AA

Hidden in Plain Sight

When I think back and remember the latter part of my active alcoholism and its impact on my family, more than anything else, I think of the extraordinary amount of time I spent trying to hide my drinking. It felt like I spent almost all my time either hiding the purchase of alcohol, hiding the […]

You Are Not Alone

NCLAP publishes a quarterly e-newsletter, Sidebar. LAP volunteers regularly submit articles for Sidebar around recovery themes or slogans. LAP volunteers understand, as few others can, the sense of loneliness and isolation that are so devastatingly integral to depression and drinking problems. “You Are Not Alone” is a popular theme because it offers so much hope. […]

Eyes on the Prize

I’m 10 years old and just won enough money performing in a group at a talent show to buy the toy I’d had my eye on for months. This is how the story of my first regret begins. The show, put on by my religious community, was aimed at raising money for a capital project. […]

No One is Coming

At the start, it was a starburst of luminous warmth. It was fun, it was freeing, it was sophisticated. It was summer beers, sunset champagne toasts, French martinis and obscure Italian wines. I started drinking because it made me relaxed and connected and in love. I felt closer to people around me, to myself, to […]

Alcoholism and the Distance it Creates

Personal stories can be either the easiest to tell, or the hardest. Easiest, because we know our own stories so well; hardest, because they often reveal things about ourselves or those close to us that we might prefer not to disclose. This story is both. I was 30 and divorced when I fell in love […]

An Enabler’s Story

Years ago when I lived in another state and before I enrolled in law school I began dating a man who lived downstairs from me in my quadraplex. He was a very successful computer engineer. One day he was unexpectedly fired from his job. He downplayed the incident and obtained another job of equal stature […]

A Recovery Story: Get Off the Couch  

Mid-November 2000 I was lying on a couch in my office with the lights out, hoping the room would stop spinning. It was around 8:30 am and I found myself in the same situation again: hung over at work and desperate. I was desperate not to have to go to court and act like everything […]

Recovery as a Process

In September 2005 I was driving down I-95 to a Florida treatment center for what I believed would be a 90-day stay in beautiful South Florida. I really did not know much about where I was going or what I was going to do, but Ed Ward of the North Carolina Lawyers Assistance Program had […]

A Recovery Story: Alcoholism is a Family Disease

I am a Double-Winner.   For the uninitiated, that means that I am a member of both Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon.  Al-Anon is for the friends and family of Alcoholics.   The focus of my story will be a little different than the kind of story you typically read.  These articles usually focus on how the disease of alcoholism, and subsequent […]

AA and the Question of Anonymity

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to have an e-mail discussion about anonymity with a law student who was trying to decide whether he should disclose information about being an alcoholic and in recovery in connection with applying for a judicial clerkship. The conversation got me thinking about how we deal with this time-honored […]

A Recovery Story: Darkest Before Dawn

Introduction My name is Kent S. and I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict.  I am sober today through the grace of God and the fellowship of Alcoholic’s Anonymous.  I am also a husband (married thirty-four years), father of five children, and an active member of the LDS faith. I have been a member […]

Demystifying 12-Step Programs

If you are bewildered by the workings of 12-step programs but think that you or someone you know might benefit from one, this article is dedicated to you.  If someone (or more than one person) has recommended that you check out a 12-step program but you don’t think that you have an addictive or compulsive […]