wozzek

Some religiously insist that abstinence is all one would need to feel better but I beg to differ. If you were feeling good while drinking and bad when not something was wrong with your life / feelings / emotions aside your drinking abode.

I used to be friends with a great psychiatrist / addiction therapist whose approach was simple – “So, you feel good when you drink / use drugs?” Yes. “Great, let us focus on what’s wrong when you do NOT drink / use drugs?”

Then I met two AA recovered alcoholics and they are severely, emphasize on severely, depressed. I myself am back from the relapse, do not drink and do not care about the drink anymore but feel very depressed myself. For the first time in my life I see no more hope, I have no energy and I face my new predicament of being homeless and hungry like those pigeons given to Anaconda as a lunch that wait for the snake to wake up and swallow them. They do not do a thing, just wait for a certain death…

I firmly believe that if I am to feel better I have to work on every level – life is a whole, your food, the air you breathe, the TV you watch or the newspapers you read contribute to your well being. Gym is not enough? Go to the mountain – there is a real energy of the forest, of the river to be found. Vitamins are great but the salad or / and an orange are better. TV gets on our nerves and is slowly killing our (addictive) neurons to turn it off and take a nice book instead…

To empty one’s brain for a while is always a good exercise. Open one’s eyes and look at the world’s wonders instead of being focused to torturous “I” is also a good approach. Life is tragic (it would end eventually) in its core but could consist of beautiful bits.

I for myself know that watching CNBC makes me irritated but listening Glenn Gould playing Bach calms me down and inspires. Depression comes when one cannot turn the TV off and have Gould play. To change that is a small, somethimes first and crucial step we need to do in order to get better…

Good luck.

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