Alcoholism
Hi, My name is stephen and I'm a chronic alcoholic,
I just wanted to share something that's been
really annoying me recently, i've been gritting
my teeth to the point of breaking them thinking
about this, and I need to get this off my chest!
There are many differnet types of alcoholics,
people drink for a million different reasons,
but there's two types that stand out to me,
the 'problem drinker' and the 'chronic alcoholic'
The 'problem drinker'is a person who faces a tough
time in life and hits the bottle, gets to a horrible
place (perhaps they pee in the house, hit their wife,
puke on the sofa, sell something for money to fund drink
etc).That type of alcoholic gets detoxed and has had
such a fright that they never get into that state again!
And they're happy and grateful that the 'burden' has gone.
The 'chronic alcoholic' has a totaly different situation,
They lose everything, the wife, the house, the job, the
self respect, the car, done some time in a hospital or jail and
they know that all the evidence is in that this is crazy,
but, they do not sit and think 'well that was really bad,
I need to stop this sh*t'They hit the bottle again because
they suffer from alcoholism, it's two totaly different
worlds.They don't drink again because it will solve anything,
they know full well that this will cause and has caused extreme
situations.They drink again because they were born with alcoholism.
Really bad advice from well meaning people gets the 'chronic alcoholic'
KILLED.For example, I'm laying on a hospital bed dying and I get some
nurse say to me "it's just a bad patch, you will be able to drink again
normally once you've sorted your head out", that's like saying to
someone who has cancer "it's in your head, you'll get through this
and be able to have cancer like a normal person, you can unlearn
this, it's a learned behaviour"
It's ridiculous and gets people who suffer from alcoholim in a grave!
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the 'problem drinker'
doesn't suffer, of course they do, they go through hell, but it's curable.
They get the support of Relapse prevention and all that crap and they're OK!
The difference is, the person with Alcoholism puts the bottle down and the
problems START!, the only cure for folks like us is A.A. or N.A. to
'manage' this illness, I'ts the only cure for a guy like me!
Does anyone agree?
wee spiced.
PS, sorry for any spelling mistakes.