Aren't you just exhausted?
"Aren't you just exhausted?"
That was it. No rehab. No intervention. No grand philosophical statements. Just a single, solitary question: "Aren't you just exhausted?"
Even the setting was not contusive towards an eye-awakening moment. I was sitting in a friend's car waiting in line at a local drive thru at 6:00 pm complaining of a hangover when my friend said this:
"Aren't you just exhausted?"
"Yeah. I'm pretty tired."
"That's not what I mean."
"Ok then, what DO you mean?"
"The alcohol. The cycle of it all. Drinking, blacking out, too sick to function, drinking, blacking out, too sick to function. If you ask me, the whole thing sounds exhausting. Isn't there anything else you want to do with your life? Start a new hobby, learn a skill, or get in shape? Think of what positive things you could do - positive decisions you could make - if you were not tied down to the bars and the booze?"
....And that was it. Something clicked on that grey evening, sitting in that car, waiting in line. Unfortunately, I did not put it to action for another month, but I'll always remember the question, the sympathetic tone, the look on his face.
In hindsight, I was completely exhausted. I just didn't know it yet....