The alcoholic patient, and the general public as well, should disabuse their minds of any ideas they may have that it is only strong characters who are able to complete the treatment satisfactorily.

As a matter of fact, it is only the pathologically weak who fail. Obviously a person should have a normal amount of common sense "an ability to persevere" and enough breadth of mind to admit the truth when his own experience confronts him with it.

But for the overcoming of alcoholism these qualities are found to a sufficient degree in the average man if he sincerely wants to exercise them. He is not asked to warp his mind to fit any exotic theories nor is he compelled to undergo any hardships of a mental or physical nature.

He is merely shown how to train his intellectual processes so that they have enough control over his emotions to enable him to lead a mature normal life.

A person does not need a great deal of perspicacity to recognize that the advantages to be derived from a cure pass far beyond a mere cessation of drinking.

That is, of course, an absolutely necessary preliminary, but the overcoming of the habit by a system, and the application of that same system to other weaknesses of character as well as to the making of new and better adjustments to life, will in the long run carry the individual to a point of efficiency and contentment of which he had little or no realization in the dark days when he was seeing the world through a whiskey bottle.

A number of men have said that the principles of relaxation, when applied to their business, have been worth many thousands of dollars, to say nothing of the benefit to their state of mind and the increase in their physical efficiency and endurance.

Just as they have learned to handle liquor in the only manner possible for them (by complete elimination), so they have learned to handle life instead of letting life handle them.

Because of their peace of mind, their increased stamina and self-confidence, depression, moodiness, irritability, and anxiety tend to disappear, even when they are faced with problems which make these unpleasant states a normal reaction, their poise and judgment prevent the complete demoralization and despair which accompanied them only too easily in their drinking days.

To the beginner this may sound like an Utopia impossible of realization, for the past may seem to have set an ineffaceable seal on the future.

As is to be expected, excessive indulgence, long pursued in the face of common sense and frequent warning, often brings one or more concrete disasters in its wake -- loss of position, the breaking up of the home, and the alienation of many if not all friends.

But experience has shown over and over again that few of these losses are irretrievable.

Of course the world at large cannot be blamed for being slow to recognize the reform of the inebriate. He in particular, and his kind in general, have fooled the public too often with their short intervals on the wagon, from which it was so easy to fall.

When, however, people become convinced -- and they only become so through the observation of concrete results that the individual really means business, the halt is definitely forgotten and forgiven.

In fact, the ex-alcoholic will at times be embarrassed at the lavishness of the praise he receives for merely adjusting himself to life in an obviously expedient manner.

Often the very people who were most disparaging of him during his drinking days will be his warmest supporters and admirers, once he has convinced them that he has stopped for good and all.

But the recognition and appreciation of friends and the discovery of a suitable occupation take time, so the former inebriate must have patience.

A certain price has to be paid for his past stupidity and weakness, though in most cases it is not nearly so large as it might have been; and it is at least insignificant compared to the disaster that awaits him if he persists in seeking the impossible -- that is, adaptation to life through the medium of drink.

Therefore, let him who feels that he is lost in an impenetrable maze pause a moment to reflect. Disaster awaits him if he continues in his present way of living. He cannot stand still, as he has a driving force within which will compel him to move in one direction or another.

The way out, which many men have found to their everlasting satisfaction, lies open to him. It might be worth his while to seek for it.

Much has been made in this book of the desirability of undertaking the treatment only with those who clearly recognize the seriousness of their problem and who sincerely wish to do everything in their power to overcome the habit.

This is essentially true, and the cases where the work can be started with a reasonable prognosis of success should be selected with some discrimination.

However, there is this much to be said for those who at first refuse to see "the light of day" of their own accord. They are sometimes interested in an academic discussion of the subject" and it happens every so often that these academic discussions, without being in the least evangelical or proselyting" induce the alcoholic to investigate the situation more thoroughly.

He may lose a few weeks of drinking, but he may decide that, after all, life holds too much to spend it under the influence of what has become for him a pernicious drug.