Alcoholics Can Drink Safely Again

2009-09-05T18:26:00.002+01:00

Ayrshire authors’ book now out in paperback

A BOOK by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald from Ayrshire in Scotland will be published this week in a new paperback edition.

Phoenix in a Bottle was first published in hardback by Melrose Books in 2005, and tells the story of how the married couple recovered from alcoholism.

In 1994 as a result of their alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch were down and out, sleeping rough in the streets and parks of Cambridge, the English university town where, a quarter of a century before, Murdoch had attained an honours degree.

Rejecting the conventional concepts of alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch set about searching for the underlying causes of their self-harming behaviour problem, which they discovered lay in childhood.

They argue that no alcoholic is addicted to alcohol, but rather to the escape that alcohol affords - escape from life, or certain aspects of life with which they are unable to cope.

Having identified and addressed their issues from the past, the couple are today back home in Ayrshire, leading normal lives again, with their problems of alcoholism and Lilian’s associated eating disorder well and truly behind them.

Controversially, they are also now able to drink alcohol responsibly again, if and when they so wish.

Eminent American psychologist and addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented: “Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

And Phoenix in a Bottle has been selected as a set text by a top American university.

Phoenix in a Bottle is now required reading for all doctoral students in a psychology programme at Alliant International University in San Diego, California.

Alliant International University, headquartered in San Diego and San Francisco, California, was formed in 2001 by the merger of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and the United States International University. Alliant has 6 campuses throughout California and also runs programmes in Mexico City, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant is one of the premier psychology schools in the US, and it counts roughly half the licensed clinical psychologists in California as its alumni.

Dr. Gary W. Lawson is Professor of Psychology at CSPP. He says: “I adopted Phoenix in a Bottle because the dilemma this couple struggled with and the questions they ask themselves are like so many others I have encountered in 35 years of clinical experience treating addictions.

“However, nowhere in addiction literature have I seen these issues examined and explained as well as Lilian and Murdoch do in Phoenix in a Bottle.

“I also recommend Phoenix in a Bottle to many of my patients as well.”

The new paperback edition of Phoenix in a Bottle is published price £9.99 by Melrose Books.

www.melrosebooks.com/bookDetails.php?id=15

www.AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain.com

* * *

Interview on Radio Cambridgeshire

2009-06-03T15:29:00.003+01:00

Cambridgeshire Breakfast with Jeremy Sallis: 03/06/2009: Murdoch MacDonald talks about his and his wife Lilian's book "Phoenix in a Bottle" and how alcoholics can recover from alcoholism and drink responsibly again. Also about the couple's website www.AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain.com

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

* * *

Alcoholics Can Drink Safely Again website redesigned and relaunched

2009-05-28T16:13:00.005+01:00

A WEBSITE offering hope to alcoholics and sufferers from other related addictions has been redesigned and relaunched this week.

The website www.AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain.com features the story of married couple Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald from Ayrshire in Scotland, who recovered from alcoholism and controversially are now able to drink responsibly again, and the book “Phoenix in a Bottle” which they wrote about their journey of discovery.

In 1994 as a result of their alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch were down and out, sleeping rough in the streets and parks of Cambridge, the English university town where, a quarter of a century before, Murdoch had attained an honours degree.

Rejecting the conventional concepts of alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch set about searching for the underlying causes of their self-harming behaviour problem, which they discovered lay in childhood.

They argue that no alcoholic is addicted to alcohol, but rather to the escape that alcohol affords - escape from life, or certain aspects of life with which they are unable to cope.

Having identified and addressed their issues from the past, the couple are today back home in Ayrshire, leading normal lives again, with their problems of alcoholism and Lilian’s associated eating disorder well and truly behind them.

Controversially, they are also now able to drink alcohol responsibly again, if and when they so wish.

Lilian and Murdoch’s book “Phoenix in a Bottle” is the inspiring story of their journey.

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald is published by Melrose Books price 16.99. ISBN: 1905226144.

Reviewing the book, eminent American psychologist and addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented: “Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

“Phoenix in a Bottle” has been selected as a set text by a top American university. It is now required reading for all doctoral students in a psychology programme at Alliant International University in San Diego, California.

Alliant International University, headquartered in San Diego and San Francisco, California, was formed in 2001 by the merger of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and the United States International University. Alliant has 6 campuses throughout California and also runs programmes in Mexico City, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant is one of the premier psychology schools in the US, and it counts roughly half the licensed clinical psychologists in California as its alumni.

Dr. Gary W. Lawson is Professor of Psychology at CSPP. He says: “I adopted Phoenix in a Bottle because the dilemma this couple struggled with and the questions they ask themselves are like so many others I have encountered in 35 years of clinical experience treating addictions.

“However, nowhere in addiction literature have I seen these issues examined and explained as well as Lilian and Murdoch do in Phoenix in a Bottle.

“I also recommend ‘Phoenix in a Bottle’ to many of my patients as well.”

“Phoenix in a Bottle” is listed on Amazon UK.

www.amazon.co.uk/Phoenix-Bottle-Lilian-MacDonald/dp/1905226144

“Phoenix in a Bottle” is published by Melrose Books price £16.99.

www.melrosebooks.com/bookDetails.php?id=15

Melrose Books marketing and promotions co-ordinator Judith Stephens commented: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the authors to use their writing to help those studying addictions and behaviour, who will of course go onto to help addicts.”

www.AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain.com

allmediascotland

* * *

End alcoholism - bomb Spain! argues addiction expert Stanton Peele

2008-04-06T13:30:00.001+01:00

American addiction expert Stanton Peele writes a bravura piece combining irony and reductio ad absurdum, and pursues his opponents’ arguments to their logical conclusion that America should bomb Spain and Portugal in order to reduce the incidence of alcohol abuse at home.

To view article CLICK HERE

* * *

American university adopts Scottish couple’s alcoholism book as set text

2008-02-11T21:49:00.000Z

A BOOK by a married couple from Ayrshire in Scotland has been selected as a set text by a top American university.

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald will now be required reading for all doctoral students in a psychology programme at Alliant International University in San Diego, California.

The book tells the story of Lilian and Murdoch’s desperate fight against and recovery from alcoholism.

Alliant International University, headquartered in San Diego and San Francisco, California, was formed in 2001 by the merger of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and the United States International University. Alliant has 6 campuses throughout California and also runs programmes in Mexico City, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant is one of the premier psychology schools in the US, and it counts roughly half the licensed clinical psychologists in California as its alumni.

Dr. Gary W. Lawson is Professor of Psychology at CSPP. He says: “I adopted “Phoenix in a Bottle” because the dilemma this couple struggled with and the questions they ask themselves are like so many others I have encountered in 35 years of clinical experience treating addictions.

“However, nowhere in addiction literature have I seen these issues examined and explained as well as Lilian and Murdoch do in “Phoenix in a Bottle”.

“I also recommend ‘Phoenix in a Bottle’ to many of my patients as well.”

Since it was published in 2005, “Phoenix in a Bottle” has been listed on Amazon UK, but this month it was also listed for the first time on Amazon.com, hopefully giving an extra boost to future international sales of the book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoenix-Bottle-Lilian-MacDonald/dp/1905226144

http://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Bottle-Lilian-MacDonald/dp/1905226144

“Phoenix in a Bottle” is published by Melrose Books price £16.99.

http://www.melrosebooks.com/bookDetails.php?id=15

Melrose Books marketing and promotions co-ordinator Judith Stephens commented: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the authors to use their writing to help those studying addictions and behaviour, who will of course go onto to help addicts.”

ABOUT LILIAN AND MURDOCH MACDONALD

In 1994 as a result of their alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald were down and out, sleeping rough in the streets and parks of Cambridge, the English university town where, a quarter of a century before, Murdoch had attained an honours degree.

Rejecting the conventional concepts of alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch set about searching for the underlying causes of their self-harming behaviour problem, which they discovered lay in childhood.

They argue that no alcoholic is addicted to alcohol, but rather to the escape that alcohol affords - escape from life, or certain aspects of life with which they are unable to cope.

Having identified and addressed their issues from the past, the couple are today back home in Ayrshire, Scotland, leading normal lives again, with their problems of alcoholism and Lilian’s associated eating disorder well and truly behind them.

Controversially, they are also now able to drink alcohol responsibly again, if and when they so wish.

Described as a modern day “Days of Wine and Roses”, Lilian and Murdoch’s book “Phoenix in a Bottle” is the inspiring story of their journey.

ABOUT PROFESSOR GARY W. LAWSON

Dr. Lawson, a Professor of Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University in San Diego, teaches in the PsyD doctoral programme in clinical psychology. He has been teaching, conducting research and publishing articles and books in the addictions field since 1971. He has conducted training in addictions all across the United States and worldwide. He and his wife Dr Ann W Lawson, a Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Marriage and Family Therapy programme at Alliant, were co-founding editors of the journal “Family Dynamics of Addictions Quarterly” and between them they have written 10 books on addictions and related topics. They are currently working on a fourth edition of their book “Essentials of Chemical Dependency Counselling” and a third edition of their book “Alcoholism and the Family: A Guide to Treatment and Prevention”. They just completed work on a 2nd edition of their edited book “Alcoholism and Substance Abuse in Diverse Populations”, which should be available this summer through ProEd publishers in Austin, Texas.

ABOUT ALLIANT INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Alliant International University offers a unique curriculum that combines academics and apprenticeship in all courses of study. With accredited programs at San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego, California, Alliant also hosts accredited programs in Mexico City, Mexico and Tokyo, Japan.

http://www.alliant.edu

LINKS

http://www.AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain.com
http://www.AyrshireScotlandBusinessNews.com
http://www.famepublicity.co.uk

Alcoholics should make resolution to read “Phoenix in a Bottle”

2007-12-30T19:18:00.000Z

Alcoholics worldwide should make a New Year resolution to read the controversial book "Phoenix in a Bottle" by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald say publishers Melrose Books.

The book shows how alcoholics can make a radical recovery from alcoholism, to the extent of being able to drink responsibly again if and when they so wish.

"Phoenix in a Bottle" is the true story of Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald, two former alcoholics from Ayrshire in Scotland who, eleven years ago, were down and out, sleeping rough in the streets and parks of Cambridge, the university town where a quarter of a century previously Murdoch had studied as an undergraduate for his degree in English Literature at Magdalene College.

Lilian and Murdoch tried Alcoholics Anonymous many times, but eventually finally rejected its outdated and doctrinaire dogma that alcoholism is an incurable illness or disease, and that the only hope for the alcoholic is lifelong sobriety.

"Alcoholism is not a disease," say Lilian and Murdoch. "It is a self-harming behaviour problem rooted in childhood, and if alcoholics are willing to identify and address their issues from the past, then there is no reason why they should not be able to rid themselves of their problem behaviour, even to the extent of being able to drink alcohol safely and responsibly again if and when they so wish."

"After all," Lilian and Murdoch point out, "lifelong sobriety is not recovery from alcohol. It is just treating the symptom rather than the underlying cause, and merely a damage-limitation exercise."

The two former alcoholics continue: "There is a need for a brand new worldwide organisation to replace Alcoholics Anonymous, a fellowship which is now outdated and stuck in a rut that it is unwilling or unable to get out of in order to address its own self-confessed abysmal failure rate.

"According to both an independent US government survey and AA's own membership surveys, AA-style treatment works for only 5% of its participants."

Leading American addiction expert Dr. Marc Kern says: "These two surveys clearly show that, after 12 months of attendance, 95% of the original participants have left the programme and either resumed their destructive behaviour or hopefully - but less likely - sought help elsewhere.

"These people have not failed," insists Dr Kern.

"The 12-Step approach has failed them."

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald attribute the failure of the 12-Step programme to the fact that Alcoholics Anonymous stubbornly insists upon treating alcoholism as a progressive and incurable illness or disease, from which only remission is possible by sticking to a strict regime of abstinence from alcohol.

They say: "Perpetuation of the disease concept of alcoholism is aided and abetted by private rehab clinics that have piggybacked AA and hijacked its 12-Step programme for their own profit."

"Alcoholics Anonymous has the solution to its problems in its own hands," continue Lilian and Murdoch.

"Any normal organisation would be open to new ideas, and would welcome discussion and change as new discoveries and progress were made in the field of alcoholism.

"Unfortunately AA has adopted a cult-like attitude, and regards its so-called programme of recovery as set in stone forever. No changes have been made or even allowed in the 70 years of its existence, and no questioning or discussion is tolerated."

So Lilian and Murdoch conclude: "A completely new organisation is the only solution.

"An organisation that does not seek to perpetuate the disease model of alcoholism long after its sell-by date.

"One that does not advocate lifelong sobriety as a prerequisite for recovery, but instead empowers alcoholics to alter their behaviour in the way that they choose for themselves.

"One that does not insist upon dragging pseudo-religion into a situation in which it has neither use nor relevance.

"And finally one that welcomes change and progress in the understanding of alcoholism, and is willing to accept diverse ways of treating it, instead of dogmatically promulgating and perpetuating a one-size-fits-all approach that is stuck in the past forever."

