MeAndOnlyMe

Once a cancer patient, always a cancer patient?

Take what you want from any comparison offered. Whatever works for the individual.

Boleo

I had many drinking buddy's who drank just like I did right up until they had a kid or two, then suddenly - Alakaazam! became "social drinkers".

Just that simple. They needed no support groups, no program, no struggle what-so-ever. They just intuitively knew when to stop drinking.

chicory

May I ask - how often is alcoholism a result of a person wishing to escape from reality- into a numb zone?

When ever I drank, it seemed to come from a desire to escape from the stresses of life. It was an easy way out. A few drinks, and voila, no more stress. Thankfully, I did have the good sense to stop dealing with my extreme circumstances in that way. I was going thru divorce, and had suffered some big losses.

I had two alcoholic parents. So I know the cost of drinking too much.

I have a son who I believe is an alcoholic. He is in denial. Since becoming a member here, I have come to realize just how serious his drinking has been. Ignorance is costly, not that I can control it, but it is good to understand the effects. I had no idea of what my parents went through. I weep for them now, as I learn the physical and mental toll it takes on it's victims- especially those who never quit.

thank you
chicory

Toronto68

I think it is ultimately possible, in a scientific way, for someone to have been like "us" (alcoholics) and then turn things around and drink with the ability to have limits again. It's just that they would be so few and far between. Someone I knew, who is now dead, was what you would call a normal drinker, but I heard a story about him from when he was young and the details were reminiscent of alcoholism. There's no way to validate the story for me. If he really was an alcoholic and later had a completely different kind of relationship with alcohol, then that is a rare breed to me, and I don't even bother trying to aspire to doing that. I'm sticking with "I'm an alcoholic and I don't drink." And sticking to today - it took me a long time to get here.

Dee74

Hi Chicory

I certainly started drinking and drugging to escape from reality - but for me alcoholism is a whole new level from that - for me it was a progression... everything became a reason to drink, but by that point I no longer required a reason....

My prayers and best wishes for your son, and for you. I hope he has his 'eureka' moment soon.

D

tormentedmirror

Thanks for all of your answers.

LexieCat

There are a few people who experience a spontaneous remission of cancer, too.

If you were diagnosed with it, would you want to bet the farm that you are one of those infinitesimally small group of those who do, or would you go for the chemo/radiation/surgery?

skg

"A.A.'s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature,
which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and
enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole." Twelve and Twelve Foreword.