It is a disease. The World Health Organization has defined it, and yet, when one has known and felt the nature of the thing, all medical definitions, even theirs, seem to lack something. To call the condition a state of sin is equally insufficient, for although the alcoholic has grave moral responsibilities, particularly regarding his first drink after a period of abstinence, no one can identify the stages either at which he becomes capable of recognizing that alcohol is his problem, or at which he loses control of his will.

I am an alcoholic. I am a person whose drinking was consistently or sporadically compulsive. This produced an effect of progressive deterioration in my physical, mental, spiritual, and social wellbeing. For years I had an intense nostalgia for religion, yet was helplessly aware of the absence of God. My condition was alleviated only by abstinence from alcohol.