I Was an Alcoholic: The Story of a Cure by Patrick Ridell - SIGNED

I Was an Alcoholic

The Story of a Cure

by Patrick Ridell

This book is a first printing from 1955 with the original dust jacket and has been inscribed by the author.

The inscription reads:

”To Malcolm Wallis, from his nephew and friend, the author, Patrick Riddell/ September, 1955

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Just as Marty Mann's "Primer on Alcoholism" has proved invaluable to the friends and relatives of alco-holics, so, we hope, will the present book be of high service to alcoholics themselves. Mr. Riddell's story will profoundly interest, also, the general reader: it leads you on from page to page.

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When Patrick Riddell was twenty-two, he had his first alcoholic drink. From that time onwards he was a hopeless alcoholic, until twenty years later-seven years ago— he was completely cured. He has never had a drink since. He has written his book to help those who are similarly afflicted, and to make it easier for their families and other people to understand the nature of alcoholism.

Mr. Riddell is an Ulsterman and a Civil Servant. As a young man his great ambition in life was to become a successful dramatist. Four years after he had started drinking he achieved a transfer from Belfast to London; and during the 'thirties, in addition to his Civil Service work, he did a great many successful radio adaptations, mainly of Dumas. But despite his satisfactory work in the Civil Service and his radio successes, his whole life was being poisoned by alcoholism. As a result his marriage was on the edge of breakdown; his constant drinking did not win him the respect or liking of his colleagues and superiors; his financial position grew more desperate every day; and his drinking brought with it uncontrollable sexual desire.

He describes the gradual sapping of his self-confidence over this period, the devastating effect on his judgment, his terrible misery and fear of running into debt, his blurred vision of himself-elation while he was drunk, horror when he was sober -and his endless self-justification. This is a picture of hell.

Then came the war, and after work in a series of wartime Ministries he joined the Marines. War service did him some good physically, but in no way helped his great problem, and after demobilisation his situation was worse than ever, for he had a family to keep and had by now reached the stage of drinking three bottles of whisky a day—in fact, in 1947 he reckoned that he was spending over £7 daily on alcohol. In the spring of that year he exchanged with another Civil Servant and returned to Belfast, hoping that the change would in some way effect a miracle; but for the next six months he drank harder than ever, and it was not until September that, after a fortnight of crisis, he was persuaded by a friend to try apomorphine treatment.

For the first time he wanted to be cured, which is the basic essential if anything is to be achieved. He was admitted to the nursing home of the London specialist who gives the treatment, which consists of two-hourly injections of apomorphine for approximately two days, followed each time by a drink of whisky. The injections make the patient vomit, for the whisky becomes more and more repugnant to him, he is not allowed even a drop of water, and is visited by appalling hallucinations. Mr.

Riddell was released from the nursing home after a few days, but before he returned home was instructed by the specialist to visit all his old haunts and have a soft drink in each. At the first he nearly broke down; but after half an hour of crisis realised that his craving for whisky was not physical but a matter of association, and he has never been tempted to drink since.

The second part of the book is in the form of a letter to an alcoholic explaining the nature of alcoholism-that it "is not born of weakness of the moral character, but is the result of poisoning of the tissues of the body and the brain", in fact, a disease like any other. It is not hereditary, but alcoholics may have inherited predisposition towards alcoholism, and the result is that even one drink entirely alters their personality-they cannot drink harmlessly, as the ordinary individual can, but (according to the specialist who treated him) "their lower brain is affected in a way that is wholly outside their control". Mr. Riddell concludes after passing in review antabuse, psychiatry, endocrinology and other forms of treatment— that apomorphine is alone effective. Even apomorphine, however, only succeeds if the patient really wants to recover and if he has guts and a sense of values which, when his brain has been rescued from the terrible cloud of alcoholism, enables him to distinguish what matters in life and what does not. Finally, Mr. Riddell gives practical advice on how to get apomorphine treatment-either privately, at great expense, or through the one hospital in Britain which gives treatment under the National Health Service.

This, so far as we are aware, is the only book which gives an objective description of an alcoholic's own experience of the disease and of its cure: and it should be of real value to other alcoholics, of whom, it is estimated, there are a million in the British Isles (making probably, with the relatives affected, five million sufferers from alcoholism).

The medical parts have been read by a leading expert, who reports that they are accurate, and that the symptoms of the disease, and the treatment, are neither softened nor exaggerated.

Apart from the direct help the book will afford to sufferers from compulsive drinking, it may well induce these sufferers to demand better help from the National Health Service. This result could be achieved if more beds and staff were given to the Middlesex Hospital, so that it could train students and nurses and give post-graduate courses to qualified medical men in this neglected subject, and thus make possible the provision of further clinics for the study of alcoholism and drug-addiction and for the improvement of the treatment at present available.

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This book is in excellent condition with minimal wear. The authors inscription is on the first title page. There is no other writing or markings inside the book. The original dust jacket is in excellent condition.

Please view all of the photos for the conditions.