Friends of Bill Wilson
But that is just one
aspect of the kind of change that can transform.
There’s another more elemental, nuts-and-bolts
change an ill person can go through that can have
wonderful consequences. That is the change that
may follow what is commonly known in twelve-step
circles as “hitting bottom.” Alcoholics
Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson wrote about this
extensively in AA’s “big book,”
Alcoholics Anonymous. Hitting bottom is reaching
the point where all hope is seemingly lost, when
despair is so great that life seems unmanageable.
If out of that despair there emerges a willingness
to go to any length to recover, recovery becomes
possible. Many thousands of stories of remarkable
recovery from the ravages of alcoholism attest
to the power of a commitment to personal change
that can take place once a person decides that
he or she has truly “hit bottom.”
A similar process may be
instrumental in getting on the road to recovery
from chronic illness. Both alcoholics and chronically
ill individuals are often in denial of their problems
– they continue their lives as though nothing
was wrong, while the problems become continually
worse (and may eventually kill them). Most chronically
ill individuals are taking one or more prescription
drugs and functioning at a fraction of their full
capacities, yet insist that they are “basically
healthy” and that they “eat pretty
good.” For these people, the recognition
that something is indeed seriously wrong and that
dramatic change is necessary can indeed be the
equivalent of the alcoholic’s “hitting
bottom.”
Once the alcoholic has accepted
that he has a problem and feels that he has fallen
as far as he wants to fall, he is usually urged
to become part of an AA group and to follow a
series of steps that are the accepted wisdom of
the group. “Turn it over,” he is told.
Simply do what we have done – don’t
drink, go to meetings, and follow our time-tested
program – and recovery will follow.
While I don’t wish
to push the analogy too far, there is an analogy
between the recovery path for many alcoholics
and chronically ill individuals. Weston Price
left us a remarkable prescription for health and
recovery from disease, a set of principles grounded
in the accumulated wisdom of thousands of generations
of human beings. As in AA, a leap of faith is
involved. One must believe. But the individual
who is willing to make a concerted effort to understand
and follow what Weston Price taught may begin
a path of recovery from the most serious disease.
What truly is involved is
more a matter of a certain kind of courage than
a matter of faith – the courage to trust
your own judgment, and Dr. Price’s. This
courage is the essence of a mental and emotional
outlook that best facilitates healing. Weston
Price’s work has been ignored or denigrated
by the mainstream media and the medical establishment.
Embracing Price’s dietary principles means
going very much against the grain of almost everything
we hear about nutrition and health. Doing so in
the face of the usual advice from well-meaning
family, friends, and health care professionals
requires an uncommon mindset and a strong will.
Following a traditional diet carefully and avoiding
industrial foods requires the same strong, disciplined
will and iconoclastic attitude.
There are two major effects
of adapting such an attitude. The first is the
effect one’s state of mind has on the immune
system. Confidence, a strong belief system, and
a positive attitude have been shown in many studies
to have substantial benefits for T-cells and various
other components of the immune system. Your mind
quite literally can increase your capacity to
heal. The second effect is that of your state
of mind on the way you eat; attitude determines
your ability to follow your chosen course with
discipline and care. In the first article of this
two-part series, I made the case that such discipline
and care about diet are for many people with chronic
disease essential for recovery.
Of course, if a human being
really is a unity, an organism indivisible, the
two effects are part of a whole, for the physical
and the psychological are one. And what of the
spiritual? You might ask, are we not physical,
mental, emotional and spiritual beings? I leave
this question for others to ponder. Those with
spiritual leanings may find great strength –
and healing – on their spiritual paths.
Others who see life as a self-fulfilling journey
that ends with death may find great strength –
and healing – on their own earthly paths.
For all, healing is a challenge that may be met
by living up to one’s own highest ideals.
Occasionally someone will
ask me about my own personal spiritual beliefs.
My response is that those beliefs are best summarized
by what I most remember from my Sunday school
days half a century ago: “God is Love,”
and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Good advice, I believe, for anyone who would heal
or be healed, whatever spiritual beliefs he or
she may or may not hold.
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