Actress Claudia Christian (Babylon 5, The Hidden, Clean and Sober) joins us to talk about her tell-all book about Hollywood, a new way of coping with an alcohol addiction, and more in Babylon Confidential: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and Addiction. Part two of our unabridged interview deals with her discovery of The Sinclair Method to treat alcoholism as well as her upcoming projects. (Part 1 HERE)

 

DIGBOSTON: To go back a bit and to change tone. Throughout the whole book, you talk about your struggles with alcohol, something you deem to call a monster that a lot of people struggle with, including myself. A lot of people go about their recovery in different ways. At the apex of the book you talk about your absolute bottom and your recovery. Mind talking about that a bit?
Claudia Christian: Not at all! My alcoholism struck when I was 37/38. I realized that I had a problem so I became sober. I tried everything. I went to AA meetings, which did nothing for me, I tried hypnotism, I tried psychotherapy. You name it. What happened to me, I was one of those people who would stay sober for six months and fall off the wagon. [I would] stay sober for 9 months and fall off the wagon. The problem with that is, there is a state of alcohol deprivation if you are an alcoholic. This is a scientific term.

The brain is in constant craving, even if you don’t realize it.

When I was sober. Every single day, all I could think of was the fact that I was sober, and I hated it. I just wanted to be normal again.

I wanted to be the Claudia that had one drink and could walk away.
I wanted to be the Claudia that had a dinner party, [could] have a couple of glasses of wine and be fine. It confused me that something changed in my brain.

I come from a family of scientists and doctors. I kept thinking there must be some sort of way to change the brain. There has to be. I ended up in a detox center with my absolute last, worst binge. It was a nightmare. It was the only time I had to have a medical detox. I was sober for 10 months and fell of spectacularly. Because that is what happens, the binges get worse!

As we tend to do.
And that’s how people die. You hear about these famous people who drink a bottle of vodka, and they die. You overdo it and you poison yourself.

I went to the detox center, they treated me horrifically, inhumanely. Most of the time that’s what it is, treating addicts with degradation, which is so not fair. I checked myself out in 24 hours. On the way out, I saw this flyer, for Vivitrol” “Get Rid of the Cravings.” It was a shot, $1000 a month. I called and no one ever called me back so I did my own research. I found out the key ingredient is called Naltrexone.

That lead me to the book by Dr. Roy Eskapa, The Cure for Alcoholism: The Medically Proven Way to Eliminate Alcohol Addiction.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.com]