"Phoenix in a Bottle"

"Phoenix in a Bottle" by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald is published by Melrose Books price 16.99. ISBN: 1905226144

Eminent American psychologist and addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

"Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

"Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise."

http://www.AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain.com

http://www.melrosebooks.com/bookDetails.php?id=15

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoenix-Bottle-Lilian-MacDonald/dp/1905226144

Eclectic Recovery: Angela's Blog

2007-11-24T13:11:00.000Z

Angela Nolan’s blog “Eclectic Recovery” is an ongoing candid account of her journey to discover a recovery programme that is specific to and effective for herself.

http://eclecticrecovery.blogspot.com/

Angela has kindly reviewed our book “Phoenix in a Bottle”.
CLICK HERE

Alcoholics Anonymous challenged to take part in an open debate

2007-11-19T12:29:00.000Z

Murdoch and Lilian MacDonald, two former alcoholics from Ayrshire in Scotland, have issued a challenge to Alcoholics Anonymous to take part in an open debate in the media about alcoholism and AA’s 12-Step programme.

“Firstly, Alcoholics Anonymous is wrong,” Murdoch and Lilian say. “Alcoholism is not a progressive, incurable disease or illness which alcoholics are born with. It is a behaviour problem, a response to dysfunctional childhood.

“Alcoholics are not addicted to alcohol. They are addicted to the escape that alcohol affords. Escape from life, or certain aspects of life which they find too difficult or too painful to cope with, or the associated feelings that go with not coping. Alcohol is a quick fix, and addiction means an habitual response or repetitive behaviour.”

In the first step of the programme, Alcoholics Anonymous members are told that they “powerless over alcohol” and that therefore there is nothing they can do about it but accept lifelong abstinence. But Murdoch and Lilian have proved that the opposite is true and that there‘s a lot that alcoholics can do for themselves.

They believe that everybody is capable of changing their behaviour. They say: “If, as we did, alcoholics choose to identify and to address their issues from the past, or, alternatively, simply take a more mature attitude of responsibility for their behaviour and learn to deal with their life, most will be able drink responsibly once again if and when they so wish.

“Advocating lifelong abstinence from alcohol on the other hand is merely treating the symptom rather than the underlying problem, and is just a damage-limitation exercise.”

Murdoch and Lilian’s second point is that Alcoholics Anonymous is not effective.

According to both an independent US government survey and AA’s own membership surveys, AA-style treatment works for only 5% of its participants.

And a report published by the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration says: “The available experimental studies did not demonstrate the effectiveness of AA or other 12-step approaches in reducing alcohol use and achieving abstinence compared with other treatments,” although they say further research is needed.

Moreover. leading American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele shows that most sufferers from all so-called addictions, including alcoholism, mature out of their dependence without any intervention whatsoever, and in the case of alcoholism, a sizeable proportion of them are able to drink normally again.

The third point of Lilian and Murdoch’s challenge is that Alcoholics Anonymous is dogmatic, inflexible and impervious to change.

“Any normal organisation would be open to new ideas,” they say, “and would welcome discussion and change as new discoveries and progress are made in the field of alcoholism.

“Unfortunately AA has adopted a cult-like attitude, and regards its so-called programme of recovery as set in stone forever. No changes have been made or even allowed in more than 70 years of its existence, and no questioning or discussion is tolerated.”

The waters are further muddied, Murdoch and Lilian say, by the fact that AA’s 12-Step Programme is borrowed from an early 19th century American evangelical movement, with half of the twelve steps mentioning God.

Interestingly, all American courts have ruled that government agencies cannot encourage or support AA or 12-step treatment, since their religious basis violates the First Amendment’s ban against state support of religion.

And the status quo has been perpetuated by private rehab clinics that have piggybacked AA and hijacked its 12-Step programme for their own profit. Profit that is maximised by using a ready-made one size fits all prescription instead of providing individual treatment for individual people.

So Murdoch and Lilian conclude that a completely new organisation may be the only solution if Alcoholics Anonymous remains unwilling to embrace change and progress. They say that AA’s absolute refusal to accept change that is already happening is their greatest weakness.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Dr Stanton Peele PhD JD is an internationally recognised addiction expert and father of three. His books include “7 Tools to Beat Addiction” and “Addiction-Proof Your Child”. Stanton Peele has had no part in the preparation or issue of this press release.

http://www.peele.net

Murdoch and Lilian are authors of “Phoenix in a Bottle” - how they overcame alcoholism by dealing with the underlying cause, and are now able to drink responsibly again.

Available direct from the publisher:
http://www.melrosebooks.com/bookDetails.php?id=15

Available on Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoenix-Bottle-Lilian-MacDonald/dp/1905226144

Lilian and Murdoch’s website:
http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

E-mail: lilianandmurdoch@aol.com

Issued by Fame Publicity Services

http://www.famepublicity.co.uk

Enquiries: Murdoch@famepublicity.co.uk

www.Addictioninfo.org

2007-11-13T09:48:00.000Z

Link to some of our articles on www.addictioninfo.org

CLICK HERE

Addictioninfo.org

2007-11-05T23:29:00.000Z

www.addictioninfo.org

www.AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain.com

Stanton Peele - The Only Free Person in America?

2007-11-04T13:28:00.000Z

“Sometimes I feel like the only free person in America.”

So says leading addiction expert Dr. Stanton Peele in the latest blog entry shortly to be posted on his authoritative and widely consulted addiction website.

Dr. Peele explains: “Although many question – and some virulently oppose – the disease theory of alcoholism and addiction, only I can speak my mind freely on this topic.”

As an example of people’s common reluctance to speak out against the disease theory of alcoholism and addiction and the 12-step program, Stanton Peele recalls the time he was hired as a forensic expert to an attorney for a successful physician in a major medical center.

The physician had been accused by his soon-to-be-ex-wife of alcoholism and was forced to enter a prominent treatment center.

There, he refused to concede that he was an alcoholic or to accept the “spiritual” 12-step program. Negative consequences followed, and he sued.

His lawyer, whom Dr. Peele describes as extremely dedicated and smart, moved for and was granted a summary judgment against the medical board. This attorney argued that it was a violation of the doctor’s right of privacy for a medical board to punish him for actions which, if true, occurred in his private life and never impacted his medical practice.

Stanton Peele continues: “When I asked whether the physician wanted to sue the board or the treatment center to make this case public, he declined. Why endanger a highly successful, lucrative and satisfying medical career just to make a point?

“And this from a man who felt so strongly that his rights were being violated that he refused to simply go along with the 12-step principles he was force fed in order to preserve his license!”

Dr. Peele cites another example.

“I work with a prominent cleric, a man with connections reaching into the highest levels of government. His religious orientation of self-determination was threatened when he entered the intensive outpatient program (IOP) at Morristown Memorial Hospital, which was typically completely 12-step oriented and run by a recovering AA automaton. He described incredulously the insensitivity of this woman when a female group member reported having a glass of champagne at a wedding. The woman running the program sarcastically asked for reactions from the group, who took turns lambasting the female participant. She left crying, and never returned. Another successful outcome!

“I asked this man, a gentleman and a scholar who couldn’t be more opposed to the 12-steps and this IOP on fundamental ethical grounds, whether he could communicate his feelings to those he knew in political power. He demurred. ‘I have a very visible public position to maintain,’ he reminded me.”

Stanton Peele then tells of a woman he knows who has bravely moved from her own 12-step recovery to become a motivational interviewing (MI) and a harm reduction (HR) therapist and teacher. (These are non-12-step treatment approaches that respect personal determination and recognize continued use but seek to minimize potential dangers of this use.) She encountered a major actor who was wrestling with “recovery” issues. When Dr. Peele asked her if she mentioned her own journey and current views, she said, “No, it didn’t seem appropriate to force my experience on him.”

Yet this woman had previously told Dr. Peele that she fantasized about some show business figure rejecting the standard treatment programs in favor of seeking MI or HR treatment!

Dr. Stanton Peele concludes: “This, of course, reminds me of the most prominent 12-step quisling of all – James Frey. When Frey’s book A Million Little Pieces was first published, he appeared with me in 2002 on a John Stossel special, “Help Me, I Can’t Help Myself.” There he declared AA and the 12 steps bullshit – as he did throughout his book.

“But by the time he appeared on Oprah, and was selected for her book club, there was no trace of his anti-12-step views – people who saw him with Oprah thought he was a standard recovery story. Amazingly, despite the bestsellerdom of his book, no one except Amy McCarley and I - http://www.peele.net/lib/frey.html - has ever noted this.

“So I guess America will go on for a few more decades in its perfect ignorance that AA and the 12 steps are not the only option – and often not even the preferred one.”

[Dr. Stanton Peele’s new book “Addiction-Proof Your Child” tackles these issues for young Americans.]

http://www.addictionproofyourchild.com

Links:

I-Newswire PR-GB PressBox SeeNation FreePress 24/7

Fame Publicity Services

Ayrshire Business News

Stanton's Blog

Here's to us - Couple invent new method to beat the booze

2007-10-31T13:56:00.000Z

By: Yvonne Bolouri, in the Sun newspaper

MURDOCH and Lilian MacDonald met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, eloped three years later, and spent their honeymoon on a £5,000 booze bender.

The couple were chronic alcoholics - decades of hard drinking had left their lives in a mess, and they were penniless and living rough on the streets.

When they got together seven years ago, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

To look at them today, however, sitting in their comfortable Ayrshire home sipping a glass of wine, you'd never believe that they'd almost drunk themselves to death.

Most recovering alcoholics only manage to keep it together by staying on the wagon and resisting the temptation to have even one drink.

But Murdoch, 56, and Lilian, 57, shunned the AA method to devise their own recovery programme that allowed them to conquer their condition AND enjoy social drinking again.

Now, for the first time in their lives, alcohol is something that they can enjoy in moderation, and they want to share their secret with the world.

Lilian said: "We can now drink safely and in a socially acceptable fashion. We're so delighted with our recovery that we tell anyone who'll listen that if they go back and examine their childhood, they can cure themselves.

Slippery

"Before this, there was never any alternative to AA, but we've been to many AA meetings over many, many years, and lapsed many, many times.

"I don't want to live my life scared of alcohol, thinking just one slip and I'm down the same slippery slope.

"I would never treat myself so badly again. Alcoholism isn't a disease, it's a behavioural problem."

Murdoch and Lilian's backgrounds were very similar. Murdoch was a high-powered banker with a degree from Magdalene College, Cambridge University, who had lived the English middle-class life with his first wife and children.

Lilian's previous marriages had given her two childre and all the trappings of wealth - a big house, a cabin cruiser and exotic holidays. But they both had long-standing drink problems that years of AA meetings could not conquer.

When they first met, it was the perfect excuse to fall off the wagon again. Only this time, their explosive potential for self-destructive behaviour almost led to disaster. Lilian said: "We'd both been married twice before. We each had two children, all of whom are grown up now, and we had lives and responsibilities.

"We met up at an AA meeting, and eloped three weeks later to York on a bender that would change our lives forever.

"We booked into a B&B, and woke up days later with about 40 empty whisky bottles littered around the room. We had taken about £5,000 with us when we set off, but soon it was all gone.

We headed for Cambridge determined to make a fresh start. Then we made the mistake of telling our landlady that we were recovering alcoholics.

"She locked us out of the house, and we spent our first night on the streets, where we were mugged and robbed. All I had was a pair of gold slippers and someone gave us a stolen duvet from Marks & Spencer."

As they shambled around with other drunken dossers, Lilian and Murdoch talked about getting their lives back on a even keel. Lilian said: "It seemed an impossible dream. I was also anorexic. I was a size six, just skin and bone. I honestly don't know how I'm still alive."

Weeks passed in a drunken haze, until one night, slumped together on a park bench drunk and starving, two nurses on their way home from a nightclub stopped, bought them food, and found them a place in a homeless hostel.

Demons

The security provided by having a roof over their heads once again proved to be a turning point for the couple as they started the painful process of working out WHY they drank as a way of conquering their demons.

Lilian explained: "We both had unhappy childhoods. I know that it sounds all too simple, and you just think 'get over it - you're an adult.'

"But alcoholics all carry this child inside of us. We cannot cope with life, and that is why we drink."

Once they realised that they were making progress, Murdoch and Lilian took jobs selling the local daily newspaper, the Cambridge Evening News, on the streets. They started to put the pieces of their lives back together again.

Lilia said: "Murdoch got a job in market research. We got better by forcing ourselves to go back over everything in our lives to find out what had made us the way we were.

"When I learned to let go, instead of keeping such a tight rein on myself, I realised that it was me who was making alcohol a problem, not the alcohol itself."

Murdoch is now editor of a recruitment newspaper, and writes a regular weekly column in a local Ayrshire newspaper.

The couple are writing a book about their experiences.

Lilian said: "We are now both totally free. The AA doctrine tells you 'the body of an alcoholic is as abnormal as his mind.' RUBBISH! There's nothing abnormal about any alcoholic. They need to examine their childhood, put their life in order, and change their behaviour."

The couple's recovery programme has put them at odds with Alcoholics Anonymous, who doubt that their plan would work for large numbers of recovering alcoholics.

Lilian said: "AA has provided a place of safety for many people who would otherwise have drunk themselves into prison, hospital, or a premature grave.

"But AA assumes that everything they say is correct, and tolerate no discussion. They think that their way is the only way. Well, it's not.

"Believe me, it's wonderful to be able to enjoy a drink again, knowing that you can take it or leave it at will!"

AddictionInfo.org

Lilian and Murdoch's website

This article on the website

Review of "Addiction-Proof Your Child" By Dr Stanton Peele PhD JD

2007-09-10T17:17:00.000+01:00

[The following review of Dr Stanton Peele’s new book “Addiction-Proof Your Child” is by Murdoch and Lilian MacDonald from Ayrshire, Scotland, authors of “Phoenix in a Bottle”, an account of their own recovery from alcoholism.]

