Your Doctor Can't Help You!

AT MEETINGS, I have often heard of poor communication between AAs and their doctors. As both a doctor and a "patient" in AA, I am particularly aware of this problem. I am not speaking here of the drinking alcoholic or the pill collector who tells the doctor he just takes "one or two." The detection of this kind of evasion, even in an actively drinking alcoholic in great distress, can be very difficult. Then how much more difficult it is for a doctor to identify and understand an alcoholic who has been sober for years! Can the alcoholic help out--contribute to his own medical care?