Who’s to Blame?: The Ownership Conundrum | Sober and Unashamed

There is no better indication of strength, integrity and intelligence than a person who owns his mistakes and takes responsibility for corrective action. It’s why I prefer stand-up comedians to politicians. I’d take Stephen Colbert or Dennis Miller for president over any denying or deflecting boob who actually squirms his way into the job.

Honesty, humility and vulnerability are admirable traits. They are the reason we have thousands of listeners and readers (although this particular sentence isn’t very humble). Taking ownership is a sign of confidence. A mistake can’t take me down! We admit, we fix, we learn and we do better the next time. It’s a sign of maturity.

All of these lofty philosophical ramblings about ownership make my position regarding the culprit responsible for my alcoholism kind of surprising.

What causes alcoholism? I blame the alcohol!

Last week, Annie Grace, best selling author of This Naked Mind, released her interview of me on her This Naked Mind Podcast. It was a huge honor to be in a recorded conversation with a true titan in the recovery community, and I really hope you listen to our episode.

Annie asked me about my ownership of the label, Alcoholic. We discussed how stigmatized and…