Sober...and Staying That Way: The Missing Link in The Cure for Alcoholism - Softcover

Powter, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684847973 ISBN 13: 9780684847979

Verlag: Touchstone, 1999

Inhaltsangabe

Stop the Insanity!, Susan Powter's first bestselling book, changed the way millions of people look at the diet-and-fitness industry and helped them get lean, strong, and healthy. Now, is Sober...and Staying That Way, Susan once again shares a practical and proven program: the missing link in the treatment for alcoholism.
This book isn't written just for alcoholics. It is written for everyone who wants to participate in the solution to a problem that affects us all. Alcoholism is the number-one killer of young adults in the United States, and the third-largest killer in our country. If you are interested in the missing link, you must:
* Make the alcoholism-and-disease connection
* Understand the biochemistry of alcoholics
* Make the political, profit, and powerful lobby connections to you and your sobriety
* Wipe out the morality, weakness-of-will, and powerlessness thinking of current recovery programs
You will be able to:
* Heal the damage that's been done
* Support the biochemical environment for sobriety
* Balance your glucose-deprived brain
Sober...and Staying That Way will show you how to get away forever from the shame-based sobriety programs, and how to work toward integrating nearly four decades of well-established research with information that is now available to you and to those you love for the treatment of the disease of alcoholism.

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Susan Powter is an Australian born American motivational speaker, nutritionist, personal trainer, and author, three-time New York Times bestselling author, AOL's third largest seller in TV history, and the woman dubbed "the Lenny Bruce of Wellness" by Shape magazine, who rose to fame in the 1990s with her catchphrase "Stop the Insanity!", which was the centerpiece of her weight loss infomercial. She hosted her own talk show The Susan Powter Show in the 1990s.

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Stop the Insanity!, Susan Powter's first bestselling book, changed the way millions of people look at the diet-and-fitness industry and helped them get lean, strong, and healthy. Now, in Sober . . . and Staying That Way, Susan once again shares a practical and proven program: the missing link in the treatment for alcoholism.

This book isn't written just for alcoholics. It is written for everyone who wants to participate in the solution to a problem that affects us all. Alcoholism is the number-one killer of young adults in the United States, and the third-largest killer in our country. If you are interested in the missing link, you must:
-- Make the alcoholism-and-disease connection
-- Understand the biochemistry of alcoholics
-- Make the political, profit, and powerful lobby connections to you and your sobriety
-- Wipe out the morality, weakness-of-will, and powerlessness thinking of current recovery programs

You will be able to:
-- Heal the damage that's been done
-- Support the biochemical environment for sobriety
-- Balance your glucose-deprived brain

Sober . . . and Staying That Way will show you how to get away forever from the shame-based sobriety programs, and how to work toward integrating nearly four decades of well-established research with information that is now available to you and to those you love for the treatment of the disease of alcoholism.

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Chapter 1
Recognizing Alcoholism
Are you alcoholic?
Or are you a problem drinker?
Just under a lot of stress and drinking a little more than usual?
Is it alcoholism -- or just your mother-in-law -- that's driving you to drink?
Recognizing alcoholism. What a subject! There are a few of ways you can do it if you're interested.
a. You could take one of those little quizzes in the back of your favorite monthly magazine.
b. You could ask your doctor (you want clueless? you can't imagine!). Or
c. You could talk to someone who knows someone who knows someone who actually is an alcoholic, and compare symptoms. Or you can do this: get really, really honest about your drinking.
To recognize something means to see it. I'll ask you:
YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THAT YOUR DRINKING IS A PROBLEM?
To recognize means to become familiar with.
Your drinking hasn't become all too familiar? The bad endings. The hangover. The decision over and over again that gets you the same end result -- disaster!
You don't know that your drinking is different? Different from the person who actually has one glass of wine with their salad? You need a quiz to recognize that your drinking is different???
You already recognize something. Don't you?
Here's what you need more than an "Alcoholic -- are you or aren't you?" test. You need an honest, safe environment, with no judgment or shame. Just the truth about our drinking and a quick discussion on alcoholism.
I'm not sure there is a more important step in sobriety than getting to the truth about your drinking, because once you/I/we get honest, have a look at what's really going on (otherwise known as the truth), we can begin to create space for a solution.
You want to know if you are really, really, really alcoholic? Like, alcoholic! That's a big word. Alcoholic! Not just a problem drinker? Not just under a lot of stress? Not just a party kind of guy/gal?
Alcoholic???
You've seen the commercials about the "problem drinkers."
The wife pacing back and forth waiting for the husband to come home, knowing full well that it's another night of...
He walks in the door.
Drunk.
Angry.
Belligerent.
Strong, sad voice says:
"If you can't get help with us, get it somewhere."
Scary music.
Fade-out.
How about the man at the bar with his buddies.
Getting louder by the second.
Ad ends with:
"HEY, BARTENDER, GIVE ME ANOTHER ONE..."
Ad fades.
Scary music.
Fade-out.
(You know all his friends have gone home after their one or two "responsible" drinks...)
He finally staggers out.
Drives home drunk, puts the world in danger because he's such an irresponsible jerk and just can't control himself.
Boy, oh boy, thank God we aren't him!
You've had a few nights here and there of a tad too much to drink, sure. But that's totally different from the guy on the commercial, with the really obvious, acting-like-a-totally-irresponsible-fool drinking PROBLEM. We are different from that belligerent, loudmouthed guy. We don't act like him.
And just to add another complication to this complicated matter of figuring out if you even have a problem...what if you are a woman?
Don't see a commercial with a woman staggering in the door? Female alcoholics don't even have the advantage of seeing a commercial on tele. It isn't shown. Ever seen it? I've never seen the husband pacing back and forth worrying about the marriage with the wife 'cause she's stumbling in the door.
I'm confused. Women don't sit at the bar and say, "HEY, BARTENDER, GIVE ME ANOTHER ONE"? Apparently it's not just Hollywood that's low on roles and lower on the pay scale for women. Apparently the recovery field is short on roles for women also.

