Giving Thanks and Offering Sober Holiday Options

As I write this, it is Thanksgiving Eve. Hopefully every shop has been shopped, every platter located, and the roaster unearthed. As you decide whether to skip the marshmallows on this year's yams and consider whether there are enough vegetarian or gluten free options on your menu, please pause and consider this:

Do you have tasty, non-alcoholic drink choices available for all  of your guests?

Whether sparkling water or sodas, juices, or good old-fashioned root beer, please serve up a selection, in the same nice glasses you would use for great wine or bourbon.

This does not require you to spend one minute considering who drinks (alcohol) and who doesn't. We all will drink something tomorrow.

And a fair number of your guests may also drive somewhere. Be it home, or to the earliest shopping emporium to offer great deals, that drive shouldn't happen with evening one drink for the person behind the wheel.

So as you finish setting the table, or even deciding what to take along to the hostess of your Thanksgiving feast, please be thankful for the gift of too many choices. And help everyone arrive home healthy and alive.

"Staying Sober Through the Holidays" is Margaret Gold's new book. We are thankful that the paperback edition came out today, in time for Thanksgiving.

It's full of great ideas for alcohol-free, and optional, entertaining. Whether you are lucky enough to be a moderate drinker, longtime sober, or simply a thoughtful host, the book has many strategies for staying sober, and supporting your sober friends and family, during this often stressful time of year.

Happy Thanksgiving. From the Lose The Booze Team.

Staying Sober Through the Holidays: Enjoy the Season ... Without Falling into Drinking. In Paperback tomorrow

Northstar Ink is proud and pleased to announce that Margart Gold's newest book, Staying Sober Through the Holidays: Enjoy the Holidays without Falling back into Drinking, will join the current Kindle edition, and be available in paperback tomorrow.

The book is designed for those who are already sober and provides specific strategies for maintaining sobriety during the often perilous holiday season.

Early reviews of the book are glowing:

"This is a great book for anyone trying very hard not to drink during the holidays, or even for the spouse/ brother/ aunt etc of anyone that is trying not to drink.
It is very obvious that the author is speaking from a place of experience, and she shares several personal tips that have helped her.
I also liked this books take on AA, I have never really thought about it before, but the book basically says that AA does not work because it focuses on shaming and negatives. You sit in a dank, dark basement and constantly talk/ hear about the lowest times in your life. I actually really agree with that, and staying focused on the positives.
This book provides a lot of helpful tips on avoidance, and staying away from things that you associate with drinking. It is good, sound advice. The book also includes a short quiz and plenty of contact numbers you can call to receive help.
Overall a great read, very eye opening."

"This is a really helpful book which outlines real and practical strategies that make staying sober during the holiday season easier and empowering. The advice was very well explained, and easy to understand. I could see how it is definitely backed up by research and makes sense. This is a book that has definitely raised my confidence. Highly recommended."  

Buy a copy for yourself or as a nice sign of support to a friend or loved one who has built sobriety and might benefit from a little confidence boost to keep their commitment to staying booze free through the holidays.

Staying Sober Through the Holidays - Now in Kindle

We are so proud and pleased to announce that the author of the Amazon bestseller 'Lose The Booze', Margaret Gold, has just released a new book to help former drinkers stay sober through the holiday season.

Staying Sober Through the Holidays  is designed to help people keep their commitment to staying alcohol-free during the holidays without guilt, shame, or hanging around at meetings in church basements.

Congratulations to Margaret Gold and her editors for adding an important voice to the self-help and recovery communities.

Please take a look. New posts, press, and more links soon.

Lose the Booze 2nd Edition out in Paperback and on Kindle

Lose The Booze has been updated. The second edition of Lose the Booze - The No Meetings Guide to Clearing up your Drinking Problem for Good is available now on Kindle and in paperback.

Plenty of people have emailed and written to ask for non-12-step rehab options. and the new second edition features a selection of non-12-step rehab and outpatient choices for people who may want more support, as they choose to moderate, or end their drinking.

It's really exciting to see people responding so positively to Margaret Gold's book and positive message that no-one needs meetings to get and stay sober.

We're proud to publish Margaret's work and are really excited about her plans for even more non-12 step resources including international options and links to SMART and other non-step rehab and support systems.

A learned scholar makes a large number of AA members unhappy on NPR

It was interesting to see how defensive and AA -or-no-way, the comment thread has trended on an author interview piece on NPR.org.

Dr. Dodes has written a well researched volume that debunks 12 step recovery for the masses. He is particularly concerned about courts and other similar authoritative institutions prescribing AA.

Dr. Dodes is not the first, and hopefully won't be the last to say out loud what many sober people, myself included, have found true in our own lives: AA didn't work for us and we got sober anyway. AA can be very harmful, particularly to women with abusive pasts, and for people with various other profiles incompatible with AA nostrums.

 It was also intriguing that several male contributors to the comment thread were immediately hostile and threatened by the simple statement of, by now established fact, that AA can be particularly ineffective and sometimes dangerous to women with an abusive past.

My recently published book, "Lose The Booze", on Kindle, while nothing like the beautifully researched volume Dr. Dodes has put forth, offers my experience, suggestions for taking back your power, and a brief discussion of the many research studies that do not back up AA claims to success. It offers specific action plans and tips in a little book free of guilt, rather than a Big Book full of antiquated ideas about character and culture.
I applaud Dr. Dodes for taking the high road in describing the type of drinker that may very well benefit from the camaraderie offered by AA, and to reveal that most of us with a serious problem with alcohol, may very well be harmed by the program. It is also a real pleasure, and one that the AA driven comments, here, don't seem to like much, to see an accomplished scholar lend credence to the fact that most of us can and will stop using the substance that is harming us. We are not powerless. We are not flawed. We are the silent majority that found the 12 step method not a fit for our beliefs or circumstances.


http://www.npr.org/2014/03/23/291405829/with-sobering-science-doctor-debunks-12-step-recovery