PO Box 1980

I'm a nineteen-year-old recovering alcoholic. After reading "A Painful Lesson" in the October 1993 issue I felt compelled to write. It made me aware of the attitudes some older members seem to hold.

I drank only for a few years, and at age sixteen I got sober. The road that I had traveled as a drunk was painful and hopeless. In the end I was suicidal/homicidal. I, like many other young people, didn't lose a spouse, house, or career. For me I never had those things to lose.

Sometimes in meetings it seems as though people compete to see who can tell the most horrific drunkalogue. It is important for us to remember where we come from, but glorification of war stories is not what we are about.

I have been sober for three years. And now have the opportunity to gain those things that I could never have had if I were drinking.