What Would Bill Do?

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Keep His Side of the Street Clean –

Dec 26, 2019 – In today’s addiction treatment field, the Big Book is still held up as the primary text and answer for people with addiction. The field is split between those who feel that treatment should be for a spiritual malady and those who believe addiction is a biological illness.

I’m caught in the middle. As a recovering person who has learned how to effectively use step work, some of my colleagues tell me that the program should play no role in addiction treatment. As a doctor who uses medicine in treating addiction, I often hear quotes from Bill or the book to counter my use of medications. When I’m explaining medication to a patient or family that have been told medicine is no good for addiction, I often find myself wishing that Bill Wilson was in the room with me. I imagine I could just lean over and say, “Bill, what do you think of that?” And his, “That makes sense, Howard. I wish we had that to help people with when I was around,” would convince the patient. It would be much easier. But Bill’s dead, so I have to do all the work myself.