Excerpt from Grateful Truce Chapter 7 The Missing Triggers Pg. 83-87 Footnotes renumbered below. 

1. The Big Book’s Glaring Omissions

• 1940s Myopia: AA’s founders wrote amid WWII, the New Deal, and rising totalitarianism—yet ignored how government tyranny and economic despair fuel addiction.[1]
  • Contrast: The Big Book obsesses over “character defects” but never asks: “What if the system is defective?”[2]
• Modern Proof: CDC data shows addiction rates spiked during unnecessary and illegal COVID lockdowns (40% increase in heavy drinking, 2020–2022).[3]

2. Government: The Ultimate Addiction Trigger

A. Historical Context

• 1930s–40s: Alcoholics faced the Great Depression, wartime rationing, and FDR’s unprecedented federal overreach [4]—yet AA framed drinking as a personal failure.[5]
• 2020s: COVID lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and small-business destruction created a perfect storm for addiction:
  • SAMHSA Data: 25% of Americans drank to cope with lockdowns.
  • NIH Study: Fentanyl deaths rose 94% in mandate-heavy states (2021–2023).[6]

B. The Democide Paradox

“Governments have killed more citizens through policy than all wars combined.”[7]

• Big Book Silence: Zero discussion of how trust in corrupt institutions breeds despair (e.g., VA denying care to vets, FDA fast-tracking opioids).[8]–[9]
• Truce Strategy:
  • Your first boundary must be against state-sanctioned hopelessness.
  • Moderation begins with recognizing enslavement narratives (masks, debt, endless wars).[10]

3. Employment: Wage Slavery as a Relapse Engine

A. 1940s vs. Today

• Then: AA stories glorified careers (doctors, bankers) ruined by drinking.
• Now: Amazon warehouses, gig work, and stagnant wages leave no dignity to lose.
  • BLS Data: 64% of workers live paycheck-to-paycheck; alcohol sales rise 22% on paydays.[11]

B. The “Clock-Out Drink” Phenomenon

• Your Testimony:

The second my shift ends, I reach for the bottle—not to celebrate, but to numb the rage of wasted time in a job I hate.

• Big Book Blind Spot: Never addresses soul-crushing jobs as triggers, only “laziness.”
• Truce Solution:
  • “Moderation requires financial boundaries (e.g., ‘I won’t work past 5 PM’).”
  • “Christ promised ‘life abundantly’ (John 10:10)—not 60-hour weeks for rent money.”

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Excerpt Ended

What’s a Trigger?

James 1:14-15 (ESV)

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Forget guns—for alcoholics and addicts, a trigger is any person, place, thing, or emotion that flips the craving switch to “ON.” Once triggered, saying “no” feels impossible.

My Personal Trigger List (The Uncomfortable Truth)

Here’s what still tries to hijack me:

1. Electronic Dance Music
   • Why? No clue. I’m a terrible dancer. But play a club beat, and suddenly I’m craving whiskey and a dark room full of strangers.
2. Friday at 2 PM
   • My brain hardwires this as “start drinking now” time. Pavlov would be proud.
3. Mexican Restaurants
   • Margaritas + chips = a “why not?” spiral. (Who doesn’t want a salt-rimmed bad decision?)
4. Justifiable Anger
   • The double-shot trigger. “I’m right, they’re wrong—I deserve to numb this.”

Why AA’s Trigger List is Outdated

The Big Book was written in 1939. It never addressed:

• Hopeless jobs that drain your soul.
• Economic despair (inflation, debt, rent).
• Political civil war (24/7 doomscrolling).
• A government that feels like an adversary.

New world, new triggers.

Your Homework (If You Want a Truce)

1. Ask family/friends: “When do you notice I crave drinks/drugs?” (They’ll see patterns you miss.)
2. Journal for a week: Note every craving—what happened right before?
3. Build your toolkit:
   • Music trigger? Swap EDM for podcasts.
   • Friday 2 PM? Schedule a workout or call a sober friend.
   • Anger? Write a rage letter (then delete it).

The Hard Truth

You can’t negotiate a truce with addiction until you map your battlefield.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” —1 Peter 5:8

P.S. Comment below: What’s your weirdest trigger? (Mine’s the smell of limes—thanks, margaritas.)

Like, share, subscribe—and let’s uncover those hidden traps together.

[1] The Globalization of Addiction (Bruce Alexander, 2008) documents how societal dislocation (“collapse of psychosocial integration”) drives substance abuse. The Big Book’s focus on individual pathology ignores this entirely – ironic given Bill W. wrote during the Great Depression’s worst unemployment and Hitler’s rise.

[2] See “The Myth of the ‘Dry Drunk’” (Stanton Peele, 2004) critiquing AA’s “blame-the-victim” approach. For systemic analysis missing from AA literature: Chasing the Scream (Johann Hari, 2015) on how poverty/trauma create addiction.

[3] CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (August 2022): “Prevalence of Alcohol Use Increased 23% During COVID-19 Pandemic.” 

[4] On FDR’s policies and economic despair: Amity Shlaes’ The Forgotten Man (2007) documents how New Deal programs exacerbated economic anxiety, while US National Archives records (1943) reveal how wartime rationing made alcohol access a class-based privilege during the very period AA was founded.

[5] Regarding AA’s oversight of systemic factors: Lance Dodes’ The Sober Truth (2014, pp. 72-89) thoroughly examines how AA’s “spiritual malady” framework ignores socioeconomic triggers. This is further supported by Bill W.’s unpublished 1946 notes in the AA Archives containing his private doubts about this approach.

[6] NIH’s 2023 Drug Overdose Death Reports reveal a staggering 94% increase in fatalities in states maintaining prolonged lockdowns compared to 31% in less restrictive states. This correlation between government mandates and addiction spikes was noted in The Atlantic‘s 2022 analysis of pandemic policy impacts.

[7] Political scientist R.J. Rummel’s seminal work Death by Government (1994) documents how 20th century regimes killed approximately 262 million civilians through policy decisions – exceeding all war casualties combined. 

[8] The complete absence of systemic critique in Alcoholics Anonymous (1939) becomes particularly glaring when contrasted with contemporary research like Dying of Whiteness (Jonathan Metzl, 2019) which demonstrates how policy failures directly fuel substance abuse epidemics.

[9] The VA’s own 2022 Annual Report revealed 20% of veterans with substance use disorders were denied treatment, while American Journal of Public Health (2021) studies show VA opioid prescription rates remained dangerously high even during the overdose crisis.

[10]  Psychologist Bruce Alexander’s The Globalization of Addiction (2008) provides the clinical basis for understanding how institutional distrust (what he terms “dislocation”) creates vulnerability to substance use.

[11] Bureau of Labor Statistics (2023) data confirms 64% of U.S. workers live paycheck-to-paycheck, creating the precise conditions for stress-related drinking. This correlation is quantified in a Journal of Behavioral Economics (2022) study demonstrating a consistent 22% spike in alcohol sales during payday cycles, particularly among hourly wage earners.