Is addiction really a disease?

[progree]

16. The scientific method (a diversion)

From: http://www.democraticunderground.com/11441220#post10

[font color = blue]NMDemDist2>quoting Dr. Silkworth "Obviously, he decides to take a drink again some time before he actually takes it. He starts thinking wrong before he actually embarks on the course that leads to a slip".<[/font]

This from one draft annotated version (mine) of the Big Book, p. 35-36 (Chapter 3):

"Our first example is a friend we shall call Jim. .... Yet he got drunk again. We asked him to tell us exactly how it happened. This is his story: "I came to work on Tuesday morning. I remember I felt irritated that I had to be a salesman for a concern I once owned. I had a few words with the brass, but nothing serious. Then I decided to drive to the country and see one of my prospects for a car. On the way I felt hungry so I stopped at a roadside place where they have a bar. I had no intention of drinking. I just thought I would get a sandwich. I also had the notion that I might find a customer for a car at this place, which was familiar for I had been going to it for years. I had eaten there many times during the months I was sober."

Fine fine bulletproof thinking so far. I always eat in a bar in case a prospective customer might come over to my table (sneak preview: )

"I sat down at a table and ordered a sandwich and a glass of milk. Still no thought of drinking. I ordered another sandwich and decided to have another glass of milk. "

How healthy! And he's not sitting at the bar, so no problem.

"Suddenly the thought crossed my mind that if I were to put an ounce of whiskey in my milk it couldn't hurt me on a full stomach."

No quarrel with me -- an ounce of whiskey is much safer on a full stomach than an empty stomach, I always say.

"I ordered a whiskey and poured it into the milk. I vaguely sensed I was not being any too smart, but I felt reassured as I was taking the whiskey on a full stomach. "

Again, much better than on an empty stomach. This is the *Principle of Harm Reduction*.

"The experiment went so well that I ordered another whiskey and poured it into more milk. "

Yes, the scientific principle of cautious experimentation.

"That didn't seem to bother me so I tried another."

More data collection. More hypothesis testing. Checking one's results over and over. Not hurrying into publication prematurely.

"Thus started one more journey to the asylum for Jim. "

HUH! I don't get it.

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[div style="display:inline; font-size:1.37em; font-family:monospace; white-space:pre;"] and patient
[div style="display:inline; font-size:1.37em; font-family:monospace; white-space:pre;"]... cunning, baffling, powerful^! -- BB p. 58