Alcoholic chat

This Alcoholic chat is dedicated to Lindsey a recovering alcoholic who I think will make it back to the true and harsh world. I can understand alcoholism. Although I am not an alcoholic, when I was a lawyer, the work load drove me to the comfort of booze. That gorgeous moment when it all floats away. I needed it. I welcomed it. It was good. A lot of lawyers fall foul of the booze. It is only human.

For me though once I have had about half a bottle of wine or a bit more, I start to feel the need to stop as the enjoyment goes and I start to feel the downside already. I kind of feel the future and I know that it will be bad if I continue. I nearly always don't take any pain killers if I have a hangover to remind me of the pain. To teach me that the reward of alcohol is false and transient. It is after all a learning process. We learn to like it for the reward it brings. The short term reward and humans are very good at short term reward. Look at the financial mess we are in. This turns on a short term reward culture.

The old fashioned way is best. But I think that modern life is more likely to drive us to booze. It is more competitive, more stressful. While I write this Jane is next door completely out of it on neat Vodka. She re-starts work next week and if the binge continues she could miss the date. That might be fatal for the job. She asks me to buy the booze. I do sometimes to stop her walking out to the shops looking like a mental patient/tramp ripe for mugging. I do not wish to be disrespectful of mental patients and tramps. There but for the grace of God. But people are more likely to attack them. A sad reflection on the world. Jane has been mugged before when buying booze. Or was she lying? Did she get that cut on the head by falling over?

This time I said no as I would be part of the reason for her losing her job. I would have difficulty living with that.

Alcoholic chat - Photo by Andrew Ebrahim under creative commons license