We are the robots wrote:
> I am an alcoholic, and subscribe fully to the notion that an
> alcoholic will only change when they want to. I know that i'm killing
> myself plus causing myself a myriad of problems, but choose to
> continue drinking. Why is this not sufficient to motivate me to
> change?
>

There's that many definitions of "alcoholic" to make the word almost
meaningless, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't guarantee I
wouldn't keep drinking until I dropped, and no matter who I promised, I
did not stay stopped after I dropped.

I didn't stop drinking, and stay stopped, until I found sufficient hope
that the unnecessary frightening changes to my life would be more than
worth the effort _for me_ and a formula (in my case the 12 step program)
capable of initiating and sustaining sufficient resolution to nurture
that hope through to reality.

More than ten years ago, when I chose to start those steps, there was no
way in the world I could have described my situation, and with benefit
of hindsight I realise I couldn't understand the solution either. All I
knew was I didn't want to be drunk again, and amazingly, I succeeded.

Fortunately for me I didn't need to understand much at all, including
the God theory. All I did was comply, _as best I could_, with these
instructions. http://silkworth.net/bb/howitworks.html