The Binge Drinker

[RufusACanal]

"A man of thirty was doing a great deal of spree drinking. He was very nervous in the morning after these bouts and quieted himself with more liquor. He was ambitious to succeed in business, but saw that he would get nowhere if he drank at all. Once he started, he had no control whatever. He made up his mind that until he had been successful in business and had retired, he would not touch another drop. An exceptional man, he remained bone dry for twenty-five years and retired at the age of fifty-five, after a successful and happy business career.

Then he fell victim to a belief which practically every alcoholic has - that his long period of sobriety and self-discipline had qualified him to drink as other men. Out came his carpet slippers and a bottle. In two months he was in a hospital, puzzled and humiliated. He tried to regulate his drinking for a while, making several trips to the hospital meantime. Then, gathering all his forces, he attempted to stop altogether and found he could not. Every means of solving his problem which money could buy was at his disposal. Every attempt failed. Though a robust man at retirement, he went to pieces quickly and was dead within four years.

This case contains a powerful lesson. Most of us have believed that if we remained sober for a long stretch, we could thereafter drink normally. But here is a man who at fifty-five years found he was just where he had left off at thirty. We have seen the truth demonstrated again and again: "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol."

[totfit]

"there must be no reservation of any kind"

If you got this down, you pretty much have it.

[Tazman53]

"there must be no reservation of any kind"

If you got this down, you pretty much have it.

I have noticed though that one can have it nailed down pretty tight, and just like a nail in a step, it can pop out if you don't keep hitting it with a hammer on a regular basis!

[Freedom1990]

Very true. Those reservations preceded my drinking again after 4 years.

That experiment failed miserably.

Today I am convinced I am an alcoholic, and a sober one at that!

[fraankie]

i agree


best
frankie

[Boleo]

I have come to think of relapses as "the last straw that broke the camels back".

All the time that I drank was like piling straws on a camels back. When the back finally broke I was under the false impression that it's back would eventually heal. It tured out that it not only failed to heal but ALL the straws stayed on it's back permanently.

Taking a few moths off never made the back any stronger nor the load any lighter.