This is based on discussions I seem to have frequently with members after I assert that Alcoholism is not a three-fold illness (mental, physical, spiritual) but instead a two-fold illness – an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind (physical, mental).
I offer this as my opinion, and given how many people seem to disagree with me, I suppose it is wrong. A careful reading of Alcoholics Anonymous shows early chapters treating alcoholism as a two-fold illness. Charlie P. often commented in his Big Book Weekends that the book deliberately discussed the problem this way because up until that time, it was considered a moral issue, a sin, a statement of one’s character.
Identifying with alcoholism as an illness – a physical and mental illness – helped people understand that they were trapped in a medical condition that made them powerless. An alcoholic’s physical reaction to alcohol – a craving coupled with their habitual repeating of the “one drink” experiment – an obsession, had them trapped in a vicious cycle. They were POWERLESS OVER ALCOHOL.
The early chapters of the book nod and wink to some of the spiritual work of the later chapters, but it doesn’t muddy the water by referring to alcoholism as a spiritual illness. In fact, when it does finally mention that we were spiritually sick, it does so in light of the solution. This is well after we learn that the solution is a spiritual awakening, asking if we were willing to give ourselves to the specified course of action – The Twelve Steps.
In light of the fact that my life now depends on a spiritual solution, I have a new problem. I am spiritually sick. Alcoholism isn’t a spiritual sickness, but because the solution is spiritual, I can see my new problem as a spiritual malady.
Referring to alcoholism as a spiritual illness is equivalent to saying cancer is the result of too little radiation or chemotherapy. Just because chemo is a treatment for cancer doesn’t mean that cancer is caused by too little of this poison.
Just because an addict’s solution is spiritual doesn’t mean their problem is. It just so happens that a spiritual experience can releave the obsession. That does not imply that a lack of spirituality caused the obsession. There are a lot of very healthy people walking around who lack spirituality or who are just not interested in spiritual matters. The vast majority of them do not become alcoholics.
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