Reliance Not Defiance

[MajestyJo]

"We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limted to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having lost their self confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve."

A couple weeks ago I got stuck on that little part of the sentence and it was making me nutzoid. And this isn't even close to the first time I've read that Big Book. LOL

Mostly I wanted to have someone make it make sense to me, especially since Dr. Silkworth started the letter earlier, declaring what the doctors--in all their infinite wisdom--had already concluded about alcoholism.

I had a good A.A. friend--a good friend PERIOD--share with me his interpretation of 'reliance upon things human': psychology, methodology, human aid, self help programs, moderation management, guru's, spouses, doctors--anything solely reliant on human beings as solutions to the problem.

And BOY did I run the gambit. Moderation management, self help books up the whazoo, doctors, psychiatrists/psychologists, therapy, group therapy.....a whole lot of 'reliance upon things human'..... But it wasn't until that reliance upon things human caved that I was able to find something different in life.

Makes sense to me that the opposite of 'reliance upon things human' is 'reliance upon things divine'.

Therein lies my freedom.

This was post on another site by a friend who gave me permission to share it on my site, which is now gone, so hopefully, she won't mind me posting it here. This was true in 2006, and still true in today.

Some of my freedom comes from knowing that things human are often sent by the God of my understanding. For many years, I used people, places and things. In today, God utilizes people, places and things, to show me the way. I have been blessed many times over by those Earthlings that have been put i my path as well as the alcoholics and addicts who shared their journey with me. I am granted freedom from active addiction as long as I remember that this is a spiritual program and my disease is not just a physical one.