Rating: 
Summary: Like to drink with friends? Feel sub-par? Read this.
Review: Before I read this book I had the slightest clue about my past and present relationship with alcohol. I was especially intruiged when they named off to the dime, the feelings of anxiety, isolation, guilt, and shame that I was feeling. All this time I was looking for reasons to blame my family for the way that I felt. While reading this book, I realized that my binge drinking on the weekends had been deteriorating my relationships with real people. And alcohol, my best friend, was the one doing it! This book offers fundamental information about alcohol and alcoholism that every single person should know.
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: For anyone personally suffering from this disease, as well as family or friends of an alcoholic, this is a must-read book that approaches the subject in a clinical manner rather than engaging in character assination. Once the alcoholic understands what is happening from a medical perspective, a great deal of guilt is removed and, as such, the chance for treatment/recovery is greatly enhanced.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to the disease of alcoholism
Review: For many alcoholics and those who live with them, it's not enough to know that this disease is a mysterious "allergy." Under the Influence explains the physical aspects of alcoholism in a matter-of-fact, easily readable form. The authors follow the progressive stages of alcoholism with clear descriptions of what the disease does to the way the liver, the brain, and the emotions respond to alcohol at each stage. This book explains how the bodies of alcoholics metabolize liquor differently from those of non-alcoholics, and the changes in the brain that take place over years of continued drinking. (It confirms, for example, the observation that many late-stage alcoholics' function deteriorates as they go without liquor for a number of hours). After a complete description of the stages of alcoholism, it provides some insight on intervention and treatment, and some valuable information about treating the physical aspects of the disease in sobriety, with proper diet and rest in addition to AA attendance. Nothing in Under the Influence will replace the role of the experience, strength and hope of other alcoholics in helping alcoholics recover. Yet this book provides valuable information, especially about the often-overlooked physical aspects of the three-fold disease of alcoholism.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to the disease of alcoholism
Review: For many alcoholics and those who live with them, it's not enough to know that this disease is a mysterious "allergy." Under the Influence explains the physical aspects of alcoholism in a matter-of-fact, easily readable form. The authors follow the progressive stages of alcoholism with clear descriptions of what the disease does to the way the liver, the brain, and the emotions respond to alcohol at each stage.
This book explains how the bodies of alcoholics metabolize liquor differently from those of non-alcoholics, and the changes in the brain that take place over years of continued drinking. (It confirms, for example, the observation that many late-stage alcoholics' function deteriorates as they go without liquor for a number of hours). After a complete description of the stages of alcoholism, it provides some insight on intervention and treatment, and some valuable information about treating the physical aspects of the disease in sobriety, with proper diet and rest in addition to AA attendance.
Nothing in Under the Influence will replace the role of the experience, strength and hope of other alcoholics in helping alcoholics recover. Yet this book provides valuable information, especially about the often-overlooked physical aspects of the three-fold disease of alcoholism.
Rating:
Summary: A summary
Review: I feel that the alcoholic and the disease of alcoholism is successfully communicated through the various facts and statements throughout the book and that these ideals are presented in a non-biased fashion, thus enabling the reader to make intelligent and cognizant decisions about alcohol and the disease. The last chapter in the book is aptly titled "Beyond prejudices and misconceptions." It suggests that as the disease of alcoholism is more fully understood by education and prevention efforts of society, the misconception of alcoholism as a symptom of a psychological problem, rather than the physical addiction that it is, can be more easily communicated. I think its awareness can be sparked by this simple quote: "Alcoholics are not morally or psychologically defective people, but innocent victims of a chronic and progressive disease."
