HERE’S TO YOUR HEALTH
One of the most obvious facts about untreated alcoholism is the progressive deterioration of its victim’s internal organs, brain and spirit. Just as a diabetic’s pancreas, liver and etc. doesn’t metabolize sugar in a normal fashion, the body of an alcoholic does not metabolize alcohol in a normal fashion. And, as the alcoholic’s alcohol intake increases, so too does the damage and destruction done to his/her internal organs required to metabolize the stuff.
Dr. William D. Silkworth in his famous “Dr.’s Opinion,” described this physical phenomenon as an allergy and although he didn’t like using the word “allergy,” it seemed appropriate because by definition an allergy is described as an abnormal reaction to something. And one of the abnormal reactions to alcohol is the phenomenon of craving. Some people are allergic to peanuts while others (10-14 percent of the world’s population); experience an abnormal reaction to alcohol. When people have an allergy to alcohol there is no surgery, medication or any known treatment that can remove their allergy. The only available option for such people is absolute abstinence and therein lays the crux of the alcoholic problem. Our dilemma stems from the fact that we hate the way things are, but we hate change more, and so, we find ourselves trapped in a progressive cycle of addiction facing the ugly truth that we cannot on our own power; stop practicing an insidious obsessive-compulsive behavior that’s killing us?
We will now continue with Keith L.’s story:
To make a long story short, my alcoholism progressed to the point that I was not able to stop drinking, so I submitted my resignation to the Marine Corp. My first civilian job was working at a steel mill, but that soon ended and they laid me off. After that job, I took a bus to Baltimore, Maryland and went to Woodstock College where I found a job working for a Jesuit priest with PhD’s, in Philosophy, Theology and Genetic Research; he trained me to work in his laboratory. At that time, I was still drinking and after my lab work was done I usually stayed in my room isolated, angry, hurting and spiritually sick.
Woodstock is one of the places Jesuit priests spend the last four years of their training and that campus also has the second largest theological library in the world and sometimes when I wasn’t sulking in my room, I sat in the campus library. Other times when I wasn’t in my room or the library, I walked the campus’ “mile path.”
One time while walking on that path, I passed a priest named Father Murray, who had just returned from Rome and was on a spiritual retreat. Normally, when priests are on retreat they don’t talk, but the second time we passed each other, he stopped, looked at me, took me by the arm and said, “Son you’re contemplating God’s existence, aren’t you?” I was extremely angry that day and I lost it. I said, “Look pal, that’s not how you speak to an eminent theologian and besides that, maybe there is no God and even if there was, He certainly isn’t interested in me!” Father Murray grabbed both my shoulders, looked deep into my eyes and said, “Son, if you don’t believe in God then leave! We’re not here for fun, but if you’re willing to believe there is a God, then fasten your seatbelt because you’re in for the ride of your life! But, don’t do yourself the disservice of playing agnostic because they don’t know the most important thing there is to know and that’s how to have a relationship with God!” I blew off what he said, cursed, and walked away wondering how he knew what I was thinking?
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