| Show Jhejalt Lake Tribune OPINION Sunday December 7 1997 AA5 Fellow Alcoholics: Holidays Are Time to Stop Drinking BILL want anyone else to drink Whatever Here I go again Thanksgiving marked the official opening of the holiday drinking season and the issue of excessive drinking must be addressed It has always seemed to me that people who normally don't drink much or at all suddenly start tipping a few around Thanksgiving and then drink right through the December parade of Christmas parties and into the No 1 drinking night of the year: New Year's Eve People who drink too much to begin with meanwhile crank up their boozing to an even more dangerous level during the holiday season And those who are flat-ou- t drunks before the holidays seem to go totally berserk There are two kind of alcoholics: binge drinkers and daily drinkers Binge drinkers — those who get ripped for a few days or a few weeks at a time — are especially susceptible to the lure of the holiday drinking season for the December party circuit offers the prospect of a binge I was a daily drinker By the time I poured my last vodka and grapefruit juice onto the ground and walked into a New Jersey rehab in 1982 1 was drinking more THOMPSON KNIGHT-RIDDE-R NEWSPAPERS - FORT WORTH Texas I thought it would get easier but it doesn't In fact it gets more difficult For some reason it seems that the more time that passes the day I took my last drink and whatever day I'm trying to write about the issue of alcohol abuse the less comfortable I am with the subject Maybe it's because of the hostile reaction I get from certain readers whenever I delve into this murky and sensitive area of the human condition I used to think that my status as a recovering alcoholic — drink-les- s for 15 years as of July — gave me a modicum of expertise on the problem of alcoholism But every time I write about it I get a pile of letters from people telling me that I don't know what the heck I'm talking about Then too there are the letters from people who angrily dismiss my comments as the rantings of a "reformed drunk" a sanctimonious former booze hound who can't drink and therefore doesn't 4Vfc-we- or less around the clock Please believe me when I say that alcohol had long since ceased to be enjoyable After many years of drinking myself into a coma every day booze had definitely lost its charm One of the recovery gurus I met around that time said I was "drinking for maintenance" which means that I was drinking only to stave off the excruciating effects of alcohol withdrawal Longtime readers may be wondering why I'm telling you all this I've covered most of this ground before in various ways and for various reasons My purpose is simple I am hoping that at least one alcoholic will read this and see that he is in the same predicament I was in 15 years ago: sick desperate ready to be nudged in the direction of confronting the problem I can remember sitting in front of the television in the middle of so many endless nights futilely trying to drink myself to sleep and seeing those relentless commercials for rehabs hospitals and assorted substance-abus- e clinics I remember thinking that the 1 sapphire crystal lies flush on the case giving the gold riot a mysterious floating quality Crafted of black finish solid stainless steel Swiss quartz precise Water resistant to 99 feet His or hers B Hinckley Utter-cla- O R T I E R IEWEIERS CEMOIOGISTS Fashion Place Mall Crossroads Plaza 2669504 5340315 NEW MEDICATIONS STUDIED Investigational Research Drug Trials Currently Being Conducted SINUSITIS Participants receive up to $180 Volunteers 18 years and older experiencing symptoms of facial pain nasal discharge and tenderness over the sinuses are invited to participate in an investigational drug study Please call for further information about this investigational drug study £ I I b the inspired counsel of Gordon B Hincklc f miwlUHiWR M Will III Pi) five-yea- LENNOX Nt t ESS THING TO WORRV ABOUT HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING SERVING THE SALT LAKE AREA FOR 28 YEARS 484-440- 2 I "Ssr 'ince You Went Away 1 his 1IXS historical novel is the second volume in the gripping UmMivh I of Ibe Pntmise series by "n Free estimate and the Stoltz family living in America and Europe into the ears of World War H Book $1795 Cass $1995 I II through ! women and their £tJ'mi±l tfSrC?yV P£i 2IV4v ff ' f ' s I I a J I n J I lilfi 1 £ A I I I I -- JdCK JffC- j - (i par- - I I 2 " Jfyl I (J ' I 1 of Afterglow Voume2: °ri8iniU Best miMihtinitl &immMnm selling Afterglow albums I are highlighted on this remarkahic i :caurin a m'w arrangcnicntof8 I " ' Km 'I I f J? 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