SYNOPSIS

Reliable literature available on the topic of alcohol addiction states that alcohol is not the actual problem, but is only a symptom of an alcoholic's underlying disease. The "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is one such reliable and credible source of information. (Please note that discussing the AA program in publicized media is not a breach of the AA 11th Tradition to maintain personal anonymity, since there is no disclosure of member identities.) In so many words, Chapter 5 of the AA Big Book infers that the alcoholic drinks as a result of a disease, a disease not yet positively identified nor defined. Otherwise stated, alcohol isn't actually the alcoholic's problem. Alcohol is but a symptom of the person's problem. The problem and disease is what scientists have been puzzled over for centuries, and have researched for history without finding an answer. If alcohol isn't the problem or the disease, then what is the problem? What is the disease?

For history, society has had suspicions and stigmas that the disease is related to human genes, that it's a genetic disorder. But there has not been enough substantiating evidence to this belief, other than physical defects in people as a probable after-effect from excessive alcohol and drug abuse, with such after-effects passed onto offspring and passed down through generations, becoming hereditary within family trees. Science has not been able to determine whether genetic indications are not the effect rather than the cause. Additionally, alcohol is categorized as a drug along with all other drugs by nationally acclaimed agencies of credibility and distinction. Alcohol is a dangerous, mind-altering substance and drug. If alcohol is a drug, and genes are causing addiction to this drug, is this supposed to suggest that genes are related to all other drug addictions and obsessive behaviors? That is, has genetic research been studying whether genes are responsible for addictions to, and abusive behaviors regarding, cocaine, ice, crack, heroine, and all other mind-altering and dangerous substances and drugs? If so, and if indeed there are some people who don't have the defective genes who are considered to be able to safely drink alcohol, then it would mean these same people are able to safely use cocaine, heroine, and all other drugs. Correct? Are genes also the cause of love obsessions and addictions, gambling obsessions and addictions, eating obsessions and addictions, and all other obsessive and compulsive behaviors that are becoming progressively dominant in society?

This sarcasm is intended to strongly illustrate a point. Science to date has not positively nor conclusively proven the problem of alcohol addiction to be directly and exclusively attributed to a genetic disorder in human beings as a physical predisposition. The idea of a genetic disorder prohibiting some from drinking alcohol, while alcohol consumption is safe and allowable for others who don't have the defective genes, remains no more than a suspicion at this point. Finally, even if the natural toxic content in our bodies is causing some propensity, or bias, towards alcohol consumption and tolerance, alcohol is not the problem according to the AA Big Book. A propensity or bias does not suggest obsessive and addictive behavior. Obsessive and addictive alcohol and drug abuse is only a symptom of an underlying disease and sociological problem. With all due respect, genetic research is spinning it's wheels, expending time and money studying something that's somewhat removed and off course to the true problem.

Millions of people throughout the world who have successfully stopped drinking, and have identified themselves as "recovered alcoholics", discuss low self esteem to be the most significant problem in their lives. Low self esteem is the universal common denominator among literally all people suffering from addictions to any and all mind altering substances such as alcohol. This manuscript reveals that the disease of which alcohol becomes a symptom, the disease to which the AA Big Book infers, is LOW SELF ESTEEM. The answer for which science has been searching for history is low self esteem, not defective genes. The problem and disease is entirely emotional, psychological, and sociological, as opposed to physiological. Low self esteem is the true problem and true disease.

Alcohol use is simply a ramification and bad habit. People drink to suppress and escape their low self esteem. It's a bad habit we adopt for the sensation of "escape", as a sedative to relieve us of our anxieties, our stress, our fears in life, our fears of others, and our feelings of being inferior to others, all ramifications of our low self esteem. Alcohol is but a symptom of our real disease of low self esteem.

