Gonna get drunk and gamble....
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Gonna get drunk and gamble....
That was the last phrase from the last phone call I had at work on Friday.
It kinda stuck with me. I'd said something like "Have a good weekend, I'm gonna log off and forget about this crap and take my daughter skiing" because it'd been a super-long and intense week with a series of very odd project and legal issues at work. I had been burned out with anxiety and going non stop from 7am to 7 or 8pm daily all week - on the back of being sick for nearly a week.
So when I said goodbye to the CEO of a company that I'd been representing and advocating and he left me with "I'm gonna go get drunk and gamble... have a good weekend".... I was kind of stunned.
I guess stunned isn't the right word. In many ways it's exactly what I'd expect. I suppose it just hit me; here was a highly successful business leader who was essentially saying "now that my emotions, mind and body are totally taxed from this hellacious week - I'm going to go and blot out all of my emotions and try to find release in a bottle".
No idea whether this guy has any sort of addiction troubles, but I'd venture a guess that it wasn't the first Friday he said "I'm gonna go get drunk and gamble".
I'm glad to be off that merry-go-round and seeing it from a perspective of curiosity and empathy rather than longing. It's increasingly odd to me; how much of our lives so many of us spend - addicts or not - lost to substances and escape.
I find being present and living life so much more rewarding.....
#soberliferocks
It kinda stuck with me. I'd said something like "Have a good weekend, I'm gonna log off and forget about this crap and take my daughter skiing" because it'd been a super-long and intense week with a series of very odd project and legal issues at work. I had been burned out with anxiety and going non stop from 7am to 7 or 8pm daily all week - on the back of being sick for nearly a week.
So when I said goodbye to the CEO of a company that I'd been representing and advocating and he left me with "I'm gonna go get drunk and gamble... have a good weekend".... I was kind of stunned.
I guess stunned isn't the right word. In many ways it's exactly what I'd expect. I suppose it just hit me; here was a highly successful business leader who was essentially saying "now that my emotions, mind and body are totally taxed from this hellacious week - I'm going to go and blot out all of my emotions and try to find release in a bottle".
No idea whether this guy has any sort of addiction troubles, but I'd venture a guess that it wasn't the first Friday he said "I'm gonna go get drunk and gamble".
I'm glad to be off that merry-go-round and seeing it from a perspective of curiosity and empathy rather than longing. It's increasingly odd to me; how much of our lives so many of us spend - addicts or not - lost to substances and escape.
I find being present and living life so much more rewarding.....
#soberliferocks
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I think we are especially sensitive to anything we think is addiction related, but I also know plenty of people who manage to have a drink, get a little drunk, and even gamble as a way of relaxing.
I would definitely do this if I thought I could let my hair down and have fun doing it. Of course for me...it leads to blackout drinking and 'lost' weekends. It starts creeping into my working week and I become unreliable.
I'm not saying your boss doesn't have a problem, but we can assume people are like us when they aren't.
I would definitely do this if I thought I could let my hair down and have fun doing it. Of course for me...it leads to blackout drinking and 'lost' weekends. It starts creeping into my working week and I become unreliable.
I'm not saying your boss doesn't have a problem, but we can assume people are like us when they aren't.
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Yeah, I totally get that Jeni....
I'm just saying that I'm grateful that for me, it's not even an issue. Because even people who get a little drunk and don't have a problem....
If they're doing that with any regularity - 'problem' or not, it seems increasingly like a waste to me.
Yesterday my daughter asked me why do people drink alcohol. What a difficult question to answer to an eight year old. How do you explain to a small human who has never known the concept of having to alter her mind, shift her awareness with a toxic substance - just WHY people are consistently and powerfully drawn to suddenly one day associate the act of drinking poison with "fun"?
I'm just saying that I'm grateful that for me, it's not even an issue. Because even people who get a little drunk and don't have a problem....
If they're doing that with any regularity - 'problem' or not, it seems increasingly like a waste to me.
Yesterday my daughter asked me why do people drink alcohol. What a difficult question to answer to an eight year old. How do you explain to a small human who has never known the concept of having to alter her mind, shift her awareness with a toxic substance - just WHY people are consistently and powerfully drawn to suddenly one day associate the act of drinking poison with "fun"?
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Originally Posted by FreeOwl 
It's increasingly odd to me; how much of our lives so many of us spend - addicts or not - lost to substances and escape.
I find being present and living life so much more rewarding.....
I find being present and living life so much more rewarding.....
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Totally agree. It takes time away from living life and the pleasure we get from simple things.
I would rather spend my weekends walking through the countryside than drunk. Well, NOW I would, though that wasn't always the case!
I would rather spend my weekends walking through the countryside than drunk. Well, NOW I would, though that wasn't always the case!
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FreeOwl,
Glad you are not in that blotto place. It is very interesting to me as well that the jokes I used to utter about drinking really do not sound funny to me at all.
In truth, the only successful CEOs I have known in the last few decades who actually get blotto are the retired ones. My exposure is limited to a certain industry however. Maybe your CEO was using the statement as a sort of litmus test of sorts for future work.
Anyhow. Happy sober Saturday FreeOwl.
Glad you are not in that blotto place. It is very interesting to me as well that the jokes I used to utter about drinking really do not sound funny to me at all.
In truth, the only successful CEOs I have known in the last few decades who actually get blotto are the retired ones. My exposure is limited to a certain industry however. Maybe your CEO was using the statement as a sort of litmus test of sorts for future work.
Anyhow. Happy sober Saturday FreeOwl.
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Originally Posted by Verte
FreeOwl,
Glad you are not in that blotto place. It is very interesting to me as well that the jokes I used to utter about drinking really do not sound funny to me at all.
In truth, the only successful CEOs I have known in the last few decades who actually get blotto are the retired ones. My exposure is limited to a certain industry however. Maybe your CEO was using the statement as a sort of litmus test of sorts for future work.
Anyhow. Happy sober Saturday FreeOwl.
Glad you are not in that blotto place. It is very interesting to me as well that the jokes I used to utter about drinking really do not sound funny to me at all.
In truth, the only successful CEOs I have known in the last few decades who actually get blotto are the retired ones. My exposure is limited to a certain industry however. Maybe your CEO was using the statement as a sort of litmus test of sorts for future work.
Anyhow. Happy sober Saturday FreeOwl.
I suspect his comments were an exaggeration.... I agree that most CEOs are unlikely to be successful with serious alcohol problems. That said; this industry is absolutely rife with heavy drinking culture.
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Glad you didn't go with him to drink and gamble--- but its amazing how we become this far to be sober that we notice things that of course we cant control but we notice little things like that is a really big problem for us cause we were like that.
CEO's have a big role on their hands though, it just as easy for them to drink on a daily basis and still keep up with all the stuff he has on his plate.
CEO's have a big role on their hands though, it just as easy for them to drink on a daily basis and still keep up with all the stuff he has on his plate.
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