Having previously stated that the "main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind," (Page 23) the authors now elaborate on this point. Given the focus on the disease of alcoholism, it is remarkable how little time is spent discussing what happens while drinking and the consequences afterward. Indeed, aside from Bill's Story there is little discussion of the unmanageability aspect of Step One in the 164 pages. It might be said that the effect of drinking is but a symptom, and our alcoholic obsession and thinking are the causes and conditions of alcoholism.

On Page 30 we find the closest thing in our literature to precise instructions for taking the first Step:

	We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we 
	were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that 
	we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.  

This delusion (what we would now call 'denial') often leads us to try different ways to curb our drinking. There is a long list of methods on Page 31 that the authors have tried in order to drink moderately, all ending in failure. The authors summarize their own experience and cite prevailing medical opinion to assert that alcoholism is a permanent condition. Indeed, it is a progressive illness that always gets worse over time, never better.

A businessman known to the authors showed clear signs of problem drinking, used his strong will and character to quit drinking for twenty-five years until retirement, then began drinking again. Unable to moderate or stop after being hospitalized, his will power no longer sufficing, he was dead in four years. The authors emphasize the point of this story, that a period of abstinence, even an extremely long one, does not relieve alcoholism. The authors also found a period of sobriety useless in battling alcoholism (Page 34), and the Doctor also mentions this common fallacy (Page xxx, Fourth Edition). The story ends with the reminder of the delusion/denial we must smash: "Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol." (Page 33)

Also shown to be ineffective in this story is human aid, as in the second pertinent idea on Page 60 ("(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism."). The man tried "[e]very means of solving his problem that money could buy." Bill and Roland H also found Human aid, in the form of Dr. Silkworth and Dr. Jung, to be of no avail.

The human will and reason are useless in battling alcoholism for those who have progressed too far in the disease and have lost the power of choice to drink. Many unsuspecting people are surprised at their inability to stop drinking. It is suggested that the reader try to quit drinking for a year to allow him to decide if he has gone beyond this point. Even more useful in helping him decide, they say, would be a description of "the mental states that precede a relapse into drinking, for obviously this is the crux of the problem." (Page 35)

There are numerous references in the rest of this chapter to insanity and other terms for distorted thinking - the heaviest concentration of such usage anywhere in the literature. These nearly always refer to the alcoholic's thinking and attitude toward alcohol - the degree to which one suffers from the above delusion/denial - seldom to 'grave mental and emotional disorders'. There are also more italicized passages in the second half of this chapter than in any other complete chapter. Such is the importance placed on certain aspects of the following personal examples. It should be kept in mind that these men, as well as the businessman above, want to stay sober, but are unble to because of the "stange mental twist already acquired."

In a remarkable story, we hear from Jim the car salesman in his own words. He had had serious problems with drinking before, and had spoken at length with the authors about alcoholism. "All went well for a time, but he failed to enlarge his spiritual life," according to the authors. Jim tells of feeling irritated one day and having some words with his boss - the boss who now owned the business Jim lost because of his drinking (possible resentment, perhaps?). While at a diner having a sandwich and a glass of milk, suddenly and without apparent warning, the idea came to him that an ounce of whiskey couldn't hurt him on a full stomach. Despite a vague sense that "I wasn't being any too smart," he went ahead and ordered whiskey and drank it with the milk. This experiment was repeated, and he ended up in the sanitarium again.

Jim's story is instructive on a few points. It seems that a thought about alcohol can occur at random and at nearly any time to someone with an alcoholic mentality. Knowledge of the disease (self-knowledge), as we have already seen, does not seem to prevent a relapse, nor does the memory of past suffering due to drinking. These rational considerations produced a vague sense in Jim that he shouldn't drink, but this was easily pushed aside in favor of "the foolish idea that he could take whiskey if only he mixed it with milk!" (By the way, an Internet search shows that whiskey and milk, sometimes with other ingredients, is an old custom going back centuries. It was also a folk remedy to help ailing children go to sleep. The latter is shown in the film There Will Be Blood, when Daniel Day Lewis' character serves his son whiskey and milk after being injured in an accident. Ironically, the father becomes an alcoholic by the end of the movie.) The authors bring home the central lesson from this story: "...there was always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel to our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink. Our sound reasoning failed to hold us in check. The insane idea won out."

The alcoholic's behavior is compared to that of a man with an obsession for jay-walking. He knows it is unsafe, but keeps on with his habit. The man cannot get the idea out of his head, and continues long after losing his wife, standing in the community and suffering serious injuries. No one understand why he keeps on doing it, not even the jay-walker himself. By describing the downward trajectory of this man in an alcohol-free context, the authors cleverly allow the reader to see his own insanity from the outside, from others' point of view. This is useful information, but we are reminded that "...the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly any exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge."

Another practical example follows. Fred was an accountant who found himself in the hospital to recuperate from jitters after a drinking bout. Like Jim, he encountered members of Alcoholics Anonymous and was told the nature of his alcoholic condition. "He was positive that this humiliating experience [being hospitalized for drinking], plus the knowledge he had acquired, would keep him sober for the rest of his life. Self-knowledge would fix it." Some time later, Fred took a business trip to Washngton, DC. The trip ended up being very successful and he was very happy at the result. Unlike Jim the car salesman, Fred was in a good mood and was advancing his career. Yet alcoholic insanity also caused him to forget past suffering due to drinking and disregard the knowledge of his condition the A.A. friends had given him. The thought of a cocktail with dinner after a good day of work came to him and, in his words, "Not only had I been off guard, I had made no fight whatever against the first drink. This time I had not thought of the consequences at all." After this misadventure, Fred reconnected with his A.A friends, adopted a spiritual way of life and has not had a drink since.

The chapter concludes:

	Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no mental defense 
	against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he 
	nor any other human being provide such a defense. His defense must 
	come from a Higher Power. 

The first two sentences refer to pertinent ideas (a) and (b) from How It Works. The next sentence refers to the third pertinent idea - "(c) That God could and would if He were sought." Relieve our alcoholism, that is...