Coming Clean

"If you think you have a drinking problem, you probably do. If you think you can handle it without any outside help, you're probably wrong. In fact, I'll bet you've tried. And still have a problem." Thus begins Tom Gunn's Coming Clean, a handbook disguised as a memoir, a small book with a big message, a book that cuts through the excuses and puts a spotlight on the path to recovery. In this, Gunn is an expert-a well-practiced substance abuser from the age of fifteen who spent more than twenty years living in a self-induced fog before confronting his disease. He's been sober now for almost thirty years and has stories to tell. While readers will learn something about Tom Gunn, they will learn more about themselvesGunn, trained as a lawyer, became a super-salesman and served as head of international sales for one of the world's largest aerospace companies and as president of a helicopter company. For too many years, he avoided getting straight and thought he was doing just fine. As he writes, "I always was very good at my job in spite of the fact that I was using. After I came clean, I was very good at my job. I always thought that booze and pills made me super creative, helping me write speeches and position papers and marketing plans and I was on top of the world! Truth was, I was very good at faking it. Call it, style over substance. It was not until I got sober that I learned how creative I really could be." Advance praise for Coming Clean: "In more than three decades specializing in the assessment and treatment of addiction, I've read many books written by and for substance abusers. Some are technical, some anecdotal, some 'conversational,' and each makes a contribution in one way or another-but I've never before read a book that so effectively targets men and women who know they have a problem, but are not yet comfortable with the idea of doing something about it." Ronald B. Dicker, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, St. Louis, Missouri.