Addiction & Recovery

Proud of you for staying sober.

I look back on my life and all alcohol has done to it. My mother and maybe my father were alcoholics. My childhood is full of memories, including one of my mother being arrested on a sunshiny Saturday morning in front of the entire neighborhood and falling face first in a restaurant, etc. Then my parents both died young, Dad at 49 and Mom at 54. Then in 2001, my daughter was killed by a well-known alcoholic whose nickname was rambo. Then in 2018, a family member killed an innocent man the same way my daughter was killed (hit and run).

I have a negative attitude toward alcohol consumption these days, not that I've been a saint myself for much of my life. I have family and friends who are alcoholics, and others who drink socially and never get drunk. I have one or two drinks a year on average. But drinking seems to be really popular at the moment and I think that complicates things for those of us who have experienced the really bad outcomes associated with it.

Thank you for posting. I can't talk about this with many of the people I know who drink all the time and think it's just hunky dory. I'm not even sure that my family member who recently got out of prison isn't drinking. She avoids communicating with me; I'm pretty sure it's because of my daughter. She does have a clue about what a crushing loss that was.

Do you go to meetings? Sometimes sobriety requires acquiring a whole new circle of friends. I'm glad your wife is understanding toward your need to not be around drunk people.

I've been dithering about posting this for ages; it seems your post just kind of brought on an onslaught of feelings around alcohol for me. Sorry if I went too far afield.