Dr Stanton Peele’s new book “Addiction-Proof Your Child” is a concise and commonsense piece of work that does exactly what the title suggests, and gives parents a comprehensive guide to ensure their offspring never fall victim to drug and other addictions, including alcoholism.

At the same time, the book provides valuable advice on how best to help a child who is already an addict or who is showing signs of dependency.

Although he claims at the outset that his book is not revolutionary, Dr Peele starts off by saying that we should disregard much of what we are told about addiction and its treatment by governments, the media and even some elements of the medical profession itself.

Reiterating what he has argued in previous books, the author points out that addiction can take many forms, and need not be to a substance, citing the examples of shopping, gambling, love and sex.

He goes on to deride the idea that addiction is an illness or a disease, or that it is any kind of biological phenomenon beyond our control, or that it has any genetic causation.

Addicts do not have a problem with heroin or with alcohol, Dr Peele says, they have a problem with life.

He explains: “People become addicted to experiences that protect them from life challenges that they can’t deal with.”

Not only should we not treat addiction as if it were a disease, neither should we treat it as a crime.

Stanton Peele points out that alcohol and drugs are always going to be available regardless of what society may do, and young people are always going to be prone to experiment with them.

However, the good news is that drug use rarely leads to drug addiction, any more so than taking a drink leads to alcoholism.

Moreover, of those people who do become dependent, the vast majority mature out of their addiction of their own volition as their life moves on.

So parents should think twice before rushing children with a drug or alcohol problem into treatment, since surveys have proved that people undergoing such treatments, particularly those based upon the 12-Step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, fare no better, or even not so well as those who undertake to change their behaviour with no outside assistance whatsoever.

What Stanton Peele says parents can and should do is to encourage this natural maturing process by instilling their children with positive values and a responsible attitude about themselves and their place in society.

He says: “What kids need to protect them from addiction are the fundamentals of a life: a sense of meaning and involvement, purposeful activity and achievement, caring about themselves and others, and the ability to manage themselves.”

Stanton Peele goes on: “My approach includes recognising that addiction is not limited to drugs, that people overcome addiction when they are motivated and when their lives improve, and that successful therapy for addiction builds on people’s own motivation to change, while teaching them better ways of coping.”

Dr Peele argues that such an approach depends for success upon giving children self-efficacy, a firm belief that they hold their destiny in their own hands.

This is in stark contrast to the 12-Step programme, which is based upon the false assumption that an addict is powerless against an incurable lifelong disease.

As Dr Peele says: “Learning to assume adult responsibilities does not mesh well with admitting powerlessness.”

“No experience, including addiction, is beyond human beings’ control. People are most likely to escape addiction when their values contradict continued addiction, and when they believe they can escape it.”

Stanton Peele’s book provides much more detailed advice about how parents can deal with offspring’s addiction, and (even more importantly) how to avoid it happening in the first place.

It claims to say little that is new, but rather to reassert some good old-fashioned traditional virtues and values.

“Addiction-Proof” Your Child” is nevertheless an urgent and much-needed wake-up call to all parents, to the medical profession, and to governments both here in the UK as well as in Stanton Peele’s native America.

“Addiction-Proof Your Child” by Stanton Peele Phd JD is published by Crown Publishing Group, Division of Random House Inc, price $14.95 (£7.39). ISBN 978-0307237576.

Murdoch and Lilian MacDonald
Ayrshire, Scotland.

Murdoch and Lilian MacDonald are the authors of “Phoenix in a Bottle”, an account of how they themselves reconstructed their own lives after many years of chronic alcoholism.

Lilian and Murdoch's website: CLICK HERE

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This review on Lilian and Murdoch's website: CLICK HERE

From Stanton Peele's Blog

2007-06-17T10:58:00.000+01:00

FROM STANTON PEELE'S BLOG

Non-Disease Treatment Programs Now Available!

The New York Times ran an article questioning the success of standard addiction treatment programs (“Stars Check In, Stars Check Out”): “experts in the field seem to agree that the success rate for rehab programs, most of which are based on the 12-step therapy created by Alcoholics Anonymous, hovers somewhere between 30 percent at best, and below 10 percent at worst.”

Several centers in Southern California now offer alternatives to the 12-step model of treatment, and some even question whether addiction should be regarded as a disease. At Passages, in Malibu, they regard the disease theory as “a dirty trick.” Instead, they “reinforce a person’s ability to completely cure themselves of dependency. The first thing we give them is hope: ‘You’re going to be fine.’ ”

These centers, all in Southern California, have developed to cope with more demanding clients, often Hollywood stars. Many people objected when Promises (also in Malibu) allowed Lindsay Lohan to leave the campus to work out. The Web site for Wonderland, in Beverly Hills, claims: “Recovery does not need to isolate you from your friends, family or career.” According to its director, Howard Samuels, “If you spend your whole time at a treatment center, when you leave you’re not prepared for the stresses and anxieties on the outside.”

It’s good to see such sensible principles invade the cloistered treatment centers of America. The Domus Retreat in Anaheim even questions the need – or the possibility – of absolute abstinence: According to director Clare Waismann, “You can’t tell Lindsay Lohan she can never have a beer again or she’s failed. She will fail.”

It’s a little early to sound the death knell for the disease approach and 12 steps. But we are beginning to see fissures in America’s gigantic treatment monolith, which has ruled the country for the last half century. Of course, it’s possible to get non-disease treatment for less than the $40,000 monthly fee charged by Wonderland. You can call me, for instance.

Stanton Peele is the author of Love and Addiction and 7 Tools to Beat Addiction.

To visit Stanton Peele's Blog CLICK HERE

Lilian and Murdoch's website: www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

Conquering the demon drink (from the Sunday Times newspaper)

2007-05-29T13:05:00.000+01:00

Conquering the demon drink

(from the Sunday Times newspaper)

For Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald, rejecting Alcoholics Anonymous’s message of abstinence was the first step on the long road to recovery...

When you see an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting portrayed in a film or on television, the hero or heroine stands up and says: “My name’s Bill and I’m an alcoholic.” Then it fades out to lush music and you don’t know what happens next. Well, we attended AA meetings on and off for 20 or so years. We met at an AA meeting. It is pretty much the only option available to people with a drink problem. We are convinced that what happens after the music fades away does not help everybody.

AA’s programme starts from the premise that alcoholism is an incurable illness, that alcoholics have a mental and physical allergy to booze, and that they are different from others. Their solution is to label you an alcoholic for life, browbeat you into accepting the label and insist that you give up drinking — they call it staying sober — for ever. It’s not sobriety they demand, it’s abstinence.

After decades spent trying and failing the AA way, it is plain to us that alcoholism is not a disease and is not incurable. It’s a behavioural problem, a self-harming problem. We are no longer alcoholics. We got to the root of why we drank to excess and then rebuilt our lives. Now we can even enjoy a glass of wine with a meal.

Alcoholics Anonymous started in the 1930s as an evangelical, non-denominational Christian sect. It says now that it’s not a religious organisation, yet out of the famous “12 steps”, six mention God. The Black Book — the bible of the AA movement — hasn’t changed in 70 years. You are not allowed to say the book is wrong, or to question it in any way. You may ask questions, but only as though you are consulting the oracle. There are large group sessions devoted to discussing how wonderful it is. You are never to stop reading and rereading it. From the beginning, we both felt this was wrong. For us, lifelong sobriety — the ultimate goal of AA members — is not recovery. It’s a damage limitation exercise.

There is no easy way to escape the clutches of the bottle. We met at AA in Ayr, in 1993. Three years later we eloped. Our honeymoon was a £5,000 whisky bender. We moved to Cambridge, where Murdoch planned to start a PhD. But our landlady threw us out after a drunken binge and we were reduced to begging on the streets. That was our lowest point, living rough amid the glittering spires where Murdoch had been an undergraduate; no money for food or booze, wondering where we could go from there. One night two nurses found us huddled on a park bench. They took pity on us, bought us a cup of tea and found us a place in a hostel.

From there, we began rebuilding our lives. We started writing our life stories, trying to figure out what was causing our self-destructive drinking. Going back to our childhoods, tracing the roots of my anorexia and Murdoch’s difficult relationship with his cold, distant father helped us to see why we had turned to the bottle. We spent a year figuring it all out while selling newspapers, saving money and planning a return to Ayr. We wanted to come back reasonably respectfully, with our drinking under control.

We had to believe in ourselves, and in each other. We had no other friends. All doors were closed to us, nobody wanted to know, and that’s a hell of a place to be. Murdoch still does not see his two children from his first marriage. At this point I was still speaking to my son and daughter, our only family ties.

It was Elaine, my daughter, who arranged for us to come back to Ayr. We moved into a rented flat and took whatever work we could find: door-to-door market research around the suburban fringes of Paisley with no car, no shelter, no toilet.

Slowly, things fell into place. I got up one morning and said ‘Wow!’. It was as if a veil had fallen from my eyes. At last I realised why I had been behaving like this. We took on a jobshare with a small charity, then gradually Murdoch resumed his career as a financial journalist and PR man that had fallen by the wayside. At first he wrote a column for the Ayrshire Post, then edited a new paper, Scottish Recruitment. It wasn’t grandly paid, but it was better to be writing for newspapers than selling them. Our life together, which had always been defined by drinking, was becoming normal at last. We had to relearn how to mix with people. After years on the margins it was very strange to be invited anywhere, to be socially included. To be treated with a bit of respect.

Today we have a great relationship with my son, John, 44, and are very close to Elaine, 39. She was wary the first time she saw us drinking — the AA message is so strong — but when we explained what we were doing, it made sense. She soon realised it was fine. It means she can come down on a Friday night, bring a bottle of wine and relax with us. She has been very supportive.

Now, after seven years of hard labour, we have finally published our book. We really believe that our own struggle would have been so much quicker, and less painful, if we could have read a book like it. At the time, we did not know another soul who had been through what we were going through.

It wasn’t until we came through the other end that we discovered that the first doubts about AA’s methods were voiced by the addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele as early as 1964. We were delighted when he agreed to read our book and described it as “a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems”.

So far we have found 12 psychiatrists, psychologists or clinics in America that agree with our theory that alcoholism is a behavioural problem and that it is possible to recover and drink in a controlled way. At the same time, however, law courts are, in many US states, including compulsory AA sessions in the sentences for drink-related offences.

Another thing that alarms us is the way the AA 12-step plan has crept into the private sector. One of the only good things about AA is that it is free to whomever wants to attend. But now private clinics are piggybacking onto AA, taking the programme and selling it back at £3,000 a week for a six-week course. And then the NHS, unable or unwilling to deal with the whole problem of alcoholism, sends a percentage of its patients on these six-week courses. Who pays for this? Us. If AA works for you, if you want to give up drinking for life, that’s fine. We are not telling anyone what they should or should not do. But we do want to start a debate and open up choices.

Phoenix in a Bottle, by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald is published by Melrose Books, £16.99. Available direct from the publishers Melrose Books or on Amazon
Lilian and Murdoch's website:
CLICK HERE

Read the original article:
CLICK HERE

Read "Alcoholism and Alcoholics" CLICK HERE

Alcoholics Anonymous is wrong - alcoholism is not an incurable illness

2007-05-21T17:47:00.000+01:00

Alcoholism is not an incurable and progressive illness or disease, as Alcoholics Anonymous would have us believe, but rather a self-harming behaviour problem with its roots in childhood.

So say former alcoholics Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald from Ayrshire in Scotland. They argue that pursuing lifelong sobriety is not a sign of recovery from alcoholism, as Alcoholics Anonymous claims. Staying away from booze one day at a time is treating the symptom instead of the fundamental underlying problem, and merely a damage limitation exercise.

Lilian says: "If an alcoholic is willing to identify and thoroughly address their issues from the past, then there is no reason why he or she should not be able to consciously change their previously problematic behaviour patterns, even to the extent of being able to drink responsibly and safely again in a perfectly normal and sociable manner. We know that this is possible, because we have done it ourselves. So have many other former alcoholics who have contacted us from all over the world through our website www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

"Being able to drink responsibly again is important in itself for an alcoholic, because it's not pleasant to be socially excluded for any reason. But being able to drink normally and safely again is even more important because it is the outward and visible sign that an alcoholic has resolved his or her problems and is truly well again.

"Nobody is incapable of changing their behaviour. And that is one of the fundamental differences between Alcoholics Anonymous and us. AA disempowers people - the first of the Twelve Steps says: "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol" - but we are fighting to give alcoholics that power back."

Ten years ago the Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald had hit rock bottom, sleeping rough for two weeks on the streets of Cambridge, where a quarter of a century previously as an undergraduate Murdoch had received an honours degree in English Literature. They had moved there from Ayr with the idea of Murdoch doing research for a doctorate (PhD), but reverted to their old habits, started binge drinking, and were thrown out of their lodgings.

After a fortnight, and when they were just about at the end of their tether, two nurses on their way home after a Saturday night out took pity on Lilian and Murdoch, bought them a cup of tea and found them a place in a homeless hostel.

The couple spent the next twelve months there getting to the roots of their alcoholism. They tried AA one last time, before concluding that it was a quasi-religious cult whose ideas on alcoholism were inadequate and outdated.

Instead, by reading psychology, they decided that the causes of their alcoholic behaviour lay in problems experienced during childhood. And that once these problems were realised and addressed, there was no longer any need for escape through alcoholism, and they could even drink normally like other people again.

