How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics
by Doug Thorburn
Published by Galt Publishing
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at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Connie Anderson
Subtitled: Using Behavioral Clues to Recognize Addiction in its Early Stages
This book should be the primer for anyone making any kind of decision: dating/mating; hiring/firing; renting/leasing; business/social, etc. etc.
We often make excuses for someone's weird behavior that doesn't make sense--when in fact we are seeing signs of addiction that we don't recognize, or don't want to admit.
Thorburn is a Certified Financial Planner and Income Tax Professional who started to notice that people who had good income were having money problems--for no apparent reason. If he suspected his client was somehow involved with a practicing addict, he would ask. When "No way," was the answer, he'd suggest his client take another look. In most cases sometime in the near future, they would call and say he was right.
Thorburn interviewed hundreds of recovering alcoholics and read numerous books on the subject. He has intimate involvement with an alcoholic--his father and a woman he loved and lived with.
His extensive research helps identify the early signs of addiction and prevent tragedy--the subtle clues that might indicate the high probability of that person eventually having the disease.
When Thorburn asks experts what is the average age when one triggers alcoholism, they respond age 20-25. When he asks at what age does one take their first drink in the U.S., they say age 12-13. This is when the first addiction is triggered.
Alcoholism starts small and progresses to a fatal disease. Some of the early warning signs are:
-- Lying or twisted logic
-- Belittling others
-- Being unusually "accident prone"
-- Assigning inappropriate blame to others
-- Encountering recurrences of financial difficulties
In Part II the author lists the early-stage clues:
1. The Supreme Being complex (28 clues)
2. A Sense of Invincibility (11 clues)
3. Apparent Mental Confusion (7 clues)
and
4. Middle-to-Latter Stages Physical signs (15 clues)
Thorburn also wrote: Drunks, Drugs and Debits, Alcoholism Myths and Realities and Get Out of the Way (about drinking and driving).
Armchair Interviews says: Powerful hit-you-in-your-face-and-heart clues you can ignore OR face--the choice is yours. This is valuable tool for awareness and reality.