Where does low self esteem come from? What causes low self esteem? Low self esteem isn't a low perspective or opinion of ourselves, as it is often interpreted. Low self esteem is an intelligent awareness we have with regard to how others perceive us, an awareness that others think of us as inferior and that others don't accept us. Is this how we're perceived by other people? Is it true that others don't accept us and perceive us to be inferior? Sadly enough, it is true. Deception and prejudice play an unfortunate but true role in our lives and in society. Prejudice exists, and in spite of many ideal cliches and concepts in the interests of self preservation, prejudice hurts people. There is prejudice against ethnic races and color of the skin, prejudice against women, against people who are physically different or handicapped, against old people, against people with different religious beliefs, against people of different class distinction and professional status, against people with different sexual preference, and so on. The list is quite large, essentially endless. As much as we like to believe we are strong, and we consciously claim to disallow the prejudice and judgment of others to influence our lives, prejudice hurts subconsciously, and anger and anxiety cultivate subconsciously. As much as we like to believe we are in control at the conscious level, we are not in control of our subconscious. From our subconscious evolves our attitudes towards ourselves, our (low) self esteem, and resulting adverse habits and behaviors such as alcohol addiction, drug addiction, and other compulsive and obsessive behavior. A couple of very distinct examples of such compulsive and obsessive behavior aside from alcohol abuse are sexual obsessions and eating disorders, both ramifications of feeling unloved and unaccepted.

There is just one more category on the list of prejudices within society that has been obscure until now. One more area of deception exists, possibly the most damaging and most significant area that deceives us all to believe we are inferior and unacceptable, and possibly the primary source from which low self esteem evolves. This area of deception is the historic sociological false notion that new human beings are inferior. We all had the intelligent perception for the first 20 years of our lives that others perceived us to be inferior, that our immaturity was unacceptable.

When we hear or see the words "immature" and "immaturity", what do we immediately think of? The immediate and standard thoughts that come to mind are unacceptable, wrong, bad and inappropriate. Other immediate thoughts are directly associated; the ideas of youth and adolescence. We all associate youth and adolescence with immaturity. Consequently, whenever the perspective of youth and adolescence comes into view, we think "immature, bad, wrong, inferior and unacceptable". As unpleasant, distasteful, and tactless as it may sound, the truth is that we live in a society that perceives children to be bad and wrong, stupid and inferior. Children are perpetually demeaned and degraded through body language from a society that's misled to believe new human beings are inferior. Body language is obscure and subconscious, and the effects of this obscure treatment are instrumental to our subconscious and hidden feelings of being unacceptable human beings, and unaccepted by society during our adolescence. Distorted and warped sociological perspectives and misunderstanding of the word "immaturity" have developed over centuries, progressing into rude and degrading attitudes and treatment towards childhood and children, and distorted and warped perspectives towards ourselves.

It's like an inappropriate and illogical assumption that anyone in the world who commits murder must be from New York City, because people are murdered in New York City. Society has been misprogrammed and wrongly conditioned to believe that all human character flaws and bad behavior are attributable to immaturity. Another similar illustration of such distorted logic is to believe that because trees are green, everything green must be a tree. Because we exhibit human flaws when we're kids, all human flaws have become associated with immaturity. But if you look up the words "immature" or "immaturity" in the dictionary, it won't say anything about bad, wrong, inferior, flawed, or unacceptable. We lose sight of the fact that we were human beings when we were kids. We fail to realize that our human flaws are simply because we're human and mortal. We don't have flaws because we're immature. We have flaws because we're human. We're not perfect. Throughout our entire lives, we will always have some amount of irresponsibility, some lack of discipline, some lack of reliability, some anger, some impatience, some selfishness and jealousy. We'll always have some evidence of human flaw, which we have to continuously keep in check and assess each and every day. The unfortunate and tragic consequence of associating everything bad, wrong, inferior, flawed, and unacceptable with immaturity is that new human beings believe themselves to be bad, wrong, inferior, flawed, and unacceptable. Thus the advent of older human beings plagued by low self esteem, and the sociological mysteries of alcoholism, drug addiction, and criminal behavior.

I've been peering through a profound window with a unique insight on the basic origins of low self esteem. I'm a small man, having had the appearance of a little boy for more than 50 years now. I've observed and witnessed for over 50 years how children are perpetually demeaned and degraded within a society that's misled to believe immaturity is unacceptable. For over 50 years, I've observed how kids are perpetually scolded, lectured, contradicted, and ignored by society, treated as if they're bad, wrong, inferior, flawed, and unacceptable. It's not parents who are to blame. In general, parents treat their kids with dignity. It is society, and sociological body language developing from attitudes that new human beings are inferior, that delivers subconscious information to the minds of children that they're inferior.

