Sir Anthony Hopkins, 45 years sober

Sir Anthony Hopkins, aged 82, an actor, and composer, of worldwide renown, whose talents, gifts, and skills on the silver screen, stage and recently, as orchestral composer, is celebrating 45 years of sobriety today, Tuesday, 29 December 2020, and tweeted about it.

With gratitude, I celebrate 45 years of sobriety. pic.twitter.com/fxzMRGlI4m

— Anthony Hopkins (@AnthonyHopkins) December 29, 2020

Hello everyone. Good morning!

Sir Anthony Hopkins, age 82 tweets video encouragement as he celebrates 45 years sobriety on 29 December 2020, an upcoming birthday on 12-31, and happy upcoming New Year.

Well, a new year’s coming. It’s been a tough year, full of grief and sadness for many, many, many people.

But 45 years ago, today, I had a wake up call: I was headed for disaster. I was drinking myself to death – I’m not preachy – but, ah… I got a message, a little thought, that said ‘do you want to live, or die?’

And I said ‘I want to live.’ And suddenly, the relief came, and my life has been amazing.

And ah… I may have off days and

Rethinking Addiction

Perhaps you’ve studied the 12-Step program, or perhaps you’ve practiced it. I have done both. Practicing it was not as a matter of addiction, or any such thing for myself, but instead, was a part of my personal spiritual growth and development.

Over the years, I’ve heard commentary, or news features which interviewed people with divergent perspectives on 12-Step programs, most notably which were skeptical of them, and were thoughtfully seeking answers themselves for the “whys and wherefores” of substance abuse, whether it’s long-term or temporary, and whether it is a genetic fault, or if it is a personality or character flaw in response to external or internal stressors. In other words, it’s the classic “Heredity vs Environment” argument.

As I have come to view it, there is validity for both sides, but I think the stronger case is made for a combination of environment and character flaw, instead of genetic defect.

—/—

“In his recent book, The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry, Lance Dodes, a retired psychiatry professor from Harvard Medical School, looked at Alcoholics Anonymous’s retention rates along with studies on sobriety and rates of active involvement (attending meetings regularly and working the program) among AA members. Based on these data, he put AA’s actual success rate somewhere between 5 and 8 percent. That is just a rough estimate, but it’s the most precise one I’ve been able to find.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/

The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous
By Gabrielle Glaser, April 2015 Issue
Its faith-based 12-step program dominates treatment in the United States. But researchers have debunked central tenets of AA doctrine and found

Research: Lowering BAC to .05 will NOT reduce traffic deaths

We’re now hearing the drumbeat to lower the BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) for DUI (Driving Under the Influence) from 0.08 to 0.05.

However, research by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) shows in 2008, the MAJORITY of drivers involved in fatal crashes in ALL 50 states had 0% BAC.

Put another way, in the MAJORITY of ALL traffic fatalities in ALL 50 states, the drivers were TOTALLY SOBER.

Yes, you read that correctly.