Living for the Weekend: Insights on high-functioning alcoholism

By Sarah Allen Benton (‘98)

Sarah Allen Benton, a therapist at Emmanuel College in Boston, used her personal experience and journalistic skills to write a new book on high-functioning alcoholics.

My life has truly come full circle – professionally, personally and geographically – since the beauty of Boulder lured me from the Boston area for college.

Working in television production had always been my dream, and writing was an important form of expression for me since my youth.

Throughout college, I thrived socially and found that I often drank too much at parties and behaved in ways that were not in keeping with my character.

In retrospect, I can see that I was living two different lives – an “A” student during the week and heavy drinker on the weekend – which I seemed to believe started on Thursday.

Following graduation, I followed my passions and moved to Los Angeles with three CU alums and began working at the Disney Channel. Palm trees, sun, beaches – I had arrived!

I continued to struggle with drinking and found that I was still binge drinking the way that I had in college. Two years and a “quarter life crisis” later, I moved back to the Boston area, enrolled in a master of science in counseling psychology program at Northeastern University and became a licensed mental health counselor.

Sarah signs books with a friend, Isaac Rodriguez, who was attending an April book signing in Massachusetts.

Several years later, after four years of failed attempts to drink “normally,” I was finally able to accept that I was an alcoholic and became a member of an alcohol recovery program. For years, I had struggled to see myself as an alcoholic because I did not fit the stereotypical image, and I had led a successful academic, professional and personal life.

Today, I have been sober for more than five years, and I am a therapist at Emmanuel College in Boston. I have been fortunate to receive the opportunity to use my writing and journalism skills to help others. My book, “Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic: Professional Views and Personal Insights,” was released by Praeger Publishers in March. I have been writing print and online magazine articles about this topic, and I write a Psychology Today.com blog called “The High-Functioning Alcoholic.”

My media training has also come in handy as

Sarah poses with her husband, Josh.

I am interviewed on radio and television shows for my book. In addition, I have had the honor of returning to Boulder and telling my story of alcoholism and recovery to students as I have at several colleges in the Boston area. Each of my personal and professional experiences has led me to where I am today – I feel truly blessed.