Health, healing and sobriety

Jerry Dorsman has used an alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous to help him stay sober for 25 years.

Dorsman left his marketing career to become an addictions therapist. His books on recovery emphasize health, well-being and a broad spirituality.

Some people would say that Jerry Dorsman quit drinking the hard way -- without AA.

But 25 years ago he was so shy and anxious that even the friendly folks at Alcoholics Anonymous caused him to feel nervous and he left meetings craving a glass of scotch.

In 1981, he gave up on AA and sought a path of reading and discipline that opened new insights into nutrition, exercise, spirituality and self-examination.

In a few years, he had not just found his way to sobriety, he had the outline for a step-by-step recovery model. In 1991, he turned his program into a self-published book, as he continued to experiment with ways to improve his well-being.

Since then, "How to Quit Drinking Without AA" has sold steadily and has now topped more than 100,000 copies in print. A subsidiary of Random House -- Three Rivers Press -- has published a revised second edition.

That's exciting for the 59-year-old Elk Mills, Md., therapist and addictions counselor who thinks of the book as a central aspect of his life. "I reclaimed my life using exactly what I write about," Dorsman says.

A medical check up is part of what motivated Dorsman to change. He recommends it to others believing that people benefit when they find physical, emotional and spiritual reasons to examine whether they are indulging in too much drink.

And, he says, a strong motivation to change is important, given that people take up alcohol because it's a source of pleasure. Or, as the early Roman philosopher Horace observed: alcohol "unlocks secrets, confirms our hopes, urges the indolent into battle, lifts the burden from anxious minds, teaches new arts."

For Dorsman, alcohol made anxious social situations enjoyable. But alcohol also took a toll on his health.

"When I was 34 I had a fatty liver, high cholesterol and a messed up GI tract," he says. "I felt like a ticking time bomb."

He has never been opposed to AA -- or anything that works for people. But the 12-step meetings he attended never appealed to him. Besides his shyness in the meetings, he found AA's spiritual focus too narrow and forced.

Nor did he like that the AA program gave little attention to diet and stress reduction. Today he credits a whole-foods diet with a lot of his success in ending his dependence on alcohol.

"It's miraculous how much healing takes place when you change from a poor diet to a healthy one," he writes. He agrees that alcohol is a disease, one strongly connected to diet. Still, he puts an emphasis on drinking as a habit that can be broken through the creation of new habits.

Central to these is building inner strength through physical and mental exercise. Or, as he writes, by becoming conscious of our powers they increase.

And he suggests people explore everything from acupuncture to yoga to hypnosis. Learning a new approach to well being adds new zip to life, he says.

Dorsman was able to change with his approach because he is very methodical. His book is proof of that. It contains 33 check lists created from 10 years of research and notes.

He had such success that he switched fields, from marketing to addictions counseling. He also found his way to spiritual ideas, many of them from Buddhism.

"After six months of sobriety I realized I was becoming more positive and that I had been shut down spirituality," he says. "It was exciting to explore the world religions in the way that suited me."

He's been especially drawn to meditation as a way to foster peace and awareness. In 1994, Dorsman and Newark yoga teacher and writer Bob Davis published a book called "How to Achieve Peace of Mind."

During the early promotion phase for "How to Quit Drinking Without AA," Dorsman did more than 100 radio interviews. During broadcasts, some would call to say the book sounded like something they wanted to check out because AA hadn't worked for them. But recovering alcoholics were critical because they felt AA saved their lives.

"They were trying to say AA is the only thing that works," Dorsman says.

Yet he points out that AA's numbers show that well under 50 percent of people remain in the program after a year.

"My attitude has always been if AA works that's great," he says. "I have a chapter in my book where I encourage people to check it out.

"I want people to know about any and every technique that could work for them."

Delaware Online