Men and Women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive
that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false.
To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented,
unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks—drinks
which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do,
and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful
with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can
experience an entire psychic change there is little hope of his recovery.
On the other hand—and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand—once a psychic
change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving
them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that
required to follow a few simple rules.