The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure: Teaching Me About Myself
"Greetings and salutations, First of all I would like to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude to Chris for writing this extremely insightful text. It literally saved my life! I originally purchased the book for my spouse as she didn't achieve much success with Alcoholics Anonymous. Sadly, she never even cracked the cover. Needless to say, she is no longer in my life due to her inability to face life without drugs and alcohol. We used lethal quantities of drugs and alcohol together. In the end of our using ""career"" together, I could not go 30 days without overdosing on pharmaceuticals, yet she was the one with the problem! One day I decided I'd had enough pain. I had gotten into legal trouble and the Judge, in his infinite jurisprudence, said I could either go to jail...AGAIN, to face the agony of withdrawal in the ""four star"" accommodations of the County Jail, or I could go to treatment. Being the master manipulator I chose rehab. I thought I was beating the system by choosing the ""easy way out""! The facility I was admitted to employed a treatment modality based on the 12 steps of A.A.. I had a great deal of difficulty grasping the principles of the program. In fact, at about day 45 of the 28 day program I was caught with two female clients in my bed, was reprimanded for ""skinnydipping"" in the pool, got into a physical altercation with another client, and overdosed on Xanax and OxyContin! Being a man of science, I struggled with the whole God concept. Mind you, I was an Atheist, or so I told myself. My therapist, (such a brilliant soul), so ever gently informed me that I wasn't ""smart enough to be an Atheist!"", and told ME to to read your book. At first I took offense and was bewildered by his observation of my intellect.
In retrospect, he was absolutely, ""spot-on"". He could see right through my facade of power and control. He saw the emaciated, lost, major depressive that I had become and had accepted as my destiny. Full of bitterness and rage with no sense of direction or concept of where I fit into the grand scheme of the Universe. At first I found ""The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure"" a slow read. As touching as Pax's story was, I was all too familiar with the wages of addiction. When I progressed to ""Changing the Treatment Paradigm"" I started to become enthralled. Through meditation and deep introspection I began examining the reasons I began seeking the ""relief"" that drugs and alcohol originally afforded me through self-medication. I discovered that I was deeply depressed, insecure and fraught with self-loathing. In addition, I had legitimate chronic pain issues. With these issues in mind, I prescribed myself therapy with a psychiatrist with intensive training in addictions. Through extensive lab work and diagnostics we discovered that I have a chemical imbalance which caused major depression. Furthermore it was revealed that I have a hormone deficiency. I now take an anti-depressant and Testosterone. I then consulted with a nutritionist and developed a diet and supplement regimen.
Then I enlisted the services of a physical therapist to address my chronic pain. Finally I sought the help of a spiritual adviser to assist me in the development of a personal philosophy on life and to help me see realistically just exactly how and where I fit into the the Universe as a whole. I initiated all of this while I was still in the treatment center, just as your guidelines suggested with the exception of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (Due to denial of insurance benefits for same.). However, I remain open-minded to the potential of Chinese medicine. Anyway, to lend some brevity to an already long story, I have been free from all mood altering drugs including alcohol for the better part of a year now. Through actually studying (not simply reading) your book and practicing the fundamentals contained therein I have addressed the core issues that were the reasons I used drugs in the first place."
