Overconfidence regarding one's overcoming of their alcohol problem can prove to be destructive if one is still full of fear and insecurity within.

"Imaginary Dragons should not be created for the purposes of slaying them, for they may possibly slay their creator."

An abnormal drinker is either a man/woman who habitually behaves in a asocial manner when under the influence of liquor, even though the time spent in this condition might be restricted to “reasonable” limits or one who, unlike his normal drinking friends, is unable or unwilling to face a return to reality. For these people a night’s sleep is only a particularly long interval of abstention. This type is the true alcoholic. Sometimes both these characteristics of abnormal drinking are present in the same person. If not, the missing one is apt to be latent.

Alcoholism originates in the mind and is a disease of the body.

"Alcohol for inebriates acts as a mental-nerve poison in a manner that it does not for the normal drinker, regardless of the comparative conditions of the two in the early stages of what is to be an evening's dissipation for one and a debauch for the other."

Alcohol is a poison

An individual becomes an alcoholic for 3 main reasons:<ol><li>A result of inheritance he possesses a nervous system which is non-resistant to alcohol (in no sense is a direct craving transmitted from parent to offspring)</li><li>By reason of their early environment. Through the ignorance of their parents or from their own nervous constitution the alcoholic was either spoiled or neglected.</li><li>Because of the effects of their later environment. That is to say, school, college, economics and social competition, marriage, & war.</li></ol>

The Genesis Of The Habit

Alcoholism is a disease of immaturity, regardless of the actual age of the individual suffering from it. The drunkard is not only a child, but a spoiled child. He (or she) has far too keen a sensibility for likes & dislikes. By trying to avoid anything unpleasant and make what he cannot avoid artificially enjoyable, he (or she) reaches a state wherein he likes nothing when he (or she) is sober. He must be reeducated in a manner that will show him (or her) that, while a diversity of interests is desirable, it is not necessary nor is it possible to escape entirely from unpleasant duties.

A Disease of Immaturity

Scientific & Spiritual treatment for the eradication of the drink habit can be successfully applied to people who have come to realize that drink has definitely disintegrated them to a point where they are no longer able to control AND enjoy themselves or their drinking. They are open to and sincerely willing to be shown how to eliminate the habit.

To Whom Treatment Is Applicable 

The treatment consists in instructing a man or woman how to train his or her mind so that they carry out a sustained course of conduct consistent with the theories of his or her most mature, intellectual self, how to form new habits and stick to them, and conversely how to eliminate the unsatisfactory method of trying to adapt himself or herself to their environment through the medium of alcohol. The treatment consists mainly of unlearning old ideas & beliefs, the acceptance of new ideas, beliefs & ways of perceiving their environment, as well as be aware of the pitfalls one can fall back in.

The Treatment 

This book was a major influence for Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA. The author was an alcoholic himself who understood ISM’s center in the mind as an obsessive idea one must carry out DESPITE the unfortunate consequences already proven by such ideas being carried to their fruition. Alcoholism is the most extreme example and this book, while only discussing the mental twist of the alcohol idea, can be applied to any idea which has turned destructive in its fruits. This book only deals with the mental twist of alcohol.

Written by Richard Peabody in the early 1930s, "The Common Sense of Drinking" describes alcoholism and a method for its cure. The roots of Peabody's book came from Boston's Emmanuel Church where clergy and lay practitioners reported success in treating alcoholics. However, Peabody's book is a secular treatment of the problem using psychology. The book was a best seller in the early 1930's and had a major influence on Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson. The book's methods for the "cure" of alchoholism are as relevant today as they were in the 1930's. (All profits from this book are donated to programs for "at Risk" children.)

The Common Sense of Drinking

The Digital Woman