How It Feels to Make One's First Beginnings in A. A.

I was in my 60th year when I first contacted A.A. I had always been a steady and heavy drinker. Having what drinks I wanted was as much a natural part of my life as smoking. So far as I was able to tell at that time it had never interfered with my life, either business or social. Then business became slack, drinking heavier and more steady and, at some time unknown to me, alcohol took over and became the boss. I was only conscious of the intense physical and nervous discomfort and attributed the almost melancholic depression to these factors. I got to the end of my rope and life was not worth living. The end of the run was, morbidly, hoped for and would, I think, have been welcomed.