Review: Stories, the best way to create a lasting impact
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 25, 2014
Gray-Nomad knows how to drive points home. Tell the audience a story, ask questions about that story and see if they learned the lessons it contained. That is how this book on HIGH FUNCTIONING ALCOHOLICS begins - a short story in which a woman pays a hospital visit, observes all manner of people - those in the hospital for varying degrees of alcoholism and its physical impacts, the staff, the people around her - unpacks her rum and cokes her husband has provided for her to drink during her stay, and finally returns home to a husband who offers her a drink. The story is much more complex than this but in outline form it shares the gist of the author's message: there are low profile alcoholics who are obvious, but there are high functioning alcoholics who manage to drink daily in large amounts and still carry on a work life and social life as though they had not a drop of the disabling drug in their system. Or as the author phrases it, `High-functioning alcoholics generally lead respectable and often high-profile lives, and just like non-alcoholics they are usually as successful in maintaining home, family, job and friends.'From this introduction the author take us through the diagnosis of just what a HFA is, the ways to self evaluate your alcohol intake to see if you may possibly fall into this category, the systems certain groups have initiated to assist people in not drinking to much, and steps individuals can take to determine if they have a drinking problem. `Many well-known people have publicly acknowledged their battles with alcohol and entered recovery before their lives were destroyed. Betty Ford, the astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the actors Elizabeth Taylor, Mary Tyler Moore and Robin Williams, the singers Keith Urban and Eric Clapton, the football legend Joe Namath and former US President George Bush' - giving examples helps the reader focus on the extent of the problem. `Research shows half of all alcoholics are high-functioning types. The abuse can go on for decades until and unless some alcohol-related crisis occurs, like being arrested for drunken driving, exposed forhaving made unwanted sexual advances or a relationship breakdown.'The author drives the message home solidly by referring to personal management of alcohol intake, telling us how to determine when the line has been crossed between social drinking and high functioning alcoholic. So much data is presented that the book stands as a medical reference for the control of alcoholism. And using HFA Orson Welles' hoax radio show as a pivot, the entire impact of hoaxes on our thinking is discussed. `The short stories are there to show how high functioning alcoholism is near invisible to those unaware of the full lifestyle of the person affected.'This is a very important little book that deserves wide distribution, especially in the media and in classrooms. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, February 14