NAP

regarding alcoholism and the addictive voice:

"In the end, of course, it doesn't really matter when I became an alcoholic. One moment I reached down and the sand was there and the next time I tried, I couldn't touch the bottom anymore. Once you are in the deep water, the current gets stronger faster. It sucks you further and further out, out to a place where you can't really see the land and the people walking around on the beach building sandcastles anymore. All you see are other people who have been caught by the tide. Some of the people are even further out than you. And you say to yourself, 'Well, I could swim back any time I like. But maybe I'll give it another hour or so. It's fun out here. The beach looks kind of boring anyway'."

By Tom Sykes

Pipping

I really enjoyed that book. I read it while I was still drinking to convince myself that I didn't have a problem but instead I found I related to a lot of his experiences. He described the squalid state of his apartment towards the end of the book when he decided to get sober and I remember looking at my own surroundings and feeling the same desperation and shame. The book is actually really funny in some parts but describes the illusion of the high functioning alcoholic perfectly.

DrunkenDonuts

Haven't read the book, but this is pretty damn accurate: