psychiatrist she's under the influence of ether she doesn't need a psychiatrist at all but just hold on to that thought for a minute you may or may not get sick here I'm the way they've ever walked by a hospital and just gotten a whiff of ether but it's nauseating terribly nauseating now if you're in an excitement stage with the danger of nausea that's just the word it is dangerous so they don't keep you here very long they just kind of slam you through there after a bit you hit a stage of pre anesthesia you're out what happens is the brain is being drugged from outside in your intellect is gone the emotions are goofy the motor activity or sense coordination is all affected you could theoretically not theoretically you very well could hurt yourself if they did not shoot you through that that's why that sheet is wrapped very tightly around you That's why they're all standing there, and that's why they slam you through this. In fact, what they do today is they give you a needle before you leave your room. You're a little bit gone by the time you get down there. When the semi-voluntary functions are gone, you literally cannot open your eyelid. They call that pre-anesthesia. And it is pre-anaesthesia because you can't yet be operated on. It would be too dangerous. You'd feel the pain when the brain is sedated down to here. You are anesthetized. When the involuntary functions go you're in a state of anesthesia you can now be operated on now watch the only thing you have left your vital functions your heartbeat and your breathing when they go you do death is the next step many many anis well anesthesiologists rmds who do nothing but this it's that important they can even operate on that brain while they have it out they operate on your heart they can do practically anything what happens when you come out of it you go through the same process in reverse from anesthesia to pre-anesthesia you'll be sick you want to do an exciting stage but you will not feel very good obviously you've just had surgery please don't watch this please cross out ether substitute alcohol it does exactly the same thing I'm not talking about alcoholism for people who are brand new this program and you feel threatened by it, forget it. I'm not talking about alcoholism, I'm talking about drinking. This is what happens when anyone ingests beverage alcohol. You notice that you don't notice the dryness, you notice the burning in the throat. You remember your first shot of straight whiskey? It wasn't a taste, it was a sensation. The tears are coming down your cheek. Why? it's highly absorbent of moisture. It dries out the mucous membranes of your throat and then being an irritant, it hurts! Don't you know what happens when you shave your face and then put some aftershave lotion that has alcohol in on its things? That's exactly what happens to your throat. They are very sensitive membranes. That's why we drink chasers after straight shots. Do you ever use the expression hear what your whistle? That is another dumb expression. Alcohol doesn't wet your whistle? It dries it. The chaser wets your whistle. Anyways, what happens when you drink? You feel this burning in the throat and then you feel good. Why is old granddad a little more pleasant than contact? Because it adds this euphoria. You've all heard people make jokes about a cold. Have a hot toddy. I don't know what the hot todder does except makes you forget the symptoms of the cold. You got the cold but it doesn't bother you. Not much. You feel good and you enter an excitement stage. All right. What happens? Alcohol is handled at the rate of an ounce an hour. Suppose you drink six ounces in 20 minutes. All right, the liver handles one the first hour. The rest gets in the bloodstream for subsequent trips. When the blood brings it to the brain, the alcohol begins to sedate the brain. how do we know that simple observation doc green says don't you know when you're in the presence of people drinking you don't need to come into a classroom find that out if somebody's very drunk he's going to stagger if somebody is very drunk he staggers but in the beginning you notice it in the motor activity that slowness of the blinking of the eyelids the tongue becomes thick it's a major production to light a cigarette the hand weaves a little bit getting the key in the ignition and whether you're alcoholic or not whether you like it or not drinkers who drive are a danger to human life and probably every non-alcoholic who drinks has done that without even thinking ladies and gentlemen the physical impossibility to drink and function right it can't be done good lord they've made movies out in los angeles there's another one from canada they used up in canada they use professional racing drivers gave them two shots of whiskey For those of you who can hold it and you're big drinkers, they gave professionals two shots of whiskey and put them behind the wheels of their car. They were knocking the pylons down and kind of cursing because they knew this shouldn't be happening. But their reflexes were about a half of a second behind time. The brain was telling them what they ought to do but the reaction was that much slower. The