The Fear of Feeling Rejected

IN MY FIRST AA inventory, taken almost six years ago, I listed as my primary shortcoming an inability to cope with feelings of rejection and defeat. In pre-AA years, whenever I had been willing to make a sincere effort to achieve anything, I often experienced gratifying success. But ordinary setbacks, which my normal friends seemed to shrug off, would throw me into seething anger and resentment. I would withdraw from the contest and, wallowing in depression, would lock my door against the entire world, comforting myself with the bliss of alcoholic oblivion.