For professionals who can't find the off switch
You've built a successful career. You manage teams, close deals, make decisions. But your relationship with alcohol has become harder to manage. You've tried cutting back on your own, sometimes it works for a while, then it doesn't. Dr. Arnold Washton works privately with executives and high-functioning professionals whose drinking crossed a line but who can't, and won't, be in a 12-step program.
The off switch problem, named
One of the hallmarks of a real alcohol problem is lacking a reliable off switch. You go to dinner intending to have two glasses of wine, and despite your best intentions you finish the bottle. You stop at a bar for one beer and leave three hours later.
For high-functioning professionals, this doesn't always look like a crisis. You go days or weeks without drinking. No shakes, no cravings, no withdrawal. You convince yourself the problem isn't that bad. Then you start drinking again, and once you're three drinks in, the original intention dissolves.
If that pattern keeps repeating, it tells you something important. The off switch isn't working, and willpower alone isn't going to fix it.
The patterns professionals bring to Dr. Washton
The business dinner pattern
"Just one glass of wine with dinner" becomes finishing the bottle. You hold the room, close the deal, and wake up at 3am wondering what you said.
Weekends that swallow Monday
The Friday drinks that don't end. The Saturday that's a blur. You can go days without drinking, it's just that when you start, something else takes over.
The red wine ritual that grew
One glass after work became two, became the bottle. Nobody at home thinks you have a problem. You're not so sure anymore.
Performance that masks the pattern
You still crush your deliverables. Still sharp in meetings. Still hitting the numbers. High-functioning isn't the same as fine, and you know the difference.
The hangover anxiety cycle
Waking up with the dread: what did I say, what did I send, what did I promise? A drink calms it. The cycle restarts.
"I'm not an alcoholic"
Maybe not. But the question isn't the label, it's whether you have a reliable off switch. Most high-functioning professionals in this pattern do not.
Private practice, not a program.
You don't need a facility. You don't need a group. You don't need your drinking showing up in insurance databases. What you need is a private practice psychologist who has spent 50 years thinking carefully about people in your exact situation.
Dr. Washton's consultations start with an honest conversation, about your drinking, your pattern, what you've tried, and what you actually want. Some professionals can learn to moderate. Others cannot. The first job is figuring out where you are.
- → Private, one-on-one. Dr. Washton sees you himself. No staff therapists, no group programs unless you want them.
- → No insurance records. Self-pay by design. Your records stay with Dr. Washton, not in insurance databases, not visible to employers.
- → Telehealth or in person. Secure video from your home or office. Princeton office available by appointment.
- → Not abstinence-only. Dr. Washton has spent 50 years studying whether people can moderate, and being honest with each person about the answer.
- → Evidence-based, not ideology. Moderation approaches, medication options, cognitive work, what the research supports, tailored to you.
About Dr. Arnold Washton
PhD · Clinical Psychologist · Former NYU Clinical Professor of Psychiatry · Former U.S. FDA Advisor
Dr. Arnold Washton is a nationally recognized addiction psychologist with over 50 years of clinical experience. He has been at the leading edge of expanding treatment options to include moderation and harm reduction as alternatives to traditional abstinence-only approaches.
His professional experience includes serving as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, advisor to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and consultant to major corporations and professional sports teams. He has authored multiple books on alcohol and substance use.
His private practice is built specifically for executives and high-functioning professionals whose success depends on privacy, discretion, and an approach that treats them as capable adults, not patients in a system.
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