motor activity was being affected. But anyways, you feel good because alcohol puts to sleep what would make you feel bad When alcohol gets to the brain, it begins to put it to sleep. So it's I over E except after A. Add drug alcohol, put the intellect to sleep, release the emotions, and what you see is drugged emotional behavior. And here's where everybody makes a mistake in the treatment of the alcoholic. We would not dream of sending our mother under the influence of ether to a psychiatrist, but we send loved ones or patients under the influx of alcohol. to a psychiatrist doesn't that make sense what am I trying to say answer this question it's an easy one how would you know if your mother needs care for her emotional problems wouldn't you say the obvious we'll get the ether out of her so we see what she really is and then if she needs help she needs health same way with the alcoholic some alcoholics need deeper therapy after they get sober but there's the clue after they got sober Doc Green in 6,000 patients he said I have found that some alcoholics after they get sober do need care the percentage of alcoholics who need professional help after they recover is exactly the same as the percentage of non-alcoholics ladies and gentlemen alcoholism is a biochemical addiction to a drug now if you were nuts before you started to use it you'll be a little wackier after you quit with the drinking but here and you will of course need help but many even professionals look at the results of the drinking and conclude that they're the causes well, of course he's drinking he's a maniac uh-uh, he's an maniac because he's drinkin' a little child knows that all of these things are the result of the drinkin', not the cause you wipe out the drink why is he working again? he doesn't drink why is he invited back into people's houses he doesn't drink you've removed the cause of all these a little kid knows that ladies and gentlemen I did this in my home not too long ago a youngster whose mother has a drinking problem came to see me little fella he started to cry he said I don't want to leave my mother and he just ran over sat on my lap and when his tears dried he sat back down again I asked him one simple question I said what's wrong in your house five words five words my mother drinks too much and people have spent months and even years in therapy to find out what the problem is ladies and gentlemen that little kid knew that alcohol was the problem get rid of the alcohol then we'll go after the other stuff then we're going to go after the other things the other thing that needs going after anyway what kind of a drinker are you when your inhibitions the I is put to sleep what kind of drugged emotional behavior comes out there are basic types of drinkers and drunks with hundreds of different variations on the theme there's the jocose type the life of the party he's very shy but three or four drinks later he's telling the stories and leading the fun there's a bellicose type that's from the latin word for war the fighting drunk is what he is I know another fellow in AA he goes into a restaurant the waiter says would you care for a drink and his standard reply is always lady if I took a drink you wouldn't like me very much he used to tear places to shreds he was a bellicose fighting drunk usually fighting drunks are little guys who are afraid of the dark but get them drunk and they'll take on King Kong and I always say in AA you can spot them the new men with the new teeth but there is another conclusion to come true come to if you know a big drunk who is nasty leave him alone now I mean that I've heard people say oh I can handle him I'm the only one who can well yeah well one day he may handle you. He's drugged. Don't play around with big, nasty drunks. And then there's the lacrimose or crying drunk. Have you ever met one? You ever been one? Well, we won't even go into that. That takes forever. Somebody once said that the alcoholic is alone in a crowd well he didn't even come close and I believe that all the garbage in the soul of an alcoholic wants out no one likes being dirty and I think that very often our fears especially our fears of God disappear or want to disappear when the alcoholic gets drunk his fears of god disappear and he looks up people connected with guys why a lot of priests and ministers and so on get calls from the drunks please help me please help me please help me and of course the alcoholic would not do that when he's sober but he does when he kills his inhibitions and his fears and so on but anyway the crying drunk that's room for a whole book in itself anyways if you drink enough you'll pass out now please watch the paradoxes of alcohol it is an anesthetic and it was used as such in the middle ages if they wanted to amputate your leg they got you drunk till you passed out and then cut it all quick because still you could feel it why is alcohol a poor anesthetic it's a liquid it's illiquid once you drink enough to become unconscious pre anesthesia you can't pick up a glass and swallow anymore to get down into anesthesia if you do your lava to take too much and go on down and die it's very very hard theoretically