Reviewed By Rachael O’Donnell LCSW, LADC
When I came across a podcast interviewing the author of this book, I was intrigued by her story and wanted to learn more about her journey to living an alcohol free life, so I ordered “This Naked Mind”.
From the very beginning, the author makes a bold claim. That by the end of her book “ your desire to drink will be gone, so no matter what you choose [to drink or not drink], you won’t feel like you are missing out.” As a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor for nearly 20 years, I found myself wanting to continue to read simply for the cockiness of this statement. That curiosity was bolstered by a genuine interest in seeing if her claim could be true. How could a book make something so easy that I have witnessed first hand be so impossible for so many people?
THE MEAT OF IT
The underlying premise of this book is to help readers understand why changing their relationship with alcohol can be so difficult. She does this by educating about the differences in our conscious and subsconsious minds, and helping us to understand the power of subconscious beliefs to control our behavior. Throughout the book, she rightfully calls in to questions the cultural attitudes, beliefs, and norms that have permeated our justification of the use of alcohol and challenges those assumptions one by one.
The idea is that once we know the truth about alcohol and educate ourselves about it, that it will allow our subconscious programming to have less power over our drinking habits, making it easier to change how we drink. Her book seeks to reverse the conditioning that we have all experienced which has led us to believe that drinking alcohol is necessary, normal, or healthy.
Annie challenges long held beliefs about the dichotomy of a normal drinker versus an alcoholic, and addresses what I have long believed to be true. That many more of us exist somewhere in between this two labels. This book provides a space for all the people that hold jobs, get their kids to soccer practice, cook dinner for their families on the regular, and otherwise function “normally” to examine their use of alcohol shame – free.
Annie educates us about how a person’s use of alcohol can become problematic, through no fault of their own. The core tenant of that argument? ALCOHOL IS ADDICTIVE. Use any addictive substance regularly enough, and inevitably your use of it will increase over time. How fast or slowly that use progresses is influenced by a number of factors, but most importantly exposure to stress and the use of alcohol to deal with it.
Annie also makes a powerful argument for living alcohol free, through sharing her own personal experience of descent into heavy drinking as well as the climb out if it. She makes an alcohol free life sound not only intensely attractive, but extremely possible and even exciting.
Annie encourages readers to be willing to examine their own relationship with alcohol and consider an “alcohol experiment”, going 30 days without booze and seeing what life feels like when you are booze free.
“Alcohol is the only drug we have to justify NOT using”
– Annie Grace
MY TAKE
I would argue that we are surrounded by people who have questioned their drinking at one point or another, and that we ourselves might one of them. Annie makes the point in her book that people don’t want to admit or talk out loud about their concern regarding their drinking habits because of the deep fear that they may have to give up drinking and all of the discomfort that comes with entertaining that reality keeps them from admitting it. She then makes some powerful arguments of why those fears are so unfounded.
I think one of the most powerful gifts that readers will get from this book is a safe space to consider the question, “has my relationship with alcohol became unhealthy and/or difficult to control?” If you are willing to ask yourself that question and really explore it, you may create the opportunity for a happier and healthier life for yourself.
Regarding the bold claim that Annie makes that by the end of the book your desire to drink will be gone, well I think that is a stretch. What I do think is accurate is that most people’s minds will be open to ideas and information that they have never known or considered, and that the way they look at alcohol will never ever be the same. But the actual work of quitting drinking, if that is what a person chooses, is incredibly challenging. One that requires a ton of support and a willingness to be uncomfortable that is quite difficult for most humans when quitting an addiction. It is not impossible, but it is certainly not easy.
My favorite thing about this book is that Annie honestly and directly calls out the normalization of drinking that has permeated our culture and how incredibly toxic it is. You can’t get through this book without having an entirely new awareness about the absurdity of alcohol importance in our culture and the incredible impact this has on our ability to say no to alcohol. The challenges of moderating alcohol consumption are not because of personal weakness. READ THAT AGAIN.
“For as long as you can remember, you have been conditioned to believe that alcohol provides numerous benefits. These beliefs must be reversed in order to find freedom.”
– Annie Grace
THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU IF….
If you have ever lied to a health care provider when asked how much alcohol you drink on a weekly basis.
You wake up in the morning thinking “I’m not going to drink today” and by evening have given in to the desire to have a drink.
Are noticing that drinking is creating consequences that you don’t like such as weight gain, forgetfulness, irritability or mood issues, hangovers, blackouts…..
HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT IF IT
Remember that exploring a change in your life doesn’t mean you have to do it. You are in control and you get to decide what habits you keep and what habits you let go of. But you are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t create some space to consider the possibilities of a life lived differently.
Read this book with an open mind and be honest with yourself. Consider whether committing to 30 days alcohol free might give you the opportunity for some insight that you desperately neeed. Get a friend to read this with you, and talk with each other about what you are discovering.
LINKS TO ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Original Podcast Interview with the author about her journey
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