PAC86

you'll ever meet. I was just reading an article about colleges kids who were injured or killed while being hazed by frats and sororities. Pledges were required to drink large amounts of alcohol and were subjected to beatings and humiliation which resulted in death and injury. I couldn't help but think to myself that me and my friends did worse than those colleges kids on a daily basis. Those college kids must not have been alcoholics because alcoholics would have survived those things. I really have no idea how me and my friends still have all our body parts given the dumb things we used to do. We used to do things like light off fireworks in my buddies house. We used to binge drink, beat, and humiliate one another on a daily basis. We thought it was fun. We would wake up with penises drawn on our faces and on more than one occasion I woke up to find blood splattered every where not knowing how it got there.

dox

I can't imagine what it must be like:
being told that your 18-year-old son or daughter has been killed as a result of pledging a fraternity or sorority.

I have had one relative die as a result of alcoholism.

Sad.

We are indeed fortunate if we haven't killed ourselves or someone else . . .

yet.

Bird615

Resilient in that we take an awful lot of punishment and go back for more, but even so, I know way too many people that haven't survived it--relatives, former boyfriends, coworkers, friends...

Fly N Buy

A gal visiting our group from another town shared about the death of her 18 year old son - result of alcohol poisoning. When she viewed her son at the hospital he was wearing a shirt that read - I came, I partied and I don't remember.

tomsteve

"Those college kids must not have been alcoholics because alcoholics would have survived those things. "

i will kindly disagree.

paul99

I understand what you're saying, PAC86, but if I were forced to drink that stuff now, I would probably die too. My illness may be persistent and in remission, but right now my body couldn't handle the kind of abuse I put it through back in the day. Even then, I was edging on the fine line of doing damage to my body.

We are resilient in some ways, and we were also gluttons for punishment...not sure if they are the same thing though...lol.

Austin4Wyo

Comparing myself to others is less than fruitful, particularly when it comes to unhealthy habits and drinking to excess.

My college fraternity had a VERY strict no hazing policy. We'd lost our charter once due to other factors, and were staunchly against the morally void conflagration of booze and abuse. I will not speak regarding other chapters or other fraternal organizations, but I can say that my Greek letter experience left me with a clean conscience regarding hazing and drinking.

Insofar as whether they are resilient or not, I caution anyone against perverse pride. This sounds much like the clichéed old man going "Back in my day..." While it's true that my escapades may be wilder and more dangerous than others, its NOTHING to take pride in. Drinking myself into oblivion amd partaking in unsafe activities, "in three feet of snow, uphill both ways," is only an indicator of how serious my disease is, not that I'm tougher/manlier/more resilient than anyone.

I encourage you to reread your post from the attitude of empathy and understanding, rather than through a lense of perverse pride. It doesn't read as well when you're thinking of those who are going through the difficulties you describe, instead of comparing your circumstances to theirs.

WMJ1012

We beat ourselves so bad even when trying to reward ourselves.
It takes a lifetime to learn to be good to ourselves.

We think that other stuff is the best it can get for us, that's the lie.

That's why I love the 12 steps. They showed me that God loves me.

I once heard it said that however you're treating yourself is the way you're treating God.n

The key is to know what being good to yourself means and going for the right things in life

Hint: it's all an inside job.

WMJ1012

AA is not about romance
AA is not about money, not even a fair amount
AA is not about having control or power over others
AA is not about your status in AA

Until we learn what self-forgetting means in our way of living, we will continue to suffer with humongous emotional swings

Fernaceman

Resiliency...and will power...

My body was resilient...and it took an incredible amount of will power for me to keep punishing myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually all for the sake of a temporary fix.