We received another interesting letter offering another perspective. “D” unsubscribed from the Newsletter with the following comment:

“I no longer require your emails. They were very helpful. Keep up the great work. I have passed this on to other friends who needed to read these. Best, D.”

What makes this more interesting than the usual unsubscribe note is that “D” is one of our earliest clients and charter subscribers, signing up for our initial mailing list of fewer than two dozen readers. Now, some 400 issues later, she has gleaned enough on-going support to have fixed her problem and moved on to a life unfettered by AA, being “in recovery,” 12 Step mythology, meetings, cults, or any of the other degrading trappings of traditional dis-empowering “rehab.”

No, she didn’t need a “support group,” after her work with us, she needed some mild reminders which, over the years, moved her alcohol abuse into the popular “been there, done that” category of former interests.

Why not let us do the same for you? Time is, after all, your only finite resource. How many years of procrastination do you want to lose arriving at an outcome you could achieve now?

Think about it. Please.

Alcohol is fairly easy to give up. Really?

The surprising truth is that alcohol is not all that hard to give up – much easier than nicotine, for example. Your body gets over it in a few days, so what’s your problem and why do you keep “going there”?

Yes, alcohol is easy to give up, but the associated behavior patterns, self-image, fantasies, myths, and associations are not. Nor are the fast, easy, legal, glorified, and promoted self-medicating effects – read escapes – that relieve you of the chore of actually taking care of yourself.

For today.

There’s the problem.

“For today.” Alcohol fixes nothing. In fact, it prevents you from finding solutions to vexing conditions including anxiety, depression, loneliness, boredom, aging, pain, grief, and numerous other uncomfortable aspects of the human condition.

In short, it helps you maintain the illusion that you don’t have to grow up, grow old, or just plain grow.

And, really, you don’t. You can continue to medicate yourself til you drop. Many of you will.

But let’s at least do it straight. Let’s not pretend it is glamorous, sophisticated, sexy, manly, or any of the other advertising hoaxes we’re bombarded with.

Nor do you have to run down to a “poor me” cult and avoid growing up by joining the boys and girls clubs called AA and Alanon. If you read this Newsletter, you outgrew those childish excuse wielding groups long ago.

So where does that leave you? And the rest of us who actually want a life?

It’s not rocket science. It’s a matter of enduring some short term discomfort, learning and trying some new things, and learning to live, not put in time.

Intimacy – emotional, psychological, physical – cures loneliness. CBT is pretty good for anxiety. Diet and exercise can manage depression and slow aging’s aches and pains. Assertiveness training can help with many personal and professional problems.

And that’s just the beginning of the list.

Want to figure out the exact formula for you unique situation and conditions? Give us 5 days to unscramble that.

Want to institute the necessary changes into your day-to-day life? Give us, and yourself, the 12 weeks of follow-up sessions.

Want to consider the details? Give us a call.