I must have been around 13 or 14 years old when it was announced that Betty Ford was a drunk and a drug addict. Shame on her! Imagine being the First Lady and feeling the need to get stoned 24/7. What kind of role model is that? Well, Betty Ford is perhaps one of the [...]
As a manager, when I hire someone, the first thing I tell them is that if they have something important to tell me or something I need to remember, that they need to “write it down”. I jokingly tell them how I “fried my brains in the 80’s”. This is not far from the truth. [...]
I was thinking about heading down to Mexico – about an hour south of here – to pick up a new fake Gucci purse, some discount non-prescription penicillin, and maybe a handful of valium for the upcoming holiday festivities. Meeting my new husband’s family members, fireworks and a few long flights certainly call for a [...]
Uncle Jack used to drink. A lot. I can never remember ever seeing him without a drink in his hand. In the daytime he would drink beer. Maybe he would have a glass of wine with dinner. After that, he hit the hard stuff. He would stick with Jack Daniels, or any kind of whiskey [...]
Two hangovers stand out in my life. I was 14 or so and spent the night discovering the joys of boxed red wine with my mother. We sat on the shag carpet in the family room and finished off two large boxes of wine, as she delineated all the problems in her life. I’m sure [...]
In many ways, I am unlike many alcoholics. I quit drinking only one time – the last time – and it has lasted for 14 years (so far). Many alcoholics quite numerous times. Heck, one of the guys on “Celebrity Rehab” has been in rehab alone nine times! Before quitting altogether, however, many alcoholics simply [...]
For teens who are lucky enough to grow up in households where alcohol is not a mainstay, their first influence to drink usually comes from the media. Advertisers spend millions and millions of dollars to woo young drinkers to try their products – as soon as they turn 21. Yeah, right. Most parents are aware [...]
After I quit drinking, it took me a couple of years before I would try a non-alcoholic beer. My AA friends were adamant about not drinking non-alcoholic beers. The “slippery slope” argument applied. Even a sip of N-A beer would lead me back to Bud. I was surprised how good my first O’Doul’s tasted. Not [...]
In my life, most of my relationships have been alcoholic. I was the drinker, or my partner was the drinker, or we both were. Since I stopped drinking, my relationships have mostly consisted of neither of us drinking, but at least one of us bearing the scars of our previous lives. My first “real” relationship [...]
In the world of AA programs, there are two types of “Children of Alcoholics (COA)” – adult children (ACOA) and actual children. One might think that adult children (a.k.a. adults) would be able to get over living their childhood in a home, but many do not. Many do not even realize the aftereffects of living [...]
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