Today we are going to talk about gluttony. Rightly so gluttony is usually used when talking about food. But we as alcoholic/addicts can apply this term to lot of other behaviors and defects of character. Google defines gluttony as “overindulgence or lack of self-restraint.” Surely, we can see how this would apply to alcoholics and their defects of character.
Self-restraint? What’s that? When drinking I never even thought of using any self-restraint to slow down my consumption of alcohol or drugs. The only thing I did do however, was to try and control my behavior so you would not think I was drinking too much. That became quite a challenge most of the time. I rarely was able to pull it off and faced chastisement most of the time from others for being a falling down drunk. This still didn’t stop my mass consumption of drugs and alcohol.
I had a liquor cabinet in my home while drinking that the door squeaked every time you opened it. I tried WD40 and all other kinds of home remedies to get rid of that squeak! Nothing worked. So, I came up in my keen alcoholic mind with the idea of keeping alcohol in juice bottles in the refrigerator. Well, this worked out just fine! I could drink myself stupid and not face the evil eye from my spouse at the time. I continued to drink and use to my heart’s content until I was no longer coherent and in a black out. Then I would just pass out and go to sleep. Luckily my spouse went to bed after smoking a few joints before I went to sleep on the couch.
Gluttony applies to most things for alcoholic/addicts. We take everything to the extreme level. And as tolerance builds up, I need more and more of whatever substance I am using or behavior that I am
engaging in to satisfy my craving. Gambling is a good example of gluttony. In the beginning I could take a small amount of money and make it last for a while. But later at the end of a spree I would gamble until all the money I had in my bank account was drained. Then I would face the remorse and guilt that came with a gambling addiction. I would declare that I would no longer gamble but deep down inside I knew that that was a fallacy. I couldn’t wait to accumulate some funds to finance my next spree.
Let’s talk about food. One can knowingly eat so poorly that their health is jeopardized. Admonition from the doctor or others did not cause us to change our eating behaviors. We just continued to eat more and more until we became dangerously overweight. This just didn’t deter us either. After all we are supposed to eat three times per day at a minimum. I used excuses like I had poor metabolism. What did my metabolism have to do with Krispy Kreme donuts? We gluttons appear to be able to rationalize anything!
Gluttony can also apply to sobriety. We want the peace and serenity of 10 years sober when we are new without doing the necessary work to reach any milestones in our precarious sobriety. We try to act the part, but our speech and lack of knowledge betrays us. It takes ten years to get ten years! There are no short cuts here or secret ways to gain spiritual knowledge. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous gives us precise and clear-cut directions on how to achieve sobriety. The solution is called the Twelve Steps. There are no elevators here. Just twelve steps to take, in order.
