This is the book that started me on my journey to a no alcohol life. And while it took many other steps – my longest bout of sobriety in 10 years came directly after reading this book. To this day – This Naked Mind is still a go do when I need some help to ensure I stay on the right path.
This Naked Mind Review
This book makes a lot of claims out of the gate.
Spontaneous sobriety. No cravings. No loss. No 12-steps. No therapy. Just put up the book and put down the bottle.
Actually – she doesn’t even say put down the bottle. In fact, quite the opposite. She says to continue to drink while you read the book. I mean – don’t read the book drunk – but don’t go cold turkey while you are on the journey.
As you start the book, the table of content shows ‘Liminal Points’ added in throughout the book. A liminal point is defined as a stimulus strong enough to produce a physiological or psychological response. Basically, it’s the moments in the book where something actually changes within you.
And with liminal points topic such as ‘are we really drinking for taste’ and ‘does drinking help me have better sex’ and the one that hit me the hardest ‘Is alcohol vital to a social life’, you will start to see quickly that this book will hit home and challenge the paradigm that you have held for so long with drinking.
But what got me hooked was the preface of the book. Here is a blurb of it for your enjoyment:
3:33 a.m. I wake up at the same time every night. I briefly wonder if that is supposed to mean something. Probably not, probably just a coincidence. I know what’s coming, and I brace myself. The usual thoughts begin to surface. I try to piece the previous evening together, attempting to count my drinks. I count five glasses of wine, and then the memories grow fuzzy. I know I had a few more, but I’ve now lost count. I wonder how anyone can drink so much. I know I can’t go on like this. I start to worry about my health, beginning the well-trodden road of fear and recrimination: What were you thinking? Don’t you care about anything? Anyone? How will it feel if you end up with cancer? It will serve you right. What about the kids? Can’t you stop for the kids? Or Brian? They love you. There’s no good reason why, but they do. Why are you so weak? So stupid? If I can just make myself see the horror of how far I’ve fallen, maybe I can regain control. Next come the vows, my promises to myself to do things differently tomorrow. To fix this. Promises I never keep.
This was me. This exact scenario was me. 330a nearly every single night. Angry that I ‘did it again’ and not knowing how to quit. The kids…what about the kids?!?
The book does a great job about giving the physical pieces of drinking, as well as the mental pieces of drinking. But there is one aspect that really did well for me, and that was the conscious vs. unconscious mind as it relates to drinking.
You see – I am one of those positive thinking mindset is everything type of guys. My life changed when I read The Secret and believe that life is a divine journey meant for us.
But I never applied this to my drinking, or my attempts to quit drinking. Once I read this book, I realized that it is possible to quit using the law of attraction – or more basic – being able to control your mind in the right way and use the natural ability of how our brains work to quit drinking.
But I believe the best part of this book was the real no nonsense talk on what alcohol is doing to your body – and your life. No matter where you are on the drinking spectrum, Alcohol is only taking from you. Annie Grace does a great job about making these subjects serious, but also relatable. I think in the addiction arena, there are too many ‘experts’ who studied addiction in school, but never have been on a 2 week bender wondering if this is the bender that will actual end them.
There is a power in knowing someone has been to the dark spaces you have been.
How This Naked Mind Helped Me
This book was the first take that actually showed me what alcohol was: A drug. It does no good. It takes and takes. And everything I thought it did for me was a lie. It doesn’t make me happy. It doesn’t help me sleep. I don’t drink it for the taste. I don’t need it to be social (this was a big one for me). It only took from me.
It took my health. It took my sleep. It took my true personality. It took my time.
Time – that is the worst thing that it took. I got everything else back in my life. My health. My sleep. My personality. But I cannot get back those hours – literally house of my life back wasted to the drug.
But I can prevent it from taking anymore in the future.
Can This Naked Mind Help You?
This Naked Mind was not the pivot point of me dropping the bottle for good. In fact – to be quite honest – I don’t know if I had that one moment. But what this book did do for me – and can do for you – is to call out what alcohol truly does – and does not – do in your life.
Awareness is the first step. You don’t know what you don’t know. You can continue to stick your head in the sand on your drinking, or you can take steps toward bringing what it really does into your awareness. The choice is up to you. But I think giving this book a try is well worth it if you are seriously about telling alcohol to F*ck off in your life.
