All Drinking Aside

04 December 2023

2023 YEAR in REVIEW: Pause... Look Back... Hit... REFRESH!

"Why is the universe here? "Why is the universe here? Where else would it be?" —Arthur C. Clarke Addiction Stunted Youth / Recovery Seeking Truth: December 8, 2022 "https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/addiction-stunted-youth-recovery-seeking-truth-jim-anders/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D "It is difficult for one person to act a play." - Chinese Proverb: January 1, 2023 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/difficult-one-person-act-play-chinese-proverb-jim-anders/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D Sometimes Suicide's Not Suicide at All. It's Addiction Having the Last Word.: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sometimes-suicides-suicide-all-its-addiction-having-last-jim-anders-1e/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D "Isn't ABSTINENCE Enough?" I Once Stood on This Very Ground, Hoping Against Hope to Hear a Resounding "YES!": July 12, 2023 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/isnt-abstinence-enough-i-once-stood-very-ground-hoping-jim-anders/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D Blackout Drinkers: Part of my People, Places & Things: July 18, 2023 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/blackout-drinkers-part-my-people-places-things-jim-anders/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D Relapse is Almost Always Possible Because "Healing May Paper Over the Horror...": September 5, 2023 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/relapse-almost-always-possible-because-healing-may-paper-jim-anders/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3Dhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/relapse-almost-always-possible-because-healing-may-paper-jim-anders/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D My Choice of Colors, Typeface Choices and Design [All That Good Stuff] Would Convulse My Team of Advertising Designers If They Saw This!: September 13, 2023 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-choice-colors-typeface-choices-design-all-good-stuff-jim-anders/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D "Surrender to Win!"? Are They Crazy?!?: November 29, 2023 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/surrender-win-crazy-jim-anders-kip0c/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D The Snake Pit of Addiction: December 2, 2023 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/snake-pit-addiction-jim-anders-xjfye/?trackingId=fhYvoCtASUW1a8C9FM7QOA%3D%3D

02 October 2023

Rough Draft for Future Post

Even when presented all the facts, our interpretation and understanding may be skewed.

An Enduring Classic of Modern Recovery Literature

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: https://www.amazon.com/All-Drinking-Aside-Deconstruction-Reconstruction/dp/149239730X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1NJOTD50MMO6N&keywords=All+Drinking+Aside&qid=1668889292&sprefix=all+drinking+aside%2Caps%2C3803&sr=8-1

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

13 September 2023

My Choice of Colors, Typeface Choices and Design [All That Good Stuff] Would Convulse My Team of Advertising Designers If They Saw This!

"Catch Autumn Before It Leaves" [For a Women's Fall Clothing Line] & "Rare Dining Well Done" [For a Restaurant Billboard Advertisement] are among my favorite headlines written during my decades long stint as an Advertising Copywriter.

The writing skills I developed in the Ad Biz were invaluable assets in writing my first book, ALL DRINKING ASIDE; The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal.

Today, September 13, 2023, marks the 10th Anniversary of its publication.

In celebration thereof, let me share a few of my favorite excerpts with you.

Feel free to share this post, including the Amazon link to All Drinking Aside.

Please consider offering it as a gift to any and all.

SIX EXCERPTS:

"My father was a wood carver. He carved ducks out of wood. Like Michelangelo searching for the block of marble that contained the statue he would sculpt, in a block of wood, my father searched for a duck. he had the right tools. He was motivated. He was inspired.

For years I never had a reason to quit drinking and by the time I had a reason to quit, reason no longer had anything to do with it. I drank for escape and I ended up being unable to escape from drinking. Now, years later, I have found many of the tools of recovery. There are those who have inspired me, motivated me. Slowly, patiently, I must carve the frustration, self-pity and despair out of this block of wood. Carve out the envy, anxiety and intolerance. File down the burrs of hatred, jealousy and resentment. Chisel out the suspicion and sarcasm, the mistrust. Get rid of the apathy, the remorse, the self-deception. Cast out the doubt, the blame, the fear. Scrape out contempt and cynicism. Smooth out the rough edges." - All Drinking Aside, p. 241.

II.

"I can remember standing on the front porch of our house with my father when I was maybe ten years old. We lived in a small valley and a few miles away to the west was the rim of the valley. This was called South Mountain. We would catch storms approaching from the other side of the mountain. My father taught me how to predict when the storm would reach us by counting the seconds between when we saw the lightning and when we would hear the thunder. The closer the storm, the less time it takes between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder. It takes a long tie, too, when you first get clean and sober to get a clear picture of reality. Relapse now and you many never hear the thunder and feel the rain was clean the debris of your disease.

My father and I stood on the porch. We saw the storm get nearer, saw the lightning, heard the thunder, the dog and cat beneath the couch because they were frightened and did not understand. And then the rain would come down in buckets, the street still hot, giant puddles of water, the steam rising and sometimes, just sometimes, after the storm, we would see a rainbow." - All Drinking Aside, pp. 201 - 202.

III.

"Alcohol is my poison, my prison. A brick wall, a trap door, a cancer, a bad joke, an empty bottle, an excuse, a leaky faucet, a loan shark, a broken promise, a cracked mirror, an earthquake, an avalanche, a train wreck, a recurring nightmare.

