https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

On the Rocks: Memoir of a high-functioning alcoholic – Thando Pato

Thando Pato discusses her book 'On the Rocks: Memoir of a high-functioning alcoholic' (Camera & editing: Nicholas Boyd)

3rd August 2022

     

Font size: - +

Thirty-nine-year-old Thando is living in total denial about her drinking.

On the surface her life looks aspirational – great job, apartment, snazzy car. But behind the façade she harbours a dark and shameful secret – she can’t control her drinking. To the outside world she looks like a woman who loves having fun, always with a glass of wine in her hand. But alone at home, she’s knocking back a bottle or two a night under the guise of ‘unwinding’.

It’s not until she takes a year long break from booze, that she's forced to confront her crippling anxiety and depression, which now have taken a toll on her high-powered career. She returns to drinking thinking that she can moderate until life takes a cruel twist and she’s diagnosed with breast cancer. For the next two years she chronicles her addiction as she spirals out of control before calling it quits just before lockdown in March 2020.

The road to recovery is brutal as she appears to be the only one sober in the midst of a pandemic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thando Pato is an experienced wordsmith, She cut her teeth in journalism as a features writer, writing for O, (Oprah Winfrey's magazine), Marie Claire, True Love, ELLE, and Sunday Times Lifestyle before changing direction and immersing herself in corporate communications. Thando is based in Johannesburg, where she lives and works full-time.

On the Rocks: Memoir of a high-functioning alcoholic is published by Melinda Ferguson Books, an imprint of NB Publishers

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Article Enquiry

Email Article

Save Article

Feedback

To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Showroom

Rentech
Rentech

Rentech provides renewable energy products and services to the local and selected African markets. Supplying inverters, lithium and lead-acid...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Schauenburg SmartMine IoT
Schauenburg SmartMine IoT

SmartMine IoT has been developed with the mining industry in mind, to provides our customers with powerful business intelligence and data modelling...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







301

sq:0.085 0.894s - 127pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now