Before I get into this, I should explain how I feel about "drunkalogs". A drunkalog is a speech given in front of a group of people during which the speaker describes various times in his or her life when he or she had gotten drunk, the situations that led up to those episodes, how the drinking occurred, things that went wrong as a result of the drinking, how it has affected his or her life and the lives of his or her friends and family, and the community, etc.

The common belief about these speeches is that they enable the speaker to more readily admit to themselves and to others that they are "powerless over alcohol", and that repeated exposure to such speeches will empower the listeners with the strength they need to fight back against their "disease".

My belief about these incessant drunkalogs is that they cause the speaker and the listener both to fixate on this one aspect of their lives, needlessly wallowing in self-pity and contrition, and wasting precious time that they could be spending doing more productive, enjoyable things with alcohol as a non-issue.

You've probably already heard enough of these stories for several lifetimes, so I'm not going to smack you in the face with another one. Suffice it to say that I am a regular guy, married with three kids, living a typical suburban existence - steady job, house, bills, relatives, etc. I used to have a drinking problem, but I don't have one anymore. I drank for 20 years and tried to quit using conventional methods several times, but I had a great deal of trouble quitting that way. Finally one day I made my mind up to "change my mind" and that was that.

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