A 53-year-old medical writer and yoga teacher checks into rehab. Getting in was easy . . .
After 25 years of heavy drinking and blackouts, a 53-year-old freelance writer and yoga teacher checks himself into rehab, where he deals with young gangstas fresh out of jail, burnt-out orderlies, and controlling therapists. After sobering up and pulling himself together, he faces the biggest challenge of all--getting out.
Excerpt
I started to view addiction as an alien part of the brain located somewhere in the pleasures centers of the brain, at odds with the rational mind. It could trick you into walking down a particular street where the liquor store was, without really knowing why. Furthermore, it could sabotage your life, making bad stuff happen to you like divorce or losing your job, just so you have an excuse to drink or use. Addiction never slept. It lurked in the back of your brain, subtly informing every decision you made . . .
Professional Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Dinsmoor (The Yoga Divas and Other Stories, 2010) recounts his stint in rehab for alcoholism in this new memoir.
In 2011, the author, a 53-year-old yoga instructor and freelance writer, checked himself in for a monthlong program of sobriety at the Wetlands Rehabilitation Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Convinced that he needed to quit drinking by a concerned cabal of friends and family, Dinsmoor was finally willing to seek professional help to curb a habit that had grown worse over the decades: “Time was when a six pack or a small bottle of wine would put me under, but now it took about twice that.” Life in rehab bore a strange resemblance to life back in elementary school: the center was segregated by gender, patients were monitored around the clock, and petty grievances took on inflated importance. Even a certain juvenile sense of humor arose: Dinsmoor remembers how one rehab technician admonished her patients after discovering a crude drawing of genitalia on a sign-in sheet: “From a distance, all I could see was a squiggle, but I was pretty sure I knew what it was.” His planned stay of 28 days ended up stretching to three months, and he recounts his adventures along the road to recovery, including going into withdrawal when he was taken off Ativan, accusing his roommate of secretly using cocaine, and having to bunk with the most active drug dealer in the compound. Through it all, the author tells his tale with an eye for the absurd and the humor of a man who thinks he’s the only sane cuckoo in the nest. He’s a confident writer with a practiced comic timing, and although his story isn’t particularly dramatic or traumatic, it offers welcome insight into the rehabilitation industry and the sorts of characters found therein. The most intriguing conclusion readers may draw from his experience is that despite the fraternity of sponsors and support groups, recovery is ultimately a solitary pursuit. As people fade in and out, fall off the wagon, or disappear, one is reminded that the only person who can keep a patient sober is the patient himself.
A funny, rambling account of addiction and recovery.
Reader's Favorites
You Can Leave Anytime by Rob Dinsmoor is the insightful journey of a man who, after twenty-five years of alcohol abuse, decides to check himself into Wetlands Rehabilitation Facility to sober up. Rob’s check-in process is thorough, detailing the body and luggage searches, paperwork, declarations, ID bracelet, confiscation of his prescription medication, and being assigned to a room with two current patients and a camera, enabling staff to keep an eye on everything. Different types of group therapy are conducted throughout the day and in the evenings, incorporating anger management and addressing memory lapses. Thoughts and stories are shared in the group, angers sometimes flare, personalities clash, room-mates become incompatible, but each day brings inner growth. Initially, Rob is told that the rehab is only compulsory for the first ten days, after which you can leave anytime (thus, the title of the book), but he soon discovers it is not true and that the compulsory period is twenty-eight days minimum.
This is one of the best documented accounts of going through rehab I have ever read, with the book going back and forth from pre-rehab disasters to experiences at Wetlands during rehabilitation. You Can Leave Anytime is insightful, unbiased, and brings awareness of what happens when you are making a true effort in finding your way back from substance abuse. I hope to read more from Rob Dinsmoor in the future.
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