99% Dan Rather-Free

Hi All!

Call me a sap, but I'll miss having old Dan to kick around anymore. Said and done.

Thursday already, my eagerly anticipated bus ride to Avalon Treatment Center for my MICD therapy group.

MICD is what I have been labeled -- Mentally Ill Chemically Dependent. Add the liver disease and I am a living, breathing trifecta.

Still cleaning like a madman. I have excavated long-believed- lost real estate. Gathered together a couple of dozen books on the Demon Alcohol and reminded myself how hard I tried to "cure" myself with various alternative methods such as Rational Recover, Moderation Management, Health Recovery and others.

All are good treatment if followed. I didn't. In the end, it wasn't any particular method or fear of the health consequences...it was pure time. I am forever greatful for my wife, doctor and brother for tying me up for 6 months.

I have settled on a "simple program" called Health Realization. I've written of it before, but is the first thing that I have stuck with for any significant period of time.

Which brings me to the tip of an iceberg that I will be exploring in depth in the future. Friends of Bill W. stop reading right now.

I have tried it, but so far I am not "faking it until I make it" -- I have earnestly tried to glean what I can an I will still attend meetings for now. Perhaps I could say that I'm "faking it" AND making it!

One of the books I dug up and have started to reread is a blue book that I will not take to an AA meeting. I do not yell "fire" in a crowded room.

It's titled "Heavy Drinking. The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease." by Fingarette. If that isn't enough to get the bleading deacons thumping "THE" Blue Book, I guess I was too subtle.

The point of the book, that is very thoroughly researched and annnotated, is that "One size doesn't fit all."

AA is surely a godsend for millions. But it isn't such a "simple program" when one scratches beneath the surface.

Enough heresy for today.

For some irreverent AA humor, enjoy this: http://sanegallery.morerevealed.com/

Health has been wavery this week, but today I feel like a world beater. Oh yeah, it's Thursday and I can leave House Arrest!

Cheers!

PK