you could drink enough up here to slam you down into anesthesia but who's going to say you're going to stop there i remember once i was up at rupture summer school of alcohol studies they were trying to show all this the influence of alcohol on the body and they used laboratory rats i think there were three or four rats uh he he took maybe a third of an ounce of alcohol and injected it in the rat and they put him on a tight rope well you could see the rat walk across the tightrope he put this tiny amount of alcohol to show you know the influence on the motor activity for people think they drive well when they drink and the old rat was staggering across there and falling and grabbing onto the rope and so on then he put a little more in the rat couldn't get up to the rope and then he'd put enough in the right passed out and i went up to him afterwards and it was a brilliant lecture a very very humorous lecture very informative lecture and i went up afterwards and i said uh will that rats come too and he says i don't know we lose about half of them he was anesthetized to a point where his vital functions were put to sleep he said this one might or might not now it's very frightening thing very frightening anyways coming out of it you go through the same process in reverse now please let's just look at two people who go through this process one's an alcoholic one isn't and then we'll go into alcoholism and see what it is right now we're just talking about alcohol the substance alcohol we well a few comments about alcoholism but we'll go into it now uh charlie and his aunt go to a new year's eve party charlie's the alcoholic he drinks compulsively his aunt doesn't drink at all because he does just very briefly watch what happens to charlie listen to this please it's important he comes to see the new year in all right that's at midnight he shows up at 5 p.m. he gets there early and has the first drink he burns his throat feels good for a while he's the loving life of the party somebody bangs him in the mouth he cries in his beer and passes out at 20 minutes of midnight Charlie hadn't seen a new year in six years Charlie has not seen a a new year in in six years not by intention he came to see the new year in and he's unconscious why surely drinks compulsively it couldn't help him he wanted euphoria and shot through it how many alcoholics how many of you have ever set out to have a good time drinking and come to perhaps in a hospital a week and a half later how many of you have set out to have a good time drinking and spent the next three days with a horrible hangover, unable to eat. That's what happens to the Charlies of the world. Normal drinkers, ladies and gentlemen, drink for euphoria. They get it and they stop there. And it is the gift of God that lends the hearts of men. The alcoholic cannot stop there, he shoots through it. Aunt Mabel doesn't drink at all, but watch the influence of alcohol on a non-drinker. They give her a screwdriver and tell her it's orange juice. and halfway threw her heads down on the table. She doesn't even know she's had a drink. She's unconscious. The next morning, Charlie will wake up with a hangover. He'll take three or four shots before he gets out of bed so he won't commit suicide when he shaves. And old Mabel just wakes up. Oh, perhaps her head hurts a little bit but she doesn't know she has a hang over. She doesn' t even know if she's got a drink What's the difference between Charlie and Mabel? What is an alcoholic? For those of you in the room who are wondering All right, maybe you're here against your will. Maybe you've heard people talk to you about your drinking and gotten angry about it. Well, that's a pretty good indication you've got a problem because a non-alcoholic is not threatened by somebody talking about his drinking. I think the basic definition of alcoholic is somebody who's drinking makes trouble. I remember some years ago down in Jessup's Cut, And I gave this talk to some of the inmates who were in AA, and there was a young man there, 28 years old, with one arm. His left arm was missing. You know what convinced him he was an alcoholic? His cellmate was in AA and he came to meetings just to get out of his cell. He went with his roommate. And while he was there, he heard, when your drinking causes problems, that is a drinking problem. that man got drunk three times in his life just three times the first time he was a very young man he had an accident with one of these farm machines lost his arm the second time he got drunk was a real beauty and the result of that was after prolonged period of time he lost his family and the third time he got drunk he committed a crime of violence that robbed him of his freedom he was in jail and he concluded rather correctly that even though he had only gotten drunk three times in his life he was an alcoholic he didn't drink normally i believe this ladies and gentlemen if your drinking has ever become the topic of serious concern conversation on the part of other people that's a drinking problem that's the right problem just answer this one really have you ever lied about your drinking just answer no if you have a lot of