SummerBee

Been reading Sarah Hepola, - Blackout- This lady has written a true account of life for me and I suspect many other ladies. Please treat yourself and get the book, a true life, honest account of a life like ours.

bexxed

I absolutely love that book. She's a great writer.

MLD51

Great book. I highly recommend it.

LadyBlue0527

Truly one of the best I've read.

Windancer

Thanks so much for the recommendation!
Muchly appreciated.
It might just be on my next amazon order

Ooona

O, thanks for the recommendation! Ive been wanting to get a new book to read on my kindle.
This past month I have read: Drinking, A Love Story, Girl Walks out of a Bar, Wasted, Unwasted-My Lush Sobriety, Clapton Memoir, High Bottom, Lit- A Memoir and of course The Big Book. Just been devouring anything I can get my hands on regarding alcoholism and recovery!
All that I have read has been really good and I have gotten useful tools from each.
Thanks again for the recommendation!

bexxed

Thanks Ooona! I haven't read many of those! It's a kindle night for sure. With popcorn.

Ooona

My personal favorite of all I mentioned is by Caroline Knapp- Drinking, A Love Story.

I could relate so much with the 'relationship' she developed with alcohol and her writing was just so good! She passed away from cancer, she was sober when she passed.

Anna

I read it recently, and really enjoyed it.

Hevyn

Thanks Lolly for the reminder. I keep meaning to read it. Glad you found it helpful.

LadyBlue0527

I think that what spoke to me most in blackout was the relief to read the words of a person who had lived it. As much as I was in denial of the situation and tried so hard to write it off so I could continue the addiction I was never so afraid as when there were spaces in time that I didn't remember. Big, blank areas of time where anything and everything was possible while my body was still active yet I was not consciously there. I remember when I first found out what blackouts were. It always miffed me how I could be in such an entranced state but could walk, go get another beer, cook food, and have conversations (albeit looking like an extreme drunk) and not remember it. How does the body function? Sharing in case you guys didn't know this but a blackout isn't really an entire space in time that's gone. It's repetitive short term memory loss. You know what you're doing when you're doing it (or as much as a drunk can be aware of what they're doing) but the memory of what just happened a few seconds ago is erased quickly. It explains why you might have heard from someone that you kept repeating the same story over and over again. You actually don't remember what you just said a few moments ago. Your body is still active but your brain just keeps forgetting over, and over, and over. Until you wake up and realize that you don't remember the last evening. What's even more scary is once you have them and your drinking gets more advanced it takes less to get there. This is exactly what happened to me. Previously I knew the stages. The initial glow, then the slurred words, then the glassy eyes, then the silly idiotic stage, then finally, the really obnoxious stage. It only got worse from there and that was the teetering of the point of blackout. At that point I usually could make a wise decision and head for bed. Not the last time. I am a beer drinker, I don't drink hard stuff. I had not had anything to eat all day. I met up with a friend and had two vodka drinks in two hours. I felt a glow, nothing more. Then, I went from 0 to 60 in 10 seconds flat (from glow directly into the blackout) with absolutely no warning as to what was about to occur. It was like my level of alcohol spiked all at once. And.................. I was driving. Now I am here. My drinking career is over and I'm relieved.

Leaflet

Thanks! I will definitely get it! Has anyone read "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs? Also a great account of life with alcoholism.

MLD51

I read "Dry" a couple of weeks ago. It was heartbreaking. I wanted more recovery at the end. But it was very good.

Delilah1

I loved Blackout as well. I haven't read Dry yet, may need to add that one to my list.

Ooona

Whoa!! I got Blackout last night and read until 1:00 am back up at 5:00 am with kindle and coffee!

Im not done yet but wow, the scariest thing I have read so far is what happened during her blackout in Paris! No spoilers here but WOW, I could just imagine the fear and panic she must have felt! And O, not to forget the insanity of this illness, she continued to drink in spite of all that!
A fantastic read so far and a fantastic reminder of just how bad it is and can get for anyone including ME if I choose to continue down that alcoholism path!
Not today...Not today!

bexxed

I had tried to read "Dry" a little while back and it didn't stick. Then I picked it up more recently and read it, desperately, in one sitting. I was up til like 4 AM reading it. It was so. Good. But yes the end was weird. I think he makes an interesting statement with it though. It's not like your traditional linear fairy tale story.

"blackout" similarly blew my mind. Lets talk about it when you're done Ooona. I just started to say all this stuff and erased it because I am not gonna spoil.

CajunPrincess

Loved Blackout. I bought it in the first couple days of sobriety and finished it pretty quickly. Such good stuff.

Ooona

Absolutely!
You know, when I was drinking I hadnt read anything in a long time. I was too uncomfortable in my own skin to sit still for very long and I was always in this fog so reading and comprehending almost impossible.
Since I stopped drinking I have been devouring ( compulsive?) anything I can get my hands on. Typical of my alcoholic personality to take anything and everything to extreme ! Ha.
Yes lets chat after I am finished!