The life I led as an addict was not easy, nor was it enjoyable. Were there good times? Sure, but the bad outweighed them, and by a lot. I need to remember that, and to remember how much it really hurt there at the […]

While reading through a meeting the other day, someone’s share about hitting rock bottom piqued my interest. They had accepted it and they were grateful for it, happy to have finally ceased making the problem […]

“Resentment is the number one offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else.” (Big Book, pg. 64)
I sometimes resent my resentments. I know what they are, I know that they’re mostly irrational, and I […]

I don’t think I’ve mentioned my best friend in this blog before.

I’m sure you don’t know her. She doesn’t speak much English and doesn’t have any troubling addictions. She isn’t in recovery as we are, she […]

I’ve dealt with depression, among other mental health issues, for most of my life. Having been in counseling since the age of seven, I’m fairly sure that my alcoholism and drug use weren’t the root cause of this, […]

Like most middle-class, suburban Americans, I was raised on a healthy diet of exceptionalism. I believed, without a doubt, that my life had some greater meaning. I may have suffered humble beginnings, but I was […]

I’ve been at this for a long time. Not as long as many others, of course, but half of my life has been spent in these rooms.

You wouldn’t know it from looking at me — well, you probably would, but let me have […]

“… and I’m an alcoholic.”

It took me a long time to say those words, and even longer to mean it.

I’m not sure if alcoholics are contrarian by nature, even if we are typecast as a rowdy, incorrigible bunch. […]

Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered […]

I’ve always looked up to astronauts, even if I consider them to be brave and foolish in equal measure.

They aren’t just tough — they’re smart, and courageous. They further the cause of science and advance the […]

I try not to let alcohol’s dominance of the cultural zeitgeist get to me. I used to drink socially, many moons ago, and I didn’t always abuse it. There are a lot of people out there who can drink without […]