Alcohol is my insanity." - All Drinking Aside, p. 127.

IV.

"My brain knows my disease. My brain loves my disease and my brain will never forget my disease because my disease has carved permanent grooves into my brain that no amount of sobriety can ever putty shut. The grooves in my brain lay waiting for me to pick up again so that the grooves can progressively deepen. I must depend on the help of others. Acting alone, I will be devoured by my disease. For addicts, alcohol will devour memories of the past and anxiety about the future, drowning them in the unreal, insane world of addiction. A living lobotomy. A blind man descending a spiral staircase leading to nowhere. No past. No present. No future. Addiction will survive by eating you alive.

Now, in recovery, I'm learning how to thrive." - All Drinking Aside, p. 162.

"Addiction is godless, headless, insane. It rejects faith, reason, feelings. Addiction is heartless, the blackest night. No light. So sun. No stars. In its nothingness, we feel nothing and accept that nothingness is acceptable and true. 'Cunning. Baffling. Powerful'" - All Drinking Aside, p. 135.

VI.

"Loving to drink. Living to drink. Dying to drink. Dying from drinking. This is the progression of alcoholism. Wanting to live. Learning to live. Loving to live. Living with love. This is the progression of recovery." - All Drinking Aside, p, 252.

*****

May you find your own favorite passages within the pages of ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal.

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

09 September 2023

Do Your Best!

Like an inactive volcano always ready to spew forth, my addictions, like my cancer, are in remission.

The Best I Can Do is to Do My Best!

Do Your Best! Read:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

02 September 2023

CELEBRATE $4.00 OFF List Price with this Special 10th Anniversary Offer

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal
Find it on Amazon. Book it here: https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c
#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books
Five Dozen+ Five ***** Star Reviews

31 August 2023

Coming Soon

In the Meantime, Read:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

13 August 2023

Alcohol is a Poison. *

I am a Man.

In my case, Man + Poison equaled being caught in a never-ending maze, nearly killing me.

For thirty years, from the age of 16 to 46, I drank daily. By the age of 25 I was a full-blown alcoholic who suffered near-daily blackouts and rarely, if ever, consumed less than 5 alcoholic beverages, usually much more each and every day.

Binge-drinking was the new norm and had become totally acceptable to me.

By my third decade of daily drinking, accidents, hospitals, detoxes, rehabs, firings, evictions, on and on.

DO THE MATH: 781 gallons of alcohol divided by 30 years of daily drinking = an average consumption rate around 9.1 ounces of alcohol per day, not an unreasonable amount by any estimate.

I will stand by the pictured statement: "MAN GUZZLES More Than 781 GALLONS of POISON and Lives to Tell"*

*****

Read my book. Here's the link. Check out the 60+ Five Star Reader Reviews:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

*Alcohol is a drug and works on the brain and other body parts which may cause unwanted symptoms, poisoning and even death.

11 August 2023

Solitary Confinement?

Mostly Solitary.

Mostly Confined.

For 30 years, I drank and drugged every day.

That's over 10,000 days and in excess of 50,000 drinks.

The past is part of me. The future is part of my clean and sober self today.

The Fever has Broken.

Today, I am Free.

https://www.amazon.com/All-Drinking-Aside-Deconstruction-Reconstruction/dp/149239730X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23I1UUP1AI4I6&keywords=All+drinking+aside&qid=1691763023&s=books&sprefix=all+drinking+aside%2Cstripbooks%2C64&sr=1-1

07 August 2023

Untwisting "The Twisties"

Let's face it: My Fears were mostly Known Unknowns.

I knew I didn't want to be known.

I did not know if I would be accepted or if I could accept myself.

I knew I was hiding myself behind my addictions, despite not calling them addictions at the time.

I knew I liked to drink. I knew I liked to drug. I knew I liked to party.

"Here's looking at you," that oft heard toast to an uncertain extent really meant "Here's not looking at me," despite all the I-I-I's detailed above.

Like Renowned Gymnast Simone Biles's Case of "The Twisties," physical and mental deterioration walked beside me in my slow-motion descent into the hell that is addiction.

Here's how Google summarizes Simone's fall from grace: "Biles's competition future was in doubt after she dropped out of the Tokyo Olympics after suffering a case of the 'twisties,' a spatial disorientation neurological problem that forced her to take herself out of multiple events in Japan."

Similarly, and divergently, my Professional Drinking Career came to an end.

Addiction, to alcohol and other substances, was crippling me, if not downright killing me.

Juggernaut or Astronaut, I was good-for-naught and would have to be grounded. No more being higher than a kite searching for the moon. No more blackouts, pass outs and coming to.

Coming to had come to almost dying, almost dead.

No more brief sabbaticals to restore my body for another brief or long-term onslaught.

No more More.

Something so simple as being who you are was not so simple for me after all.

Being responsible came to mean asking for help.

Shared Courage.

No more cases of "The Twisties."

No more bottomless days and empty bottles.

No more Professional Drinking Career.

More courage. Shared Courage. More of this. Less of that. Untwisting "The Twisties.":

"Nothing matters more than that we remain sober because when we remain sober everything matters more."

Be Responsible. Untwist "The Twisties."

Cheers!

*****

Also #enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books