A friend of mine recently gave an analogy of the complete picture of our disease. The analogy goes something like this:
Our actual abuse of alcohol and its damage to us and others is like the tip of an iceberg. Only a symptom of our problem. What lies underneath the surface is the total iceberg of our disease - the "ism" that is the engine that drives our alcohol abuse.
I think this "ism' is driven by our negative attitudes, resentments, selfishness, angers, fears, and the rest of our character defects.
So what I get out of this is, if we want the tip of the iceberg (abuse of alcohol) to be removed, we need to get underneath the waves to address the "exact nature of our wrongs".
Please share:
What are your thoughts on this analogy?
How would you describe the "ism" in this analogy?
Have you ever experienced "untreated alcoholism" where you are not drinking, but that's about it for being positive?
How are you addressing the "rest of the iceberg" in terms of your recovery?
That iceberg analogy is a good one.
ReplyDeleteThe analogy is amazingly accurate, but the picture of the iceberg is what really resonated with me. I always knew I had some of these negative traits, but until got sober I never knew how deep these character defects went and how deep my pain was! So, now I wake up every day and try to do the next right thing in all areas of my life.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Steve!
ReplyDelete