So let's get back to the bar. What if you've never sat at the bar and gotten obnoxious? Maybe it's at the business lunch you are getting your fix? Driving the school bus, hungover again? Taking the baby-sitter home after just a few too many? Are you one of the world's top athletes? My son's teacher?
Have you ever woken up one too many mornings so hungover you could die? Have you wondered for days about what you said or did the last time you sat down for "just a couple" of drinks to unwind? Have you noticed lately that the "couple" has turned into more than you could have ever imagined? Have you ever gotten that cold, horrifying feeling inside when you see the ads for help on TV? Then maybe you, like me, are living/dying with alcoholism.
You may be the only one, at this point, who knows something is wrong. But you know if it is. Your drinking may still be easy to sweep under the "socially acceptable" rug, even though you have that nagging feeling that you drink differently than most. It may only be bad once in a while, and not difficult to cover up when it is. OK, a problem -- but alcoholic? Why say the word? Why bring it up? Why bother with sobriety when the problem is really not that bad?
Great question, and one that I've got the best answer for...
HELLO...
EXCUSE ME.
FITNESS EXPERT.
Admit to being alcoholic???
FIT AS A FIDDLE.
WON'T PUT LOW-QUALITY, HIGH-FAT FOOD IN MY BODY.
And drinking myself to death???
DOING TV.
WRITING BOOKS.
RAISING THE GREATEST KIDS ON THE PLANET (EXCEPT YOURS, OF COURSE).
DOING SEMINARS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.
LOVING MY LIFE.
LOVING MY WORK.
LEAN, STRONG, AND HEALTHY AS HELL...
If anyone has a "Why would ya open this can of worms?" clause in their life, it's me!
Write a book about it and expose an addiction? I never would have if I'd...I had a choice.
There is no way on earth that I would have gone through the last two years of facing truths that I didn't want to face, being so vulnerable I felt like I was going to die, feeling such shame in the midst of the most "success" I've ever had in my life, if there had been a choice. Addiction isn't a choice. Alcoholism isn't a choice. It's a textbook spiral down. The same end result for all of us. Nobody understands "socially acceptable" drinking -- being enormously productive and addicted -- more than me. I was.
But I also know the importance of opening this can of worms. I know that you are soooooo tired of it. There isn't any question that you are hurting, physically and emotionally. You may not know it yet, but if you are alcoholic, you are physically dying, poisoning every cell in your body, and there's no question that the last couple of parties...late nights with one too many...have left you scared to death.
I know you've woken up at whatever time of the morning and felt the guilt, the shame, the burden, the fear, the anger. Why talk alcoholism?
So we can get on with the solutions, the healing, the answers we need to get rid of it.
Recognizing, acknowledging, getting truthful about what's going on with the bottle in your life is one of the most important things you can do.
One of my biggest problems in recognizing my disease was how unbelievably educated I am when it comes to this "drinking problem" thing.
Oh, my God, one of the most educated drinkers you've ever met about alcoholism...that's me.
Math? Count me out.
Geography? Forget about it. I couldn't tell you where Arkansas is. Then again, why would you want to know? (Only joking, everyone in Arkansas -- so I had one bad experience there that I can't seem to let go of. Call me immature, revengeful, or just plain childish.)
I know basic physiology. Had to spend some time looking into that -- 260 pounds, obesity, losing 133 pounds, changing lifestyles. Learned that, did that.
But educated, as in well schooled, as in knowing the presidents of the U.S. -- forget about it.
Count me out, unless it's alcoholism you are hankering to know alllll about. If so, it's me you should be...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Touchstone
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1999
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0684847973
• ISBN 13: 9780684847979
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV, GPSR Europäische Union; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande