Tim Chambers How Do I Tell My Story: An Application of The Jellinek Curve

“How Do I Tell My Story?
An Application of the Jellinek Curve
By: Tim Chambers
Draft: June 21, 2020
Introduction
In many rehabs, clients are asked to “tell their story,” in a manner similar to the stories
they’ve heard at “speaker’s meetings” in 12-Step Groups such as Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) or
Narcotics Anonymous (NA).1 The motivation behind this activity is a well-meaning one: clients
who get some practice “telling their stories” while in rehab, the reasoning goes, will find it
easier to tell their story to a sponsor, or a home-group, when they join a 12-Step Group after
discharge.
But what usually happens? The client has often received no guidance in what it means to
“tell one’s story” or what a recovery-related “story” sounds like. As a result, the client is left to
cobble together their story extemporaneously—in other words, the poor client is left to “wing
it.” And what happens? The client delivers a halting, poorly-organized “drunk-a-log”/”drug-a-
log,” describing highlights of their drinking/using careers. It’s difficult to imagine that such an
experience holds much therapeutic value—either for the speaker or the audience.
How might we improve this situation? Well, if part of the problem is that clients haven’t
received guidance in what a constructive “personal story” sounds like, the simple answer is to
provide such guidance.
1
The writer has seen this activity personally at such rehabs as Trinity Glen (Sharon CT, 2017), Farrell
House (New Britain CT, 2019), and Help, Incorporated (Waterbury CT, 2020).
1
So, how might we provide such guidance, regarding the form and content of a recovery-
based personal story? This brief essay offers one suggestion. Specifically, my suggestion has
three parts:
 Introduce clients to the famous “Jellinek” Curve.
 Guide clients through exercises in which they identify “milestones” of the Jellinek Curve
while reading some classic “personal stories” which can be found in the AA “Big Book”
(Alcoholics Anonymous) or the NA “Basic Text” (Narcotics Anonymous).
 Guide clients in composing their own personal stories—with a special effort in
identifying “milestones” of the Jellinek Curve which occurred in their own addiction-
histories.
We describe each of these parts, in turn.
1. What is the Jellinek Curve?
It’s commonplace to describe addiction as a progressive condition: over time, active
addiction slowly, but surely, grows worse—in terms of frequency of use, amount of use, and
seriousness of consequences.
Can we illustrate the progressive nature of active addiction more concretely? Yes. As it
turns out, researcher E.M. Jellinek—best known as a prominent 20 th century advocate for
applying the “disease concept” to alcohol abuse—designed an illustration, shaped like a
winding curve. A picture of the curve can be found as Figure 1; a modified form of the Jellinek
Curve appears as Figure 2.2 The Jellinek Curve first dips downward, hits “bottom,” then rises up
again, with specific milestones illustrating the progressive nature of addiction.
2
Figures for this essay begin after the main text, at page 9.
2
A quick glance at the Jellinek Curve (or Modified Jellinek Chart) makes the addiction-bottom-
recovery process visually vivid. Specifically:
 Addiction: The downward slope, on the left side of Figure 1, illustrates the
progressively increasing impacts of active addiction. For instance, as the curve
descends, we find such milestones as “Increase in Tolerance,” “Blackouts,” and
“Physical Deterioration.”
 Bottom: The nadir of the curve, in the center, corresponds to the addict “hitting
bottom.” In a positive case, the losses the addict has experienced leads to a
“moment of clarity” (i.e., an episode of felt insight fueling an intense motivation to
change and recover) and the addict reaches out for help.
 Recovery: The upward slope, on the right side of Figure 1, illustrates that (with a few
breathtaking exceptions3) recovery is also a progressive process—as time in recovery
increases, the consequences grow steadily better. For instance, as the curve
ascends, we find such milestones as “Learns Alcoholism is an Illness,” “Start of Group
Therapy,” and “New Interests Develop.”
Once one appreciates the simple, visual form of the Jellinek Curve, it comes as little surprise
that the illustration can be found in many introductory textbooks on addiction-science and
counseling.4
2. Living In The Problem and Living In The Answer:

3
See Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Appendix 2 (pp. 567-568), which distinguishes an uncommon
“immediate and overwhelming” spiritual experience from a more-common “educational variety” of
spiritual experience, which “develop slowly over a period of time.” Or, as the distinction is drawn in one
personal story found in Narcotics Anonymous, 3rd Edition: “Some people experience recovery like a
lightning bolt: a sudden flash of understanding and clarity, an immediate lifting of the desire to use. The
effect of the program on me was more like rain or wind, gradually eroding my false beliefs” (p. 289).
4
See, for instance, (Miller, pp. 72-74)
3
How Can We Teach Clients To Recognize the Jellinek Curve in Others’ Personal Stories?
“When I stopped living in the problem

and began living in the answer, the
problem went away.”
—“Acceptance Was The Answer”
AA Big Book, 4th Edition
Page 417
After a session or two (or three?) of studying and discussing the Jellinek Cuver, clients might
be: shown how to identify milestones of the Jellinek Curve appearing in personal 12-Step
Stories,5 then autonomously spot the Jellinek curve “in action” while reading (or listening to)
personal stories. For a detailed example, let’s take a look at Bill Wilson’s famous personal story,
which appears in the AA “Big Book,” Alcoholics Anonymous, at pages 1-16. Our analysis of the
story has three parts:
a) Progressive Addiction: First, while we read this story, we also keep an eye on a simple list
of the milestones of progressive addiction; a blank version of the list appears as Figure 3,
constructed from the modified Jellinek Addiction Curve. We then take note when one of the
(addiction) milestones appears in “Bill’s Story” (in the AA “Big Book,” pages 1-16).
For example, as early as page 3, we find the following passage in Bill’s Story:
Drink was taking an important and exhilarating part in my life…
My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing all
day and almost every night.
This easily “checks the boxes” for two items on the Jellinek List:
2) Constant Relief Drinking
5
While the personal stories we’ll consider are limited to AA and NA, it’s not difficult to imagine
constructing (and applying) similar Jellinek Curves, mutatis mutandis, for other 12-Step Groups—such as
Overeaters’ Anonymous (OA), Sex Addicts Anonymous (SAA), et cetera.
4
5) Increasing Dependence on Alcohol/Drugs
We also find this on page 2 of “Bill’s Story”:
Though my drinking was not yet continuous, it disturbed my wife.

We had long talks when I would still her forebodings by telling her
that men of genius conceived their best projects when drunk;
that the most majestic constructions of philosophic thought
were so derived.
This clearly matches item 11 on the Jellinek List:
11) Drinking Bolstered by Excuses.
We then find, at the bottom of pages 3-4, the following:
I began to be jittery in the morning. Golf permitted drinking

every day and every night.
which matches item 22:
23) Tremors/Early Morning Drink/Drug
At page 4, we find Bill confessing that, at the onset of the Great Depression, he and his wife
found themselves broke. They moved in with his in-laws. And then:
I found a job; then lost it as the result of a brawl with a taxi