that normal drinkers don't do that and the key to it is this just answer this question do normal drinker's do this whatever it is do normal drinkers do this if your answer is no you've got abnormalcy now please let's look at some of the symptoms of alcoholism and this is not normal just see if you fit in here anywhere the prime basis for alcoholism all alcoholics drink too much wasn't that a brilliant statement all alcoholists drink too much ladies and gentlemen a lot of non-alcoholics drink too much what's the difference between addictive drinking and alcohol abuse addiction or alcoholism means drinking against your will the abuser is free he chooses to drink that way many people become alcoholics by deliberately drinking too much in the days when they did have control i think it is flirting with death on the part of youngsters who just without thought choose to get drunk they are pumping a dangerous addictive substance into their systems without even blinking without even blinking it's the same way with drugs whether they're harmful or not or not is almost beyond the point they are dangerous i don't think anyone questions that it's like a kid saying well it's fun to juggle these dynamite sticks I haven't died yet you know so well anyway we won't even go into that math what is excessive drinking what is excessive drinking because every alcoholic says I don't drink that much what do you mean excessive I don' t drink a whole lot in other words what is a whole not for one person may not be for another but there still is a standard answer as to what is excessive. The amount that causes trouble. I don't think anybody should have too much trouble grasping that. If it makes trouble, that's too much. However much makes problems is too much What are some of the problems that can happen drinking? Number one, blackout. Blackout. That's a present lapse of memory. You can remember graduating from grammar school and you can't remember driving the car home last night. A normal drinker who would have a blackout would be so terrified of it, it would never happen again. My God, an alcoholic's blackout all the time doesn't even faze him. Doesn't faze me. Many an alcoholic gets up in the morning and looks out his window to see if the car is still there or to see whether it's there at all. He doesn't remember riding home last time. Many an alcoholic will see a damaged fender and drive that night. A non-alcoholic would say, my God, that dent may have been put there by a child that I hit. Doesn't faze the alcoholic. Really doesn't fazes him. Dolping and sneaking drinks. Do normal drinkers do that? It's called the closet drinker. You've heard that expression. Do you know a normal eater who goes into a closet to eat a sandwich? You see, normal people don't do these things that the alcoholic does. gulping and sneaking drinks is a kind of an unnatural way to drink do normal drinkers do that? Of course not. A normal drinker wants to take a drink, he takes a drink loss of control that's what we're talking about there it's the result of compulsion have you ever drunk more than you determined you were going to drink loss of control. Now how do you explain that supposing you did but oh jeez if you were married to this one you'd drink too if you had the job i had you'd drink too there's always a reason why we drink alibis why did you drink last why'd you get drunk last thursday it rained oh why'd he get drunk friday he says it didn't rain well why'd she get drunk today the vikings lost why'd they get drunk last week they won you know what an alibi is an unreasonable reason for doing something it's yesterday and it's no tomorrow normal drinkers don't need alibis to drink the eye opener the need of a drink after period of deprivation it's usually in the morning but it doesn't have to be people that suppose you know somebody happens to like orange soda and he drinks two of them one evening at you know it's in the summer you have a cookout he drinks a couple of oranges do you know anybody wakes up at 4 30 in the morning shaking to pieces and he doesn't stop shaking until he gets another bottle of orange i've never met one i've ever met one and a whole lot of drinkers who need an eye opener to function in in corporate management many a top executive has to have a half pint on board before you sign business letters or put his name to a check drinking alone no alcoholic wants anyone else to know he drinks as much as he does as often as he goes so he tries to drink where you can't see him and when you're catching him doing it it's very embarrassing how many of you men in a room would what would you feel like if you went home and saw your wife sneak out of the dining room into the bathroom open the toilet tank pull out a bottle of milk and drink three shots you have her put away in about five minutes with no questions asked and you drink booze that way now isn't that funny you know well we can't see woods for trees change the I gotta do something about my drinking so we switch from bourbon to vodka for this beauty well let's try I heard a man last night say that he never drank anything but beer but he got just as drunk you know the difference between a