columbus

I'd say that's about the complete picture of alcohol abuse if taken to its sorry completion.

Perhaps its the desire to be "free" that leads us down this path.

But free from what?

PhoenixJ

Hello Col. Free from what? I suppose you kind of know for yourself. For me- free from pretending to become something I never was. Free from guilt, shame, anger, regret and fear. Free from intense depression, physical injury (lots of that- BIG time). Free to discover what I can be.

thomas11

Pretty solid observation in my opinion. I was under such crushing, self imposed stress that I drank to alleviate that stress. In the end it magnified my stress levels tenfold. Quitting was one of my better decisions.

Forward12

I think that's a good question. I think for everyone it may be different from mental health issues, to every day stresses to perhaps no real reason at all.
The booze gives you this false sense of living in a false reality where you can pull the blanket over your head and everything seemingly can just "go away" for a few hours, until it becomes so out of control that you're constantly living in this alternate reality and it's flipside, the hell of the hangovers and withdrawals, that you lose complete realization of what the real life is.

Grymt

Free from the knot in my stomach. I'd achieve that for about half an hour before blacking out. I'd spend the rest of my days looking to find that moment again. Freedom from the fear. Years passed. Free from awareness (in the end, paradoxically, it is awareness that has showed itself to be the way out of that mess, for me.)

JamesfrmEngland

Wonderful servant, terrible master.

columbus

And the sneaky b*stard switches roles when we're not looking, as if it had been waiting for that moment all along.