From the Grass Roots

I AM AN ALCOHOLIC and a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. As a doctor in general practice, before I came into AA and learned to recognize my alcoholism for what it was, naturally I tried to deal with alcoholics who came to me for help. I sincerely recognized their problem--indeed how could I help when what they expressed in their fears and guilts was what I was feeling myself? But I was, I'm afraid, incapable of helping very much, because on the one hand I was attempting to protect myself from demonstrating what I feared was wrong with me to them--and thus effectively shut down any real rapport which might have come from them to me.