Ten years after selling newspapers from a stand in Market Square, Cambridge, so that he and Lilian could get back on their feet financially, Murdoch is now business editor of three local weekly newspapers in Ayrshire, Scotland and also runs his own public relations consultancy.

And Lilian is so keen to pass on the benefits of their experience to others who still have problems with alcohol, that the couple have built a website www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com to spread their message of hope.

Web links:

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/12/emw190602.htm http://www.famepublicity.co.uk/productssimple1.html http://www.pressbox.co.uk/Detailed/22135.html http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/12/prweb190602.htm

Main website:

http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

"Phoenix in a Bottle"

2007-05-20T19:22:00.000+01:00

"Phoenix in a Bottle"

In 1994 as a result of their alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald were down and out, sleeping rough in the streets and parks of Cambridge, the English university town where, a quarter of a century before, Murdoch had studied for an honours degree.

Refusing to accept what they consider to be the outmoded myths and dogma of Alcoholics Anonymous, Lilian and Murdoch set about searching for the underlying causes of their self-harming behaviour problem, which they discovered lay in childhood.

Although Lilian and Murdoch's upbringing caused their problems, they themselves take full responsibility for their drinking, most importantly because taking responsibility for one's own actions is the starting point on the road to recovery.

As a result of their endeavours, the couple are today back home in Ayrshire, Scotland, leading normal lives again, with their problems of alcoholism and Lilian's associated eating disorder well and truly behind them. Controversially, they are also now able to drink alcohol responsibly again, if and when they so wish. This book "Phoenix in a Bottle" is the inspiring story of their journey.

TO OBTAIN YOUR COPY OF "PHOENIX IN A BOTTLE....

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald has been published by Melrose Books price £16.99.

ISBN: 1905226144

Eminent American psychologist and addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD has read the book, and commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

An anonymous reader from London wrote the following review of "Phoenix in a Bottle" to Amazon UK.

"An excellent insight into the life of an alcoholic and what it is like to be dependant on alcohol to get you through the day.

"I have no interest in drinking and am actually teetotal.

"I came across this book through a friend by chance and I definitely recommend it to anyone.

"Not only does it cover the turmoil that both Lilian and Murdoch suffered due to their addiction, but it also gave an incredibly account of Lilian's past and why she struggled.

"The details on her eating disorder really struck a chord, as it is something I have suffered from too, and made me consider my own life and past events that might have made me become obsessive about controlling food.

"I can not recommend this book enough. It proves that these things can be beaten with some determination, love and without having to turn to a life of self-denial.

"Well done!"

You can order online NOW for direct from the publishers Melrose Books of Ely.

Web address to buy “Phoenix in a Bottle”:

www.melrosebooks.com/detail.php?isbn=1905226144

"Phoenix in a Bottle on Amazon UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoenix-Bottle-Lilian-MacDonald/dp/1905226144

Lilian and Murdoch's website:

www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

"Learned Helplessness" website

2007-02-26T12:45:00.000Z

Try the "Learned Helplessness" website.

CLICK HERE

Buy "Phoenix in a Bottle" here....

2007-02-25T13:20:00.000Z

To buy "Phoenix in a Bottle" on Amazon

CLICK HERE

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald

2007-02-25T13:04:00.000Z

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald

Recent correspondence

2007-02-25T12:54:00.000Z

Hello Lillian and Murdoch.

I was pleased to get a reply from you. Yes, I suppose it does make a nice change when people can manage to be open-minded and reasonable on the subject of recovering from problem drinking. I have not yet read your book, but I will do. I am always very interested to read about this subject from a variety of viewpoints and approaches. For a long time now I have found it both sad and very worrying that this whole issue has been effectively hijacked by people pushing a dubious pseudo-religious agenda at vulnerable people in the guise of 'treatment' for a supposed 'disease'. Alcoholics Anonymous has long ago infiltrated the medical and legal establishment in the USA and has an alarming level of influence there, when one considers that there is no real medical basis to its strange superstitious 'program'.

There is of course a huge amount of profit to be made from touting this 12 Step snake oil at 'treatment centres' and people's human rights are infringed by court-mandated attendance at AA. The same things are happening in the UK, although not yet to the same extent, and I think it is an outrage.

I do not have any objection to openly and avowedly religious organisations working with problem drinkers; many of them do wonderful work, actually feeding hungry homeless street drinkers for instance. The point is that the Salvation Army, the Methodists, the Catholics and others do not try to disguise their religious nature, nor do they make unrealistic claims to have a magical panacea for alcoholism.

I always had misgivings about the obvious evasiveness and dishonesty of AA's approach to newcomers at its meetings and through its literature, and I always found its stupid crass anti-intellectualism utterly stultifying. I managed to use meetings for some kind of social support for a time, but eventually came to the inescapable conclusion that AA is really just a cult masquerading as a treatment for something which has never been convincingly shown to be a disease. To remain a part of it even in the loosest sense after I had come to this conclusion would have been to forfeit my self-respect.

Of course AA's claim that alcoholism is a disease is based on the feeblest of premises. There is simply no evidence offered at all, just the 'opinion' of one very partisan doctor writing in the 1930s suggesting that alcoholism seems to him to have some similarities with allergies (though it is not even explained what those similarities are supposed to be) and that it is characterised by craving for alcohol ( the latter point is about as much of a revelation as saying heroin addiction is characterised by craving for heroin! It is just a truism).

Whilst I have no medical or scientific training, as an intelligent and reasonably well-informed layman with a greater than average interest in the subject, I do know that there simply is no consensus amongst the world's medical and scientific community that alcoholism is a disease, this despite the efforts of AA and its front organisations to convince us all otherwise.

Personally I regard alcoholism as a behavioural problem rather than a disease, although obviously an advanced case of alcohol dependency can lead to severe, and sometimes fatal, medical problems. I also believe that there can be a whole range of factors at play which might predispose some people towards developing an alcohol problem, including genetic makeup, early family experiences and childhood environment, development of emotional and mental disorders, etc. I think that these factors overlap and contribute to one another in a myriad of different ways, I just cannot think about this subject in the simplistic black-and -white way in which AA members are told to think by their 'literature' and slogans and favourite sayings. For instance the often-repeated statement heard in AA, "I was born an alcoholic" just strikes me as stupid , meaningless and ill-informed.

My personal story in a nutshell vis-à-vis alcohol is that I was one of two sons of an alcoholic father and a mother who scarcely drank, but who was emotionally cowed into submission by her domineering husband. My brother and myself were quite often hit about the head as children by our father in bouts of anger, generally during the daytime, when he had not been drinking ( he was a 'functional alcoholic' who never missed a day's work and only drank in the evenings).
Despite my brother and I both being highly intelligent ( we have both been members of Mensa) we were both systematically undermined and physically and emotionally abused as children, and consequently suffered damage to our self-esteem despite showing potential.

Sadly, my brother died two years ago from cirrhosis as a result of his own alcohol problem.
There has been a history of mental illness on my father's side of the family. His mother was hospitalised with depression and I believe his brother was hospitalised with manic depression. There is a possibility that my brother had a form of bipolar disorder and I was diagnosed myself with this several years ago in sobriety at the age of 44.

It now makes a lot of sense to me to see my problematic alcohol use between my late teens and the age of 37 as having been, at least in large part, a form of self-medication. I often drank in an attempt to feel normal rather than to get high, and it is my opinion that self-medication of underlying emotional and mental difficulties plays a much greater part in dependence on alcohol than is generally acknowledged.

I have now successfully learnt to manage my mood-swings by the use of omega-3 food supplements, and non drug-based cognitive behavioural techniques because I couldn't stand the side effects of drugs like lithium. Obviously I too am going against most received opinion in this regard, but I have certainly been in better health both mentally and physically since weaning myself off medication a year ago and finding a viable alternative that worked for me. Of course I would not dream of giving anyone else on medication advice.

My decision to remain abstinent from alcohol is really based on the fact that I don't miss it that much or think about it often, so it seems easier to just stay off it than to embark on an experiment to see if I could drink in a controlled way.

By the way, please regard my use of the word 'alcoholic' in this letter just as shorthand for someone who has, or has had. a drinking problem. It can be a bit of a loaded term.

Whichever method we use to ensure that we don't have a problem with alcohol, isn't it good to know that we are free of that particular source of misery and to know that we are not required to be part of a crackpot cult in order to stay well!

Sorry to have gone on quite so long, but I hope some of this made some sense to you.

All the best

Andy

8 February 2007

Hi Andy.
What a joy to hear from you, and so open-minded to boot. I'm glad you're not still reading the AA Bible, written by a group of evangelists, the book that you've never to stop reading and never to question, and never to leave AA. They're all in there being programmed and it's a damned shame. You must be very proud of yourself stopping drinking for 15 years - well done. We took the other road and went back into childhood to understand the underlying causes. We've dared to challenge conventional wisdom.

Well done you once again, and the best of luck.

Kind regards from the two of us,

Lilian and Murdoch.

7 February 2007

Hi Lilian and Murdoch.
I am so glad that more and more people are exploding the stupid and dangerous myths of 12 Steppers inside and outside of the lucrative and powerful recovery industry. I have been abstinent from alcohol through personal choice for over 15 years now and have no problem whatsoever with the idea that some people who have had a problem with alcohol may be able to learn to drink moderately, although I personally feel that abstinence is more appropriate for me.

I found the belief system of Alcoholics Anonymous not only unhelpful, but actually a hindrance in my recovery. Whilst many of its members are quite well-intentioned, I think AA as a whole is dishonest, evasive and manipulative in the way it misrepresents medical thinking about problem drinking and disguises its true pseudo-religious agenda, which is always hidden from newcomers.

Andy.

5 February 2007

Ayrshire couple offer support for Tony Blair's Respect agenda

2006-09-12T12:06:00.000+01:00

Ayrshire couple offer support

for Tony Blair’s Respect agenda

A married couple from Ayrshire, Scotland have written to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair welcoming his statement in a recent interview that the Government is planning state intervention in order to prevent potentially problem babies becoming problem teenagers of the future.

In his statement Tony Blair said: “If we are not prepared to predict and intervene far more early, then there are children that are going to grow up in families that we know perfectly well are completely dysfunctional, and the kids a few years down the line are going to be a menace to society and actually a threat to themselves.”

In their letter to the Prime Minister, Murdoch and Lilian MacDonald write: “One of the reasons we particularly welcome your statement is because we deduce from it that, like us, you believe dysfunctional behaviour stems from early childhood, and that preventing it at this stage is more sensible and effective than trying to rectify it later.

“The particular dysfunctional behaviour that we are interested in, and have personal experience of, is alcoholism.

“We are two former alcoholics who by confronting and addressing our problems from childhood have successfully overcome our so-called “addiction”, to the extent that we are now able to drink sociably and responsibly again, thus disproving the conventional wisdom that alcoholism is an incurable disease from which only remission is possible by embracing life-long sobriety.

“We have told our story in a book called “Phoenix in a Bottle”, published last year.

“We believe that society is now ready to outgrow the myths and dogma about alcoholism so long promulgated and perpetuated by the pseudo-religious cult Alcoholics Anonymous, and accept the fact that alcoholism, like other “addictions” is not an illness, but a behaviour problem rooted in childhood that can be prevented.

“Although we oppose the teachings of Alcoholics Anonymous, we are even more appalled by the way in which private clinics have piggy-backed AA, hijacked their 12-Step programme, and are selling it to an unsuspecting public for quite astronomic amounts of money. At least in AA it is free of charge.

“But what is worse now is that the National Health Service sends many alcoholic patients to these clinics, and picks up the tab for their stay and their “treatment”, thus wasting funds from the public purse that could otherwise have gone towards preventing alcoholism in the first place.

“Our attempts to ascertain how much public money is squandered in this way have been to no avail. Perhaps if you were to initiate an enquiry, an exact figure may be divulged.”

In conclusion, Murdoch and Lilian MacDonald tell Prime Minister Tony Blair: “If our personal experiences of family dysfunctionality and its consequences can help to promote and enlighten your Respect agenda, we would be happy to meet with you to discuss our ideas.”

ABOUT LILIAN AND MURDOCH

Lilian and Murdoch’s lives were devastated by alcoholism, but they have now recovered so completely that they now not only lead normal lives again, but are also able to drink in a perfectly sociable manner once more.

That goes against the teaching of Alcoholics Anonymous, and of many alcoholism treatment centres throughout the world.

But Lilian (62) and Murdoch (60) believe that lifelong sobriety is not the solution to alcoholism, as this only treats the symptoms and not the causes of the problem, and is merely a damage limitation exercise.

The couple argue that alcoholism, in common with other self-harming disorders like bulimia, anorexia and self-mutilation, often stems from problems experienced in childhood.

And if these problems can be identified and properly addressed, then the problem behaviour can be cured.

Twelve years ago the couple had hit rock bottom, sleeping rough for two weeks on the streets of Cambridge, where a quarter of a century previously as an undergraduate Murdoch had received an honours degree in English Literature at Magdalene College.

They had moved to Cambridge from Ayr with the idea of Murdoch doing research for a doctorate, but had reverted to their old habits, started binge drinking, and been thrown out of their lodgings.

After a fortnight, and when they were just about at the end of their tether, two nurses on their way home after a Saturday night out took pity on Lilian and Murdoch, bought them a cup of tea and found them a place in a homeless hostel.

They spent the next twelve months there getting to the roots of their alcoholism. They tried AA one last time, before concluding that it was a quasi-religious cult whose ideas on alcoholism were inadequate and outdated.

