Root Causes of Alcoholism and Masks
Tonight at the Westbury AA meeting we read a story called “Women Suffer Too.”
Before anyone climbs onto a modern PC soapbox about the title, take a breath and remember: the AA Big Book was written in 1939. Language ages. Truth doesn’t.
Awkward title aside, it’s one of the best chapters in the Big Book — and it lines up almost perfectly with the Trinity Stars Doctrine of Recovery. Three principles in particular stood out.
1. She went straight to the root cause.
The storyteller is a well‑off woman who, once the penny finally dropped that she had a drinking problem, didn’t waste time on surface symptoms. She didn’t use the phrase “root cause” — nobody did in 1939 — but she went straight to the heart of it.
Her drinking wasn’t the root problem.
Her drinking was the symptom.
The real drivers were her traits: hypersensitive, shy, idealistic.
She became cynical because life didn’t match the picture in her head.
She disconnected from God’s creation and, in her own words, it “locked me into loneliness.”
That’s root‑cause analysis before the term existed.
2. She wore a mask to survive.
She admits she armoured up to face the world — wearing a costume, a mask, a suit of fierce determination — trying to force life to match her internal picture.
It never did.
So she drank.
3. She wanted a logical fix — until grace intervened.
She initially wanted a solution based on logic because she “couldn’t stomach religion.”
But no logical fix came.
After three weeks of searching, she had a human interaction that hit her like lightning.
In her words: “a miracle happened to me.”
She found salvation by coming home to God.
That’s the Trinity Stars arc:
root cause → mask → surrender → grace.
My own recovery followed the same pattern.
I had to find my root causes:
hubris, intolerance, impatience, and the belief I could control everything.
I wore a costume too — the “Master of the Universe,” a term Tom Wolfe used in The Bonfire of the Vanities to describe a man inflated by his own self‑assurance, convinced he could bend the universe to his will. It wasn’t a compliment in the novel, and it wasn’t a compliment in my life.
And like her, I thought there must be a scientific solution to alcoholism.
A formula.
A hack.
A system.
But it wasn’t until I finally understood that alcoholism is a spiritual malady, and therefore requires a spiritual solution, that I made the leap.
A few months later, God answered with a spiritual awakening.
And my desire to drink was gone — just like that.
Not suppressed.
Not managed.
Gone.
About Jason Bresnehan
Jason is a writer and recovery advocate whose work explores the intersection of Catholic faith and the lived experience of addiction. His books and essays weave scripture with the rhythms of everyday life, showing how grace can surface in the most ordinary encounters.
Through A Catholic Gospel Journey – Through the Lens of Alcohol Recovery and related projects, Jason offers reflections that connect the Sunday readings to the struggles and victories of recovery. His approach is rooted in clarity, rhythm, and respect for tradition, while remaining accessible to those navigating the challenges of addiction and renewal.
Founder of the Hadspen Foundation, Jason is committed to building frameworks for spiritual recovery that are both repeatable and personal. His writing is guided by discernment, narrative cadence, and the belief that doctrine should support—not overshadow—the human story.