I've just read a book called "Smashed: growing up a drunk girl" by Koren Zailckas. And it was an irritating read for the most part. She chronicles how she started drinking as a teenager and drank more and more throughout university - I think we are all supposed to be shocked that white middle class American girls might drink too much, might even have blackouts, have sex they can't quite remember or end up in hospital getting their stomachs pumped. Unless you have led a seriously sheltered existence, this should not be especially shocking.
Koren still managed to get good marks at school, get a univeristy degree and get a job all the while drinking way more than the recommended number of alcohol units per week. As does pretty much everyone I know, myself included. She was the textbook functioning alcoholic. But she did cross the line into dependence, realised it was threatening to overtake her life and so she went to AA. Now she doesn't touch a drop. Good for her. She did what she had to do.
But was really pissed me off was her total refusal to call herself an alcoholic. For that is what she was and is. She had a serious addiction, she went to AA and the only viable solution she sees for herself is to abstain completely. That is an alcoholic. It was as if she was just too middle class and still too much of a "nice girl" to admit to being an alcoholic. As if she'd be likened to the wee-stained vagrant in the park with the bottle in a brown paper bag. Sorry, sweetheart. You are an alcoholic. If total abstention is the only way forward for you, that is what you are.
And there seems to be a complete lack of gratitude for her good fortune. For not only did she find a way out of alcoholism at the age of 22, but she also moved to New York, got a good job there and actually found herself a nice, sane, patient, loving tolerant boyfriend. Which is more than a lot of women twice her age have done. Even if they want the dream career and the dream man, it doesn't always happen for everyone. But she seems to have managed it at 22. But instead of being a little bit humble about this, she comes across as a whiny spoilt brat who is about as shocking as Doris Day. She may think she has exposed some scandalous, booze-fuelled middle class underbelly but all she has done is confirm what most of us already knew. And lied to herself and her readers about who she really is.