There’s More to Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking Archives

Paul O., a physician, was the author of Acceptance Was the Answer, a beloved chapter in the Big Book.¹ He expanded on his philosophy in a subsequent book.²

At the very outset Paul O. noted:

Alcoholism is both a drinking and thinking problem.³

In Chapter 3 — “Mental Sobriety” — he cleverly tweaked Robert Seliger’s “liquor test”⁴ by replacing drink(ing) with think(ing):

Do you lose time from work due to your thinking?
Is your thinking making your home life unhappy?
Do you think because you are shy with other people?
Is your thinking affecting your reputation?
Have you ever felt remorse after thinking?
Have you gotten into financial difficulty as a result of thinking?
Do you turn to lower companions or an inferior environment when thinking?
Does your thinking make you careless of your family’s welfare?
Has your ambition decreased since thinking?
Do you crave a think at a definite time daily?
Do you want to think the next morning?
Does thinking cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
Has your efficiency decreased since thinking?
Is thinking jeopardizing your job or business?
Do you think to escape from worries or trouble?
Do you think alone?
Have you ever had a complete loss of memory as a result of thinking?
Has your physician ever treated you for thinking?
Do you think to build up your self-confidence?
Have you ever been to a hospital or institution on account of your thinking?⁵

A few pages later Paul O. observed:

All my problems today are thinking problems. I don't even have a problem unless I think I do. If I think I have a problem, I have a problem; if I don't think I have a problem, I don't have a problem. Never have I thought I had a problem and been wrong.

Not only do I alone decide whether or not I have a problem; I alone determine the size of my problems. I don't have many little problems; I don't bother with them. [...] When I do have a little problem, all I have to do to make it a big problem is to think about it.⁶

Humorous, simple, profound. ✸

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 2001, pp. 407–420
There’s More to Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking. Torrence, CA: Capizon Publishing, 1995
There’s More, p. cover
Alcoholics Are Sick People. Baltimore: Alcoholism Publications, 1945, pp. 9–12
There’s More, p. 39
There’s More, p. 54

Tag: There’s More to Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking

Thinking Problems