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110 pages

English

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Description

Written by an alcoholic who has been sober for 43 Years. The nightmare journey does not end when early sobriety has been reached. The personality characteristics that made him an alcoholic in the first place still remain. That was a discovery of "John Wiley" who remains anonymous to adhere to the traditions of AA. John's true story will shock you, enlighten you, and warm your heart.

Sujets

Love

Love (disambiguation)

Informations

Publié par	First Edition Design Publishing
Date de parution	02 septembre 2011
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9781937520120
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0000€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Love and Sobriety
John Wiley

First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
Love and Sobriety
Copyright ©2007, 2011 2014 John Wiley

ISBN 978-1937-520-12-0 EBOOK
ISBN 978-1622-876-11-2 PRINT (PBK)

LCCN 2006930525

February 2014

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com

ALL R I G H T S R E S E R V E D. No p a r t o f t h i s b oo k pub li ca t i o n m a y b e r e p r o du ce d, s t o r e d i n a r e t r i e v a l s y s t e m , o r t r a n s mit t e d i n a ny f o r m o r by a ny m e a ns ─ e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , p h o t o - c o p y , r ec o r d i n g, or a ny o t h e r ─ e x ce pt b r i e f qu ot a t i o n i n r e v i e w s , w i t h o ut t h e p r i o r p e r mi ss i on o f t h e a u t h o r or publisher .
Table of Contents

Dedication
Forward
Introduction
Where Is Forever Written
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue

The Twelve Steps are reprinted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (A.A.W.S.). Permission to reprint The Twelve Steps does not mean that A.A.W.S. necessarily agrees with the views expressed herein. A.A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism only—use of The Twelve Steps in connection with programs and activities which are not patterned after A.A., but which address other problems, or in any other non-A.A. context, does not imply otherwise.
Dedication

This book is dedicated with respect and affection to
Lisa

who has helped me emerge from my valley of the shadow of death, and has become my image of the Higher Power here on earth.
Forward

As a psychotherapist, I have been confronted with the personal and family problems brought about by Jellineck’s disease, the disease of alcohol. The myth of alcoholism that its victims are weak-willed, selfish and rarely treatable is dispelled in this sensitive, painful and true story of how a recovered alcoholic struggled to come to grips with this debilitating illness and succeeded.
The victims of Jellineck’s disease are often ignored by professionals and as a result, their lives are filled with shame and neglect. The negative and moral implications of this denial are well known and thus help for these victims is inconsistent and often tainted with such hopelessness that change is impossible. I am convinced that recovery for many will not occur until such myths are dispelled
This work of Love and Sobriety will go a long way towards demystifying alcoholism. It contains insights into the thinking and emotional life of an alcoholic. It will serve not only as a source of help for the individual and family confronting this illness, but also the professionals who are hampered in their efforts due to a lack of knowledge and insight into the alcoholic’s downward journey from life to the darkness of blackouts and despair. This personal account takes us into that blackness and also leads us back to a life without alcohol, to sobriety, and for those who succeed like John, to happiness. The majority of alcoholics, from 90 to 95 percent, do not make the journey back because we have failed to treat alcoholism as a disease. There is now scientific evidence that alcoholics are genetically predisposed to this disease and that blood chemistry and brain electricity demonstrate a pathological response to imbibing alcohol. This is a beginning but there is a long way to go.
I believe that this book will contribute significantly to that progress by providing us with a much needed, though often painful look, into the psychological and physical ravages of alcoholism. This is an incredibly honest, poignant story of human courage and perseverance, of light following blackness, of hope conquering despair. We owe a debt of gratitude to John for helping us to understand and to believe that Jellineck’s disease can be overcome.
— Margaret C. Kiely,Ph.D Clinical Psychologist
Introduction

