Presenter:
James Ellroy
Objectives: Participants completing this
presentation will be able to:
- Understand why total sobriety is required of addicts.
- Help clients form a positive vision of a future sober life.
- Explain why positive expectant faith can help to maintain long-term sobriety.
Description: James Ellroy, the award-winning
novelist (author of LA Confidential
and
The Black
Dahlia), will discuss his life-long
experiences in achieving and maintaining sobriety in this
interview with Dr. David Bresler
Born in Los Angeles in 1948, Mr. Ellroy’s mother was a
nurse and father an accountant when he worked. His parents
divorced in 1954, and he moved to El Monte with his mother,
who was murdered there in 1958. His attempt to solve this
still unsolved murder was the subject of his 1996
nonfiction work My Dark Places.
In his teens, he became severely addicted to alcohol and
drugs which ruined his health and drove him to near
schizophrenia. Fearing for his life and sanity, he joined
AA and got sober. With the exception of a single
stress-induced relapse, he has maintained total sobriety
for over twenty years by employing the power of faith and a
positive vision of sobriety, which he will share during
this interview.