The power of denial

In 1982, I listened intently to a 28-year-old man sincerely explain to me why he simply couldn’t be an alcoholic because he “only” drank beer. I had been asked to convince him that he was, in fact, an alcoholic and that the hospital’s treatment program was available to help him get sober. Being only a few months over a year sober myself, I could only tell him of my own addiction, desperation, transformation and sobriety.

Medically he was not in great shape. He was in kidney failure and his liver and stomach lining were equally impaired.

I watched as his family tearfully begged him to enter the...