Here is a rough draft of what might go into an e-book or similar. As ever, improvements and suggestions would be great.

We are all members of NeuroTalk, which is a world-wide support board for people with neurological problems or mental health issues. One forum within NeuroTalk is concerned with people who abuse alcohol.

We live in different countries and have different experiences but have one thing in common; we all know about alcohol abuse and its consequences. Some of us know about this directly, others know about it because a family member is dealing with alcohol abuse.

These are our stories. For privacy reasons we have used pseudonyms. We all hope that our stories will help others.

Kiwi's story
For many years I drank moderately - maybe a glass of wine with a meal but nothing more. About 10 years ago I drank to excess because I was dealing with some very complex relationship issues and thought that alcohol would numb them. This was a poor choice - I behaved badly towards the two people involved and it has taken me a long time to rebuild trust with them both.

For me the wake-up call was when I went to my local bottle-shop to get my daily bottle of brandy. The owner did not have to ask - he just gave it to me. I asked myself "What are you doing to yourself?".

I then made the hardest decision in my life; I checked in to a psychiatric hospital for a month, getting great help from the health professionals there.

I have been sober for the last 10 years. Compared to others I have been lucky - I had some mild peripheral neuropathy in my hands which has largely resolved and still have a bit of minor essential tremor in my hands, which I can live with.

I hope that my story might help others who are dealing with alcohol abuse.

[Just my thoughts and a very rough draft of the kind of things that we all might say. mrsD, if this or something like it ends off in some third-party site, I don't think that I have broken any NT rules in it. Do you have any thoughts on this or any other suggestions?]