noaddedsugar

Dee74

Hi NAS

I've always thought that Carrs intended audience was really those people who simply 'drank too much', as opposed to 'committed alcoholics' like me.

that's not to say I didn't take a lot from the book - Carrs bit about 'what will this drink do for me, is that a reasonable expectation, could I achieve my aim other ways' helped keep me sober my first year - but I didn't follow every world slavishly.

D

August252015

His tone throughout the book just didn't sit well with me. Of course, I had to get past the title - and I did come to the conclusion Dee said, it's meant for a different kind of drinker than this alcoholic knows she is.

That was, of course, after I read books like his along my (lengthy) bargaining stage that I wasn't an alcoholic.

Culture

I did buy this book but as others have said here, I think it is more for people who are not addicted to drinking. Of course in those days, I liked to think I was in control of my drinking and not it was in control of me.
I managed 9 days without alcohol after I read it and thought I was cured and could go back to moderate drinking and look how well that turned out.
Despair bought me to SR and finally got me to accept I could not drink under any circumstances, it was that which finally got me sober.

DriGuy

Every approach is bound to have things you disagree with, because alcohol treatment draws mostly from personal philosophy. Sure, there is some science we know about what alcohol does, but there is a lot about addiction that is not understood. This leaves the door open for personal opinion (philosophy).

I never read this book, but I've read lots of others. Each offers gems now and then, and a person committed to getting better can use them to design a plan that helps. Many alcoholics have quit without reading any books.

August252015

^^^To those good comments, alcoholics also find things we disagree with....because we aren't typically leaping to the conclusion we are alcoholics and need to get sober. I for one could take exception to ANY book, person, program, etc etc because it "didn't apply to me," "it was [stupid, whatever]"...basically, I didn't want to hear it.

I am a big believer in a strong program (mine is AA) and also learning and absorbing as much as we can from lots of resources- there is wisdom and good points of many. I'd deem some pretty ridiculous, but taking what does work for me is the key part

Zanna

Maybe I'm missing something, but surely people without a problem, don't go out and buy a book that teaches them to do, what they're already doing?

WhoDeyPI

Haven't read the book, but will make a point of it to pick a copy up. Sounds like a muppet to me.

MantaLady

I’m not a fan of Alan Carr personally. I find his methodology quite negative, for example the smoking one he did is all based around aversion and hating smokers/smoking etc. Anyone I ever came across using his techniques were always the angry and bitter ex-smokers. I am sure though there is something that can be taken away from his writings, take what you want and leave the rest! Xx

Pippo

Harsh.

I've read (heard actually- audiobook) it and it's not bad. It didn't help me quit though.

Epictetus

I stumbled across the book by accident in the library some 15 years ago or so. Sporadic vodka binges leading to undesirable consequences were taking place amid an otherwise uneventful existence.

I remember been "fooled" by the title. oh cool there's a way to control this I thought. It did change my mindset and my perception of alcohol and addiction. This IS pointless isn't it. It did make me play the tape forward when the thoughts of getting some cans or a bottle of vodka came into my head. What's the point? I kept thinking. I'll get them, drink them and then they're gone and then what? Back to this moment here. So what's the point why not just stay in this moment here right now.

I do remember observing that it was a similar mindset to people who never drank alcohol in their life. If you ask any of them I'm quite sure they'll say they just don't see the point. Better things to spend money on.

Buddhism says delusional thinking leads to suffering. Believing something will bring happiness when in fact it is leading to pain and suffering time and time again. I believe that this point is the heart of Carr's Easy way book. That is to say, if one can see through the delusional thinking that the ten minute "glow" is of no benefit at all and is a trapdoor, hiding a house of horrors, one can find it easy to shake the head and walk away and say not for me, what's the point.

I lasted almost a year and it was quite easy. I had no desire because I really thought, what's the point? to have a hangover and less money? So what changed? I have to chuckle when I think about because I really had to work to change my mindset back to the old thinking. I started to look enviously at the people who SEEMED to be having the time of their lives in their delusional ignorance......I wanted back in the bubble. If I reflect back now I probably didn't construct a good enough social sober lifestyle and I isolated myself.

I think I shall give it a read again today. I was thinking about that one or this naked mind.

Dee74

I wouldn't call him a muppet - I quite like muppets as it happens

I read the book when I was newly sober. It helped - along with Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

D

noaddedsugar

August252015

Noaddedsugar- if you are indeed a reader, Anna has a great list (sorry, it's early and I didn't look for the link!)...and I read a lot of good books at first in particular.

I had read Drinking: A Love Story several times as I neared quitting, and it is one I always recommend. Interestingly (to me), I gave my copy to a friend and didn't get it back so I reordered it and just started it again....I found it too hard to read now! Perhaps too close to home, I finally quit and so did she, and I already know "that story."

If your join date is about when you quit, so you are in your first year, I would suggest one I always do - Living Sober. It is a good and easy read about what the first year is like for most of us. Inexpensive paperback and on Amazon.

Others I really like- (no real order)
Christopher Kennedy Lawford's books
Russell Brand's Recovery, which I found unexpectedly good- it's irreverent and pretty f*ing apt (he uses that word a lot, which I find applicable to so many things)
Dry by Augusten Burroughs - tough read but brilliantly accurate
Breathing Under Water by Eliz Vargas (really good if anxiety is also a problem like it is for me)
Out of the Wreck I Rise, a tremendous literary "companion" to recovery as the subtitle goes
Blackout by Sarah Hepola- pretty much my story with some details varied

I'd also recommend readings and also workbooks on CBT or DBT (reference Marsha Lenehan (sp?)) as they focusing on important stuff like changing our thoughts, replacing x with y decisions, so on. Practical and not strictly recovery based but very connect-able to it.

There really are lots of good ones out there.

noaddedsugar

lessgravity

I read the book and liked it, though it didn't miraculously make me sober. As August said, I took some ideas and I left others.

Stayingsassy

I have taken what I need from every approach. My life depends on it.

Carr’s idea that alcohol tastes like a poison, and brings no enjoyment to life? Check. AA’s focus on acceptance of alcoholism and the pursuit of serenity? Check. Rational recovery’s thought changing processes? Check.

Don’t focus on what’s wrong with it. Focus on what works, always.

Every method has gems. Find them.

Rd2quit

Dee - thank you for the book recommendation. I downloaded drinking: a love story last night. I am about 20% of the way through, I really like it.

I really related to her line "careful to walk the line between being drunk enough and too drunk."

I felt like that all the time at social gatherings, family get togethers, work events, and whatever else. It's why I preferred to hang out with heavy drinkers. We are less likely to judge each other, we would never suggest someone stop drinking. Maybe a meaningless suggestion of "cutting back a little" when one of us does something monumentally stupid.

noaddedsugar

Yep I did like that bit.. helped me see alcohol in it a different light. I am very guilty of romanticising it in the past so ingraining the fact in my brain that it's nothing but addictive poison has been very helpful. No longer envious when I look at people drinking because I now see it as the poison it really is.

warrens

"We tried to find an easier, softer way, but we could not." (From "How it Works")