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Bless you for sharing your wonderful Alanon story, tiki. I'm crying tears of joy for you.

Today is the anniversary of my father's death at age 53. Though he went to AA, he never succeeded in getting off the booze. It killed him. It eventually killed my mother. Others in my family as well. A real generational curse. Thank God the curse of alcoholism missed me, I just never liked the stuff much. I went to a therapist specializing in "adult children of alcoholics" and she called our family a "classic Eugene O'Neill tragedy." (Was that supposed to help me?)

Somehow the effects of alcoholism in the family continue to this day. I was not the greatest mother, very rebellious really, after "escaping" my alcoholic parents, I was just too full of my own needs to concentrate enough attention on my children. My daughter turned out fine and loves me to pieces, but my son struggled with alcoholism (apparently cured a couple of years ago but who knows) and some major emotional obstacles to becoming the terrific man God intends him to be. He occasionally just disconnects from me and his sister and the rest of his relatives. When he's riding high, he comes back, but when things turn down for him, like his loss of money in the dotbomb debacle, he crawls into some dark emotional hole and holds those who love him at bay. Now, for instance. Please join me in praying for Bill.

Anyway, tiki, this is a wonderful, perfect day to hear your glorious success story along with TC's. God performs miracles, some in a flash out of the blue, others over time that may seem interminable. I thank you both for your faithfulness and inspiration. And I continue to pray for all afflicted by addiction.

There is more to my miracle. My eldest son grew up to be an alcoholic. I had my Al-anon but it's different when it's your child, I think it hurts more because you tend to blame yourself even though you know better.

Along with the heredity, he was probably more affected than his younger brother by the dysfunction in the home. God's contiunuing miracle was that he married a wonderful woman who treats me just like I was her mother and she was willing to listen and learn and between them, they seem to have risen above the addiction. My son has been sober for 8 years and I am so proud of both of them.

I will continue to pray for your son and hope for a very wonderful Christmas for you and all your family.

"she called our family a "classic Eugene O'Neill tragedy." '

Isn't it strange that so-called analysts don't have a clue about the misery of alcoholism?
Only people who have been there understand.
It is a family disease, and everyone in the family is infected, whether they drink or not.

What you won't find in scholarly articles about alcoholism is that the drinking of alcohol is not the problem - it's only a symptom of the problem, in much the same way that an elevated temperature is a symptom of the flu.
The problem is much deeper than getting drunk.
It's a mental and spiritual disease that manifests itself when the inhibitions are weakened with alcohol, but the problems are there, drunk or sober.
We concentrate on leaving that first drink alone because only in that way can we face and conquer the problems which cause the addiction.
After we get "dried out" we MUST work on the problems, or we will never have comfortable sobriety, and, more than likely, we WILL drink again.

Very few people have the spiritual awakening which took place in my soul on that alter twenty-one years ago, and I feel very blessed for having experienced it.
For most people it's a gradual acceptance of God's will, and the persistent use of the tools He provides for us to conquer this disease.
For most people, getting sober is the easy part.
Living sober requires constant and lifelong adherence to the principals involved in living according to God's will.

No one among us ever achieves spiritual perfection.
We simply claim progress on a day by day basis.

"Please join me in praying for Bill."

I will pray, dear one, that Bill calls you.
I know that will be the best Christmas gift you could hope for.

I will also pray that Bill finds the true way to sobriety - God's way, not man's way.
I pray that he will find the tools God so generously provides for him to live a happy life without the problems that drove him to alcohol.

I wish God's blessings for you, PW.
Merry Christmas.