# Who said "restless, irritable and discontented," and about what?

**In short:**
- The words are Dr. William D. Silkworth's, not Bill W.'s. They're in his statement in "The Doctor's Opinion" at the front of the Big Book (p. xxviii), kept as he wrote it in 1939 (p. xi).
- He uses them about the drinker between drinks: "They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience" (p. xxviii) "the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks" (p. xxix). The sentence before gives the reason men drink: "Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol." (p. xxviii)
- What follows is a cycle: they give in again, the craving develops, a spree, remorse, a firm resolution, and "This is repeated over and over" (p. xxix), with very little hope "unless this person can experience an entire psychic change" (p. xxix).
- The printed word is "discontented," not "discontent." The context confirms the usual sense of the phrase, the alcoholic's state without a drink. It complicates one common use: Silkworth is describing drinkers caught in the cycle, not members in recovery. A member's story later in the book uses the phrase about her own sobriety (p. 317), an example of how members have come to apply it to sober life.

## Who is speaking

"The Doctor's Opinion" has three voices: A.A. members introducing the doctor, Silkworth's short letter, and his longer statement (pp. xxv–xxxii). This sentence is in the longer statement, which he signs at the end (p. xxxii). See *What is "The Doctor's Opinion," and who wrote it?* for the whole section.

## The sentence in its paragraph

The paragraph explains why the alcoholic keeps going back:
1. **The reason.** "Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol." (p. xxviii)
2. **The confusion.** "The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false." (p. xxviii) "To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one." (p. xxviii)
3. **The state without a drink.** Restless, irritable and discontented, until they can feel again the ease and comfort a few drinks bring, drinks they see others take "with impunity" (p. xxix).
4. **The cycle.** They give in again, as so many do; the phenomenon of craving develops; they go through the stages of a spree and come out remorseful, "with a firm resolution not to drink again" (p. xxix). Then it repeats.
5. **The only way out he sees.** An entire psychic change (p. xxix). Once that happens, the same person who seemed doomed finds he can control his desire for alcohol, "the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules" (p. xxix).

So the restlessness is the doorway back to the drink. It sits between the sprees, in a person for whom drinking seems normal, and in the doctor's account it leads back to the drink after each firm resolution.

## How the phrase is used in the stories

In "My Chance to Live," a member's story in Part II of the fourth edition, the writer uses it about her own sober life: "When I am unwilling to do the right thing, I become restless, irritable, and discontent." (p. 317) That is her experience, told in her words. It's an example of the phrase used for sober life, where the doctor used it for the active drinker.

The Doctor's Opinion itself doesn't say whether a sober member can feel this way. It ties the feeling to the pull back toward a drink, and its answer is the psychic change.

## Does the context change the reading?

It confirms the core of it and complicates the rest. The phrase does describe the alcoholic without a drink. But it's the doctor speaking, not Bill W.; the word is "discontented"; and in its place it describes the drinker in the cycle of craving, remorse and resolution, for whom the doctor sees little hope without a psychic change.

## Read it yourself
- "The Doctor's Opinion" (pp. xxv–xxxii), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_foreworddoctorsopinion.pdf
- Related: *What is "The Doctor's Opinion," and who wrote it?* · *What is "the phenomenon of craving," and what is the "allergy"?* · *What does the Big Book mean by alcoholism as an illness?*
- The full book, *Alcoholics Anonymous*, is sold by A.A. World Services at https://onlineliterature.aa.org.

## Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, "The Doctor's Opinion" | xxv–xxxii | 1939 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Preface | xi | fourth edition, 2001 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, story "My Chance to Live" (Part II) | 317 | personal story in the fourth edition (2001); our sources can't date it further |

Page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). The Preface says "The Doctor's Opinion" has been "kept intact" since 1939 (p. xi).

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.*