Annie Grace (1)

This was excellent and not just from a looking at alcohol in your life standpoint. This was excellent because it gave practical, down to earth, easy to engage with ways to have better critical thinking skills in your life. I know that I will use those for the rest of my life. I find myself asking questions (mostly internally but some outside too) about things that I am hearing or thinking or believing.

I will be putting the ideas from this book into use in so many ways. Cannot recommend this book enough, just as a way of examining how you think/feel about things, why you think/feel that, and most importantly, are those thoughts & feelings actually reality?… (plus d'informations)

I started out reading this out loud to an addicted loved one. That fizzled at about the 3 week point, and there was a long break before I took this up again, mainly because I can’t stand not to finish a book if I’ve gotten past a certain point.
I’ve been reading on this topic for a long time, and I appreciate fresh approaches and ideas. I don’t think AA is one-size-fits-all any more than I think any approach is. It works for some people and not for others. I think Annie Grace’s 30-day experiment is a valid thing for people to try, and judging by the testimonials at the end of each chapter, it works for some people.
What it’s not is a magic bullet, which I can’t seem to stop pursuing. And sometimes Annie’s cheerleadery tone got on my nerves. It’s not for everyone, but it is for someone, probably many someones.
Worth a read, and my particular rating is probably lower because of unjust disappointment that it didn’t solve everything for my loved one, in addition to the long break I took from it.… (plus d'informations)

There are some bold claims in this book—heck, the title itself is pretty bold, but I like the author’s radically different approach to overcoming alcohol addiction. It took me a while to realize what she was doing, but the more I read, the more I realized the point of the whole book is to get the unconscious mind on the same page with the conscious mind about alcohol.
One of the book’s main points is that people have trouble stopping or even recognizing their drinking has become a problem because we live in a culture in which the majority of the population drinks, and where drinking is celebrated. This affects us on an unconscious level so that even when a conscious decision to quit drinking is made, there’s cognitive dissonance which sabotages efforts to change.
One thing the author said that I’ve never heard before is that everyone has the potential to become an addict, not just people with a particular temperament or gene. Alcohol is a drug, and addiction comes with frequency of use. Everyone who drinks travels a path that leads to addiction. Not everyone travels at the same pace or reaches the end before they die, so some never reach the end point of addiction, but it’s still the same path. This actually makes a lot of sense to me.
The author details her own negative experiences with alcohol which fueled her desire to give it up, relates facts about the damage it does to the body and brain, and argues that the way we consume alcohol doesn’t make sense when compared with the way we consume any other food or drink. She’s adamant and persuasive, and I’m right there with her and her anger toward alcohol and the damage it does.
I read this out loud to an addicted loved one, a chapter or two at a time. He needed a fresh look at things, and I hope this approach unlocks something important.… (plus d'informations)