First Drink

It is often said in the rooms that, "It's the first drink that gets you drunk." There are ample citations in the literature to back this up.

Big Book:

“Fear sobered me for a bit. Then came the insidious insanity of that first drink, and on Armistice Day 1934, I was off again.”
Page 8, Bill’s Story

“These observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink, thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion.”

“Once in a while he may tell the truth. And that truth, strange to say, is usually that he has no more idea why he took that first drink than you have.”
Page 23, There is a Solution

“We are without defense against the first drink.”
Page 24, There is a Solution

“What sort of thinking dominates an alcoholic who repeats time after time the desperate experiment of the first drink?”
Page 35, More About Alcoholism

“But there was always the curious mental phenomenon that parallel with our sound reasoning there inevitably ran some insanely trivial excuse for taking the first drink.”

“Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with a passion, say, for jay-walking.”
Page 37, More About Alcoholism

“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.”
Page 41, More About Alcoholism

“Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink.”
Page 43, More About Alcoholism

"Show him [the newcomer] the mental twist which leads to the first drink."

"Show him [a new prospect], from your own experience, how the queer mental condition surrounding that first drink prevents normal functioning of the will power."
Page 92, Working With Others

12 & 12:

"Of course all A.A.'s, even the best, fall far short of such achievements as a consistent thing. Without necessarily taking that first drink, we often get quite far off the beam."
Page 112, Step Twelve

Related:

"But what of the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink."
Page 21, There is a Solution

“If hundreds of experiences have shown him that one drink means another debacle with all its attendant suffering and humiliation, why is it that he takes that one drink?”
Page 22, There is a Solution