Really enjoyed this book. Part interesting personal stories, part science journalism. Recommended even if you aren’t in the market for a way to quit drinking.
Highlights and Notes
“Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism agree there is no such thing as making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic. Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn’t done so yet.”
Alcohol makes people more anxious over time, more likely to catastrophize shitty things in our lives.
were able to moderate—he’d seen it for himself. When asked about the disease model in 1960, Wilson said he preferred the term illness or malady. It was vaguer, less medical.
Erin Socha, the former wine distributor in Lawrence, Kansas, mentioned that she’s helping her mom through end-of-life care, and she can’t imagine managing that if she were still drinking. “I’m so grateful that I can be sober for this,” she told me.