driver. Mercifully, no one could guess that I was to have no
real employment for five years, or hardly draw a sober
breath.
This easily ticks off item 19 on the List:
19) Work/Money troubles
And so on. By the time we’ve finished “Bill’s Story,” our Jellinek Addiction List is completed as
illustrated in Figure 4. This figure also allows us to make an interesting observation: the
milestones of progressive addiction don’t always occur in the same order indicating by the
Jellinek Curve. For instance, Item 11, the making of excuses, is found early in Bill’s Story (page
5
2), whereas the earlier item 7, Guilt, doesn’t appear until page 6, four pages later in the
personal story. So the Jellinek List doesn’t necessarily predict the exact order that milestones
will appear in a personal story. But this is unsurprising; people’s development don’t unfold
according to inflexible phases—to some extent, the milestones of addiction occur in different
order for different people.
b) Hitting Bottom: Our Jellinek Addiction List includes a small box to record the event of
“hitting bottom” in active addiction. In the case of “Bill’s Story,” this occurs halfway through the
story, at page 8:
No words can tell of the loneliness and despair I found in that bitter morass
of self-pity [in late 1934]. Quicksand stretched around me in all directions.
I had met my match. I had been overwhelmed. Alcohol was my master.
It’s worthy of note that Bill’s confession here also fulfilled the first requirement of Step One of
the 12 Steps: “Admitted we were powerless over alcohol…”—because this admission is essential
to escaping from the vicious circles of drinking-and-collapse, and taking the first step towards
recovery—and the rising “Recovery” side of Jellinek’s Curve.
c) Progressive Recovery: Just as addiction is progressive, recovery is often6 a progressive
process. Thus, we can also construct a Jellinek Recovery List—a blank one appears as Figure 5—
and fill it in with milestones from the second half of “Bill’s Story.” For instance, when Bill
recounts his surprise at meeting a sober and happy “old school friend” at page 9, we can see
this an exemplifying item 5 on the Jellinek Recovery List:
5) Meets Moral and Happy Addicts.
6
But recall footnote 3.
6
Similarly, when Bill recounts his “commenc[ing] to make many fast friends” among which “a
fellowship has grown up among us” (page 15), this fits the bill for the 22 nd item on the Jellinek
Recovery List:
22) New Circle of Stable Friends,
and so on, until, by the end of “Bill’s Story,” we find the Jellinek Recovery List completed in a
manner roughly like the completed list at Figure 6.
The filled-in Jellinek Recovery List shows a couple of intriguing points. First, just as with the
Addiction List, the steps of Bill’s recovery don’t occur in the same order that Jellinek’s Recovery
List suggests. But, again, this just shows (unsurprisingly) that different people recover
differently, reaching different milestones at different times.
Another intriguing point: Item 2 of Bill’s recovery (Learns Addiction is an Illness) is found on
page 7—before Bill “hits bottom” at page 8! This suggests that pieces of recovery may be
grasped in the midst of a person’s active addiction—before they “hit bottom.” Of course, this
observation need not be too surprising, in light of the well-known Prochaska and DiClemente
“Stages of Change” model.7 In particular, there’s nothing terribly implausible in observing that
people might take significant recovery-steps during the early “Contemplation” stage (e.g., they
might come to accept the Disease Model of Addiction) even before they enter the more-
motivated “Preparation” or “Action” stages of recovery.
The foregoing three steps can be applied to any personal story in the AA “Big Book,” the NA
“Basic Text,” or even at a speaker’s meeting for either fellowship. As an illustration of this, we
7
For the “Stages of Change” model, see, for instance, (Connors et al 2013).
7
provide filled-in Jellinek Addiction and Recovery lists for two more personal stories in the
AA/NA literature, at Figures 7-10.
3. Living In The Problem and Living In The Answer:
How Can We Teach Clients To Recognize the Jellinek Curve in Their Own Personal Stories?
Once clients have enough practice applying the Jellinek Lists to others’ stories of their
Addictions, Bottoms, and Recoveries, it’s not implausible that clients will become more
sensitive to progressive milestones in their own lives. This, in turn, might be helpful in guiding
clients in crafting accounts of their own personal stories—and, of course, an insightful
understanding of the roles of progressive addiction, hitting bottom, and progressive recovery in
their own lives. Such an advance in insightful self-awareness can’t help but be a positive
development and powerful motivation in their recoveries.
8
Figure 1: Jellinek Curve (Classic)
9
Figure 2: Modified Jellinek Chart
10
Jellinek Addiction List
Reading:
Milestone: Page(s):
1. Occasional Relief Drinking
2. Constant Relief Drinking
3. Increase of Alcohol/Drug Tolerance
4. Onset of Memory Blackouts
5. Increasing Dependence on Alcohol/Drugs
6. Surreptitious Drinking/Drugging
7. Feelings of Guilt
8. Unable to Discuss Problem
9. Memory Blackouts Increase
10. Decrease of Ability to Stop Drinking/Drugging
11. Drinking/Drugging Bolstered with Excuses
12. Grandiose and Aggressive Behavior
13. Persistent Remorse
14. Efforts to Control Fail Repeatedly
15. Promises and Resolutions Fail
16. Tries Geographical Escapes
17. Loss of Other Interests
18. Family and Friends Avoidance
19. Work and Money Troubles
20. Unreasonable Resentments
21. Neglect Nutrition/Food
22. Loss of Ordinary Will Power
23. Tremors/Early Morning Drink/Drug
24. Decrease in Alcohol Tolerance
25. Physical Deterioration
26. Onset of Lengthy Intoxications
27. Moral Deterioration
28. Impaired Thinking
29. Drinking/Drugging With Inferiors
30. Indefinable Fears
31. Unable to Initiate Action
32. Obsession with Drinking/Drugging
33. Vague Spiritual Desires
34. All Alibis Exhausted
BOTTOM: COMPLETE DEFEAT ADMITTED
Figure 3: Blank Jellinek Addiction List
11
Reading: “Bill’s Story” (AA Big Book, pages 1-16)
Milestone: Page(s):
1. Occasional Relief Drinking
2. Constant Relief Drinking 3
5. Increasing Dependence on Alcohol/Drugs 3
7. Feelings of Guilt 6
11. Drinking/Drugging Bolstered with Excuses 2
13. Persistent Remorse 6
14. Efforts to Control Fail Repeatedly 5-6
15. Promises and Resolutions Fail 5
16. Tries Geographical Escapes 6
19. Work and Money Troubles 4
23. Tremors/Early Morning Drink/Drug 3-4
25. Physical Deterioration 7
27. Moral Deterioration 6-7
32. Obsession with Drinking/Drugging 5

