Posted on 03/18/2012 3:47:30 PM PDT by nickcarraway
What's the secret to getting sober and repairing the other broken parts of an alcoholic's life? It starts with setting your own terms, writes Paul Carr.
For years I'd told myself I wasn't an alcoholic. I never drank alone. I didn't wake up with fierce cravings, and sometimes I went for one or two days without drinking. A need to drink all day, every day, was never my problem.
My problem was that once I had a drink—whether it was at 7 p.m. or 9 a.m.—I couldn't stop until my body shut down and I passed out in a pile on the floor. I still had plenty of friends and still managed to hold down a job, but my relationship with alcohol was very obviously different from most people's. I was an alcoholic.
As of Saturday, the counter on my website says "878 days." Eight hundred seventy-eight days since I had my last alcoholic drink. Eight hundred seventy-eight days since I declared—very publicly—that my drinking had passed the point where it was funny, crazy or even merely dangerous. In fact, my addiction to alcohol had reached a stage where it was highly likely to kill me.
Enough was enough. So I decided to quit. But I didn't do it in the typical way.
For one thing, I didn't go to Alcoholics Anonymous. Not a single meeting. I have several friends who attend AA and have found it to be a highly effective way to quit. I have plenty of other friends who attend AA meetings every morning and are blind drunk every night. I almost attended a meeting at the suggestion of a friend, but first I decided to read the organization's Twelve Steps, the program that members must follow. The first step was enough to confirm that this form of
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Lol.
I’m allergic to people and situations that drive me to drink.
All joking aside, some people are functional alcoholics, whithout it they can not function. I know several like that.
Actually he didn’t tear down AA. And actually AA’s stats aren’t any better than anybody’s elses. No program out there works for more than about 1/10 of the people. Everybody is different, AA style would drive me nuts, too much spending time with other people, too much “sharing” (I hate discussing my own problems, gives me a rash). For some people that’s perfect, I’d rather be addicted to the entire drug store than 12 step.
I wouldn’t tear down AA for any reason but a program with a well documented success rate of 5%-10% at best shouldn’t be bragging. I’ve never been to an AA meeting but also haven’t had a drink, or wanted one, in 35 years. I know an AA member, 6 years sober, who assures me I’ll fall off the wagon without AA but 35 years is a long time just to be lucky. I think I know what I’m doing and sobriety is way better than insanity.
Best of luck.
Anything does it, wine, or liquor and beer makes my throat close up AND gives me an immediate headache. In fact the headache thing started out with beer so I figure that wine and liquor will close my throat up too if I keep on giving it a chance. So I don’t ! I have just as much fun as everyone else and I am sought after because I am the designated driver.
Are you of Asian ancestry? A lot of north Asians have that response to alcohol.
The author did well, and got himself some income from it in the end. If he begins drinking moderately, he’ll do OK, as one is not a powerless alcoholic for life as AA (protecting its own interests) insists.
Heaven only knows what that kind of Coke would do to me, so no thanks.
I don’t particularly care if he does tear down AA. Those that read this, try it his way, and fail, will go to AA. Those that read this, try it his way, and succeed, won’t. It’s okay either way, I figure.
Of course, by NOT going to AA and working the Steps, this guy will still have all of the character defects that seperate him from God. He’ll still be the Director of HIS movie, not a bit-player in God’s. He may never know the true joy of being entirely of service to others. He will remain self-centered and self-seeking.
And THAT is a fate worse than drinking.
Best to you. You’ll be healthier and richer, too. Alcohol is hard on the system.
Only a person who has never felt the ravage of drug addiction would say such a thing. I pray you never do.
No, pure English as far as I can tell. I had never heard that about Asians before.
I will say this just once as you apparently know nothing of alcoholism... An alcoholic can NEVER drink moderately. if he can, then he isn’t an alcoholic. It’s as simple as that.
Anyone who is able to get and stay sober, no matter what their method, deserves congratulations. That said, I’m not sure his methods will work for most people. I don’t think AA is necessarily the solution either (particularly if you don’t believe in any “higher power” to call upon).
Personally, the only method I know is surrendering to Jesus Christ and letting Him change you (which is similar to some of AA’s steps but not completely). And there are some people who have developed such a physical addiction that they may need some form of hospitalization or other temporary restriction on their freedom to “dry out” before they can seriously move forward on the rest of their treatment.
Now that is FUNNY.
I don’t care that the state requires AA fo alcoholic offenders. MADD has gotten a toe hold, no, a foot hold in deciding what the courts mandate.They should not have a say what the courts should administer as punishment for an offender in an alcohol involved case.
I worked bars for years and knew alcoholics, dead alcoholics, and recovered alcoholics who drank moderately.
Your cliched AA mantra isn’t very persuasive.
True that. But most of the court system has lost it’s sanity a long time back.
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