From Isolation to Acceptance: A Handbook for Helping Alcoholics Compiled by William R. Boothe

From Isolation to Acceptance

A Handbook for Helping Alcoholics

Compiled by William R. Boothe

Director, The Keeley Institute

Greensboro, North Carolina

This booklet is from 1956 and was published by RELIGION & HEALTH PRESS In Durham, North Carolina.

Here you can read the Preface to learn more about this book:

“Some authorities rate alcoholism the fourth health problem of the nation, others list it as the third health problem, behind only heart disease and cancer. Whether it is second, third, or fourth is not as important as recognizing that it affects all of us, directly or indirectly, and that it is a problem we cannot ignore.

We believe in the joint-therapies approach, for alcoholism is a total personality problem, of such magnitude that the combined eftorts of all educational and rehabilitation facilities must be enlisted toward the same end.

Education has reached the point that the public is accepting the premise that alcoholism is a disease and that there is hope and help for the alcoholic; everyone knows of cases of recovery in his own community. And so a great barrier is being overcome-the shame, the stigma of alcoholism; increasingly, patient and family are seeking out therapists for help with much the same attitude as with other illnesses.

Now the great need is for persistence and better "follow through" with therapy, once the patient takes the faltering step to seek help. This first step is not without doubt, hesitation and misgivings and may be on the arm of a friend, relative, minister or A.A. member. For example, the patient may be taken to a psychiatrist only to find that at the time he is not able to respond to psychiatry. Or the patient may agree to go to his family physician but once there want only a shot, or he may call Alcoholics Anonymous to sober him up and go back immediately with his old drinking crowd. These "foot-faults" are characteristic of the alcoholic's struggle to do the impossible, control his drinking. Mistakenly, the family and patient may regard the relapse as failure of the particular therapy.

The difficulties, relapses and broken appointments should be regarded as a part of the illness, and despite them, we should not give up. Recovery should be seen as something that requires more time and specialized assistance for some than for others; and, for all, the acceptance of a condition which requires nothing less than total abstinence. Many persons are not successful with the A.A. program until they have secured adequate medical and hospital care. And vice versa, many cases have not maintained sobriety after medical treatment until they have had the continuing support of the A.A. program.

Many require joint therapy—help in all areas of stress-physiological, psychological, spiritual and economic, before they are able to recover.

Our education must be of sufficient depth to enable us to see with perspective, the long trail to alcoholism which involves the individual's constitution, his development as a child, and the fifteen years or so of drinking with the combiner influence of all these factors on personality.

This book is prepared by persons representing the joint therapies: a physician with years of experience in treating persons suffering from alcoholism. a psychiatrist who works in a hospital and clinic for alcoholics, the pastor of a large church whose membership includes over 200 rehabilitated alcoholics, a recovered alcoholic, and a professor of pastoral care whose task is to train theological students and pastors in helping people whose lives are characterized by desperation. We speak of the "trained pastor" because it is not enough to have feelings of "goodwill" to help the alcoholic, but something of the complicated process of helping a person to help himself must be understood.

Diagnosis and treatment planning should be directed by the physician and the psychiatrist because of their skills and equipment for care of physical and mental illness. But other professions and such community groups as A.A. are quite important to the total program of rehabilitation.

Most books on alcoholism leave out the contribution of religion and the pastor. This is unfortunate, for the great hope of recovery lies within the message of the church, namely, understanding, acceptance, and love. This love is a great power for the alcoholic and his family. The Moffatt translation of I Corinthians, chapter 13, describes it: "Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy; love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful; love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, always hopeful, always patient. Love never disappears."

This compilation was inspired by the Reverend Father A. I. Drake, an Episcopal priest who for many years suffered from alcoholism before attaining sobriety for the last ten years of his life. While serving as Chaplain of The Keeley Institutes in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Dwight, Illinois, Father Drake planned to write a handbook for helping alcoholics, with emphasis on the joint therapy approach. Anything less than the combined efforts of those who belong to the "fellow-ship of the concerned," Father Drake believed, was inadequate. His death in the summer of 1955 prevented completion of those plans, so we have gone ahead under his inspiration to draw together a collection of writing, a handbook for helping alcoholics.

We hope this book will help the layman, friend, A.A. and A.A. Auxiliary member, or Family Group member to understand the needs and values of adequate hospitalization of the acute case and care by the medical clinic team to supplement community support that the church, Alcoholics Anonymous and social agencies can render. It is designed for advance study by the seminary student planning to take training in the Institute and elsewhere, and for the pastor or family physician concerned with helping the alcoholic and his family.

We hope the book will help the reader approach his task with the confidence, patience and consistency so necessary to successful care of the alcoholic-to help him move from isolation to acceptance.“

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This booklet is in very good condition with minimal wear.

Please view all of the photos for the conditions.