Page 8: “I had met my match. I had been overwhelmed. Alcohol was my master.”
Figure 4: Completed Jellinek Addiction List for “Bill’s Story” (Big Book, pp. 1-16)
12
Jellinek Recovery List
Reading:
Milestone: Page(s):
1. Honest Desire for Help
2. Learns Alcoholism/Drug Addiction is Illness
3. Told Addiction Can be Arrested
4. Stops Taking Alcohol/Drugs
5. MeetsNormal and Healthy Addicts
6. Takes Stock of Self
7. Right Thinking Begins
8. Spiritual Needs Examined
9. Physical Overhaul by Doctor
10. Onset of New Hope
11. Start of Group Therapy
12. Appreciation of Possibilities of New Way of Life
13. Diminishing Fears of Unknown Future
14. Regular Nourishment Taken
15. Return of Self-Esteem
16. Realistic Thinking
17. Desire to Escape Goes
18. Natural Rest and Sleep
19. Adjustment to Family Needs
20. Family & Friends Appreciate Effort
21. New Interests Develop
22. New Circle of Stable Friends
23. Rebirth of Ideals
24. Facts Faced with Courage
25. Appreciation of Real Values
26. Increase of Emotional Control
27. Confidence of Employers
28. First Steps Toward Economic Security
29. Contentment of Sobriety
30. Care of Personal Appearance
31. Increasing Tolerance of Adverse People, Places, Things
32. Rationalizations Recognized
33. Group Therapy & Mutual Help Continue
Figure 5: Blank Jellinek Recovery List
13
Reading:
Milestone: Page(s):
2. Learns Alcoholism/Drug Addiction is Illness 7
4. Stops Taking Alcohol/Drugs 13
5. Meets Normal and Healthy Addicts 9
6. Takes Stock of Self 13
8. Spiritual Needs Examined 10-13
10. Onset of New Hope 14
11. Start of Group Therapy 15
12. Appreciation of Possibilities of New Way of Life 13-14
20. Family & Friends Appreciate Effort 15
21. New Interests Develop 14-15
22. New Circle of Stable Friends 15
23. Rebirth of Ideals 13
26. Increase of Emotional Control 15
31. Increasing Tolerance of Adverse People, Places, Things 13
Figure 6: Completed Jellinek Recovery List for “Bill’s Story” (Big Book, pages 1-16)
14
Reading: “Acceptance Was The Answer” (AA Big Book, pp. 407-420)
Milestone: Page(s):
1. Occasional Relief Drinking 407
3. Increase of Alcohol/Drug Tolerance 409
4. Onset of Memory Blackouts 409
5. Increasing Dependence on Alcohol/Drugs 409
6. Surreptitious Drinking/Drugging 410
11. Drinking/Drugging Bolstered with Excuses 407
15. Promises and Resolutions Fail 412-413
19. Work and Money Troubles
22. Loss of Ordinary Will Power 412
25. Physical Deterioration
27. Moral Deterioration
Figure 7: Completed Jellinek Addiction List for “Acceptance Was The Answer” (AA Big Book,
4th Edition, pp. 407-420)
15
Reading: “Acceptance Was The Answer” (AA Big Book, pp. 407-420)
Milestone: Page(s):
4. Stops Taking Alcohol/Drugs 416
5. Meets Normal and Healthy Addicts
12. Appreciation of Possibilities of New Way of Life 415
19. Adjustment to Family Needs 418
20. Family & Friends Appreciate Effort 418
22. New Circle of Stable Friends
25. Appreciation of Real Values 417
29. Contentment of Sobriety 417
31. Increasing Tolerance of Adverse People, Places, Things 417-420
Figure 8: Completed Jellinek Recovery List for “Acceptance Was The Answer” (AA Big Book, 4 th
Edition, pp. 407-420)
16
Reading: “Academic Addict,” NA Basic Text, 3rd Edition, pp. 286-291
Milestone: Page(s):
1. Occasional Relief Drinking 288
5. Increasing Dependence on Alcohol/Drugs
11. Drinking/Drugging Bolstered with Excuses
15. Promises and Resolutions Fail
17. Loss of Other Interests 288
18. Family and Friends Avoidance 287
19. Work and Money Troubles 287
25. Physical Deterioration 287
27. Moral Deterioration 288
28. Impaired Thinking 288

