Quitter Quotes

“But as my own experience proves, even imperfect treatment can help.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Most of what I learned at Lakeside-Milam happened between lectures and movies and writing assignments,”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“I don’t want to blame my treatment center, or the treatment system, for my failure to remain sober after I left, but the prevalence of relapse suggests that the problem extends beyond the patient and his or her “terminal uniqueness” to the inadequate tools we are given for surviving in the outside world.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“People who raise questions about one or more elements of the standard protocol, as I did, are told they suffer from “terminal uniqueness”—the (apparently fatal) flaw of thinking you’re different from everyone else.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Treatment centers too often deliver one-size-fits-all solutions to patients whose problems are distinct and diverse”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“If a person isn’t religious, a good treatment center won’t shame them for not believing in God, or push them to change their beliefs;”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“The 2012 CASA study concluded that the level of care at typical US treatment centers was so low it might constitute “a form of medical malpractice.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“or counterproductive, like pitting patients against each other,”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“I don’t mean to imply that people without college degrees can’t or don’t make excellent counselors—as former alcoholics and drug addicts who managed to turn their lives around, their life experience is, one might argue, a highly relevant qualification—but it’s worth knowing what you’re paying for.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“About half of all addiction counselors are in recovery themselves. They are, in effect, peer counselors”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“there are no nationwide standards, and few formal education or training requirements, for addiction counselors.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“It’s a closed system that leaves little room for desperate people to argue or assess other options, especially if their insurance company will only pay for one chemical-dependency assessment.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Starting about a week before you “graduate,” the treatment provider will begin urging you to sign up to extend your time in their program through intensive outpatient treatment”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Treatment centers take advantage of this desperation.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Third, the treatment industry has to be more transparent about its methods. Most people choose a treatment center in roughly the same condition I did—desperate, terrified they’ll lose their resolve, utterly uninterested in details like what kind of program the treatment center offers, the credentials of its staff, or whether most of the patients are there involuntarily or by choice.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“I hadn’t “stuck with the program” or been “willing to go to any lengths.” I forgot that “meeting makers make it” to long-term sobriety.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“First, the treatment industry helps no one by pretending that treatment just “works,” and that if it doesn’t, it’s the alcoholic or addict who’s the problem.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“(seriously, rehabs should stop using that book).”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Researchers have found that “late-onset” alcoholics—those who abstain or drink normally for many years before tipping over the edge into alcoholism, like I did—generally become alcoholics not as the result of genetic predisposition, but because of some circumstance or event in their life (divorce, job loss, major physical or psychological dislocation) that throws them off balance and leads them to drink more and more,”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Unemployed, with nothing but hours stretching out before me, I walked through a city littered with secret landmarks and tried to build new memories.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“How assertive can you be with the landlord when he refuses to fix the dishwasher, knowing that he’s disliked you, with some justification, for most of the six and a half years you’ve lived in the place, but that you’re also well within your right to complain?”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“I showed up in therapy, and back in AA, with the idea that I needed to fix everything, right away, this minute, now.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“And she doesn’t think AA is the only answer.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“trauma-informed addiction counseling.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“because we have a disease that tells us we don’t have a disease.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“I needed someone who knew how a person’s brain was affected by addiction, how we shame and second-guess ourselves and convince ourselves that maybe there was nothing wrong with us in the first place,”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Some alcoholics refer to events like this as “reservations.” If my mom dies, then I’ll drink.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“Everyone else, it seemed, had someone on their side who truly believed in them. All I had was Kevin, the on-again, off-again boyfriend I kept at arm’s length, and Josh, the best friend who was practically setting me up to fail.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“For the next few nights, I dreamed about my parents, and drinking—chugging from a brown paper bag while walking down the street near my apartment, to meet them at their hotel; going to a party at their house without intending to drink but finding a beer in my purse.”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery

“I spent my thirty-seventh birthday in treatment, but I still had a party of sorts”
― Erica C. Barnett, Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery