Carrying the Message

I've had three years of psychiatric training and have been a practicing physician for over thirty years. My interest in alcoholics goes back some fifteen years ago. I was struck by the two different people I would encounter in the one person. When drunk there was an obnoxious character who would lie, make all kinds of promises, and deny that he had had more than a couple of beers, while slobbering out his words trying to make sense. This same person when sober would be a gentleman of the first order. The terrific contrast intrigued me, and I began trying to get close enough to an alcoholic to get really acquainted. This struggle on my part went on for some ten years and involved a hundred alcoholics.