Gottalife

I think I was about 17 when they first tried to get me into treatment. I did a runner!

I was thinking of some of the less obvious positives for young sober alcoholics.

One would be that although I believe alcohol did a lot of physical damage to a growing body, we didn't get the extended exposure to the carcinogenic aspect of alcohol. It is in the same class as cigarettes, which I unfortunately kept smoking for at least another twenty years.

The other thing is the time and youth factors shorten our amends lists. Big financial amends? No one was silly enough to lend me any money, or car or anything that I could loose or break.

Losses were more lost opportunities than anything. I never had most of the things an older person might have like business, family or home, so I never lost them. Certainly I lost everything I had, and the spiritual malady was just the same as the older alcoholics I met, but for the most part I had no idea what I was missing.

The other thing I found that amazed me was the way people out there in the world are generally very happy to see a young person straighten out. Apart from a couple of members of my family, both still suffering alcoholics, everyone else was so encouraging, and forgiving.