I've been duped.
The interest on alcohol is worse than a payday lender.
Depression and anxiety, skin disorders, the mental health issues I stored up. All the price to pay for a quick fix that turned into one long self medicating disaster.
The real cost of drinking has nothing to do with the price tag.
I don't see this as an "alcoholic" problem. Anyone who drinks is at risk of becoming addicted. I mean if you kept injecting someone with heroin they'd become a heroin addict. Just like Doyle in "The French Connection 2"
keep drinking beer and you'll become addicted to it. Anyone that can drink "just one" is playing with fire. I don't believe there is a disease called "alcoholism". Some people just kept drinking until they get addicted to drinking alcohol. It's inevitable and it could happen to anyone.
The problem isn't that some people don't have an "off switch" the problem is that it's socially acceptable to drink. Encouraged by relentless advertising and brainwashing.
Give someone who doesn't drink, enough alcohol on a daily basis and they'll become addicted to it. How can they not? Alcohol chemically changes the brain and your physical make up.
Some people say they don't like the taste. Well no one likes the taste, which is why they mask it with orange juice, cordial or coca cola. You learn to like the taste of beer so you can get your alcohol fix.
Call it a moment of clarity, an enlightenment moment. It's only something I can relate to because I don't drink anymore. If I pick up another beer it'll start the whole process off again. It's inevitable and it's so obvious it's staring me in the face.
All this "why does it have to be me that can't drink anymore" is complete rubbish. You drank too much, you got addicted. You either realise your life is headed downhill and manage to get help to come off the drug or you hurtle into oblivion. That's a choice you have to make.
When I see 999 Emergency and all these poor people that are addicts with no one to help them it's a social travesty. Constantly brainwashed by TV advertising, supermarket aisles and even government reports that state alcohol in small amounts is good for you. Complete rubbish of course. No alcohol is good for you. It only serves to get you addicted if you let it. It's easy to do isn't it? We are all of us here testament to that.
The support system for addicts is laughable. How can we continue to tell people it's OK to drink and then turn our backs on them when they become addicted? Where is the sense in that?
All around me I see more musicians, artists and celebrities that choose to stay sober because they do better work that way. Paul Weller said it took him two years to recover once he managed to stop. How is it socially acceptable to promote a drug that kills you so slowly and takes so long for you to recover from the long term effects of taking it.
When I first came here I thought I had a problem. The following five years were one long battle with not only myself but the people around me as well who didn't know how I felt. How ill I was making myself, the constant thoughts about drinking. The obsession with drink. I brought it on myself encouraged by a society that sees little wrong with over consumption. When I looked around for help there was none to be found.
When I eventually walked into a "community health centre" last January I was at my wits end. I was desperate to quit. My wife thought I was having a mid life crisis and I didn't tell her I was going. "Don't be so silly" she would say. Just cut down a bit.
I cried when they started asking me how much I drank. When they'd finished asking me questions they pronounced that my case wasn't severe enough for them to take on. However they knew a therapy service that might be able to help. They never called.
I walked out with tears still dripping on my face. That was my low point. I was a binge drinker that no one could help. My friends thought my drinking was acceptable and so did the "experts". My wife still doesn't know I went to this day.
As the sober days continue to pile up and I'm reaching six months I'm so grateful that SR is here for me and others like me that managed to step back from the brink.
It's a sad indictment of the society we live in that poisons the seas, the air and even leaves trash in space that encourages its population to poison themselves and then wonders why they get sick and makes little provision to help them.
Kopfan