Rating:
Summary: Still ahead of its time
Review: I find the comments that the book is out of date sad, because the vast majority of alcoholism treatment programs as well as public opinion have not yet caught up to this book. Milam advances several important concepts: 1. Alcoholism is a disease like diabetes. Psychology and morality play no role, except in the alcoholic's reaction emotionally to the consequences of the disease [hiding it, seeking help, etc.] If you think this view of alcoholism is completely accepted now, try telling your boss you are an alcoholic. 2. Milam then explains HOW alcoholism is a disease in fascinating detail. Alcoholics are not addicted to alcohol, but to a complex physical process that happens when they drink. Basically, the alcoholic's body reacts to the presence of alcohol in the body differently from that of a "normal" person, and no amount of counseling/threats/religious conversions can change that. 3. Alcoholics may not know when to save themselves, and may need help [he shoots down the "hitting bottom" myth]. Do you wait for a diabetic to go into a coma before you help them? 4. Treatment for the alcoholic must address the poor state of the alcoholic's health and nutrition. Alcoholic tremors, shaking, illusions, paranoia, etc. are caused by alcoholic malnutrition. Alcohol strips the body of water soluble vitamins, particularly the crucial B vitamins, and prevents the liver and other organs from repairing the body. The one section of the book I don't agree with concerns the role of government/public agencies in alcoholism treatment. Milam expects too much of them. But that does not affect the brilliance of this book. In the reviews here, there are some criticisms that Milam describes only "worst case" scenarios. That is not correct. He clearly describes all the stages of alcoholism, from the "I just want to have fun" stage to the lying in the gutter stage, and he recognizes that the disease progresses differently in people. As an alcoholic who has been sober for twenty years, I can't recommend this book enough. It provides hard information, not moralizing.
Rating: 
Summary: Biased approach presents only partial information
Review: I first this book around 1986. It presents very valuable information about the physiological processing of alcohol after it is ingested and how alcoholics process alcohol differently. The authors will leave the reader with no doubt that alcoholism has physiological origins. Moreover, the authrors are quite right to condemn the viewpoint that alcoholism results from either mental problems or moral failings. The authors' big and, I think, fatal error is their assertion that it is solely a physiological problem. This is nonsense. A wholistic approach views alcoholism as a biopsychosocial phenomenon. The approach of this book can't explain why an individual starts drinking in the first place. Moreover, the only adequately documented recovery approach with long lasting results is AA, which is a spiritual recovery. The underlying assumption, therefore, must be that alcoholism results from a spiritual failing. An interesting contradiction.
Rating:
Summary: Biased approach presents only partial information
Review: I first this book around 1986. It presents very valuable information about the physiological processing of alcohol after it is ingested and how alcoholics process alcohol differently. The authors will leave the reader with no doubt that alcoholism has physiological origins. Moreover, the authrors are quite right to condemn the viewpoint that alcoholism results from either mental problems or moral failings. The authors' big and, I think, fatal error is their assertion that it is solely a physiological problem. This is nonsense. A wholistic approach views alcoholism as a biopsychosocial phenomenon. The approach of this book can't explain why an individual starts drinking in the first place. Moreover, the only adequately documented recovery approach with long lasting results is AA, which is a spiritual recovery. The underlying assumption, therefore, must be that alcoholism results from a spiritual failing. An interesting contradiction.
Rating:
Summary: Most understandable, accurate, & helpful book on alcoholism
Review: I have now read five books on this subject, due to family members and a dear friend being alcoholics. This is the most readable, "states it like it is," book I have read. Many, many questions are answered when reading this book. For me, of particular interest, was Chapter Five, wherein "The Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome" is described...it explains my friend exactly, and the doctors (three so far) are not picking up on his being in this stage, even tho they know he is an alcoholic! The information on types of food is especially good, and the authors are correct, that FEW (if any) doctors discuss the very important role of nutrition counseling!! I am getting three of these for family and friends and feel it will really help them understand others and themselves. I am most pleased to see that it is still in print. I got my copy from a friend about a year ago and just started re-reading it and realized it just "hits the bullet" as the saying goes, and is one that the alcoholism counselor (that originally gave it to me), had UNDERLINED and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Most understandable, accurate, & helpful book on alcoholism
Review: I have now read five books on this subject, due to family members and a dear friend being alcoholics. This is the most readable, "states it like it is," book I have read. Many, many questions are answered when reading this book. For me, of particular interest, was Chapter Five, wherein "The Protracted Withdrawal Syndrome" is described...it explains my friend exactly, and the doctors (three so far) are not picking up on his being in this stage, even tho they know he is an alcoholic! The information on types of food is especially good, and the authors are correct, that FEW (if any) doctors discuss the very important role of nutrition counseling!! I am getting three of these for family and friends and feel it will really help them understand others and themselves. I am most pleased to see that it is still in print. I got my copy from a friend about a year ago and just started re-reading it and realized it just "hits the bullet" as the saying goes, and is one that the alcoholism counselor (that originally gave it to me), had UNDERLINED and highly recommended.
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