Reddit reviews Living Sober

These are some of my favorites:

[Living Sober] (http://www.amazon.com/Living-Sober-AA-Services/dp/B0048C7TFA/ref=pd_rhf_gw_s_cp_43_WD8V?ie=UTF8&refRID=1EFFBA3G6THH9QT9G6BG)

Unwasted: My Lush Sobriety

Drinking: A Love Story

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood

This was nothing traumatic in my childhood that I can blame on me being an alcoholic. It might make a good plot line in TV but it's not what makes the majority of alcoholics drink. I've been to thousands of real life AA meetings and alcoholics with bad childhoods are in the same proportion as non-alcoholics in the general population with bad childhoods i.e. relatively few and far between.

What makes me drink is that feeling of ease and comfort a drink gives me but the problem is I can't stop at just one drink. Once I take that first drink I get a "taste" - a craving for more. In order to stay sober first of all I have to avoid taking that first drink because it's the first drink that gets me drunk, not the 5th or 6th or 10th. It's the first one that sets off the craving. Of course this is easier said than done. If I could just decide not to drink then I wouldn't be an alcoholic. My mind plays tricks with me and tells me that this time it'll be different, this time I'll be able to take that one drink just to take the edge off and stop at that even though I've rarely been able. Over time my drinking becomes worse and my binges more frequent. It always got worse never better but my mind tells me the opposite.

What AA does is provide a structured program to deal with the every day tensions of life which build up and make an alcoholic like me think that it would be a good idea to take that first drink. These days, and as a result of putting AA's program into action I rarely even think about drinking plus my life is much more richer and fulfilling that it has ever been.

The book "Living Sober" is a good starter.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Sober-AA-Services/dp/B0048C7TFA/