Topic: self diagnosis

Her definition of social drinking was any alcohol consumed in the company of other human beings.

You understand, on an emotional level, that you’re not really alone, and that everyone isn’t looking down on you for being who you are.

Even when the patient has concluded that continued substance use is no longer the best option, he or she still harbors a number of important doubts about the ability to change.

Addicts and alcoholics follow a fairly predictable route from drinking/using to stable abstinence and recovery, whether they believe in God or not.

One aspect of Lawford’s book that makes it unique and a must read is its careful and powerful weaving of the author’s personal recovery experience with the most up-to-date scientific evidence

Use examples. It’s hard for an alcoholic to grasp the idea that he or she can’t go back to drinking at some future point – after a year of abstinence, for instance. But the old saw that a pickle can’t go back to being a cucumber – that people seem to understand.