I looked at this thoroughly, and have come to my own conclusion that the AA organization unwittingly came up with this themselves. Throughout the AA literature, they are constantly putting quotation marks around something to give the appearance of quoting somebody or something, when all they are doing is using quotation marks for emphasis.
The earliest I could find a verifiable source for reference to this was the following:
quote:
Alcoholism has been described as "the lonely disease," and very few recovered alcoholics argue the point. Looking back at the last years or months of our drinking, literally hundreds of thousands of us remember feeling isolated even when we were among a lot of happy, celebrating people. We often felt a deep sense of not belonging, even when we cheerfully acted sociable.
~ from “Living Sober”
"Living Sober" was first published in 1975 by AA World Services.
http://home.earthlink.net/~bri...rary/LivingSober.htm
Almost without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness. Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn't quite belong. Either we were shy, and dared not draw near others, or we were apt to be noisy good fellows craving attention and companionship, but never getting it--at least to our way of thinking. There was always that mysterious barrier we could neither surmount nor understand.
~ Bill Wilson, “Twelve and Twelve” pg 57 (published in 1953)
or a slightly different version:
Alcoholism is called the “lonely disease”; almost without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness.
Even before the end of our drinking — before people began to shun us and we were "eighty-sixed" from bars, restaurants, or people's homes — nearly all of us felt that we didn’t quite belong. We were shy, and dared not draw near others, or we were apt to be noisy good fellows craving attention and approval, but rarely getting it. There was always that mysterious barrier we could neither surmount nor understand. Finally, even Bacchus betrayed us; we were struck down and left in terrified isolation.
~ "A Day at a Time" by James Jennings, Anonymous, Socarides [Reflection for the Day of May 20]
(obviously borrowing heavily from Bill Wilson's 12x12 and not giving credit)Children of alcoholics had to survive essentially alone, because that is the nature of the disease of alcoholism. It is an isolating, separating, and lonely disease. Most of these children had to suffer in silence. They thought nobody would believe what they said even if they would dare say it.
~ Recovery: a guide for adult children of alcoholics - by Herbert L. Gravitz, Julie D. Bowden - 1987
To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.
~ Charles Caleb Colton
The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.
~ Pearl S. Buck
