Extracts
from the aacultwatch forum (old):
“I had a
neurotic depression that lasted from 1943 until 1955, one from which
I never fully surfaced. About three years of this was suicidal. But
the release from alcohol had been so thorough that I was never
tempted during this long siege to resort to drink." Bill W.
(AA Grapevine May 1962. Language of the Heart page 274)
"It
was awful. There were long periods of time when he [Bill Wilson -
co-founder of AA] couldn't get out of bed. He just stayed in bed, and
Lois would see that he ate. An awful lot of people believed he was
drinking. That was one of the worst rumors we had in A.A." –
Marty M.
(Pass it
on page 293)
“He
would come down in the office many times and sit across from me and
just put his head in his hands and really not be able to communicate,
just almost weep. He used to talk about it. It baffled him” –
Nell Wing.
(Nell
Wing, Bill’s secretary from 1950. Pass It On page 293)
“There
were some times when these horrible depressions would go on and on,
for days and days. Then, it was pretty hard to make contact with him.
He’d try and cooperate if you had a question, but to try and sit
down and do any planning with him at that time was useless. His whole
face would fall; he looked sad, sad, very sad.” - Herb M.
(Herb M.
General manager, GSO. Pass It On pages 293-294)
“In
1944, Bill began to see Dr. Harry Tiebout… …. …Psychiatric
treatment was just one of many routes that Bill would investigate in
an attempt to understand and heal himself of the negativity that was
making his life such a burden.” (Pass It On page 195)
“Bill’s
depressions lasted for roughly 11 years in all, until he was finally
freed of them" (Pass It On page 293)
“When I
am feeling depressed, I repeat to myself statements such as these:
‘Pain is the touchstone of progress’ … ‘Fear no evil’ …
‘This, too, will pass’ … ‘ This experience can be turned to
benefit.” - Bill W. (As Bill Sees It page 148)
"Bill W.
was nominated to receive six honorary university degrees, including
an honorary doctor of laws degree at Yale University, he was
nominated to be included in “Who’s Who in America” and to
receive the Lasker Award; an honor for exceptional achievement in the
field of medical research and public health administration. - He
strongly believed in the spirit on anonymity and declined all the
invitations to receive any personal awards for the work he did in
A.A. The Lasker Award was awarded to Alcoholics Anonymous". (refer to
Pass it On pages 311-314, 350)
“Bill
felt very strongly that of all things, he should not set himself up
as superior in any way to other alcoholics. So to emphasize this, he
took every opportunity reasonable to exaggerate his own defects. He
was a tremendous egotist. But he recognized this, and I believe that
the triumph of his life was his victory over himself and his truly
becoming humble.” – Lois W. (Pass It On page 313)
Comment:
So it would seem that (contrary to cult propaganda) misery is
sometimes far from optional. It would also appear that psychiatric
treatment (amongst others) was good enough for the co-founder of AA
when purely 'spiritual' methods did not seem to suffice (again
contrary to the dogma propagated by the pointy headed ones). Or maybe
Bill wasn't doing it right!
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS
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