Instead, by reading psychology, they decided that the causes of their alcoholic behaviour lay in problems experienced during childhood. And that once these problems were realised and addressed, there was no longer any need for escape through alcoholism, and they could even drink normally like other people again.

Ten years after selling newspapers from a stand in Market Square, Cambridge, so that he and Lilian could get back on their feet financially, Murdoch is now a freelance business and financial journalist, and also runs his own public relations consultancy.

And in order to pass on the benefits of their experience to others who still have problems with alcohol, the couple have written their book “Phoenix in a Bottle”.

Reviewing the book, American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:
“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

E-mail: lilianandmurdoch@aol.com
Website: www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

Authors of controversial book about alcoholism appear on radio programme

2006-01-12T21:55:00.000Z

Authors of controversial book about

alcoholism appear on radio programme

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald, authors of the controversial book on alcoholism "Phoenix in a Bottle", were guests on Friday’s edition of BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show.

Lilian and Murdoch, from Ayrshire, Scotland, argue that Alcoholics Anonymous is wrong, and that alcoholism is not an illness or a disease, but a self-harming behaviour problem stemming from childhood.

They maintain that lifelong sobriety is not the solution to alcoholism, as this only treats the symptoms and not the causes of the problem, and is merely a damage limitation exercise.

The couple suggest that alcoholism, in common with other self-harming disorders like bulimia, anorexia and self-mutilation, often stems from problems experienced in childhood.

And if these problems can be identified and properly addressed, then the problem behaviour can be cured.

Eleven years ago the couple had hit rock bottom, sleeping rough for two weeks on the streets of Cambridge, where a quarter of a century previously as an undergraduate Murdoch had received an honours degree in English Literature at Magdalene College.

They had moved to Cambridge from Ayr with the idea of Murdoch doing research for a doctorate, but had reverted to their old habits, started binge drinking, and been thrown out of their lodgings.

After a fortnight, and when they were just about at the end of their tether, two nurses on their way home after a Saturday night out took pity on Lilian and Murdoch, bought them a cup of tea and found them a place in a homeless hostel.

They spent the next twelve months there getting to the roots of their alcoholism. They tried AA one last time, before concluding that it was a quasi-religious cult whose ideas on alcoholism were inadequate and outdated.

Instead, by reading psychology, they decided that the causes of their alcoholic behaviour lay in problems experienced during childhood. And that once these problems were realised and addressed, there was no longer any need for escape through alcoholism, and they could even drink normally like other people again.

Ten years after selling newspapers from a stand in Market Square, Cambridge, so that he and Lilian could get back on their feet financially, Murdoch is now a freelance business and financial journalist, and also runs his own public relations consultancy.

And in order to pass on the benefits of their experience to others who still have problems with alcohol, the couple have written their book "Phoenix in a Bottle".

Reviewing the book, American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

"Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

"Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise."

"Phoenix in a Bottle" by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald is published by Melrose Books price £16.99.

Lilian and Murdoch’s website:
http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

To buy a copy of "Phoenix in a Bottle", visit the Melrose Books website:
CLICK HERE

Or buy from Amazon UK:
CLICK HERE

Web links:

Lilian and Murdoch's website
I-newswire
The Open Press
24/7
PRWeb

Give alcoholics hope this Christmas with "Phoenix in a Bottle"

2005-12-16T17:21:00.000Z

Give alcoholics hope this Christmas

with “Phoenix in a Bottle”

The controversial new book “Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald would make the ideal Christmas present of hope for alcoholics from their friends, relatives and loved ones - say publishers Melrose Books.

“Phoenix in a Bottle” is the true story of Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald, two former alcoholics from Ayrshire in Scotland who, eleven years ago, were down and out, sleeping rough in the streets and parks of Cambridge, the university town where a quarter of a century previously Murdoch had studied as an undergraduate for his degree in English Literature at Magdalene College.

Lilian and Murdoch tried Alcoholics Anonymous many times, but eventually finally rejected its outdated and doctrinaire dogma that alcoholism is an incurable illness or disease, and that the only hope for the alcoholic is lifelong sobriety.

"Alcoholism is not a disease," say Lilian and Murdoch. "It is a self-harming behaviour problem rooted in childhood, and if alcoholics are willing to identify and address their issues from the past, then there is no reason why they should not be able to rid themselves of their problem behaviour, even to the extent of being able to drink alcohol safely and responsibly again if and when they so wish."

“After all,” Lilian and Murdoch point out, “lifelong sobriety is not recovery from alcohol. It is just treating the symptom rather than the underlying cause, and merely a damage-limitation exercise.”

The two former alcoholics continue: "There is a need for a brand new worldwide organisation to replace Alcoholics Anonymous, a fellowship which is now outdated and stuck in a rut that it is unwilling or unable to get out of in order to address its own self-confessed abysmal failure rate.

"According to both an independent US government survey and AA’s own membership surveys, AA-style treatment works for only 5% of its participants."

Leading American addiction expert Dr. Marc Kern commented: “These two surveys clearly show that, after 12 months of attendance, 95% of the original participants have left the programme and either resumed their destructive behaviour or hopefully – but less likely – sought help elsewhere.

"These people have not failed," insists Dr Kern."The 12-Step approach has failed them."

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald attribute the failure of the 12-Step programme to the fact that Alcoholics Anonymous stubbornly insists upon treating alcoholism as a progressive and incurable illness or disease, from which only remission is possible by sticking to a strict regime of abstinence from alcohol.

They say: "Perpetuation of the disease concept of alcoholism is aided and abetted by private rehab clinics that have piggybacked AA and hijacked its 12-Step programme for their own profit."

"Alcoholics Anonymous has the solution to its problems in its own hands," continue Lilian and Murdoch."Any normal organisation would be open to new ideas, and would welcome discussion and change as new discoveries and progress were made in the field of alcoholism.

"Unfortunately AA has adopted a cult-like attitude, and regards its so-called programme of recovery as set in stone forever. No changes have been made or even allowed in the 70 years of its existence, and no questioning or discussion is tolerated."

So Lilian and Murdoch conclude: "A completely new organisation is the only solution.

"An organisation that does not seek to perpetuate the disease model of alcoholism long after its sell-by date.

"One that does not advocate lifelong sobriety as a prerequisite for recovery, but instead empowers alcoholics to alter their behaviour in the way that they choose for themselves.

"One that does not insist upon dragging pseudo-religion into a situation in which it has neither use nor relevance.

"And finally one that welcomes change and progress in the understanding of alcoholism, and is willing to accept diverse ways of treating it, instead of dogmatically promulgating and perpetuating a one-size-fits-all approach that is stuck in the past forever."

“Phoenix in a Bottle”“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald has been published by Melrose Books price £16.99.

ISBN: 1905226144

Eminent American psychologist and addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

“Phoenix in a Bottle” is available from www.amazon.co.uk and other online bookstores, and direct from the publishers CLICK HERE.

Lilian and Murdoch's website

Fame Publicity Services

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Given proper advice, George Best could have drunk safely again

2005-12-02T17:49:00.000Z

Given proper advice, George Best

could have drunk safely again

ONE of the tragedies of George Best’s life was that, if he had been made aware of the full range of alternative options, he could have drunk alcohol in a safe, normal and responsible manner.

That is the claim of Scottish couple and former alcoholics Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald, whose book on their recovery from alcoholism “Phoenix in a Bottle” was published earlier this year.

Lilian and Murdoch say that, in common with many alcoholics, George Best would have appeared to have been given the stark choice between on the one hand carrying on drinking alcoholically, and on the other embracing lifelong abstinence from alcohol.

But according to Lilian and Murdoch, there is a third choice.

They maintain that alcoholism is not an incurable disease as Alcoholics Anonymous would have us believe.

In fact it is a self-harming behaviour problem rooted in childhood. And if alcoholics are willing to identify and address their issues from the past, there is no reason why most of them should not be able to take a drink safely and responsibly again, if and when they so wish.

In 1994 as a result of their alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald were down and out, sleeping rough in the streets and parks of Cambridge, the English university town where, a quarter of a century before, Murdoch had studied for an honours degree.

Refusing to accept what they consider to be the outmoded myths and dogma of Alcoholics Anonymous, Lilian and Murdoch set about searching for the underlying causes of their self-harming behaviour problem, which they discovered lay in childhood.

Although Lilian and Murdoch's upbringing caused their problems, they themselves take full responsibility for their drinking, most importantly because taking responsibility for one's own actions is the starting point on the road to recovery.

As a result of their endeavours, the couple are today back home in Ayrshire, Scotland, leading normal lives again, with their problems of alcoholism and Lilian's associated eating disorder well and truly behind them.

Controversially, they are also now able to drink alcohol responsibly again, if and when they so wish.

Their book "Phoenix in a Bottle" is the story of their journey. It is published by Melrose Books ISBN 1905226144 price £16.99.

Lilian and Murdoch’s website:
www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

Web links:
http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com/newpage32.html
http://www.i-newswire.com/pr51333.html
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Murdoch on BBC Radio Scotland

2005-11-29T21:12:00.000Z

Murdoch on BBC Radio Scotland

Murdoch was on the Gary Robertson show "Scotland Live" on BBC Radio Scotland today (Tuesday 29 November) discussing the nature of alcoholism and addiction.

To listen to a recording of the programme, go to the Gary Robertson "Scotland Live" home page by clicking HERE. Then click on the "LISTEN AGAIN" button.

To go direct to the recording CLICK HERE. The addiction discussion starts approximately 30 minutes into the programme.

Alcoholism news headlines

2005-11-15T22:52:00.000Z

Alcoholism news headlines

George Best has died

George Best, the footballing genius considered by many to be the greatest player in the world, has died in hospital aged 59.

His family, including his son, Calum, and 87-year-old father, Dickie, kept an all-night vigil at his bedside and were with him when he died at 12.55pm.

The Manchester United and Northern Ireland player suffered multiple organ failure after a lung infection led to complications and internal bleeding.

>>> MORE....

Legend Best 'enters final hours'

Footballing legend George Best is unlikely to survive another 24 hours, his doctor has said.

>>> MORE....

Bush "drinking again"?

"Pressures of office and falling polls

knock the President off the wagon"

>>> MORE....

Booze & The Muse: a Heady Cocktail

Legendary barfly Charles Bukowski is immortalised in a new film. Does alcohol really open up new avenues of creativity for writers, or is it just a handy excuse for drunks with literary ambitions? By Stephen Phelan, Sunday Herald.

>>> MORE...

Best ‘skin and bones’, says agent

Football legend George Best has shrunk to just “skin and bones” in his fight to stave off serious illnesses which left him close to death, his agent told a newspaper.

>>> MORE....

Alcoholism News Headlines on our website:

CLICK HERE

"Phoenix in a Bottle" reviewed by Shirley Whiteside

2005-10-06T19:02:00.000+01:00

"Phoenix in a Bottle" reviewed by

Shirley Whiteside on the

Laura Hird website

It is a truth universally acknowledged that once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.

According to accepted wisdom alcoholism is an incurable disease, and the only way forward for those unfortunate enough to suffer is lifelong abstinence.

But what if this accepted wisdom was actually out of date dogma perpetuated by Alcoholics Anonymous, the font of all knowledge concerning alcoholism?

What if alcohol abuse was really a psychological problem that could, with hard work and a willing subject, be overcome?

Can an alcoholic ever be a social drinker?

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald met and fell in love. It was a second marriage for both and they had high hopes for their future together but there was a major obstacle to their happiness - their chronic abuse of alcohol.

When doctors and even their families gave up on them, Lilian and Murdoch left Scotland to try to start a new life in Cambridge where Murdoch had studied years before for an honours degree. The idea was that Murdoch would study for a Ph.D. and he and Lilian would set up home in the town.

Things quickly spiralled out of control. The couple were thrown out of their rented accommodation for drinking, left with nothing but the clothes they stood up in. What little money they had was soon spent on hotel rooms and large quantities of drink.

Finally, Lilian and Murdoch were living on the streets, sleeping in parks, and begging drinks off other homeless people. They tried AA, as they had previously in Scotland, but found the organisation to be dogmatic and judgemental. However no one took them seriously when they said they wanted to recover but without attending AA.

Lilian's health was deteriorating fast and Murdoch took her to hospital. There she was dismissed as just another alcoholic and told the only treatment for her health problems was to stop drinking. There was no attempt to find out what was really wrong with her and certainly no sympathy. There was to be no bed in the hospital for Lilian that night.

Sitting together freezing on a bench the couple were approached by two young women on their way home from a night out. The young women turned out to be nurses and they pooled what was left of their money to buy Lilian and Murdoch tea and a burger to share between them. They also said they would help the couple find accommodation so that they could get out of the streets and parks at night.

This was a turning point for Lilian and Murdoch. Their accommodation in a hostel was basic but it gave them the stability they needed to sort their lives out. Murdoch got a job selling newspapers on a street corner and Lilian helped him out by bringing him lunch and letting him away for comfort breaks.

After another try at the AA way of life, Lilian and Murdoch decided it really wasn't helping them with their problems. They decided to find their own way through by examining their lives to find out why they started drinking to excess in the first place.

For Lilian, it went back to her childhood and the cold, judgemental treatment she received from her mother. Identifying the source of her troubles led to what Lilian believes was a cure for her alcoholism and an eating problem.

Lilian and Murdoch are now living in Scotland again, sober, with Murdoch running a successful PR company. Perhaps the most astonishing part of this couple's story is that they now drink alcohol socially with no descent back into the mire of alcoholism.