beer drinker and a whiskey drinker the amount of alcohol you find in a 12 ounce bottle of beer is exactly how much alcohol you'll find in a shot of whiskey conclusion is obvious if you're a beer drinker you got to drink more beer to get it and you have to go to the bathroom more often it ain't worth it we're going to have a cold winter and getting up three or four times in the middle of night it isn't worth it they tell about one beer drink went into a bar and he had as much as he could hold and finally he ordered another one went in the men's room poured it in the john somebody asked and what what was wrong with him he lost his mind he said no he's just tired of being the middleman he just thought it just goes straight on down anti-social behavior that's perfectly normal to have fun at parties at new year's eve parties don't people put on goofy hats and blow noisemakers and yell and sing and do crazy things it's the way we act as football games you know you're going to yell and scream in a football game like you wouldn't act out on 33rd street get in that stadium and become a maniac uh so it's perfectly normal to have fun at parties and to do the conga and stand on the piano and sing songs but on a saturday afternoon you know walk into a neighbor's house and jump up on his piano with your golf shoes on in practice that's a little bit gross since you don't vomit on people's rugs for fun Drunks do that. Alcoholics do that, and this antisocial behavior has results. It results in a lot of losses, families, friends, and jobs. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not going to go into them. I just want you to hear this one line. You can lose friends if you don't shower. You can loose jobs if you show up or work poorly. Families bust up for thousands of reasons. what i'm trying to say tonight is this if alcohol causes this that's an alcohol problem i called alcoholism i caught alcoholism there's a young fellow we just hired to work for us lost his family because of drinking their neighbors in every neighborhood have lost their families because of drinking one who discovered his headless body he blew it off with a shotgun these things don't happen to normal drinkers doctors and hospitals do you know anybody in your neighborhood this guy sits down he has a pizza and a glass of beer one night winds up in the hospital for the next three weeks this doesn't have them normal drinker's happens to alcoholics alcoholics after a while as it progresses wind up in the hospital and then you hear this well it was only once and a guy goes to a hospital 18 times he says why i know a guy went 21 times always someone worse than me i don't want to look at my drinking i'm going to look at somebody drinks worse than i do drinks more than i do has anyone ever asked you about your drinking and you pointed your fingers somebody drank more than you everybody does that doctors and hospitals but finally comes you know the doctor just sits you down hey harry you happen to have cirrhosis of the liver and this damage is irreparable keep drinking and the liver keeps getting worse that's the story and so some alcoholics are forced into sobriety through fear it's usually very ineffective very ineffective I know a man very lovely man too was sober 11 years he picked up a drink and became a vegetarian I know another man had 22 years of sobriety because of circumstances whatever he pickedup a drink and one year later he was buried it does progress whether you drink or not ladies and gentlemen do you know what happens to an alcoholic who picks up a drunk after a period of time a period of sober time he does not pick up where he left off he does not pick up where he left off he picks up where he would have been if he had been drinking all that time doesn't this make sense to you please doesn't this make sense supposing alcoholics could stay sober for five years and then begin at the beginning again everybody be doing it but every alcoholic who has ever tried to drink again has wound up either dead or dying alcoholics cannot drink the alcohol will ultimately kill them the only answer is permanent perpetual you know abstinence when an alcoholic picks up a drink after a prolonged stretch of sobriety and we see these tragedies all the time and they usually come in batches somebody with 22 years sobriete 20 years sobrietty 18 years sobrieti they they come sometimes just in batchs like that it's very frightening very very frightening and a lot of them their shame will not allow them to come back and get well again it is frightening uh this so-called theory about trying to help alcoholics or teach alcoholics to drink again is going to kill a lot of people offenders and binges you know what happens in a person who stays sober out of fear and doesn't have the ongoing therapy of aa i'm a man i've been sober 11 years i can handle a beer and he does he does but there's a poem that the orientals have at the punch bowls bring what the thirsty think what they say in japan first the man takes a drink then the drink takes a drank then the drinks takes the man he drinks a beer and handles it and the next day he drinks the beer and handles but the very nature