A FORMER deadbeat alcoholic has described his contact with Alcoholics Anonymous as a fairytale which gave him back his life.
Troy – only first names are used at AA – was speaking at a rare public meeting of the self-help organisation in Stanthorpe.
Guest speaker Dr Neville O’Conner, a psychiatrist specialising in alcoholism, said his experience has shown him “the thing that made the biggest difference was AA”.
Dr O’Conner ran an alcohol and drug unit at Toowoomba Base Hospital for 18 years and said AA was the most effective treatment for “a terrible disease”.
“We analysed all our people over a period of many years, and the ones who were sober were the ones who were with AA,” he told an audience of about 30 people.
“Alcoholism takes away the person’s personality, takes away their values, takes away their friends,” he said.
AA can provide a refuge for alcoholics whose lives are dominated by drink.
“Alcohol can affect any age, any social standing,” Dr O’Conner said.
“It takes over their life and slowly takes away everything from them until there’s nothing left to live for, so you do yourself in or you drink yourself to death.”
He urged those alcoholics at the meeting to educate the medical profession about the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Carol was a mother and nurse who worked hard, but “at the end of work I needed a little reward”.
Years later she realised that alcohol had power over her life, and “my self-esteem was nothing”.
Carol finally rang AA and was surprised to find they weren’t “God botherers”, that they asked for no money, not even her surname.
“They told me about their drinking stories – they didn’t ask me about my drinking.”
Carol undertook the 12 Steps program, learning to resist alcohol one day at a time.
She has now been sober for 22 years, one day at a time, she said.
John is a police officer with 19 years sober after a life dominated by alcohol in which he was aggressive, violent and a drink driver.
“Alcohol is a scourge on society today,” he said.
John said alcohol is responsible for about 75 per cent of assaults, 50 to 60 per cent of fatalities and 90 per cent of domestic violence incidents.
He said alcohol was costing society billions but it was promoted as normal behaviour and advertised by supposed role models.
“It’s our culture, our way of life,” John said.
“How does drinking lots of grog help you play football? It doesn’t.”
John said Good Friday was the quietest night he ever had as a police officer, because the pubs were closed.
Troy better fitted society’s clichéd view of an alcoholic, living on the streets, unkempt, violent, subject to blackouts, drinking a four-litre cask daily, subject to imprisonment.
He couldn’t imagine a life without alcohol, but AA’s non-judgemental approach taught him that the onus was on him to take control.
“AA helped me so immensely,” he said.
“I call it a fairytale – it’s that simple, how I got control of my life.”
Regular AA meetings are held in Warwick, Stanthorpe, Tenterfield and Allora.