Their cure may seem remarkable, and to AA adherents self-deluding, but Lilian and Murdoch are not unique. As far back as 1964, American Dr. Arthur H. Cain, reported in the Saturday Evening Post that he too had known of alcoholics who had been cured and could now drink without fear of relapse.

Dr. Cain blamed AA for blocking the progress of research into the causes of alcoholism and the search for a cure. He felt that its dogmatic approach that brooked no dissent merely treated the symptoms - abuse of alcohol - rather than looking deeper for the cause.

Lilian and Murdoch heartily agree seeing AA as a damage limitation exercise rather than as a means to a cure.

Their story is moving, and one can only wish them luck.

http://www.laurahird.com/newreview/phoenixinabottle.html

http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com/newpage27.html

Web links:

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=8685
This review on Amazon UK
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/10/prweb293631.htm
PRESSBOX

We’ve bounced back after scraping the bottom of the bottle

2005-09-05T21:04:00.000+01:00

We’ve bounced back after

scraping the bottom of the bottle

By ALEX MILLIGAN

"Kilmarnock Standard"

A NEW book sets out to prove that alcoholism is not a disease or illness, but a self-harming behaviour problem rooted in childhood.

"Phoenix in a Bottle", published next Tuesday, will show that alcoholics can correct their behaviour and drink responsibly again if and when they so wish.

The authors are former alcoholics Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald, a married couple living in Ayrshire.

Murdoch edits the Ayrshire Business page which appears in the Standard and our sister papers, the Irvine Herald and the Ayrshire Post.

Lilian and Murdoch’s lives were devastated by alcoholism, but they have now recovered so completely that they now not only lead normal lives again, but are also able to drink in a perfectly sociable manner once more.

That goes against the teaching of Alcoholics Anonymous and many other alcoholism treatment centres.

But Lilian, 61, and Murdoch, 58, believe that lifelong sobriety is not the solution to alcoholism, as this only treats the symptoms and not the causes of the problem, and is merely a damage limitation exercise.

The couple argue that alcoholism — in common with other self-harming disorders like bulimia, anorexia and self-mutilation — often stems from problems experienced in childhood.

And if these problems can be identified and properly addressed, then the problem behaviour can be cured.

Ten years ago, the couple had hit rock bottom, sleeping rough for two weeks on the streets of Cambridge, where, a quarter of a century previously, undergraduate, Murdoch had received an honours degree in English Literature from Magdalene College.

They had moved to Cambridge from Ayrshire with the idea of Murdoch doing research for a doctorate, but had reverted to their old habits, started binge drinking, and had been thrown out of their lodgings.

After a fortnight, and when they were just about at the end of their tether, two nurses on their way home after a Saturday night out took pity on Lilian and Murdoch, bought them a cup of tea and found them a place in a homeless hostel.

They spent the next 12 months there getting to the roots of their alcoholism. They tried AA one last time, before concluding that it was a quasi-religious cult whose ideas on alcoholism were inadequate and out-dated.

Instead, by reading psychology, they decided that the causes of their alcoholic behaviour lay in problems experienced during childhood. And that once these problems were realised and addressed, there was no longer any need for escape through alcoholism, and they could even drink normally like other people again.

Ten years after selling newspapers from a stand in Market Square, Cambridge, so that he and Lilian could get back on their feet financially, Murdoch is now a business and financial journalist and also runs his own public relations consultancy.

And in order to pass on the benefits of their experience to others who still have problems with alcohol, the couple have written their book, Phoenix in a Bottle.

Eminent American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD, who has read the book, commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

Phoenix in a Bottle is published on May 31, by Melrose Books, priced £16.99. Web links:

http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com/newpage23.html
http://icayrshire.icnetwork.co.uk/kilmarnockstandard/news/tm_objectid=15564429&method=full&siteid=73592-name_page.html
http://icayrshire.icnetwork.co.uk/kilmarnockstandard/news/tm_objectid=15739880&method=full&siteid=73592&headline=phoenix-is-rising-name_page.html
http://alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

Your feedback

2005-08-14T14:39:00.000+01:00

A selection of the e-mails we receive daily from around the world.

To add your comments and views about recovery from alcoholism, or about our book "Phoenix in a Bottle" send us an e-mail to:
lilianandmurdoch@aol.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Lilian and Murdoch.

Dear Lilian and Murdoch,

I’ve just read your book “Phoenix in a Bottle” with great interest. I’m a 37-year-old single parent of 3 children, one of whom now lives with her father because of my drinking which has escalated over the past 4 years. I was drinking half bottle of vodka nearly every night, and the last straw was a weekend bender that resulted in me falling down the stairs bruised from head to foot. Also my 13-year-old daughter was left to look after her 6-year-old brother.

I knew something had to change. It was suggested that I attend Alcoholics Anonymous, but after reading the AA website I decided no way was I going there because it has a religious attitude, and after being made to go to church up to the age of 16 I find that religion had a major part in ruining my life.

I am attending the local council on alcohol and addiction to which I’ve been to for the past month. It’s now 24 days and I have had 3 nights out of drinking, i.e. Saturday nights. This is what normal people do.

I am of the same opinion as yourselves; I don’t want to stop drinking, because I enjoy a good night out. But I hate drinking alcoholically.

Your book has given me a better outlook, and the determination to overcome this black hole I got myself into. Keep up the good work! Kind regards,

Fiona.

Stuart writes:

Dear Lilian and Murdoch,

Congratulations on your book “Phoenix in a Bottle”. This is a truly moving and inspiring story which I greatly enjoyed, despite the difficult subject matter.

It was doubly engaging as I lived my youth in Ayr and thus felt a connection to names and places (I am also acquainted a bit with Cambridge as my wife used to live there).

I was attracted to buying the book as I have recently been attempting to deal with a drink problem and thought (correctly as it turned out) that the book could offer some lessons.

A recent health problem means I have been advised to drink only moderately at most in future (I am 33). The advice made me reflect on how much I had been drinking in recent years. Although, touch wood, this had not caused many problems in my life, I realised how dependent I had come, always consuming a fair few drinks in the evenings. I had not been going out on great benders, or drinking in the day but was certainly drinking a damaging amount overall.

My exercise in cutting down has been going well for many weeks now. However, my most depressed point was when I started reading some of the theory of alcohol dependency. As you highlight in your book, the disease model seems very widespread, indeed it seems to be treated as the final word on the matter by many people.

Reading this a cold chill came over me. Rather than having a problem to address, in fact it appeared that I had an incurable, progressive illness! To drink anything at all in future would doom me INEVITABLY, so it seemed, to chronic problems and death! I have never read anything so dispiriting and demoralising - it immediately sets up a voice in your head saying 'your efforts won't work, you'll fail etc'.

I'm sure those who propagate the disease idea are well meaning, wanting to highlight just how deep and difficult the problems of alcoholism often get.

But few seem to make any effort to account for or explain cases such as your own, which don't fit the model. Other studies I have seen referenced show up many other cases.

It is to your great credit that you have highlighted these and sought to provoke discussion, I’m sure it will encourage many people like me.

Your analysis of your own background and childhood is most interesting, and it has made me attempt to reflect on the reasons why I came to rely on alcohol too much as a crutch for day to day life.

If I may be so bold I have a couple of general questions.

First I wondered what general reaction you have had, particularly from formerly alcohol-dependent people to the book so far?

Second, I wondered about your recovery period, how difficult you found it to get over physical dependency - and the related craving which I guess must have been pretty intense for a while.

Can you give me any sense of how this dissipated over time?

In any case, may I gain express my congratulations on the book, and hope that you continue with the project of questioning received wisdom on these matters.

It has definitely provided me with much needed encouragement for the changes I am now making in my life.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Dempster.

H Waldrop writes:

I can't say if I am an "alcoholic". That is a moral term, fit only for AA.I started drinking heavily after my wife died. I stopped on my own - without treatment. I am getting married again soon. On a few occasions I have had a drink [beer]. I did not drink 10. People can go from abuse to light consumption. Alcohol abuse is not a disease [although abuse can seriously endanger your physical health].

Regards,

H Waldrop.

Rick Smith writes:

Hi!

Just heard about your book "Phoenix in a Bottle" at the alcoholism boards at www.about.com

Have not read the book but the synopsis regarding your assertions that AA is dogmatic, outdated and fundamentally wrong are in my experience quite right.

I spent 10 years in AA but I really followed the principals of psycho-therapy and Rational Recovery, sometimes without knowing it, and found that by doing exactly as you said a person could do I am not a slave to any mind-altering substances now. I choose not to drink at all, but my wife does and I have no problem with it or anybody's else for that matter.

I also know a few people who've left AA and are doing quite nicely. You guys need to keep on doing what you're doing. You are on the right track and the truth should be known by all.

Right On!

Rick Smith.

Wilma writes:

Dear Lilian and Murdoch, I received this e-mail and thought "Wow!" There must be many people who feel the same way. To me, if we are capable of being "rigorously honest" with ourselves then the root can be treated. I don't know if I should be replying to yourselves but if you do not mind then I just want to tell you both that I feel quite excited about people being able to get to grips with themselves - especially when it involves the pain of alcoholism. The good news is that alcoholism does not have to be futile; sometimes it takes a path of alcohol abuse to come to terms with successfully dealing with the cards we have been dealt with.

I am one of these people who, like you, have fought with alcohol to regain my self-esteem and confidence. I am a maths teacher with a 19 year old daughter and a 16 year old son. I reached my spiritual gutter over the last 6 years and I am happy to say that I am on the recovery road. As I say again, we need people like you to help people like me and reading "Phoenix in a Bottle" has been a major breakthrough for me. I hope that I, in turn can do similar to help others. I hope I haven't stepped out of place by contacting you again.

Kind regards,

Wilma.

Wilma writes:

Thank you so much for "Phoenix in a Bottle!" I tried so hard with AA. But I had to be honest with myself which included little help from AA. Your book has taken me a step forward to my sanity because I really felt there wasn't anybody there to empathise with me to help me find my reasons for drinking. I know I have a long road ahead but, who knows, it may not be as long at all.

Thank-you again, and continue enjoying your future together. The future you made for yourselves together.

Wonderful!
Regards,

Wilma.

Heather writes:

Dear Lilian and Murdoch,

I thoroughly agree with your view that overcoming alcoholism comes down to reconnecting with your true self. "Alcoholism" is really about joylessness and disconnectedness. When you connect with yourself and find your joy, you find your strength to choose. AA is about disempowerment, control through guilt, and taking away that choice.

Keep up the good work! Thank you for having the courage to speak out. I hope you continue for many years.

My best wishes,

Heather.

Liz writes:

I have just finished reading your book "Phoenix in a Bottle" and oh how I agree with you.

AA is the most pernicious, dare I say it, evil, organisation around.

I "rescued" a friend/new boyfriend from dying of alcohol abuse 2 years ago, took him in, put him up for a few months, with the resultant lying, stealing etc. and then the Salvation Army gave him a place in their "alcohol rehabilitation" centre in Glasgow. He has now been clean for 16 months, but it is so sad to hear him spouting the AA lines, his fear of not going to meetings and our relationship has come to a complete halt. He was an emotionally and physically abused child of an alcoholic father and has not grown up. It may seem arrogant of me, but I know why he drinks and how he could put it right but, like many others, I am almost afraid to challenge the AA dogma to him. I have tried, but hit a blank wall. I did point out that when he was in a former happy relationship, he was able to drink normally, but when it hit the rocks, the rot set in. He did, for a brief moment, listen but then went back to parrot fashion statements. He has read the James Frey book "A Million Tiny Pieces" which is along the same lines of self-discovery as yours, but I guess when you're just coming out of detox, the only thing to cling to is what is thrust down your throat! That's when they get you. I have been to AA meetings incognito just to see what went on and they made me furious. I was asked to "share" but I had to leave as I would have blown up!!! Actually, I wish I had spoken my mind. I am delighted that you have succeeded in sorting your lives out and had the courage to write this book. I will try and get him to read it but no doubt at the first criticism of the AA dogma, it will be put down and probably ignored. Sad.

With all good wishes,

Liz Cameron
Edinburgh.

Riane writes:

I haven’t even read "Phoenix in a Bottle" yet, and already I believe what you are saying. I am a drinker. but my drinking gets worse in times of stress and I see it as me harming myself the way that I have been harmed. I think if you were abused, that’s the behaviour that you know and you will either abuse others if you can or you will abuse yourself, by drinking or whatever is your chosen evil. I believe it’s about breaking patterns, which by their very nature (ingrained routines and habits) are hard to break.

Kind regards,

Riane.

Dr Patt Denning writes:

I just received an email from your publisher - what a great book "Phoenix in a Bottle" sounds! I'm planning on buying it ASAP. You might also be interested in the work that some colleagues and I are doing here in California. We also have a new book out for the general public titled "Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide for Managing Drugs and Alcohol". On our website there are links to a series of web talk shows that I did recently.

Let me know how your book is received.

Best of luck to you.

Patt.

Patt Denning PhD
Director of Clinical Services and Training
The Harm Reduction Therapy Center
423 Gough St.
San Francisco, CA
94102415/252-0669
www.harmreductiontherapy.org

Roberta writes:

Dear Lilian and Murdoch,

My husband recently went to rehab for 13 days for alcohol addictions. He was then encouraged to attend a counselling group three days a week and attend an AA meeting daily for ninety days. I was so glad that he had quit drinking I agreed to the treatment plan.

