Dear Alcoholic
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Join Date: Oct 2017
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Dear Alcoholic
This letter may or may not be of use, but I post it in case it is. It was written through pain, sorrow and frustration, as you can probably appreciate. It was published in a book called The Honest Drug Book which of course covers all drugs.
Dear Alcoholic,
By now you don’t need me, or anyone else, to tell you that alcohol is a hard drug. In your moments of clarity, you can see through the haze at what it has done to you, your life, and all those who care for you. You can see the trail of anguish and destruction, which is so painful that you drink again to escape the thoughts.
That drink makes it feel better doesn’t it? The relief! It’s fleeting. All too quickly, it feels worse again, as the brutal reality catches you. You repeat the cycle. It will always catch you.
You know where this is leading, but you can’t face it. Nor can you evade the nagging feeling that you are not living a life at all. You are enduring a slow death.
You have tried to stop. You have tried really hard. You have gone cold turkey. You have even used support medication, like diazepam, which gave some relief, for a while, but not enough. Only alcohol really blunts the torment, the dread in the pit of your stomach, and the terrible unremitting pain.
The same story is familiar across users of other drugs too; other hard drugs. However, many people do beat them. People like you beat them. People like you beat alcohol.
I’m not a councillor, and I’m not a professional, but I have seen souls shattered and lives lost. I can only offer my opinion, but it is one forged through pain and sorrow.
Try again to stop, but this time, take some truths with you on the journey.
When you stop, promise yourself that it will be for ever. You can’t just switch from alcoholic to occasional social drinker. You have to make fundamental changes to your perspective.
You have to learn to see alcohol differently, and not as a source of pleasure.
For you, it is a source of misery. It is a brief euphoria which sinks agonizingly into that fearful abyss. This is what it is, and what it will always be. Any other perspective is an illusion. You know this already, so let it go. Let it go for good.
There is life without it. Time will help you to see that. But you must invest that time, little by little. You must give time a chance.
Your head will clear and you will slowly learn to find pleasure again in the little things. You will learn to see things differently, and somewhere downstream you will find joy again; you will find life again.
With your new perspective you will also stop envying those around you, who are drinking their drug, and see that they are also dulling their senses, damaging their bodies, blunting their minds. You will eventually be able to look into their cloudy world without the fog, and see beyond the initial lift of the intoxication, at the full picture. You won’t want to go back.
To get there, you will need support. You are well aware that there are a variety of support groups, like Alcoholics Anonymous. Seek them out and approach them. Use them. Try to find people you can scream help to if you think you might crack. Build bridges with real people. Connect.
Whatever family or friends you have left, ask them for help too. Tell them that you are trying to get clean. Don’t hide it, or you will continue to be placed in difficult positions. Be as open as you can be. Be honest.
See your GP or any medical practitioner you can possibly gain access to. If you have the opportunity to get into rehab, grab it with both hands. Accept professional help.
Don’t ever use a setback or piece of bad luck as an excuse to revert. Your addiction will always look for excuses. There are none. Use this as a mantra: I can do it… there are no excuses…. I am not drinking today.
Set yourself targets: 1 day; 2 days; this weekend; a week; 2 weeks; to the start of the month; a month; 50 days; and so forth. Look forward to the next target and focus upon it. You can do it.
It’s a long slow path, but you can really make it through the tunnel, if you want to. But you have to decide to do it, and to throw yourself 100% into it. You have to choose life.
Life! Right now your life is ebbing away in a drunken haze. You are losing it, day by day.
Yet there is so much more, so very much.
If you can just force yourself to reach out and go for it, you can and will find happiness again. Remember happiness? It’s at the end of that tunnel, waiting for you.
Eventually the pain will stop, for you and all those who matter to you. It will: I absolutely 100% guarantee it.
So try again… choose life…. please.
By now you don’t need me, or anyone else, to tell you that alcohol is a hard drug. In your moments of clarity, you can see through the haze at what it has done to you, your life, and all those who care for you. You can see the trail of anguish and destruction, which is so painful that you drink again to escape the thoughts.
That drink makes it feel better doesn’t it? The relief! It’s fleeting. All too quickly, it feels worse again, as the brutal reality catches you. You repeat the cycle. It will always catch you.
You know where this is leading, but you can’t face it. Nor can you evade the nagging feeling that you are not living a life at all. You are enduring a slow death.
You have tried to stop. You have tried really hard. You have gone cold turkey. You have even used support medication, like diazepam, which gave some relief, for a while, but not enough. Only alcohol really blunts the torment, the dread in the pit of your stomach, and the terrible unremitting pain.
The same story is familiar across users of other drugs too; other hard drugs. However, many people do beat them. People like you beat them. People like you beat alcohol.
I’m not a councillor, and I’m not a professional, but I have seen souls shattered and lives lost. I can only offer my opinion, but it is one forged through pain and sorrow.
Try again to stop, but this time, take some truths with you on the journey.
When you stop, promise yourself that it will be for ever. You can’t just switch from alcoholic to occasional social drinker. You have to make fundamental changes to your perspective.
You have to learn to see alcohol differently, and not as a source of pleasure.
For you, it is a source of misery. It is a brief euphoria which sinks agonizingly into that fearful abyss. This is what it is, and what it will always be. Any other perspective is an illusion. You know this already, so let it go. Let it go for good.
There is life without it. Time will help you to see that. But you must invest that time, little by little. You must give time a chance.
Your head will clear and you will slowly learn to find pleasure again in the little things. You will learn to see things differently, and somewhere downstream you will find joy again; you will find life again.
With your new perspective you will also stop envying those around you, who are drinking their drug, and see that they are also dulling their senses, damaging their bodies, blunting their minds. You will eventually be able to look into their cloudy world without the fog, and see beyond the initial lift of the intoxication, at the full picture. You won’t want to go back.
To get there, you will need support. You are well aware that there are a variety of support groups, like Alcoholics Anonymous. Seek them out and approach them. Use them. Try to find people you can scream help to if you think you might crack. Build bridges with real people. Connect.
Whatever family or friends you have left, ask them for help too. Tell them that you are trying to get clean. Don’t hide it, or you will continue to be placed in difficult positions. Be as open as you can be. Be honest.
See your GP or any medical practitioner you can possibly gain access to. If you have the opportunity to get into rehab, grab it with both hands. Accept professional help.
Don’t ever use a setback or piece of bad luck as an excuse to revert. Your addiction will always look for excuses. There are none. Use this as a mantra: I can do it… there are no excuses…. I am not drinking today.
Set yourself targets: 1 day; 2 days; this weekend; a week; 2 weeks; to the start of the month; a month; 50 days; and so forth. Look forward to the next target and focus upon it. You can do it.
It’s a long slow path, but you can really make it through the tunnel, if you want to. But you have to decide to do it, and to throw yourself 100% into it. You have to choose life.
Life! Right now your life is ebbing away in a drunken haze. You are losing it, day by day.
Yet there is so much more, so very much.
If you can just force yourself to reach out and go for it, you can and will find happiness again. Remember happiness? It’s at the end of that tunnel, waiting for you.
Eventually the pain will stop, for you and all those who matter to you. It will: I absolutely 100% guarantee it.
So try again… choose life…. please.
Last edited by Dee74; 10-06-2017 at 04:56 PM. Reason: edited - see PM
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