Kudos to LW for what she has done. it is impressive, and I am sure this letters series will be filled to the brim, very shortly, with folks who will honor that magnificant achievement. And - provide some signposts from our own experiences.

Some random thougts - in my own healing process, it took about 90 days before I was past the incessent awareness that I had ruled out alchohol as a solution for a variety of pains. Neurologically speaking, it takes aobut 90 days for the body to break - or make - a habit. So, you have some time to run.

In discarding addictive behavior, there can be, for some of us, a vacuum. That vacuum can be filled with the ache of the missing addiciton, or LW can begin to fill it with other habits, functions, and focuses. Cary writes movingly about pacing his day differently, of focusing on the now. For me, in my own sojourn, I began to focus, with great benefit, on the challenges of a complex family of origin, a family of embedded patterns of alchoholism, and I contined to drive away from those values. I also focused on my own family, my wife and stepson, and we became closer. That nourishes me to this day.

In discarding alchoholism, I also chose to discard a self-view that bordered on self-loathing. I began to respect who I am, and thus, in the cusp of the moment, what I could become. I would hope that, by the end of the day of reading letters who honor LW's insight, tenacity and capacity for change, LW might want to re-evaluate who she is, looking at her challenges with relationships in a different light, and honor her ability to identify the limitations - and move on. Not all have that capacity for discernment.

I have found that there can be much hubris in "the recovery world", the chest-beating about days sober, the quiet discussions of slips, falls and those who don't make it, and all of that. I found great comfort in peer support, but learned to establish my own direction, based on my own internal compass. I have now doubt that LW has one - clear from her letter that she does. But it may be time to shed the weight of "recovering".

And LW may wish to contemplate how to shift from a sense of lonliness to being alone...... she is, in fact, a caring mother and a competent professional, so there are other relationships out there that support and nurture her. That process of accepting being alone, of seing one's self cold-sober, can be profoundly enriching, if one does it gently.

The review unfortunately juxtaposes two books with two antithetical approaches, thus creating an assumption of conflict. In truth, I doubt that either AA or pharmacology will bear comprehensive fruit for the addict seeking support. Both are partial....................

AA does provide much, including a concept of order that many cling to in the absence of internally generated behavioral rules or order. It also provides, in good AA groups, a powerful sense of community and the opportunity to explore parallel stories. That, alone, can be riviting, and can ease many past the inherent conflict embedded in the reframed Oxford Movement steps - the first half of the language focuses on a disease model, the second on salvation.

the metabolic issues involved in addiction are interesting, and, for one to hold forth at all, one must first agree that the mind and the body are inextricably linked, still an open question in some quarters in our culture...... The truth of it is, any "repetitive behavior" such as sexually repetitive and compuslive behavior, exercise, etc, can have profound impacts on the body's metabolism and the way it frames energy and its use. I have no doubt that continued exploration of addiction and chemical imbalance will bear fruit, over time, and thus create a 'blended' approach.

The challenge with AA is, of course, the complex and embedded challenges of the steps which do, if explored analytically, conflict. The "disease model" and the "salvation model" do not entirely nest well, and thus, one finds the rationalist who refuses to be a "good AA participant" because of his/her more secular approach towards living, whilst the participant who engages in the concept of salvation embedded in the later steps, can become an annoying didactic. Neither is entirely pleasant, and both have outlived what may be the core value of the AA approach, that is, of identification, of community and of shared experience. Thus, it is entirely possible to participate in AA for decades and be "sober" while engaging in other metabolic challenges, such as sugar, caffene and nicotene dependencies (and that list is short, it could be much longer) that can have almost as devastating an impact on metabolic repsonses as booze. (certainly the national epidemic of diet-based diabetes suggests some cultural challenges with sugar, now, doesn't it?).

As always, one frames ones responses from personal experience. I've never relied upon AA to sober up from alchoho9lism, and have never relapsed and do not, in fact, know exactly when I stopped. the anniversary is not, really, terribly important to me. I did use an adjusted diet to deal with the sudden cessation of sugar in my body's metabolism, and have jettisoned refined sugar from my diet completely, with massive benefit and value. I did use another 12-step fellowship to deal with the effects of childhood sexual abuse, and found the community to be invaluable, the language, lightly adapted from AA, quite crippling.

Personally, I look forward to reefinements of both the AA model and of the research in pharamcology. There are emerging "communities" that eschew some of the more didactic language of AA (Vital Cycles.org comes to mind) and there is increasing focus on the concept of a holistic approach towards, first, healing - then living with happiness