We then develop and evolve into older human beings with permanent low self esteem. If we tie our shoes a certain way for the first 20 years of our lives, we'll tie them that way for the rest of our lives. It becomes a strong and permanent habit. If we perceive ourselves to be bad and wrong, stupid and inferior, and our immaturity unacceptable for the first 20 years of our lives, we'll think this way for the rest of our lives. It becomes a strong and permanent habit. This is the primary origin of low self esteem. After the first 20 years of our existence, for the rest of our lives, we think this way. Just like tying our shoes, it becomes a life-long, permanent and habitual way of doing and thinking. Later in our adult lives, even when others don't perceive us this way, and are not treating us inferior as they did in our youth, we often believe they are because this is what we're used to from our first 20 years. "Don't treat me like a child! I wasn't born yesterday!" "Why is that hotel clerk ignoring me, treating me like a nobody?" This is how we're used to thinking. Internal and subconscious anger frequently surfaces, causing arguments and disputes to erupt not only with others but within ourselves, and conflict evolves in life to make a reality what started out as our self-centered anxiety and imagination.

Low self esteem ultimately worsens and becomes further aggravated and compounded as life's inner and outer conflicts and problems continue, in our interpersonal relationships and in our love lives, and in every other area of our lives on the job and off the job, in the home and outside the home. Low self esteem plagues and corrupts our professional lives and our private lives. Even those of us who have accomplished the most prestigious professional position and status wonder why we still feel incomplete, why our good self esteem seems superficial. Would our low self esteem be revived upon removing the status and the prestigious occupation? In the meantime, we drink alcohol to escape our fears of others, and to soothe our anxieties and conflicts that are either a direct or indirect result of our mysterious and obscure lack of self worth, and our complex and complicated way of life.

We will claim that people, including children, are not affected by the adverse treatment and attitudes of others. One very idealistic but unrealistic cliche that comes up quite frequently suggests "what others think of me doesn't matter, it's what I think of myself that matters." However, human beings are not machines or computers that can automatically adapt and adjust with the onset of every ideal cliche that's invented. We are mortal, we have hearts, and we are hurt by the opinions and actions of others, regardless of all cliches. We can try to ignore and diminish the demeaning and degrading attitudes and treatment people exhibit toward us with nice little tools like cliches. But no matter what, we humans need to be accepted by other humans. The fact remains, we bear anguish and pain inside, and beyond our control when others treat us rude and inferior. And we bear the internal anger, anguish and pain of not being accepted, year after year during the first decades of our lives while we're interpreted by society to be inferior, and when we're treated inferior. We'll wear our smiling mask and pretend to ignore it all, turning away and staying away from those treating us inferior, according to the rational approach to "stay away from people who are rude and who treat you wrongly. Ignore them." Thus, with everyone during our childhood treating us rude and inferior, we slowly develop subconscious tendencies throughout the years to stay away from everyone. Behold the loner.

If we were to ask a kid if they're affected, hurt, or bothered by the rude and insulting treatment of society, they'll tell us "No. That's a cop out." They like to believe themselves to be impervious to hurt, and invulnerable to the insults, opinions, and actions of others. In addition, they've been conditioned to believe that complaining is unethical, inappropriate, and is self-centered "sniveling." They won't complain about it, nor will they admit to any pain or anguish because it's hard to reveal weakness. It's a very sensitive issue to reveal our weaknesses, and to appear that we're not strong enough to handle difficult issues or to contend with prejudices, partially because we want to be strong enough, and partially because we're afraid of being condemned and criticized for being selfish and weak. "Everyone has their cross to bear. If everyone else has to deal with it, so can you. Stop complaining." Additionally, in most cases, kids really believe they're not affected, and won't be aware that they are. The pain and anguish is registered subconsciously, revealing itself only through various subtle and obscure means such as anger and rebellion expressed in Rock & Roll, Rap, Hip-Hop, radical clothing and styles, sex, drugs, and alcohol. Though most youth are not consciously aware of it, Rock & Roll, Rap, Hip-Hop, and all other earlier forms of youth art and music, are expressions of anger and rebellion. Sex, drugs, and alcohol are the symptoms and sedatives, leading to more extreme levels of behavior such as dropping out of school, gangs, participation in ritualistic cult activities (such as black magic), and crime. Often, the rebellious expression is a combination of anger and pain from ethnic prejudice as well as from inferior connotations and sociological prejudice towards immaturity. We'll note heavier emphasis on anger, and frequent violent and criminal expression being reflected in the more recent art forms.

