Category Archives: Sobriety

The D2 Receptor Mutation (Good Band Name)

    I’ve been reading about the “addiction gene”  (the bugaboo, genetic variation suspected to predispose people to addiction) that engineers the dopamine D2 receptor. Dopamine is the brain’s reward system. The D2 receptors modulate how much you feel an experience. We alcoholics have fewer D2 receptors than normal drinkers. In other words even though we may drink more, we […]

Hiking With Kim

  The “bennies” are finding a deserted beach… My hikes with Kim usually feel like cleaning the kitchen really well: satisfying, but with the notion that once it is done, it shouldn’t have to be done again. Ever. There are hills involved. She walks at a pace mere mortals call jogging, and the only thing […]

Empty Rooms

It kind of looks like The Mystery Spot doesn’t it? As if a small child in the far corner would look bigger than a grownup in the foreground… That is how I feel – like some gravitational oddity, some trick of the eye has rendered me small and tired and sore and scared. Everything hurts. You […]

Good, Byes?

I’m moving. From the aerie I have lived in for three years: a sort of elegant prison where I have isolated and waited like Rapunzel for something wonderful to happen. We have had some marvelous times here – birthday parties and late nights on the balcony listening to the inevitable white noise of the ocean. This is […]

Drowning My Regret

I hate to be like a dog with a sock, but I can’t seem to shake the fact that one in three drowning incidents are alcohol related. I mentioned this statistic in the blog post on Saturday, and now I can’t get it out of my mind. It’s the symbolism, the poetry of the concept that’s haunting […]

Alcohol and Injury – Rainy Day Stats…

  Jacksonville Beach this morning… Reading scholarly statistics about something as unmindful as excessive drinking can be amusing. First of all, excessive drinking is defined as 5 drinks for men and 4 drinks for women per day. Need I mention my previous, three-bottle-of-wine-a-day habit would translate into 15 drinks a day? I’m the statistical equivalent […]