The Diary of a Victim of an Alcoholic

by jef safi Is it that alcoholism affects mental health or mental health creates alcoholism or both? It is both possibly but I don't think that you have to have mental health issues to be an alcoholic but sometimes alcoholics do have mental health problems. One thing that is pretty well scientifically proven is that consistent heavy drinking affects health generally and also mental health. And at the moment I have real concerns for Jane because she seems to be suffering from memory loss and more... I won't and can't go into detail obviously but it seems that alcoholics binge on and on without seeing health problems for years. OK, their lives are messed up but health can seem, sometimes, to remain intact until one day after it has crept up on them, ill health suddenly becomes apparent. And it is a bit of a shock. I have always thought that ethanol alcohol gradually breaks down the body. Think of George Best the footballer. At the end his body simply gave up. The signs of mem...

Living with Jane as I do, I have come to realize that alcoholics learn to be insincere. This is forced on them, it seems, because of their addiction. An alcoholic wants a drink but has to cover that up from friends or loved ones. That means lying and if you do that for long enough it becomes a way of life and part of the person. I think they lose their bearings; the boundary between lying and telling the truth or a belief that they are telling the truth breaks down. In fact the alcoholic learns to rewrite history as well. To turn things around to defend themselves. And the degree of insincerity can be awesome. The point is that they don’t realise it. Jane uses the health services a lot; too much and sometimes in a bogus way in my opinion. I think she leans on doctors etc. as a kind of mental crutch. Health people look after her or at least that is their purpose. Today we went to see a doctor about her general ill health. I went with her. She agreed to this. The main reason why I we...