We are unaware of the dangerous nature of mixing our low self esteem and our suppressed, subconscious anger with alcohol. Strong, family bred ethics and morals usually help to mask and circumvent our acting upon our inner turmoil, until the unexpected consequences of an alcohol habit ensue. Thinking it relaxes us and helps us to escape from our problems, an alcohol habit ironically further compounds life's complications. It amplifies and encourages our negative subconscious perspectives and attitudes, increasing the incidence and intensity of our disputes and our conflicts, often giving us the opportunity to act upon the internal anger which surfaces during drunken blackouts. Because of the heavily sedated condition of our brain during a drinking blackout, we have little recall afterwards and we have little understanding regarding our embarrassing, sometimes destructive, sometimes criminal behavior. We've never been aware of our low self esteem, nor of the seriousness of the related anger that resides within. It spirals our lives into pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization, depression, and confusion. And we've lost sight of why. We've lost sight of the origin of our pain and misery.

This book reveals low self esteem to be the underlying origin of all sociological problematic behaviors, and the true disease that plagues the world, resulting in alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and all other obsessive behavior including criminal behavior. People inevitably challenge this concept, asking "then why do some become alcoholic while others don't?" Essentially, the answer to this is that our ability to contend with our low self esteem is a variable, the value or level of which is contingent upon each of our individual environments. We all suffer from low self esteem due to our early years, but those of us with healthier backgrounds in life are more easily able to deal with it. We can more readily cope with our low self esteem if we have a strong and loving family, we've received an education, we have a good job, a good home, etc. Though we're not excluded from the likelihood of an addiction and a substance abuse problem, we will be less likely to suffer from one than someone subjected to poverty and a less desirable environment in life.

Additionally, alcohol is a drug like any other drug. It's a drug much like cocaine and heroine in the sense that it is addictive and dangerous to use. We get into a bad habit of using alcohol like many people do cocaine and other drugs. The only difference between alcohol and other drugs is it's legal. Like any other drug and bad habit, a habit with alcohol is progressive. It gets worse with time. Those who have reached the worst stages of the habit are deceivingly misconstrued and stigmatized by society to be "alcoholics." Those who have not yet reached the worst stages of the habit are deceivingly misconstrued and stigmatized to be "normal." The stigmatized "normal" person who drinks and has not yet progressed to a critical stage of their habit, has constructed a facade of looking normal to the outside world, convincingly maintaining life's responsibilities such as a job and family, while denying and refusing to believe there's any problem. This is a condition known as "denial." Their act is so convincing to everyone else, as well as to themselves, that essentially no one is aware of, or can perceive, the possible troubled status of what appears to be a "normal" society. The deceiving notions of the "alcoholic" and the "normal" person, and associated ideas that the former cannot drink while the latter can, are false and unsubstantiated. There is no such thing as "alcoholism" or an "alcoholic" in the context of genetically defective human beings, versus normal human beings who have no genetic defect, and who are believed to be capable of responsibly using hallucinating, mind-altering substances such as alcohol. This is a myth and an Old Wives' Tale. Virtually no one is able to responsibly use hallucinating, mind-altering substances. It's dangerous for anyone to think they're able to responsibly use alcohol. Anyone who claims so is fooling themselves, and is in denial. The reality is, anyone who consumes alcohol exposes themselves to a high probability of it becoming habitual and hurting their lives, as well as the lives of others. This probability may be dependent upon how well we're able to contend with our low self esteem. But since low self esteem is obscure and sinister, and is not tangible enough for the preponderance of human beings to contend with, under the preponderance of circumstances and the highest of probabilities, drinking alcohol is "playing with fire."

