Congradulations

[Guest guest]

Wow, what great news, . A real birthday treat for me. I'm 52

today.

> Dear All .

> There is now another jenifer on the list ------welcome .

> I will call myself , or jenny from england to make the

distinction . .

> I think that I have managed to acheive something significant this

week .

> As some of you will know , I am a professional , and I have now been

sober

> for 21 months . This was acheived with some struggle at first , and

with an

> eclectic mixture of tools which included residential rehab , 7

months on

> Antabuse , counselling , and generally sorting my life out I got a

my first

> and only DUI 2 years ago and it was that which preciptated the

referral to my

> professional body ( thats another story ) .

> I never went to work after having a drink , or drank at work .

> I got conditions on my registration . One of them was mandation to

AA . This

> was despite having told the panel that I had been while in rehab ,

and after

> , and also periodically in the years before . I did not get sober

with AA

> alone . Indeed when in rehab we were indoctrinated , and I felt even

more

> alone and that there must be something wrong with me for not

'getting ''it

> I found this bizarre , and I went a few times because I had to ,

the day I

> got verbal abuse from someone when I did a chair , for being middle

class ,

> was the day that I swore I would never go back .

> My psychiatrist wrote to the prof body and asked them to reconsider

the

> condition , they in turn said they could not do that for 3 years ,

and then

> niggled me with the veiled threat of my suspension . .

> They totally ignored the fact that I was recovering well without any

slips or

> lapses ------surely that was all that mattered .

> Well I threatened them with the new Human Rights Act , that did the

trick , I

> had a rehaering on Thursday and the condition was lifted .

> They bent over backwards to make sure that this was not a precedent

so that

> they can continue to mandate other people . The frightening thing is

that

> these people are amateurs ( dentists ) ., and lay people with no

training in

> alcohol problems .

> I havent finished yet !

> The existence of this list , Stanton Peele , rebecca , and all on

the list

> have been a great motivator to continue on this road .

>