They beat the booze – but still like a drink

By Bob Smyth
Sunday Post

A couple have written a book on how they beat the booze – but they'll
toast its publication with a drink.

Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald penned their story to highlight their
controversial claims that recovering alcoholics don't need to stay on
the wagon.

The couple, from Ayr, say they're "cured" of alcoholism, but still
enjoy drinking socially.

Now they're looking for a publisher, and are set to spread news of
their unusual treatment around the world on a website that they're
setting up alcoholicscandrinksafelyagain.com

Slamming

The pair have waged a campaign against conventional therapies for
drink problems, slamming Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the theory
that "one drink will put you back on the road to ruin".

At their lowest point, boozing drove the couple to sleep rough. But
Murdoch insists: "Now we can enjoy a sociable bottle of wine."

He adds: "If you get rid of the root cause, instead of just the
symptoms, why shouldn't you be able to drink normally again?"

Lilian used to go on whisky binges which lasted weeks. Trapped in an
unhappy marriage, her childhood feelings of worthlessness came
flooding back.

She says: "Drink would block out all the worst things. It got rid of
my inferior feelings, and that's where the problems started."

As landlady of an Ayrshire pub, it was easy for her to have a drink
whenever she wanted it. She was in and out of AA, where she met
Murdoch 11 years ago. They married months later, blowing £5000 on
booze during their honeymoon.
Lilian says: "Soon after, we went to Cambridge for Murdoch to
complete a PhD. We started drinking and were thrown out of our rented
accommodation. We were begging in the streets."

One night they were beaten up.

Two nurses took them to hospital, then got them into a hostel. The
couple started addressing why they drank, and after a year, made a
fresh start.

They're delighted a new book published last week backs their views.

The book - 7 Tools to Beat Addiction - is by American addiction
expert Dr Stanton Peele, who is campaigning against the tendency of
American courts to make people convicted of drink-related offences
join AA as part of their sentence.

Disease

Dr Peele says: "While maintaining alcoholism is a disease, AA and
other disease proponents ignore the standard therapeutic requirement
that people be told of the alternatives, and be allowed to govern
their own health-care decisions."

Lilian says: "We are campaigning to get freedom of choice for
alcoholics. We are not against people going to AA if that's what they
want. But we believe in individual treatment for individual people -
not one size fits all."

Alcoholics Anonymous declined to comment.