Here she was in her late 50s and her little girl had dropped her off at the Canyon in Santa Monica, Calif., an hour’s drive from her daughter’s home in Los Angeles. Amanda Davis still couldn’t believe she might be an alcoholic.
God, is this really happening? she asked herself. Am I really here?
She was greeted at the door by two staff members who led her first to a nurse’s station, where she emptied her bags of all sharp objects, turned in her medications for high blood pressure and depression.
“I kept having this vision of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’” she said.
Davis’ life had indeed gotten a little crazy, but besides depression, her biggest problem wasn’t of a psychotic nature. It was alcohol and had been for a pretty good while.
Read more about her journey to sobriety in an emotional This Life interview with Gracie Bonds Staples.