of his disease is compulsive drinking the next day you see he handles three beers and this goes on for about four days and then he handles three shots and two weeks later three fifths handles him and he doesn't know what hit him and people begin to go on benders and binges that they've never done before and they don't know whats happening the progression of the disease there is even some And this is almost inexplicable, but I've talked to a couple of AA doctors about this. Sometimes physical damage is inaugurated in the early years of drinking and it progresses as years go by. Some people, after a prolonged stretch of sobriety, begin to feel and see deterioration that is simply the result of the early year of abuse of drinking. Anyways, tremors. Doc Green used to call that an infallible sign of addiction. I don't mean necessarily the external shakes. I mean that combined with that internal quivering for a drink. And the alcoholic will crawl through snow to get it. He'll steal from his children to get at it, and these are not the antics of normal people. But that is at the heart of the matter. The alcoholic is not normal. He drinks compulsively. Protect the supply. Answer this question as honestly as you can, quickly, with a yes or no. Did you ever hide a bottle? Yes or no? Normal people don't do that. Alcoholics do. Pay the bartender. Keep that line of supply open. Prominent, prominent lawyer in an eastern city. His wife came up to me one day and she said, we live in a beautiful home in a marvelous section of the city and my husband makes a ton of money and she said I was never so embarrassed in my life when the dentist kept calling to have a $12 bill paid my husband couldn't meet it but keep that bartender paid and keep that liquor store paid keep that line of supply open protect the supply hide the bottle ladies and gentlemen is way down at the end of the line here So if you have ever hidden bottles, what you are saying is this. Don't talk to me about my drinking. I'm going to lie about it. I'm gonna protect this supply. This is essential. Do you know why alcoholics lie? Do you knows why they live the lie? If I'm a practicing alcoholic and I tell you the truth about my drink, you're gonna tell me to quit. And I know I can't. I don't want to admit that, but I know i cannot live without alcohol. Who can live without alchohol? Many alcoholics honestly believe that alcohol is an essential part of life. Unreasonable resentment. Here's where the family is going crazy. I have heard women say, I'm damned if I do and I'm condemned if I don't. If I say yes, I'm wrong. If I Say no, I am wrong. You see, the alcoholic is running out of alibis and he needs reasons to drink. And so if you say good morning, he resents that because he wanted you not to say good morning so they could resent that they're built that way if she has dinner waiting for him he laughs at her for being a fool and if she doesn't have dinner waiting for them he hits her the effects of alcoholism on the family as a result of unreasonable resentments absolutely unbelievable I like to go into it sometime when I'm speaking about the family, but I know a young lady out west who is working with family. All children are deeply affected by the drinking of a parent, no matter how young. I saw a presentation that this lady gave, and she showed crayon drawings from children of all ages beginning with age four. I almost didn't believe what I was looking at. Now this absolutely frightening aspect of family and the result of the resenting, insane really, irrational alcoholic. The children who cope. Those who make it. The 15-year-old boy who replaces both mother and father. He gets his little brothers and sisters out of bed. He feeds them. He clothes them. and he gets them off to school. He himself is an A student. He's also damaged by the drinking of the parents. They have found that when people like that grow up, they are so emotionally isolated, it is practically impossible for them to have a normal relationship with another human being. And many of them, oddly enough, go into caregiving professions. There is the goodness in them that wants out, and somehow they want to make up for the tragedy in their own home and many of them go into medicine, nursing, and education. It is astounding how many professional people come from alcoholic parents. Astounding. But anyway, that's for another day. Nameless fears and anxieties. I have said this and I'll say it till I die. Alcoholism teaches its victims one single simple solitary thing and that's how to be scared to death. the only thing the alcoholic learns is fear and sometimes ladies and gentlemen you can almost smell it and the loneliness I will never in my life forget leaving a hospital through the emergency room one day and I saw a derelict sitting on a cot with a policeman who brought him in standing outside the little cubicle with his back toward the man everyone else was receiving attention in there he had dried blood on his scalp evidently he had fallen and split his scalp everyone else was receiving intention except him, and he's sitting in there on his hands kind of shaking he is filthy dirty he had on a coat