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If your best friend turned to you for advice about a drinking problem, what would you say? Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
I was sent a complimentary copy of Sober for Good, and opened it much as one might open a piece of junk mail - casual, uninterested, getting a fix on the waste bin for rapid disposal. Shortly afterwards I was reading avidly.
This book displays the immense variety of ways that people really stop drinking destructively, from the traditional methods of Alcoholics Anonymous to a personal decision, taken and held to. Anne Fletcher calls people who have tackled an alcohol problem and now live comfortably "the Masters", and I'm one of them, in her terms. The book was created from first person accounts of people who have successfully resolved alcohol problems, using a wide variety of methods, and the author pulls these personal stories together to offer a balanced and very helpful overview of the varied ways that people use to stay sober for good.
The Chapter titles give an excellent précis of the contents.
1 A New Look At How People Really Solve Drinking Problems 2 There's Not Just One Way: How The Masters Got Sober - And Stay Sober 3 It's Not How Much You Drink: How The Masters Faced Up To Their Alcohol Problems 4 You Don't Have To "Hit Bottom": How The Masters Reached The Turning Point 5 It's Not Necessarily One Day At A Time: How The Masters Made A Commitment To Sobriety 6 Be Our Own Expert: How Seven Masters Found Their Way With Seven Different Approaches 7 You Can Help: The Masters' Advice To Family And Friends 8 One Drink Does Not A Drunk Make: How The Masters Determined Whether They Could Ever Drink Again 9 It's Not Enough Just To Stop Drinking: How The Masters Deal With Life's Ups And Downs Without Alcohol 10 Recall The Past, Live In The Present: How The Masters Stay Motivated 11 With Or Without A Higher Power: How The Master Handle Spirituality 12 There's Nothing Missing: How The Masters Find Joy Without Alcohol Appendix A: A Consumer Guide To Recovery Options
A lot of the book deals with familiar and comfortable ideas about alcohol and recovery, but there is also a great deal that I found new and thought provoking. I attended AA for many years, reaching a position of contented sobriety, but decided last year that I should move on. I chose SMART Recovery® as an alternative, and have found it suits me very well. Sober for Good showed me that this type of progression is not unusual, and that it is but one of many options. Others organisations offering help include Secular Organisations for Sobriety (SOS), Women for Sobriety (WfS), Rational Recovery (RR). Several stories came from people who used professional services such as brief intervention, formal treatment or individual counselling. Other Masters used what Anne Fletcher calls "eclectic methods" which I interpret to mean a bit of this and a bit of that, reading, acupuncture, yoga, family and friends' support - but if it works, it works. I know personally someone who did it on her own and that option doesn't show up in this book at all! There really are many routes to recovery from alcohol, and all of them work for someone.
One of the reasons I liked this book so much is that it combines careful work with kindness. The spirit of the author shines through without being obtrusively personal. It is plain that Anne Fletcher has worked very hard to understand the people whose stories she has gathered and deployed. The result offers a wealth of insights and information that will help anyone who seeks personal recovery or wishes to help other to recover..
this was meant to be a self help book for me and my partner but i found it to be quite off putting for the alcoholic reading it, as she gives 'choices' eg total abstinence, controlled drinking etc.. and that is really not how i want to get the message across to the person whom i love who has an alcohol problem. i felt this book would almost throw an alcoholic back into 'denial or control'.The author i can tell is not religious and she constantly doubts the AA's creditblity.Anyone who is an alcoholic 'obviously' has to STOP drinking and to do this he/she needs help and support where ever the can get it eg AA but most of all they are themselves the only one who can succeed with strength from their inner being.i dont think as this author comes across that you 'need' to believe in god to attend AA. If you can look beyond this ladys own personal opinions of god and the AA there are some good tips, but these 'tips' will almost certainly be tried and tested in any alcoholics mind during the stages of denial and after. i learned nothing new, maybe reccommend this book for anyone who has a 'religious aphobia' or are concerned 'AA is some kind of 'cult' WHICH IT IS NOT.Or maybe those who have not yet hit rock bottom and want to 'save' themselves before they do.
Sober for Good is a book filled with hope. It offers perspectives rarely seen in alcohol-related materials, and I sincerely hope that it gets wide distribution.
I'm a certified moderator (volunteer small group leader) for Women for Sobriety groups, and this book is a driving force in the sobriety of nearly all of the women I meet. Not everyone benefits from AA, and it's incredibly validating to see that other people similar to ourselves have gotten sober (and stayed sober!) using other methods.
The book is put together in a way that allows the reader to go to the parts that relate most to her/his situation, which is particularly important for people still grappling with addiction or newly sober.
You go, Anne. You have a big fan club in San Francisco!
It is also a strength of SOBER FOR GOOD that Fletcher shows how many people with long-term sobriety have migrated thru various programs thru different phases of their recovery. This would be a good book for one who has been sober for a while, but is feeling the need to expand beyond the limits of what their current program has to offer.
The one drawback in the book is the use of jargon in too many places. For example, use of the term 'master' to describe a person who has achieved sobriety smacks of the guru feeling of many other self-improvement books. A good editor would have made Fletcher find other terminology.
All in all, well worth the $12. I went ahead and bought 5 copies for use with my AA sponsees to let them know that if they don't feel comfortable with the work of the program, then it doesn't mean they're doomed to an early grave.
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