Hi seekingsobriety,
I think this book has been on tv commercials here. I should say first that I sobered up 20 years ago but had tried many different times during a 14 year relapse. By this time I had a part time job...living in a cabin with my 11 year old daughter that had just been diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes which is insulin depenedent. We were living on my meager income & her child support.
I drank at home & did quit when she was in the hospital learning about her diabetes....I took the week off...no pay...to learn about it with her. I made it three months before I picked up another beer....so that was in May 1988. On the fourth of July I drank myself into a stuper and had been visiting my first husband so laid where I was on the floor because I couldn't stand up.
I did some pretty heavy thinking the next few days as I drank my beer. It was coming down to my bottom when I was finishing up the weekly report for my daughter's doc who we saw every Thursday...I could not remember what I had cooked for her supper the night before....had to look through the garbage to find out...beer cans & all....it was a TV Dinner that she wasn't to have because of all the sugar & salt & other preservatives they had in them.
The next day was a Friday...July 10th, 1988....I went to Mental Health to get an appointment because I thought I was certified crazy in my book. I was told to call if I needed help before the next week....I called that night & was taken to the local hospital...I had a blood alcohol reading of .320 & the Director of the Alcohol Program told me most people wouldn't be able to walk much less talk sensably. The nurse told him over the phone the statistics I came in with & I was given a medical detox so didn't go through withdrawl physcially. Nurses & Aid's came in telling me how wonderful it was that I had made the decision to quit drinking. :ghug
I asked the on call doctor if he would take me for a patient because I hadn't found a doctor yet since I moved back. He said Yes....In fact he helped me & I counted 15 other people in the hospital that six days that gave me so much support.
This doc got to see me get sober, go back to college full time while I worked part time,knew that I went to AA & saw that my daughter was safe when I was away from home many hours...he also saw me get a job at the County Mental Health Clinic & work my way up to be a Geriatric Mental Health Counselor....my dream job. He said he would never forget me as a patient & he doubted he would ever have a client do what I did again.
I was so determined to get sober and stay sober....the whole first year I devoted to my AA meetings, my counseling for Clinical Depression, & also my counseling for my alcoholism + my job cleaning houses for the Elderly & keeping my daughter safe as I could ...would find her unconscious in the middle of the night by my bed once in a while....had to call an ambulance a few times for her but she is 32 years old, married & has a seven year old son.
Now I did buy books too...One was called "Women for Sobriety" & was written by Jean Fitzpatrick who was trying to finish up her Doctorate in college. Her program helped me greatly at the time but as I got older and drank more...like four years of drinking a sick pack of Old English every night or 1/2 a fifth of cheap vodka....I need the tables of AA & a tough sponsor. It worked!
If you want to get it together you have to want Sobriety more than anything else in your life at the time. You have to get yourself esteem and love for yourself first then you can share it with your kids and others in need of help to get sober....giving away what you have is such a wonderful feeling.
Keep up the good work....which ever way you decide to go. You are right that there are many other ways to get sober than AA but AA saved my life.
I also did a lot of research on my depression which had been diagnosed before I ever drank. Serotonin is a chemical involved with the pleasure center in our brain & maybe that is why Effexor XR + Lexapro work so good for me because they do have the other chemicals but do more with Serotonin than anything else.
There always is depression involved but some of us have the type of depression that is always there....I self-medicated with alcohol but didn't know that I was doing that until I sobered up. I often wonder if , with some research, if they could study alcoholics with depression & use Serotonin in some form to treat it.
kelsh