Joyce Rebeta-Burditt Quotes

12 Sourced Quotes

I started as a social drinker at 18. Then after I got married and was pregnant, I couldn't stand the smell of alcohol. My husband had to take me home from parties. I didn't get into drinking until 22, when my family was complete.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
It doesn't matter how much you drink. Many alcoholics are periodic drinkers who are sober for months. What does matter is loss of control.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
Do you know what it's like to feel wrong twenty-four hours a day? Do you know what it's like to be disapproved of, not only for what you do and say and think but for what you are?

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
Some older relatives were annoyed because I said, "I'm an alcoholic." I should have died quietly and not made a fuss.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
I signed myself into the psychiatric ward of Cleveland General Hospital, although I was drunk at the time and don't remember doing it.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
Alcoholism isn't a spectator sport. Eventually the whole family gets to play.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
I'm devoting my life to being a psychiatric patient. It's a vocation, like being a nun, only a lot more expensive.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
I would rather eat nails and sleep on an off-ramp than live with my mother again.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
My husband had to take over much of the mothering. And my own mother was around a lot. I adopted the attitude and behavior of an oldest child. I was physically there, but AWOL emotionally. Then when I was sober, like many alcoholic women, I tended to be the overprotective supermother. I probably drove the kids bananas.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
An agenda, no matter how bizarre, is the difference between eccentric and mad as a hatter.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
You think it would be awful to be in a locked ward, but it constituted no problem. The door kept out the world. I stayed there three months. My defenses were totally wrecked, I was physically sick, emotionally disintegrating. My shrink suggested AA. I thought, "My God, even he's given up on me." So, with a nurse's aide, I went to the hospital lobby and called AA.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
First realize you are not alone. Then know that alcoholism is a progressive disease that can kill you. The end result is either insanity or death. There are no alternatives.

Joyce Rebeta-Burditt