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Our Drink Full Cover (includes front, back and spine)

Our Drink Front Cover

Our Drink Back Cover

Breaking the Binge Cycle (pdf file)

Confessions of a Binge Drinker (pdf file)

Click to view and download the pdf.

Chris Volkmann Headshot (B/W)
Photo by Taea Thale

Toren Volkmann Headshot (B/W)
Photo by Taea Thale

Photo of Chris Volkmann and Toren Volkmann (B/W)
Photo by Taea Thale

Photo of Toren Volkmann and Chris Volkmann (Color)
Photo by Taea Thale

Click here to view and download the pdf containing excerpts from chapters 1 and 4.

The Authors of OUR DRINK: Detoxing the Perfect Family

About Chris Volkmann

Author Chris Volkmann, a former classroom teacher, a recipient of the 2001 Washington State Artist Trust GAP Literary Grant, lives in Olympia, Washington. She attended University of La Verne, Université d’Aix-En-Provence, and graduated in Elementary Education and French from Washington State University (’70).

Her recent book, OUR DRINK: Detoxing the Perfect Family, (co-authored with her 24-year-old son Toren) will be released this August 2004. Their website www.OurDrink.com emphasizes honest talk about alcohol choices and the consequences of heavy drinking. It has assessments for family members to find out how well they are communicating about drinking choices. There are separate questions for teens and adults.

She has formerly published THE LAST STRAW: A HANDBOOK OF SOLUTIONS TO SCHOOL BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS, R & E Research Associates, Inc, San Francisco, CA, 1978. Chris plays viola with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra and has run ten marathons. Her three sons are all now in their twenties. She resides with her husband of thirty-four years (still under his original warranty!) in Olympia, Washington.

Chris went to Toren’s college graduation having no clue her son was part of a not-so-hidden epidemic. She shares what every parent thinks but cannot always say.

About Toren Volkmann

Author Toren Volkmann graduated with a BA in psychology. He was a former Peace Corps Volunteer. He dabbles in music, both composing and performing.

His recent book, OUR DRINK: Detoxing the Perfect Family, (co-authored with his mom) will be released this August. Their website www.OurDrink.com features honest talk about alcohol choices and the consequences of heavy drinking. There are assessments for family members to find out how well they are communicating about drinking choices with separate questions for teens and adults, and also assessment tools to determine if someone has a drinking problem.

In Our Drink,Toren grips the story with the bite of an addict’s hidden desperation. His edgy writing wanders within itself, giving the reader the feeling of chaos and inner turmoil behind a demeanor of courage. Toren currently lives one day at a time in New York City after successfully completing six months residence in a Florida halfway house.

Short Bios

Author Chris Volkmann, a former classroom teacher, a recipient of the 2001 Washington State Artist Trust GAP Literary Grant, lives in Olympia, Washington. Chris stepped away from her career to parent three sons. Once thinking herself a successful mother, she now restirs the pot of family-binding glue.

Co-author Toren Volkmann (BA in psychology, University of San Diego, former Peace Corps Volunteer) grips the story with the bite of an addict’s hidden desperation. His edgy writing wanders within itself, giving the reader the feeling of chaos and inner turmoil behind a demeanor of courage. Toren currently lives one day at a time in New York City after successfully completing six months residence in a Florida halfway house.

 

OUR DRINK
Detoxing the Perfect Family

by Toren Volkmann and Chris Volkmann
www.OurDrink.com

• Our Drink: Detoxing the Perfect Family portrays the choking of an adolescent by binge drinking and alcohol addiction. Toren and his Perfect Family drag this drunken party straight into American homes in commonplace nonchalance, mislabeled under the term “success.”
• Toren’s has been a life no mother wants revealed yet others would find exhilarating and shockingly sensational. But there’s a clincher: it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for the cool guy from the cool family and it might not work for so many others who will read the book.
• Invincible Toren had a college diploma, a competitive spot in South America with the Peace Corps, spoke three languages, and could charm his way around the world. He didn’t think that drug and alcohol information applied to him. And the family missed it. If this family is the average family, and the addicted son represents a flourishing college graduate, then there must be millions more like them….and tens of thousands more who are or will be facing alcoholism.
• The voice of the story switches between mother and son to provide a dynamic combination of inner monologue, narration and alcohol information. This patchwork disarms the reader by its honesty. Our Drink offers a genuine picture of what hard drinking does to a young man, a family, a society.
• The reader can dip into an addict’s tragic brew while learning something. Integrated within the book are facts about addiction, binge drinking and alcohol abuse. There are 65 references and 36 resources and links.
• The story could take place in any cul-de-sac; it’s one that is happening in epidemic form. The key to dealing with alcoholism isn’t just a pile of scientific data on drinking and addiction---it’s all the relevant statistics cultivated in the Petri dish of the family. That’s why it’s Our Drink. It’s owned by all of us.
• It’s not just the Perfect Family’s opinion about itself. It’s what researchers are saying about our youth, our family, our college campuses and the drinking culture. Binge drinking is the most widespread health problem on college campuses in the USA [College Alcohol Study, 2002].
  

Excerpts

Toren Volkmann states, “I can’t imagine anyone bearing this type of internal hell that I feel as a result of hard drinking and continuing on without letting others know. How did I not ever hear about this side of alcohol and withdrawal? I never envisioned I’d be the ‘I Told You So’ poster boy for the DARE Program.” He talks from the frenzy of a kid who thought himself indestructible. “I used to be able to handle the worst of hangovers, wear it like a soldier wore a uniform, or drink it off. I could deal with hellacious sleeplessness from drinking for a day or through the night, maybe ending up in some random bed and still charging through class, ball practice or family happenings like the dark angel that I was. . ..even the torrential blackouts that would be reported or random acts of split personality.”

Chris Volkmann overlooked her son’s symptoms, thinking since he graduated from college with only a few slip-ups, that he was not only okay, but successful! She represents the relieved, smiling parents attending graduation with no clue their kids are part of a not-so-hidden epidemic. “When I left for the market earlier today, my son was living in South America working for the Peace Corps. By the time I returned home to put the groceries away, he’d become an alcoholic headed for rehab. So what happened between the produce aisle and my driveway?” Chris reveals what every parent thinks but cannot say.

As a national goal, the U.S. Surgeon General has established a 50-percent reduction in college binge drinking by the year 2010