Youth in A.A.

I CAME to Alcoholics Anonymous in my early thirties. My age didn't matter much at the time--I felt old, and you're as old as you feel. I had drinking periodically, and too much, for fifteen years. I drank through Army training and combat; I drank through college and a year abroad. I escaped to a monastery and somehow found alcohol even there. During the last year of my drinking the binges began, all over America, and the blackouts, and the morning drink. More important, I began to panic inwardly. I felt old, and beat, and I knew I needed help.