In the first step, he suggests we don’t have to admit to being alcoholic or make a commitment to not drink, but only that we are having problems drinking, and trouble while sober.

Once himself a client, in 1974, he was made the managing director.

LA’s downtown Midnight Mission

The Midnight Mission is a human services organization in downtown Los Angeles’s Skid Row. It was founded in 1914 as a secular not-for-profit organization. Do you see any way that AA can begin to help you start to these goals?

I always overreacted to regular, everyday events.

When Clancy shared how he used to react to life, he also described me. He also suggests that if you're fearless and thorough, that you shouldn't feel better after writing the fourth step. In which ways do you feel inadequate? The impressions of his sponsor, and his reactions to the steps are humorous and insightful.

Founder of the Pacific AA group in LA, it has helped thousands of alcoholics get sober.

Clancy was a Second World War veteran. Maybe I was suffering from an illness? Sometimes, I went to two or even three meetings a day.

The identification I received with my fellow alcoholics was priceless. Many thousands of pounds later, I got to the point where sobriety had become intolerable.

My first introduction to Clancy

Despite being a serial relapser, I kept attending AA.

After several long and difficult years, someone gave me an audio tape of Clancy.

 

4. I didn’t know what it was. Since childhood, I have always been very oversensitive.

They designed the ‘disease concept’ idea to remove the shame and moral stigma of being an alcoholic.