“…never forget that beneath all the appalling behavior there was a human being.”

Elizabeth Vargas, an anchor for 20/20, managed to spend years working as a very public person despite the high levels of anxiety that it gave her. Over the years, she began to cope with that anxiety by drinking. This memoir is her story of how she got to that point, and how she recovered from it. It’s very well written, she has a beautiful voice. It’s very honest and she holds nothing back.

From a very young age, Vargas suffered from anxiety attacks as her military father would leave for weeks at a time without his family knowing whether or not he would return. As she grew older, those attacks would continue but she managed to push them down in order to perform her job. Over time, she started to use chardonnay to push that feeling away. A rocky marriage and two small children didn’t help, and she found herself in rehab over and over.

Her main message in the story is the importance of reaching out for help in order to recover. She did not make important steps towards recovery until she was able to admit to her family, co-workers and eventually her fans what she was going through.