We have had a wonderful marriage for 36 years and I didn't want to interfere in his sobriety. However, he wanted me to attend AA meetings with him and his counsellor thought it was a bad idea. My feeling - do not interfere with the holy bonds of matrimony. I now would do things very differently had I been more educated. I think since insurance pays for rehab and follow-up counselling this is just another scam to make money. I told my husband that I wanted no more to do with AA and that his continued attendance would come between a 36 year relationship. I deplore the disease model concept. I believe AA is a crutch and it does not encourage people to take responsibility for their behaviour. I also believe rehab brainwashes people. My husband has not had a drink in four months and has not attended an AA meeting in two months. He agrees that it is a cult and becomes a compulsion for many people. Could you please let me know if you agree? I don't want to do anything harmful to him - he is the love of my life.

Thank you.

Roberta.

Lesley writes:

Hi Lilian and Murdoch!

I have been reading your recent articles with great interest.

I am a recovering alcoholic 4 years, and found AA not for me.

I was treated for my illness(!) in a very prestigious clinic, and for my sins 2 years later I went back there to train as an addictions therapist.

I very successfully qualified and am absolutely brilliant at what I do - hence the reason I had to resign last month. I could no longer "live the lie" if that makes sense to you? I am now "out on a limb" as Shirley Mclean says in her book of the same title. How could I go against AA, when it saved my life and I will most certainly drink again! I am now trying to embark as a therapist on my own and finding it quite difficult. Any suggestions?

I am looking forward to your forthcoming publication "Phoenix in a Bottle" and admire you talking out about AA.

With kind regards,

Lesley Macniven
Edinburgh.

Davo writes:

You do it because you decide to. I love a drink and am going out tonight. I do not worship alcohol and simply know when I have had enough. Last night, the night before, no drink and no problem. I do NOT want a life fuelled by drink, BUT I will not have a life without it, and why should I? Booze has taken me to many places, some good, but some horrible. I, we, have a choice at some point, and that is everything. I have lived a part of my life without that ability to choose, and I am not going back because I've decided not to. I am not at all being clever because my wisdom has come after tremendous pain. Some people are able to control alcohol without having to go through this learning process.

Good luck.
Cheers
Davo.

Maria writes:

Dear Lilian and Murdoch (and anyone else who may read this mail):

I'm new to this little group and I haven't bought your book "Phoenix in a Bottle" yet, although I intend to.

I have had a drink problem for many years, it started in my early teens and I am now nearly 40. I agree wholeheartedly with your idea that alcoholism is a behavior problem with its roots in childhood trauma, and that the real problem is not actually the behavior itself, but the underlying issues.

I have tried AA and twelve-step rehab and these have been of absolutely no use to me whatsoever.

I am now in long-term psychotherapy, and although things have got better they are still not perfect. I have cut down my drinking from every day to once or twice a week. But I still don't have full control over it, and still drink on my own when I am sad or stressed out.

What I would like to ask you, and anyone on this list who has regained control over there drinking is HOW you did it. Did you have a period of abstinence? And how long did it take before you regained full control?

I've been struggling with this for two years and it's still a daily battle.

Any input would be a real help.

Thanks.
Maria.

Robert writes:

Hi there! Thank you for providing your website, which I stumbled across unexpectedly last night. I was surprised and reassured by the content. I agree with your comments that alcoholism itself is not a disease – last year I said to my GP that I myself feel that calling it an ‘illness’ is a way of shifting responsibility for inappropriate behaviour. So I was really surprised when I read that not only does someone else feel the same, but also that you’ve written a recovery book about it and I really hope it succeeds. It’s nice to hear that yourself and your husband have overcome alcoholism in such a profound manner. Recently, I put it to someone that if you can get AA, why can’t you get an organization called ‘recovered alcoholics who can drink again’? He just laughed! I am currently in the process of trying to deal with a drinking problem. I’m 25 and obviously, in our current culture, it’s not ideal to be completely abstinent, especially when everyone I know socializes with a drink. I don’t want to be a social outcast and I certainly don’t want to be part of a brainwashing, uncompromising cult. I just want to be able to drink normally. Last year, I entered AA because of my frequent drinking. I’ve been about five or six times and I don’t want to go back. I just can’t believe some of the things I hear, like ‘alcohol is a power stronger than me but God is a power stronger than alcohol’. Alcohol is not a supernatural force – it’s a substance. They say that the only way to recover is through AA and won’t accept any other possible cure. They also say don’t try to work things out because you won’t find any other way! If that’s not brainwashing, I don’t know what is. Some of the people there are very weird and the thought of becoming like that myself really scares me – why should I have to be a cult-member if I don’t want to be just because I’ve had problems with my drinking? But getting help via the NHS is virtually impossible because of this attitude that alcohol has some magical, mysterious effect on some people that it doesn’t have on others. If someone wants to be part of AA or needs to believe these things to survive, I can respect that. But maybe the reason some people never stop drinking is because they can’t stand the thought of being in that cult when so many people say it’s their only option – every time I’ve tried to go to AA I’ve found myself going to the pub on the way home. I also agree that it interferes with medical research and treatment because NHS doctors, who are under tremendous pressure, don’t have to help alcoholics and can tell them the usual clichés and feel perfectly justified in doing so, thus reducing their workload. This I have experienced myself, although luckily my own GP seems to have a slightly more open-minded approach. We need more support for ‘alcoholics’ and a better alternative to this fellowship, which I find frankly despairing – I feel like I have two options in life and both are quite depressing. Having said all of that, I do need to stop for a while at least and deal with the damage I’ve done and I have a career that is very important to me, which I don’t want to lose. Drinking definitely interferes severely with my life but I think I would rather keep drinking than go back to AA. This problem just isn’t dealt with properly. I sense in your comments the same anger that I feel just now towards the uncompromising attitude of AA. This is a heavy drinking culture and so those with existing problems are more prone to turning to alcohol than in other cultures and I therefore feel that it would be prudent for the NHS/BMA to acknowledge that and set-up some kind of support service to help people control their habits and their behaviour, rather than sweeping it under the carpet and calling it an ‘incurable disease’. Will your book "Phoenix in a Bottle" be widely available? Is it for real?

Thanks very much.
Robert
Edinburgh.

Susana writes:

I just wanted to say thank you. I found your page in the middle of last night, when I searched the web for help with my problem drinking. You have offered me a ray of hope and a lot to think about.

Thank you.

Susana.

Kim Sue writes:

Thanks for your thoughts............as someone who recently decided things were out of control and completely gave up drinking , it is nice to hear that "going back in time" to where drinking was social and manageable is possible. This thought has been empowering......I was having a difficult time believing that something was more powerful than I was......would be interested in hearing about timelines or signs that may indicate it is possible to try "normal" drinking again..... I am also curious about whether the kind of alcohol used determines the need............I drank coolers which i have now learned contain enough sugar to put anyone over the glycemic edge. Is it possible that it was also the sugar??

Thanks,

Kimsue.

Jay writes:

Hello,
I enjoyed your website. I plan to study it further in the coming days. I have been sober now for nearly ten years and have authored several novels geared at giving the problem drinker a kick into the world of sobriety. I gave A.A try in the beginning but I found myself becoming worse instead of better. I have really become a fanatic at praying. My life has turned around tremendously. And although we might not agree with you about everything I must completely agree that problem drinking stems from underlying emotional trauma that was suffered in childhood. I look forward to visiting your website again when my time allows. Feel free to visit my website which is dedicated to helping alcoholics www.journeywithjay.net
Thank You bothRespectfully,
Jay Kolojourneywithjay@earthlink.netEarthLink Revolves Around You.

Aaron writes:

Hello there,

My name is Aaron and I write to you from Sacramento,California. I am currently a member of other yahoo groups,mainly Anti-AA.

Without going into a big story,I will tell you that I was in and out of AA for approx 25 years, indoctrinated at age 13. It is a cult,and quite dangerous in my opinion. My story is almost unbelivable,so I dont tell it But I believe that what is taught in Alcoholics Anonymous has caused suicides.www.morerevealed.com

I deal with my experiences in AA mostly by using humor,and I am interested in making a film that exposes AA for what it truly is. I do not know about the U.K.,but here in the USA, AA has infiltrated the Judicial as well as Medical fields. Every time someone is mandated by the court to attend meetings, it violates the Constitution (separation of Church & State).

I am sure you have researched AA so I dont need to go on about it.

If you want a good laugh,check out the photo section at: enemiesofbill@yahoogroups.com

Best wishes for this group, you will hear from me again.

Someday I hope to be able to visit the U.K.

Sincerely,

Aaron.

Web link:

http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com/newpage25.html

Controversial new book on alcoholism available in America and worldwide

2005-08-08T13:38:00.000+01:00

Controversial new book on alcoholism available in America and worldwide

“Phoenix in a Bottle” the controversial new book by Scottish couple Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald that challenges conventional wisdom about alcoholism, is now readily available in America and throughout the world, as well as in the United Kingdom.

In the USA, “Phoenix in a Bottle” is available online from http://www.superbookdeals.com and also direct from the UK publishers Melrose Books at http://www.melrosebooks.com

In 1994 as a result of their alcoholism, Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald were down and out, sleeping rough in the streets and parks of Cambridge, the English university town where, a quarter of a century before, Murdoch had studied for an honours degree.

Refusing to accept what they consider to be the outmoded myths and dogma of Alcoholics Anonymous, Lilian and Murdoch set about searching for the underlying causes of their self-harming behaviour problem, which they discovered lay in childhood.

Although Lilian and Murdoch's upbringing caused their problems, they themselves take full responsibility for their drinking, most importantly because taking responsibility for one's own actions is the starting point on the road to recovery.

As a result of their endeavours, the couple are today back home in Ayrshire, Scotland, leading normal lives again, with their problems of alcoholism and Lilian's associated eating disorder well and truly behind them.

Controversially, they are also now able to drink alcohol responsibly again, if and when they so wish. This book "Phoenix in a Bottle" is the inspiring story of their journey.

Reviewing “Phoenix in a Bottle”, eminent American psychologist and addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald is published in the UK by Melrose Books, price £16.99.

ISBN: 1905226144

Contact:
Ross Hilton
Commissioning Editor
Melrose Books
St Thomas’ Place
ELY, Cambridgeshire
United Kingdom
CB7 4GG
Telephone: +44 (0)1353 646608
Fax: +44 (0)1353 646602
E-mail: rosshilton@melrosebooks.co.uk

“Phoenix in a Bottle” direct from publishers Melrose Books:
http://www.melrosebooks.com/detail.php?isbn=1905226144

“Phoenix in a Bottle” from superbookdeals.com in the USA:
http://www.superbookdeals.com/cgi-bin/moreinfo.cgi?item=3467468&bisac=

In Ireland:
http://www.shopireland.ie/books/search/Phoenix+in+a+Bottle/

In Australia:
http://www.booktopia.com.au/featuredbook1.asp?StoreUrl=booktopia&bookid=1905226144&db=uk

In France:
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/1905226144/qid=1120835927/402-3934685-5176946

In Germany:
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/1905226144/qid=1120836096/302-9372652-3809658

In Norway:
http://www.akademika.no/vare.php?ean=9781905226146
http://www.studia.no/vare.php?ean=9781905226146
http://www.gnist.no/vare.php?ean=9781905226146

Issued by Fame Publicity Services

Fame Publicity Services
10 Miller Road
AYR,
Ayrshire
Scotland UK
KA7 2AY

Telephone: +44 (0)1292 281498
E-mail: famepublicity@aol.com
Web: http://www.famepublicity.co.uk

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald’s website:
http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

Web links:

http://i-newswire.com/pr40820.html
http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=2927
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Health/Controversial_new_book_on_alcoholism_available_in_America_and_worldwide_33509.htmlhttp://www.clickpress.com/releases/Detailed/3015005cp.shtml
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rID=7544
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/8/prweb270234.htm

2005-07-19T22:41:00.000+01:00

New Book's Authors Address Need of Replacement for Alcoholics Anonymous

According to the authors of "Phoenix in a Bottle" a brand new worldwide organisation is needed to replace Alcoholics Anonymous.

Two former alcoholics say there is a need for a brand new worldwide organisation to replace Alcoholics Anonymous, a fellowship which is now outdated and stuck in a rut that it is unwilling or unable to get out of in order to address its own self-confessed abysmal failure rate.

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald are a married couple from Ayrshire in Scotland, whose recently published book “Phoenix in a Bottle” describes how they recovered from alcoholism without and in spite of AA, and how they are now able to drink responsibly again, if and when they so wish.

According to both an independent US government survey and AA’s own secret membership surveys as revealed on the American Showtime Channel’s Penn & Teller television programme, AA-style treatment works for only 5% of its participants.

Leading American addiction expert Dr Marc Kern commented: “These two surveys clearly show that, after 12 months of attendance, 95% of the original participants have left the programme and either resumed their destructive behaviour or hopefully – but less likely – sought help elsewhere.

"These people have not failed," insists Dr Kern. "The 12-Step approach has failed them.

"Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald attribute the failure of the 12-Step programme to the fact that Alcoholics Anonymous stubbornly insists upon treating alcoholism as a progressive and incurable illness or disease, from which only remission is possible by sticking to a strict regime of abstinence from alcohol.

AA is wrong, argue Lilian and Murdoch. In fact, alcoholism is not an illness or a disease at all, but a self-harming behaviour problem with its roots in childhood.

