If you're here because you're wondering if you are an alcoholic, you probably are. Normal people, non-alcoholics, don't sit around wondering if they are alcoloics. They just don't. If you are worried about it, one of these things probably rings true:

• You decide not to drink tonight, then you drink anyway.
• You say you're going to have a beer or two and before you know it, you've had six.
• Once again, you woke up this morning feeling deep regret for something you did or said last night.
• You wake up in the morning and have to go look for your car.
• You wake up in jail after being charged with a DUI. This may be the first one you've gotten, but you know it wasn't the first time you've been driving drunk..
• And so on.

I know all that because I'm an alcoholic and I've been around recovering alcoholics for close to seven years. I'm not wrong. If you think I am, keep drinking. One of two things will happen. You'll eventually become so miserable that you'll become willing to do whatever it takes to quit drinking, or you'll die. And, when you die an alcoholic's death, you do not go gentle into that good night. Believe me, I've seen it. Almost experienced it myself.

Before August 20, 2002, at ten each night, without fail, I would finish the glass of vodka I’d been refilling since arriving home from work, extinguish my cigarette, and go to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I’d look at my gray-bearded, red face in the mirror and say softly, “Ed, you’re an alcoholic.” I’d awaken at four each morning full of fear and self-hatred. Two hours later, I’d rise from bed and think, “Today’s a new day. Today will be different.” Every afternoon I’d arrive home from work, fill a glass with ice and vodka, light a cigarette, and move to the porch to sit, drink, and smoke until ten o’clock came and the whole thing would start over again.

Here’s a question: Why would I keep doing things over and over that I knew was killing me and making me miserable? Here’s the answer: I believed deep into the very core of my being that life without alcohol was impossible. As it turned out, it is possible. In fact, it’s glorious.

If after reading so far, you're still wondering whether or not you have a problem with alcohol, it''s easy enough to find out for sure. Just don't drink for a few months and see what happens. Or, better yet, try a drink a day for a few months. That's a single drink a day. To clarify, a drink a day is one and a half ounces of carefully measured liquor, or 12 ounces of carefully measured wine, or one 12 ounce can of beer. If you can do that and be perfectly happy and content, that's wonderful. Odds are you're not like me and you can move on to the cigarettes, weight loss, and/or exercise sections.

But if drinking one drink a day would make you more miserable than not drinking at all, you are like me and you should keep reading.

In this website, I'm sharing some of the tools that helped me get better and stay that way. But, those tools are nothing but lecture material without my story. Lectures and preaching are spectacularly unsuccessful in helping people change. The most effective inspiration for change is to hear from someone who's done it in real life. That's why I'm sharing some of my story. Read it if you'd like.