How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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short-lived. When the intoxication has worn off, his sense of guilt, inferiority, and remorse is far worse than before. His first tendency is to drown this artificially heightened sense of guilt in further alcoholic excesses, and thus the vicious circle of the alcoholic neurosis is begun. Some men and women, again, drink not so much to cast off the oppressive burden of parental authority* as to escape reality. They suffer an exaggerated sense of their own inferiority, and attempt to bolster up their self-esteem by the use of alcohol. During alcoholic intoxication they feel “ as if ” they were very important, very clever, very sophisticated, or very powerful. Their conversation seems to sparkle, they “ feel good ”, their sense of power is temporarily increased, and the grim problems that hover on the outskirts of their lives fade into nebulous mists. When alcoholic intoxication wears off it is followed by a definite physiological depression. In this consequent depression the problems of reality appear in even sharper focus. The sense of inferiority is increased and the feeling of insignificance intensified. The drinker makes a half¬ hearted attempt to shoulder his responsibilities and to face the tasks before him. Weakened by alcoholic excesses, he fails miserably in his first steps. The whisky bottle beckons alluringly with a promise of another subjective victory, another cheap intoxication with power. The drinker forgets his resolutions, and succumbs again. The Cost oj Flight from Reality The process is endless, and progresses to a gradual deterioration of mental faculties and physiological powers. Unlike morphine, alcohol causes definite patho¬ logical changes in the body which are irreversible. From a purely medical point of view, therefore, the alcoholic neurosis is more dangerous than morphine addiction, although the social and legal consequences of morphine addiction are usually more serious than those of alcohol. If you find yourself in the vicious circle of alcohol or