My name is John, and I am an alcoholic.
Those are the words that every alcoholic learns to say in AA, out loud. In the beginning, most of us can’t bring ourselves to say them. We can’t admit that we are alcoholics, addicted to a poisonous substance—for us—that has taken control of our lives.
But even more difficult than admitting we have become alcoholics is admitting that the problem is not the alcohol, but us. If we weren’t addicted to alcohol, we would be addicted to something else. Sometimes we think that we have won the battle when we quit the bottle—in fact, the battle is only beginning.
The first 16 of my 70 years of life—my boyhood years—I am convinced I was even then an alcoholic, the gene just laying there inside me, waiting for the catalyst of alcohol.
For the next 15 years of my life, I was an active alcoholic, involved with the insane destruction of my own life, and hurting all of those attached to me. I am sorry for all those years of my life, and for all of those folks involved in it.
The past 39 years of my life I have lived in sobriety as a recovered alcoholic. I want the struggles of that 39 years to mean something to my fellow human beings even outside the circle of the life saving program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
I am very, very grateful to God for the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, and my ability to live in sobriety for over 38 years because of AA, and also for the Hazelden /Twenty Four Hours a Day little book of daily meditations.
Because AA has traditions that I respect and hold dear, I must remain anonymous and therefore my name, and all the other names and incidents in this story have been disguised or deleted to protect the people involved, but I can assure you the story itself is very true.
There are three persons named here who are real however. Dr. Margaret C. Kiely, Ph.D. is a real person, and I wouldn’t be quite as contented in my personal sobriety without her counsel over the years. K. Raye Dowdle who wrote the poem, Where is Forever Written , is a very real friend. Gary Hesketh, the cover designer and artist, is also a very real friend.
I don’t know whether you have a problem with alcohol or not. You may be a recovered alcoholic, like me. If you have trouble hanging on to a reason to remain sober, this book may be valuable to you.
Or perhaps you may know some people who suffer from alcoholic addiction, through this book you may understand them, and help them.
Or it may be that you are deeply religious. In reading this book, you may see how religion can be demonic as well as uplifting.
As you tap deeper into the roots of your own spirituality, I hope you will recognize that combating an addiction like alcoholism needs your actions as well as your prayers.
When I admitted to and accepted my alcoholism, I made up my mind that nothing would ever cause me to take a drink of alcohol again. Whatever life was going to serve up to me, was not going to cause me to ever become an active alcoholic again.
Since January 7, 1968 when I had my last drink, I went through a divorce. After 10 years of drinking in a marriage and 10 years of sobriety, and as mean as divorce is, I did not drink again. Thanks to God, continued sobriety, and AA, I hung on to my sober reality.
Divorce caused estrangement from some of my own children, and terrific difficulty with step-children, but I did not drink again. Thanks to God, continued sobriety, and AA, I still hung on to my sober reality.
December 1983, I married Lisa and when the love of my life became very ill with a brain tumor 16 years later and couldn’t even talk, I looked after her until she died. That loss, and the past 6 years of my sobriety living with grief have been terrible, but I did not drink again. Thanks to God, continued sobriety, and AA, I am still hanging on to my sober reality.
The book is dedicated to Lisa. We had over 16 years together as husband and wife. We were married together in the Catholic faith, after struggling through annulment processes for our previous marriages.
There was no way we were going to pick a fight with Catholicism over getting married without annulments, and then have me lose my sobriety because I had gone against my conscience and then picked up a drink again
When this book was first published in 1985 by Wood Lake Books Inc. Lisa was right there with me when I wrote it. Lisa isn’t with me now.
In 1999 my beautiful Lisa developed a glio blastoma brain tumor. She lost her ability to speak. I looked after her for four months. Lisa died on March 9, 2000.
Lisa’s spirit asked me to get this book out into print again now, before I get to join her so we can walk under a rainbow again “up there.”
My last six years out of my 39 years of sobriety have been in solitary sorrow, Lisa and I are one-love forever.
Working on this book has given much meaning to my thirty-nine years of sobriety. I pray that it will give you Love and Sobriety, too.
— John Wiley
Where Is Forever Written

Above and beyond these earthly coils true love gives much . . . the moonglow in eyes that know heart twines never broken and takes away more . . . the loneliness of one half made whole bleak skies unshaded from gray. Where is forever written completed souls whisper the truth of many sad farewells and new sung hello's their journey upon this plane but a tiny teardrop in seas beating timeless against waiting shores . . .
— K. Raye Dowdle
Chapter One

The church was dark inside. For a very small boy, it had an aura of terrible mystery to it.
In the church, we never talked, except in whispers. The dark pews whispered back, huddled around the bases of the huge columns that soared up to the roof.
When I looked up to the ceiling, there was the devil getting his butt kicked straight into hell, an angel with his wings folded back, falling, falling, falling. And th