How Alcoholism is Healed

 How Alcoholism is Healed

 Eileen Renders

   Drinking alcohol to excess can be a problem, for others, it is a disease known as Alcoholism. Studies have determined that this disease seems to run in families with a predisposition to becoming addicted. Many years ago, as a young child, I saw many men coming out from corner bars or Taverns and they would stagger and carry a strong smell of alcohol, I would cross the street as even at a tender young age, I feared them. In those days (the Forties) these bars had a side “Ladies entrance only where women could go in and make a purchase and then leave, they were not invited to sit at the bar itself.

   There weren’t many cars, and thank God not much driving back then so walkers were a little safer than today crossing a street. This type of drug addiction (yes alcohol is a drug as it anesthetizes) became the cause of many families arguing and even divorce. And in the lower-income neighborhoods, there was not much else to do, no Parks, No Museums nearby, and many families did not even own a Television set. Therefore, after a hard day at work, men met and drank at the corner bar. Having been born in the Depression era, and part of a large Catholic family, we lived in a lower-income neighborhood. Yet I would never change that if I could. I learned much through experience.

   What I learned about alcoholics follows; It is not smart to argue with an intoxicated person, and these people becoming addicted to alcohol have lost much control over their words and actions.

   Moving forward, I attended an Association known as Alanon. This is for families, friends, and spouses of an alcoholic. It helps them to understand and support the individual in their family or life who is an alcoholic. The alcoholic, however, is the only person who can help themselves, and usually only through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

   More importantly, it is a disease that only one healer can address, and that is God! Learning the Ten Step Program that alcoholics must adhere to in order to attain sobriety is as follows;

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

5. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

As family members, spouses, children, relatives, or friends, we can only love, support and pray for them.