Last Call: Alcoholism and Recovery

222 Pages·2007·0.76 MB·English

by  Jack H. Hedblom MSW PhD

LAST CALL
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LAST CALL
Alcoholism and Recovery
JACK H. HEDBLOM, M.S.W., PH.D.
Forewordby
aul ugh
P R. McH , M.D.
the johns hopkins university press
Baltimore
© 2007 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2007
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hedblom, Jack H., 1938–
Last call : alcoholism and recovery / Jack H. Hedblom.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8018-8677-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8018-8678-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8018-8677-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8018-8678-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Alcoholism. 2. Alcoholism—Treatment. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Alcoholics Anonymous. 2. Alcoholism—therapy. 3. Alcoholism—
psychology. WM 274 H452L 2007]
RC565.H4389 2007
616.86'1—dc22
2006103534
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous and brief excerpts from
the books Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers,and Alcoholics Anonymous
Comes of Ageare reprinted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
(AAWS). Permission toreprint brief excerpts from AA material does not mean that AAWS has
reviewed or approved the contents of this publication, or that AAWS necessarily agrees with the
views expressed herein. AA is a program of recovery from alcoholism only. Use of this material in
connection with programs and activities that are patterned after AA but that address other
problems, or in any other non-AA context, does not imply otherwise.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact
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The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including
recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever
possible. All of our book papers are acid-free, and our jackets and covers are printed on paper
with recycled content.
For Janice, the perfect partner
and for alcoholics and families everywhere
who struggle against the tyranny of addiction
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Contents
Foreword, by Paul R. McHugh, M.D. ix
Preface xiii
1. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS 1
2. A MATTER OF DEFINITION 25
3. ALCOHOL AND THE ALCOHOLIC 45
4. GETTING SOBER 70
5. MENDING:
THE STEPS IN GETTING WELL 87
6. THE COMPONENTS OF SOBRIETY 125
7. THE ALCOHOLIC AND THE FAMILY 148
8. THE ROAD TO A LIFE WELL LIVED:
THE PROMISES 176
Appendix A. Events in the History of Alcoholics Anonymous 189
Appendix B. How It Works, the Steps, and the Traditions 193
Notes 197
References 201
Index 203
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Foreword
As everyone who tries quickly learns, the treatment of the alcoholic patient is
fraught with frustrations, especially if approached as though, as with other
human disorders, one need but point out what reason suggests. The patients
have heard all the reasons why they shouldn’t drink. Those reasons did not
suffice when they heard them from others, and they are not made sufficient
by casting them in the language of psychology or calling on the authority of
organized medicine or psychiatry for support.
Many therapists, sensing their inadequacy with what is a persistent and
devastating behavioral disorder, turn away from these patients figuratively if
not literally (as others among the family and friends have), leaving them to
struggle on their own. If recovery does occur, it is more by luck than by clini-
cal management. Certainly psychiatrists cannot point to a knowledge base in
their discipline as a source of either information or skills on which to build
programs of treatment that they or their patients can salute. And why not?
Alcohol abuse and dependency have everything to do with matters of will
and agency—issues of mind rather than body. For all that scientists have lately
become aware of how alcohol affects neurobiological and psychopharmacolog-
ical mechanisms, at some crucial level of mind itself—sometimes obviously at
the level of pleasure & personal autonomy, sometimes just as obviously at the
level of fear and frustration, and always at the level of habit and inclination—
the choice to drink alcohol overwhelms everything—duty, meaning, promises,
and health—to carry the person along in the slavery of dependence.
One fact has been learned by all therapists who have through repetitive
struggles and many frustrations seen the occasional and unexpected success.
Only a program led with enthusiasm by a confident leader and structured
around confronting and correcting attitudes and assumptions alcoholic pa-
tients carry has any chance of succeeding. These programs are hard to find
and harder still to copy.
It’s as though, to prevail and overcome the conflict of will that flares up to
defeat most efforts to change habits or dependence, the patient needs to be
ix