Restore Your Life: A Livng Plan for Sober People

Geller, herself a recovering alcoholic, a physician and the director of the Smithers Center at New York City's St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital--a treatment facility for alcohol and substance abusers--spares no punches here. Writing for alcoholics and drug addicts who are now sober and struggling to remain so, with freelance writer Territo she calls on a slew of excellent case histories to describe the coping skills necessary to staying sober. For sobriety, Geller argues, means more than giving up drugs or alcohol: addiction, she contends, is a chronic disease with which one must learn to live. Especially important to newly sober people is how to avoid the pitfalls of relapse--how to anticipate it, then change one's environment, rebuild self-esteem and reward oneself for hard-won success. In addition, Geller outlines what the recovering alcoholic can expect in early months of sobriety as well as two or three years down the road. Chapters on initiating new friendships, getting back to work, the importance of exercise and good nutrition, and improving one's sex life are realistic and don't talk down to the reader. Well worth noting, too, are appendices on prescription and over-the-counter medications to be avoided for their alcoholic content. (Mar.)