Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery | Erica C. Barnett

Erica C. Barnett had her first sip of alcohol when she was thirteen, and she quickly developed a taste for drinking to oblivion with her friends. In her late twenties, her addiction became inescapable. Volatile relationships, blackouts, and unsuccessful stints in detox defined her life, with the vodka bottles she hid throughout her apartment and offices acting as both her tormentors and closest friends.   By the time she was in her late thirties, Erica Barnett had run the gauntlet of alcoholism. She had recovered and relapsed time and again, but after each new program or detox center would find herself far from rehabilitated. Rock bottom, Barnett writes, is a lie. It is always possible, she learned, to go lower than your lowest point. She found that the terms other alcoholics used to describe the trajectory of their addiction--rock bottom and moment of clarity--and the mottos touted by Alcoholics Anonymous, such as let go and let God and you're only as sick as your secrets--didn't corr