that must have been 600 years old and you could smell that man's loneliness it was God the picture haunts me now anyways fears and anxiety as I said earlier this evening whoever said that an alcoholic is alone in a crowd didn't even come close until you finally come to the end of the line if the alcoholic is lucky enough and he reaches a collapse in his alibi system usually in most cases death occurs before the collapse of the alibi if an alcoholic is lucky enough he reaches a point in his life it's called the moment of truth in which he looks into the mirror of himself and actually sees what is there he says I did not intend to drink last night but I got drunk it was not because the Colts won or because they lost they didn't play I don't know whether it rained or it didn't I don' t know what the weather was It isn't the people I work with I'm unemployable It isn' t her big mouth She's gone It isn''t any of these things I didn' t intend to drink And I got drunk I have a drinking problem Now when an alcoholic reaches that stage in his life He can get help I believe that we can bring him to this moment of decision. I believe the proper confrontation can force an alcoholic into treatment. There is an alcoholic doctor friend of mine out in the Midwest who says that his life was saved by the dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan. He pulled him in one afternoon and he said, Mr. Smith? Yes, sir? He said, get sober or you will not become a doctor. Yes, Sir. And he got sober. He wanted to be a doctor more than he wanted to be drunk. So he had to do the job. Can you force people into treatment? You can, if you have the power and the authority enough to do it. Can you Force them to get well? No. You can Force them into treatment hoping that they'll respond. The response has to come from the alcoholic. I say give him something to respond to. Get the alcoholic into treatment. You see, if the alcoholic surrenders to his addiction he winds up incarcerated insane or dead but if he surrenders to proper help he can get well to what degree in treatment centers where treatment is proper somewhere between 60-80% of alcoholics get well they simply recover I think that's a better rate than the recovery rate from cancer they simply get well if you show a man he's sick instead of evil and if you showed him that his sickness is treatable and he can get well, ladies and gentlemen, most sick people want to be well. Most sick people won't to be ill, but you've got to show any sick first. And I believe that is the aim and the purpose of proper treatment. And so, the treatment for alcoholism is AA, aided and abetted by anything else that helps, psychiatry, psychology, medicine, group, name it. what might work might work but what might work best is AA I believe that God Almighty allowed us to discover the science of medicine for sick bodies psychiatry for sick minds psychology for sick emotions and through trial and error AA is the proper therapy for alcoholism you know what it is? it's a 12 step ladder up out of the pit step one I can't handle it that's for starters when an alcoholic admits that he's helpless that he absolutely needs help from other people he now ceases to be hopeless there's now hope I cannot handle this, I need help step two I can't handle it step two, God can working through the agency of people step three, I believe I'll get in touch I can handle it, God kan and I think I'll got in touch And the rest of the steps keep the alcoholic sober. These three get him sober, and the rest keep him that way. Quite simply, it works. Ladies and gentlemen, Doc Green, in my opinion, was a genius. He had a grasp of the obvious. I've seen this segment here, The Comparison of Ether with Alcohol Saved Lives. I remember one man listening to his lecture when it was all he was giving this one talk the comparison of ether and alcohol he said any questions and this man just sat there shaking his head he put his hand up he said doc for 20 years I have wondered what's wrong with me and you explained it in 20 minutes now what do I do man have it made all I do is get with and he did he was sober about 18 years and died a sober death it works it simply works for those of you who are kind of on the fence you don't know whether you are or aren't I'm just asking to open your minds just open your mind if you heard anything of yourself here you belong and I always tell people no one goes into treatment by mistake how many of you gained interest in the AA for good behavior the obvious becomes so obvious when somebody kicks us in the teeth with it. And this was Doc Green's genius. He had a grasp of the obvious. He could say the sky is blue and everybody else would look up. Oh, it is blue. Doc knew that all along. He knew that All Along. And the only thing he does here is spell out the ABCs of alcoholism. If you fit, if you fit I would suggest that you try to get well because if you don't your drinking will do things to you. But whether or not any of you here are alcoholics or are not alcoholics if you have a problem with your drinking I hope to God I just spoiled your drinking for you thank you for being here and thank you to listen to me