A Seemingly Hopeless State of Mind and Body

In the foreword to the first edition of the Big Book, Bill W. states that the main purpose of the book is to "show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered." Here, and in many other passages in the Big Book and in countless other writings and speeches, it is clear that he and the early members of our Fellowship considered themselves to be "recovered alcoholics." However, his use of the word "recovered" when used as an adjective to describe "alcoholic" always seemed to me to be very inappropriate. Bill W. had an excellent command of the English language. He chose words very carefully and used them specifically and deliberately. I could not understand how he could use such a term when it was known, even then, that alcoholics can never recover from alcoholism as a person would recover from the cold or the flu. We will never "get over" alcoholism in the sense that we will become social drinkers. We will always be alcoholics.