Adding Fire to the Fuel

A not-so-silent thief makes off with $226 billion, every year, robbing the economy, flooding hospitals, clogging courts. Not terrorism. Not obesity. Not cancer or diabetes or Ebola or any other disease. It’s alcohol. We’ll spend more to combat these other scourges that cause less turmoil and financial damage while alcohol rules the roost, the clubhouse and the corner office. Alcohol stays under the radar because of good advertising and bad stigma. Its purveyors are proclaimed as charitable kings. Those who use it and discover alcohol has health and social consequences, are labeled as villains, kill-joys, weak, weird, or morally off. The stigma of alcohol use disorders, treatment and recovery keeps the discussion of what alcohol does to you behind the wishful-thinking-driven chatter about what it does for you. The tipping point has passed. The status quo: No longer sustainable or acceptable. Adding Fire to the Fuel examines: How families and communities feed stigma even as it holds them back; How stigma has become a barrier to many who want help; How to hang on to sobriety in a pro-alcohol world; And how PANonymous alcoholics will reduce stigma more than all the protests combined

"You always add fuel to a fire, not the other way around. Adding fire to the fuel will test your firefighter merit badge skills … IF it doesn't kill you. A forest floor coated in pine needles is fuel. Add fire to that fuel, you've got some explaining to do. You take a match to a can of gasoline and it's going to blow. You'll still get a wicked fireball if you add that volatile fuel to a fire, but you're probably going to live. When stigma, aka: shame (fire) is added to the raw fuel of an alcoholic body and mind, one can reasonably expect a fireball proportional to that alcoholic's capacity for handling fire. It's an unrealistic expectation that society is going to stop the stigma and shaming overnight. Or in a generation. Maybe this book can be a fire extinguisher for public use – to further the dialogue – and for personal use for those like me with the disease of alcoholism. And their families."

Journalist Scott Stevens is a USA Best Books finalist and Indie Book Awards non-fiction finalist. He blends blunt wit with evidence-based research in his three intensely personal and readable alcoholism books. His own, startling story – from secretly downing two liters of whiskey a day to sobriety, relapse, and back to sobriety – brings authenticity to his writing. The former financial executive frequently is sought out as a media guest for his plain-English descriptions and memorable insights. He speaks on alcoholism and alcohol’s other health consequences at events around the country, including the Reel Recovery Film Festival. Stevens’ alcohol and health segment, “The Sobriety :60+,” is the centerpiece of the Alcohology app for Android devices. Stevens holds a Master's degree in Public Affairs Journalism from the University of Illinois