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Sunday, August 8, 2010

Marty Mann Test

So what is it? I heard it was;

2 drinks, no more, no less... for 30 days.Read more: 2 drinks, no more, no less... for 30 days, and don't skip a day.

But I googled the thing and found this;

Excerpt from Marty Mann's New Primer on Alcoholism©, 1981 (First Owl Book Edition), pp. 83-86.

There is a simple test which has been used hundreds of times for this purpose. Even an extremely heavy drinker should have no trouble in passing it, whereas an alcoholic, if able to complete it at all, could do so only under such heavy pressure that his life would be more miserable than he thinks it would be if he stopped drinking altogether. The chances are a hundred to one, how ever, against a true alcoholic's being either willing or able to undertake the test.

The Test: Select any time at all for instituting it. Now is the best time.

For the next six months at least decide that you will stick to a certain number of drinks a day, that number to be not less than one and not more than three. If you are not a daily drinker, then the test should be the stated number of drinks from one to three, on those days when you do drink. Some heavy drinkers confine their drinking to weekends, but still worry about the amount they consume then. Whatever number you choose must not be exceeded under any circumstances whatever, and this includes weddings, births, funerals, occasions of sudden death and disaster, unexpected or long-awaited inheritance, promotion, or other happy events, reunions or meetings with old friends or good customers, or just sheer boredom. There must also be no special occasions on which you feel justified in adding to your quota of the stated number of drinks, such as a severe emotional upset, or the appointment to close the biggest deal of your career, or the audition you've been waiting for all your life, or the meeting with someone who is crucial to your future and of whom you are terrified. Absolutely no exceptions, or the test has been failed.

This is not an easy test, but it has been passed handily by any number of drinkers who wished to show themselves, or their families and friends, that they were not compulsive drinkers. If by any chance they failed the test, showing that they were alcoholics, they showed themselves, too, that they were, whether they were then ready to admit it openly or not. At least it prepared them for such an admission, and for the constructive action which normally follows that admission.

4 comments:

  1. 文王廷 say, "Great sharing ~ ~ ~ come to stay in the personal statement talk more", which is nice and all. Not so sure about channel U325, so for that reason, it's off to the Blogger spam report for you.

    Now, if you to speak Engrish...and talk about the Marty Fucking Mann Test, we'd be in business.

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  2. The average non-alcoholic would not be bothered at all by this proposition.

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  3. Or how about this thought? They (the non-alcoholic and the non-hard drinker) would think that's too much.

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    Exactly. No one but an alkie would even think of it as a big deal.

    ReplyDelete