Alcoholism is simply an addiction to alcohol. Alcohol is an addictive, dangerous, mind-altering substance. The more we drink, and the longer we drink, the more it becomes increasingly difficult and impossible to stop. We may stop for days or weeks at a time, but it's hard to stop completely or permanently because we enjoy it so much. The reason alcohol is addictive and we enjoy it so much is that, under the influence, we initially love the feelings it gives us, relieving us from our low self esteem. We become elated and euphoric, feeling sedated and feeling the sensation of escape from our anxieties and our fears, able to overcome our fears of others, and to feel relieved of our pain, our stress, and our frustrations, all ramifications of our low self esteem. After days or weeks of not drinking, often stopping only to recover from heavy drinking episodes and hangovers, we inevitably resume our habit under the emotional frame of mind that "I like drinking. It's the only thing in life I enjoy. No one has the right to tell me to stop. If it kills me, I don't care. I don't like life." Eventually we don't even enjoy the drinking anymore, but we are addicted and we can't stop. We belabor under the notion that alcohol is our sole remaining friend, hoping that the joy in drinking may someday be revived if only life would get better.

We've all become used to alcohol consumption. It's been accepted almost worldwide, and deceivingly thought to be an enjoyable pastime, used as a beverage for parties as well as a condiment to a delightful culinary experience. But for many, the party ends in a car wreck. We often lose against the hostile odds of an alcohol or drug habit, where we die or we're maimed in a drunk driving accident, a bar fight or a drunken domestic argument, or a fire of drunken negligence, or a drug deal gone bad, or some similar tragic and devastating consequence of "life in the fast lane." As a minimum, we experience physical as well as mental deterioration, falling into a depressed way of existence, hating ourselves and hating life, never knowing why. Because alcohol is legal and everyone's using it, we think it's normal and acceptable. Nevertheless, it remains a drug and a bad habit. Alcohol use is not unlike the bad habit society had centuries past, when we used leaches (parasites) to suck out our "bad blood." We eventually woke up and kicked that social habit. Though we're in the 21st century, in the age of aerospace and computer automation, we still suffer from medieval and archaic sociological attitudes and ideologies. We consequently still suffer from widely accepted, yet dangerous and archaic addictive alcohol and drug habits, just as we did from the parasite habit. We're not aware that the alcohol and drugs are draining our lives worse than the leaches.

Science will never be able to prove a genetic relationship to this problem. A genetic disorder related to alcohol addiction cannot be proven, because this is a myth. The labels of the "alcoholic" versus the "normal" person are a myth and misnomer. The idea of alcoholism as a genetic disease is a myth and misconception. Alcohol addiction is a sociological disorder and illness that no one has understood. We've had to label it, we've had to explain it somehow, yet we've never really been sure how because the problem has baffled us. So we've assigned the terms "alcoholism" and "alcoholic" for lack of anything more descriptive or accurate to call it. This has generated a stigma in society. Alcoholism is a stigma in the context that it's a label applied to a condition indicating a deviation from some norm or standard. Alcohol consumption is generally accepted throughout the world. It is thus considered a standard and is perceived to be normal behavior; "If everyone's doing it, it must be okay." Then, periodically, when someone realizes that alcohol is bad for them, and decides to discontinue drinking because it's ruining their lives, they're labeled and stigmatized as "alcoholic." They're different from everyone else. They don't drink anymore, while everyone else still seems to be able to drink. The popular notion is that there must be something wrong with this person, they must have a genetic disorder and are "alcoholic." This is absurd and ludicrous! This is the misnomer. Does this person necessarily have a genetic defect, or are they just waking up to the truth? Is it really okay to drink alcohol, or is the world involved in an activity that is inappropriate? Could the truth be that we are participating in an activity that is bad and unhealthy for us, consuming a substance that is very dangerous to our lives, with most of us unwilling to admit to it because we enjoy alcohol too much?