Everybody is capable of changing their behaviour. If alcoholics are willing to identify and to address their issues from the past, then they can get truly well and be able drink responsibly once again if and when they so wish. Advocating lifelong abstinence from alcohol on the other hand is merely treating the symptom rather than the underlying problem, and is just a damage-limitation exercise.

Perpetuation of the disease concept of alcoholism is aided and abetted by private rehab clinics that have piggybacked AA and hijacked its 12-Step programme for their own profit.

Alcoholics Anonymous has the solution to its problems in its own hands, continue Lilian and Murdoch. Any normal organisation would be open to new ideas, and would welcome discussion and change as new discoveries and progress were made in the field of alcoholism.

Unfortunately AA has adopted a cult-like attitude, and regards its so-called programme of recovery as set in stone forever. No changes have been made or even allowed in the 70 years of its existence, and no questioning or discussion is tolerated.

So Lilian and Murdoch conclude that a completely new organisation is the only solution.

An organisation that does not seek to perpetuate the disease model of alcoholism long after its sell-by-date.

One that does not advocate lifelong sobriety as a prerequisite for recovery, but instead empowers alcoholics to alter their behaviour in the way that they choose for themselves.

One that does not insist upon dragging pseudo-religion into a situation in which it has neither use nor relevance.

And finally one that welcomes change and progress in the understanding of alcoholism, and is willing to accept diverse ways of treating it, instead of dogmatically promulgating and perpetuating a one-size-fits-all approach that is stuck in the past forever.

"PHOENIX IN A BOTTLE"

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald’s book "Phoenix in a Bottle" has just been published by Melrose Books.

Reviewing the book, American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

"Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

"Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise."

"Phoenix in a Bottle" by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald is published by Melrose Books price £16.99.

It is available through good bookshops or online direct from the publishers by logging on to http://www.melrosebooks.com

ISBN: 1905226144It is also available at http://www.amazon.co.uk

Lilian and Murdoch’s website:

http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

Web links:

http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com/newpage28.html
http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.blogspot.com/
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/7/emw262711.htm
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb262711.htm
http://i-newswire.com/pr36980.html
http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=2623
http://www.clickpress.com/releases/Detailed/2679005cp.shtml
24/7
PRESSBOX
http://groups.msn.com/Alcoholicsdontneedtostayonthewagon/messageboard1.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=1126&LastModified=4675532912490749736
http://groups.msn.com/Alcoholicsdontneedtostayonthewagon/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=1127&LastModified=4675532912709082012
http://groups.msn.com/AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=52&LastModified=4675532912255267814
http://groups.msn.com/JOURNALISTSWRITERSCLUB/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=874&LastModified=4675532912963407705
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain/message/54
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/12-step-free/message/101670
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/EFTCoaa/message/3503

From Dr Marc F Kern

2005-07-15T22:47:00.000+01:00

Addiction expert Dr Marc F Kern helps
people find science-based treatment options.

Beverly Hills-based addiction management expert Marc Kern PhD is using his new website www.habitdoc.com to educate people about practical and effective alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous/AA-style programs.

It is not that AA is bad or will be replaced, he says, but people need more options when the traditional approaches don't work for them.

These approaches often fail to connect with the mindset of today's knowledgeable youth and intelligent adults, Dr. Kern points out.

Even President George Bush chose not to use a 12-Step program for help with his own drinking problems.

Dr Kern explains: "The biggest problems I and my addiction alternative colleagues have with the 12-step approach are: Number one: AA, as well asits spin-offs, NA (Narcotics Anonymous), OA(Overeaters Anonymous), and GA (Gamblers Anonymous), are not science-based, which means they do not integrate new knowledge and research findings.

"Number two: AA-style treatment programs, originally begun in the 1930s, have not changed over time to accommodate the different wants and needs of contemporary consumers of addiction treatment.

"Number three is the most dangerous shortcoming," says Dr. Kern. "AA-styletreatment only works for 5% of its participants. This statistic comes from two sources: An independent US government survey, and AA's own secret member surveys, as recently revealed by the Showtime Channel's Penn & Teller team in their program on 12-Step failures.

"These surveys clearly show that, after 12 months of attendance, 95% of the original participants have left the program and either resume theirdestructive behavior or hopefully, but less likely, find help elsewhere.

"These people haven't failed," Dr. Kern insists. "The 12-Step approach has failed them.

"Controversy is nothing new to Dr. Kern. He has spent the last 30 years helping his clients stop or reduce their destructive behaviors with a variety of non-12-Step treatment options.

"The difference is that now I am taking my crusade to the world audience of the Internet."

Dr. Kern offers website visitors private, 15-minute telephone consultations (free to callers in the United States) to help guide people with addictive behaviors to lesser known, alternative treatment options that are evidence-based and more effective than 12-Step methods.

He also invites family members to call him for help about their loved ones.

"Twelve-step programs have become the sacred cow of addiction treatment over the past 60 years," Dr. Kern explains, "but statistics reveal the real truth about these programs. A 5% success rate is just terrible, especially whenyou compare it to the same 5% success rate for quitting completely on yourown.

"I don't promote a 'one-size-fits-all' approach," Dr. Kern states. "Addiction is not a disease, as the AA way insists. It is truly a bio-psycho-social syndrome or disorder."

Instead of being told that they are diseased and powerless, my clients learn that they have the power to change their lives. I function more as their coach, encouraging them and helping them see that each person's path to success is unique. It is my job to show them a variety of evidence-basedtools that can help them succeed."

Dr. Kern's approach has grown out of his own recovery from personal addictions. Having found 12-Step programs like AA ineffective in his ownsituation, his pursuit of rational, logical solutions led him to in-depth psychological research.

Founder and director of Los Angeles-based Addiction Alternatives, he has authored the practical self-help book "Take Control Now!" and co-authored "Responsible Drinking."

A nationally recognized expert in his field, Dr. Kern has given over seventy media interviews, including KABC, KFI, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, 20/20 and Larry King Live.

Web link:

www.habitdoc.com

New book enters Amazon’s Hot 25 chart of addiction titles

2005-07-09T10:11:00.000+01:00

http://www.famepublicity.co.uk

Within six weeks of publication a new book on alcoholism has catapulted into Amazon UK’s Hot 25 list of best-selling books on addictions.

“Phoenix in a Bottle”, by married couple and former alcoholics Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald of Ayrshire in Scotland, has entered the chart in twelfth position.

“Phoenix in a Bottle” shows that alcoholism is not a disease or illness, but a self-harming behaviour problem rooted in childhood, which alcoholics can correct and be able to drink responsibly again if and when they so wish.

Lilian and Murdoch’s lives were devastated by alcoholism, but they have now recovered so completely that they now not only lead normal lives again, but are also able to drink in a perfectly sociable manner once more.

That goes against the teaching of Alcoholics Anonymous, and of many alcoholism treatment centres throughout the world. But Lilian (61) and Murdoch (58) believe that lifelong sobriety is not the solution to alcoholism, as this only treats the symptoms and not the causes of the problem, and is merely a damage limitation exercise.

The couple argue that alcoholism, in common with other self-harming disorders like bulimia, anorexia and self-mutilation, often stems from problems experienced in childhood. And if these problems can be identified and properly addressed, then the problem behaviour can be cured.

Ten years ago the couple had hit rock bottom, sleeping rough for two weeks on the streets of Cambridge, where a quarter of a century previously as an undergraduate Murdoch had received an honours degree in English Literature at Magdalene College. They had moved to Cambridge from Ayr with the idea of Murdoch doing research for a doctorate, but had reverted to their old habits, started binge drinking, and been thrown out of their lodgings.

After a fortnight, and when they were just about at the end of their tether, two nurses on their way home after a Saturday night out took pity on Lilian and Murdoch, bought them a cup of tea and found them a place in a homeless hostel.
They spent the next twelve months there getting to the roots of their alcoholism. They tried AA one last time, before concluding that it was a quasi-religious cult whose ideas on alcoholism were inadequate and outdated.

Instead, by reading psychology, they decided that the causes of their alcoholic behaviour lay in problems experienced during childhood. And that once these problems were realised and addressed, there was no longer any need for escape through alcoholism, and they could even drink normally like other people again.

Ten years after selling newspapers from a stand in Market Square, Cambridge, so that he and Lilian could get back on their feet financially, Murdoch is now a freelance business and financial journalist, and also runs his own public relations consultancy.

And in order to pass on the benefits of their experience to others who still have problems with alcohol, the couple have written their book “Phoenix in a Bottle”.
Reviewing the book, American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

“Phoenix in a Bottle by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald is published by Melrose Books price £16.99. It is available through good bookshops or online direct from the publishers by logging on to http://www.melrosebooks.com

ISBN: 1905226144

Web address to buy Phoenix in a Bottle: http://www.melrosebooks.com/detail.php?isbn=1905226144

It is also available at www.amazon.co.uk

Phoenix in a Bottle's page on Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1905226144/qid%3D1120855392/202-4306488-5725431

Lilian and Murdoch’s website:
http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

View Amazon UK’s Hot 25 chart of addiction books at:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/booklists/hot-25/-/270979/ref=br_b_ts_mor/202-4306488-5725431

Issued by Fame Publicity Services: http://www.famepublicity.co.uk

"Phoenix in a Bottle"

2005-07-01T21:52:00.000+01:00

How to obtain our new book "Phoenix in a Bottle"

2005-07-01T21:44:00.000+01:00

Our new book "Phoenix in a Bottle" by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald, describing how we overcame alcoholism and are now able to drink responsibly again, was published on 31 May 2005 by Melrose Books price £16.99 and is now available worldwide.

You can buy online now direct from the publishers Melrose Books http://www.melrosebooks.com/, for immediate delivery.

CLICK HERE

Or purchase from any of these online bookstores. Just click on the name of your preferred bookstore:

Amazon.co.uk
Tesco
Blackwell's
WH Smith
The Book Place

You can find the lowest price currently available online.

CLICK HERE

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald was published on 31 May 2005 by Melrose Books, price £16.99. It is available through good bookshops or online direct from the publishers by logging on to
http://www.melrosebooks.com/.

It is also available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/

ISBN: 1905226144

Web address to buy “Phoenix in a Bottle”:

http://www.melrosebooks.com/detail.php?isbn=1905226144

Scottish couple's new book challenges conventional wisdom about alcoholism

2005-07-01T20:54:00.000+01:00

A NEW book “Phoenix in a Bottle” just published will prove that alcoholism is not a disease or illness, but a self-harming behaviour problem rooted in childhood, which alcoholics can correct and be able to drink responsibly again if and when they so wish.

The authors are former alcoholics Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald, a married couple from Ayrshire in Scotland.

Lilian and Murdoch’s lives were devastated by alcoholism, but they have now recovered so completely that they now not only lead normal lives again, but are also able to drink in a perfectly sociable manner once more.

That goes against the teaching of Alcoholics Anonymous, and of many alcoholism treatment centres throughout the world. But Lilian (61) and Murdoch (58) believe that lifelong sobriety is not the solution to alcoholism, as this only treats the symptoms and not the causes of the problem, and is merely a damage limitation exercise.

The couple argue that alcoholism, in common with other self-harming disorders like bulimia, anorexia and self-mutilation, often stems from problems experienced in childhood. And if these problems can be identified and properly addressed, then the problem behaviour can be cured.

Ten years ago the couple had hit rock bottom, sleeping rough for two weeks on the streets of Cambridge, where a quarter of a century previously as an undergraduate Murdoch had received an honours degree in English Literature at Magdalene College. They had moved to Cambridge from Ayr with the idea of Murdoch doing research for a doctorate, but had reverted to their old habits, started binge drinking, and been thrown out of their lodgings.

After a fortnight, and when they were just about at the end of their tether, two nurses on their way home after a Saturday night out took pity on Lilian and Murdoch, bought them a cup of tea and found them a place in a homeless hostel.

They spent the next twelve months there getting to the roots of their alcoholism. They tried AA one last time, before concluding that it was a quasi-religious cult whose ideas on alcoholism were inadequate and outdated. Instead, by reading psychology, they decided that the causes of their alcoholic behaviour lay in problems experienced during childhood. And that once these problems were realised and addressed, there was no longer any need for escape through alcoholism, and they could even drink normally like other people again.

Ten years after selling newspapers from a stand in Market Square, Cambridge, so that he and Lilian could get back on their feet financially, Murdoch is now a freelance business and financial journalist, and also runs his own public relations consultancy.

And in order to pass on the benefits of their experience to others who still have problems with alcohol, the couple have written their book “Phoenix in a Bottle”.

Eminent American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD has read the book, and commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald is published today (31 May 2005) by Melrose Books price £16.99. It is available through good bookshops or online direct from the publishers by logging on to http://www.melrosebooks.com

It is also available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/

ISBN: 1905226144

Web address to buy “Phoenix in a Bottle”:

http://www.melrosebooks.com/detail.php?isbn=1905226144

Lilian and Murdoch’s websites:

http://www.alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com/

http://www.famepublicity.co.uk/productssimple1.html

http://groups.msn.com/AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain/welcome.msnw

http://groups.msn.com/Alcoholicsdontneedtostayonthewagon/welcome.msnw

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AlcoholicsCanDrinkSafelyAgain/

Enquiries

Ross Hilton
Commissioning Editor
Melrose Books
St Thomas’ Place
ELY, Cambridgeshire
United Kingdom
CB7 4GG

Telephone: +44 (0)1353 646608
Fax: +44 (0)1353 646602
E-mail: info@melrosebooks.co.uk

Alcoholics Can Drink Safely Again

2005-07-01T19:27:00.000+01:00