Another Empty Bottle

Dateline: 10/01/97

There are not that many websites out there that offer help to the families of alcoholics, but Tom C's pages do.

Another Empty Bottle is a sharply designed website that offers visitors a variety of information and tools to help in understanding the disease of alcoholism and how it can affect all members of the family.

As Tom explains on his about us page:

While there are thousands of sites for the clinical study of alcohol and alcoholism, few sites are provided for people to share their common experiences. There are even fewer sites for the friends and family of alcoholics. I can still count them on one hand.

Another Empty Bottle was created as a means for real people to share real experiences about how alcoholism has affected a loved one and themselves. An "Empty Bottle" symbolizes how emptiness and hopelessness can exist in our lives when a loved one suffers from alcoholism.

So what is Another Empty Bottle? Well, we're not a business site, and we're not a non-profit site, and we're not exactly a personal web page. We like to consider ourselves a web resource - something that is here for everyone, free of charge. While I am the editor, you are the writers.

One of the popular features of the site is the In Our Words pages, where Tom openly invites visitors to share their stories about how someone else's drinking has affected their lives.

To his credit, Tom apparently does not limit these personal sharings to those that happen to agree with his own approach to recovery, but gives his contributors the freedom to share their feelings, whether or not they have ever seen the inside of a support group room.

The result is a list of stories, arranged in an easy-to-navigate chart, that outlines the pain and suffering that the family disease of alcoholism can cause for those who care about the alcoholic.

Other Features

But there is much more at Another Empty Bottle. In his The Disease section, Tom reproduces two classic pieces: The Merry-Go-Round Called Denial brochure and the Just for Today reminder.

Just For Kids If you have younger children living in a home with an "active" alcoholic, this is certainly a don't miss page!

The former is an insight into the characters in the "play" that the alcoholic's life can become, written by Reverend Joseph L. Kellermann, former director of the Charlotte NC Council on Alcoholism, and published as a brochure by Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, when it was still located in New York. The latter is a popular bookmark, also published by Al-Anon, which Tom offers as a cyberspace version.

Also on the website, in the help section, Tom gives the addresses and telephone numbers for helping agencies, hotlines, and other resources available to families.

Visitors to the Another Empty Bottle site are also invited to use the Chat room, hosted by Concerned Counseling, at 9 p.m. Eastern, each Tuesday.

Probably the site's most outstanding page is the Just For Kids page, where Tom takes the time to relate directly to children who may be going through some of the same trials that he faced as a child.

He carefully answers questions they may be asking, offers some "do's and don't's," outlines other resources available, and reminds us all of the "Seven C's."

If you have younger children living in a home with an "active" alcoholic, this is certainly a don't miss page!

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