Statistics cannot be established on the problem of alcohol addiction. For example, we don't know that 30% of people in society have a problem with alcohol while 70% don't, because we don't know who has a drinking problem and who doesn't. In most cases, someone with a drinking problem isn't even aware of it themselves. Many of us who suffer from a drinking addiction aren't aware of it mostly because of our subconscious denial. In the interests of research, no facts, figures, data, nor statistics are available on the problem. We are only capable of drawing assumptions and suspicions. We have no authority to arrive at any final, concrete, or steadfast conclusions, due to the very scarce amount of information available. What becomes apparent by indicators in social behavior is that this problem conceivably pertains to the preponderance of our society, as well as possibly the world. This is strongly illustrated in the days of prohibition, with gangsterism, organized crime, and murder becoming the extents to which society will go in order to break the law and continue with an obsessive and insatiable demand for alcohol. Bear in mind the important business principle of supply and demand. An operation cannot stay in business if there is no demand, and there is no appreciable profit unless demand is high. Many businesses fail because of a lack of demand for their commodity. If not that many people in society are into heavy drug use, then where's the demand coming from that keeps the immense and powerful drug cartels and drug trafficking syndicates in such a highly profitable, multibillion dollar business? There has to be a demand of astronomical and immeasurable proportion. Such massive business and profiteering operations as those of Al Capone and the more recent drug syndicates would never survive on a business base of a handful of drug addicts living in Greenwich Village, or a few genetically defective alcoholics lying in the gutters of the Bowery. It's frightening to say, but the world may very well have a serious problem. The world uses alcohol and drugs, and the world uses them heavily. What inspires this heavy demand for the substances? Low self esteem and inferior feelings in human beings. The simple and rugged truth becomes apparent - the problem may conceivably apply to any or all of us, with the primary weight of its origins rooted in sociological attitudes of contempt and disdain towards immaturity.

The overwhelming influences of a society suffering from corrupted and prejudiced beliefs and attitudes most of the time have a tendency to outnumber and overpower the good influences and teachings of our parents and families. This is particularly true when our parents too suffer from low self esteem and a substance abuse problem. Yet, generally speaking, our parents will still provide a somewhat strong, though underlying foundation of good self esteem, and a tolerance and resistance to the adverse effects of life. Generally, we do feel loved, respected, and accepted by our parents and families. Despite being outnumbered and outweighed against the overwhelming odds, some residual parental influence and contemporary concepts of a Higher Power (love) are a few virtues providing some stability and a semblance of normalcy within a society otherwise widely troubled by low self esteem, alcoholism, drug addiction, and crime.

However, the shear odds of our two (2) parents against thousands (1000s) in society reveal a monumental and unfair imbalance of adverse sociological influences versus good parental influence. Parental influence is the obvious underdog. We cannot depend upon family or parental strength to circumvent the powerful influences of a prejudiced society, nor to prevent alcohol and drug problems. By the same token, it isn't appropriate to place the heavy burden of guilt or blame on parents. It is not realistic or appropriate to expect parents to forever shelter their children, or to prevent their children from becoming affected by the overpowering influences of society. Parents cannot be expected to forever control their kids. You can't control another human being, and kids are human beings.

The book available on this topic is of vital importance to the cause. It will be a very beneficial addition to the libraries of institutes and establishments involved in research and study on alcoholism, drug addiction, and criminology. In short, and tentative upon a collective assessment from the research community, this may be a scientific breakthrough revealing the absolute root cause of alcoholism.

END

The purpose of this home page is to introduce a free book primarily targeted at the research community. There is no charge to research establishments. The work is also made available to anyone else interested and who is working towards the cause, though a cost will be assessed to anyone who cannot produce credentials. The book can also be obtained on the retail market at research bookstores, or by sending an email request directly to the author at candijohn@att.net. Although any media previously distributed and now in circulation that advertise the book free of charge are no longer in effect, promises from the author for free copies to specific individuals and establishments will remain in effect.

publisher: Vantage Press, Inc., New York, N.Y.
copyright: year 2000 (Txu 955-020)
ISBN: 0-533-14388-8
cost (when applicable): $23.95 + shipping and handling (about $35.00 total)
author's telephone: (408) 244-5094
email: candijohn@att.net

The following link, entitled "AA Doctrine", is not an AA approved statement. It's only my own personal perspective. But having been a member of AA since 1981, and having worked the AA program rigorously as well as researching the disease as described in this website, I believe I have an accurate perspective! Take a look and see what you think: AA Doctrine

This work is not endorsed by any national or local, profit or non-profit organization. This is an independent study by an independent party.

Alcoholics Anonymous