3 Reasons to RETHINK Your NIGHTLY GLASS OF WINE

If you’ve been watching the news over the past month, then you’ve probably seen bits and pieces about award-winning television journalist, Elizabeth Vargas, and her battle with anxiety and alcoholism.  As I watched the extended interview on 20/20, I couldn’t help but be pulled into the details of her honest, gut-wrenching story.  And, the crazy thing about it was that she had been able to drink alcohol without overdoing it for years.  She frequently had a nightly glass of wine, but when her anxiety level became unbearable and life seemed to be spiraling out of her control, that glass became two…then three…then bottle after bottle.

Vargas goes into great detail about her struggle in her book, Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction.  As I watched her tell her own story with tears welling up in her eyes, I felt like I saw a woman that I could become if I was placed in a particularly stressful situation.  

Personally, I have never struggled with an ongoing addiction, but I have several extended family members who have.  Some of us have more of a predisposition to addiction, but none of us are immune to it.  But, if we’re honest, most of us don’t think that we could ever become an alcoholic or addict.  We have too much self-control for that, right?

That is exactly what I saw in Vargas’ regretful eyes. She never thought she’d be writing a book about her struggle with alcoholism.  She never thought her marriage would end or that she would be so drunk that she found herself lost–and at the mercy of kind strangers–in Central Park.  She never thought she would have to go to rehab again and again after relapsing.  She never thought she would embarrass herself when she would try and hide her drinking at work.  She never thought any of this would happen to HER either. None of us do, and yet, it can happen to any of us.

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