For 14 years, I'd been on medication for the pinched nerve, the arthritis, the muscle spasms in my neck, and I'd lost my tolerance for pills. If I had a single drink, the alcohol, on top of the pills, would make me groggy.

You never know what you can do until you have to do it.

I know I was an alcoholic because I was preoccupied whether alcohol was going to be served or not.

I think it wasn't so much that the White House altered me in any essential way as that I found the resources with which to respond to a series of challenges. You never know what you can do until you have to do it. In the beginning, it was like going to a party you're terrified of, and finding out to your amazement that you're having a good time.

We're full all the time. And people do have good success and I think one of the programs at the center, the Continuing Care, helps them with their success. Because it's difficult the first year.

I really didn't want to have my name on the center, because it just seemed like it was too much of a personal thing.

Alcohol may pick you up a little bit, but it lets you down in a hurry.