288-289
Figure 9: Completed Jellinek Addiction List for “Academic Addict” (NA Basic Text, 3 rd Edition,
pp. 286-291)
17
Reading: “Academic Addict,” NA Basic Text, 3rd Edition, pp. 286-291
Milestone: Page(s):
1. Honest Desire for Help 289
4. Stops Taking Alcohol/Drugs
5. Meets Normal and Healthy Addicts
7. Right Thinking Begins 288-289
12. Appreciation of Possibilities of New Way of Life
20. Family & Friends Appreciate Effort
22. New Circle of Stable Friends 289
27. Confidence of Employers 290
31. Increasing Tolerance of Adverse People, Places, Things
Figure 10: Completed Jellinek Recovery List for “Academic Addict” (NA Basic Text, 3 rd Edition,
pp. 286-291)
18
Works Cited
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, New York NY, 2001).
Gerald J. Connors, Carlo C. DiClemente, Mary Marden Velasquez, and Dennis M. Donovan,
Substance Abuse Treatment and the Stages of Change, 2nd Edition (Guilford Press: New York, NY,
2013)
Narcotics Anonymous, 3rd Edition (Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Chatsworth CA, 1986).
Peter M. Miller, ed., Principles of Addiction, vol. 1 (Academic Press, Waltham MA, 2013).
19

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“How Do I Tell My Story?

An Application of the Jellinek Curve

By: Tim Chambers

Draft: June 21, 2020

provide such guidance.

 Introduce clients to the famous “Jellinek” Curve.

(Alcoholics Anonymous) or the NA “Basic Text” (Narcotics Anonymous).

 Guide clients in composing their own personal stories—with a special effort in

We describe each of these parts, in turn.

1. What is the Jellinek Curve?

It’s commonplace to describe addiction as a progressive condition: over time, active

applying the “disease concept” to alcohol abuse—designed an illustration, shaped like a

again, with specific milestones illustrating the progressive nature of addiction.

recovery process visually vivid. Specifically:

progressively increasing impacts of active addiction. For instance, as the curve

descends, we find such milestones as “Increase in Tolerance,” “Blackouts,” and

“moment of clarity” (i.e., an episode of felt insight fueling an intense motivation to

breathtaking exceptions3) recovery is also a progressive process—as time in recovery

ascends, we find such milestones as “Learns Alcoholism is an Illness,” “Start of Group

Therapy,” and “New Interests Develop.”

2. Living In The Problem and Living In The Answer:

“When I stopped living in the problem

story has three parts:

Drink was taking an important and exhilarating part in my life…

My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing all

day and almost every night.

2) Constant Relief Drinking

We also find this on page 2 of “Bill’s Story”:

Though my drinking was not yet continuous, it disturbed my wife.

This clearly matches item 11 on the Jellinek List:

11) Drinking Bolstered by Excuses.

We then find, at the bottom of pages 3-4, the following:

I began to be jittery in the morning. Golf permitted drinking

which matches item 22:

23) Tremors/Early Morning Drink/Drug

I found a job; then lost it as the result of a brawl with a taxi

This easily ticks off item 19 on the List:

19) Work/Money troubles

order for different people.

recovery—and the rising “Recovery” side of Jellinek’s Curve.

c) Progressive Recovery: Just as addiction is progressive, recovery is often6 a progressive

this an exemplifying item 5 on the Jellinek Recovery List:

5) Meets Moral and Happy Addicts.

22) New Circle of Stable Friends,

manner roughly like the completed list at Figure 6.

differently, reaching different milestones at different times.

motivated “Preparation” or “Action” stages of recovery.

AA/NA literature, at Figures 7-10.

3. Living In The Problem and Living In The Answer:

clients in crafting accounts of their own personal stories—and, of course, an insightful

development and powerful motivation in their recoveries.

BOTTOM: COMPLETE DEFEAT ADMITTED

Figure 3: Blank Jellinek Addiction List

BOTTOM: COMPLETE DEFEAT ADMITTED

Figure 5: Blank Jellinek Recovery List

BOTTOM: COMPLETE DEFEAT ADMITTED

BOTTOM: COMPLETE DEFEAT ADMITTED

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