It took me a little while to get back to the last review on my Beating a Dead Horse list even though this is the book that inspired the series in the first place, Jack Trimpey’s Rational Recovery. While it would take an utter suspension of disbelief, the title suggests a presentation of the “new” cure for substance addiction that will allow one to “remain sober—effortlessly—for the rest of your life.” Now before we go into the content of this book let me state in advance that regardless of what I feel about his recovery techniques, I think Mr. Trimpey’s advertising methods are reprehensible. I had to filter his advertisements off my site because I found them both distasteful and counterproductive. I scanned a few of my favorite recovery blogs to see if could find a suitable example but found none showing, so I can only hope he discontinued them because he came to believe the same. All you have to do is go to his website to see that he is the self proclaimed king of AA bashing and his comments on the subject go beyond borderline to fanatical on a regular basis. In my humble opinion, Mr. Trimpey’s group is a for-profit business venture whose almost militant partisan attacks against AA and 12 step programs make him no better than the small minority of radical fundamentalists in these groups that he views as the competition and the enemy.

One good thing I can say about Mr. Trimpey is that he believes total abstinence from alcohol and drugs is paramount to long term recovery, something in which I can wholeheartedly concur.

Click “Read more” to read the review…

Rational Recovery is Pure Partisanship is a post from: QVOF

You’ll notice I left out alcoholics from the “young and dumb” list on my list of people who vomit often, but it was intentional. You see even though logic would suggest that alcoholics who can not control their drinking would top the list as those most likely to be part of the vomit club it is not true. Yes alcoholics cannot control their drinking, but no self respecting alkie is going to waste a pint of cheap vodka by spewing it onto the pavement. In my case since I could not master my drinking, instead I mastered my body’s gag reflex and avoided the subsequent vomiting. Alcoholism is such a devious disease that it can conquer even the body’s natural instinct to expel alcohol that has reached a poisonous level.

Of course it is only a matter of time before the process of achieving and maintaining such a level of toxicity degrades your health. Loss of motor control, tremors, and the nausea brought on by bleeding ulcers eventually made it impossible for me to hold down anything, even alcohol (a frustration I would assume is something akin to not being able to acquire a vein to shoot up). There is a price to be paid for denying the body's desire to rid itself of poison.

Why bring up such a vile topic? I guess I wanted to illustrate how powerful the urge to drink is for the alcoholic. Take a normal person bending over the ceramic altar if they want a drink and you will be lucky to stay out of the way of the dry heave spittle as they cuss you. You will not need to ask an alcoholic the same question, because he will be over in the corner choking down the gag reflex in order to conserve his alcohol.

Just another example of how an alcoholic will put drinking above anything else, including health and even the gag reflex.

My thanks to the Partnership for a Drug Free Texas for the Drug Free Bunny

Choking the Gag Reflex is a post from: QVOF