Jonathan Harrison

For almost five decades I spent tens of thousands of hours working one on one with men in my role as their “sponsor” in the 12-step program called Al-Anon. When I began attending Al-Anon meetings in the mid-1970s, I was among the very few men in the program located in Texas. Today, there are an estimated 24,000 Al-Anon Groups with meetings held in 118 countries. Al-Anon's 2024 Membership Survey results indicate that 11.9% of their members identify as male, while 87.1% identify as female.

The men started with a deep love and respect for the women in their lives. But they had to watch that all slowly erode through the years of bad behavior that was the common result of addiction. Often their loved-one’s self-destructive behavior was so intense and obvious that these men could not see how addiction had eroded their lives. Most men do not realize that it is possible to recover their losses. First, we need to grow past our learned stereotypes.

The pharmaceutical industry, which is where I spent more than three decades working in sales and marketing. I also served as a Clinical Research Associate after annual training sessions in Washington DC on loan to the research department. These were smaller phase III pilot studies where I interfaced with the company research department, the FDA, and a principal investigator.

Despite today’s focus on illegal drug addiction, the most harmful addiction is to ethanol, a substance found in nearly every home and social event.

On a personal note, I am one of you. I was an enabler. I learned enabling behavior as I grew up in a dysfunctional family where three of my four biological grandparents, including both grandmothers, were addicted to ethanol.