September 2

September 2 – AM          Page 6-7, Bill’s Story, Chapter 1

The mind and body are marvelous mechanisms, for mine endured this agony two more years.  Sometimes I stole from my wife’s slender purse when the morning terror and madness were on me.  Again I swayed dizzily before an open window, or the medicine cabinet where there was poison, cursing myself for a weakling.  There were flights from city to country and back, as my wife and I sought escape.  Then came the night when the physical and mental torture was so hellish I feared I would burst through my window, sash and all.  Somehow I managed to drag my mattress to a lower floor, lest I suddenly leap.  A doctor came with a heavy sedative.  Next day found me drinking both gin and sedative.  This combination soon landed me on the rocks.  People feared for my sanity.  So did I.  I could eat little or nothing when drinking, and I was forty pounds under weight.
My brother-in-law is a physician, and through his kindness and that of my mother I was placed in a nationally-known hospital for the mental and physical rehabilitation of alcoholics.  Under the so-called belladonna treatment my brain cleared.  Hydrotherapy and mild exercise helped much.  Best of all, I met a kind doctor who explained that though certainly selfish and foolish, I had been seriously ill, bodily and mentally.

September 2 – PM          Page 108-109, To Wives, Chapter 8

The problem with which you struggle usually falls within one of four categories:
One:  Your husband may be only a heavy drinker.  His drinking may be constant or it may be heavy only on certain occasions.  Perhaps he spends too much money for liquor.  It may be slowing him up mentally and physically, but he does not see it.  Sometimes he is a source of embarrassment to you and his friends.  He is positive he can handle his liquor, that it does him no harm, that drinking is necessary in his business.  He would probably be insulted if he were called an alcoholic.  This world is full of people like him.  Some will moderate or stop altogether, and some will not.  Of those who keep on, a good number will become true alcoholics after a while.