US President George W Bush on Tuesday said religion helped him overcome alcoholism and that he hasn’t had a drink since he quit more than 21 years ago.
In a rare reference to having once been an alcoholic, Bush told a Protestant church-sponsored organisation, which helps prisoners reintegrate into society that a “higher power” helped him beat alcohol.
“Addiction is hard to overcome,” Bush said in Baltimore, Maryland.
“As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life. I understand faith-based programmes. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem,” he said.
Bush, 61, has never hidden the fact that he once had an alcohol problem. But he does not often speak openly about it.
Before the presidential election in 2000 it came out that he had been arrested in 1976 for drunk driving near his parents’ home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
He told ABC News in December that he had not been “a knee-walking drunk,” but that he quit cold after a bout of heavy drinking on his 40th birthday.
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