The Diary of a Victim of an Alcoholic

by AmericanVirus Slippage is the sort of terminology you use for building works or some sort of project. But in this case I am using it for Jane and her battle against alcoholism. Actually, is she battling? I don't think she is. All I know is she has started to binge again after about 5 months of no binges except for some fairly minor sessions. I don't think an alcoholic can keep the devil boxed up for ever. The genie pops out of the lamp at some time. It is bound to. You know...there is one thing that forces her to stop a binge these days. It is the big stick! And the stick is the loss of her job. She knows that finding work today is hard because of the dire financial state of the country and Europe as a whole, and she likes her job. She is not young. She would struggle to find work. Jane is concerned about finances (everyone is except the rich chief executives and the politicians). It is these things that overcome her desire to lie in bed and remain totally sloshed ...

I'll tell you what is happening this minute - 28th May 2012 at 16:55. Jane is doing the predictable and has just started up again. If Jane goes through a good patch as she has done for about 6 months, the pressure builds up and she just restarts. A true alcoholic cannot keep the addiction out of their life. If you put a lid on it for a while, it will find a way out somewhere. Recently Jane has shown signs of going back to her old ways. I might have explained before; it is impossible to stop an alcoholic drinking other than by hand cuffing her to the bed and taking all the booze in her vicinity away. Unfortunately, that would be a crime. And the alcoholic will let you know that and probably call the police. If you take the booze away she'll just go and buy some more. Of course you can't find the booze anyway unless you tear the place apart because alcoholics are the best at hiding booze. There is no point asking or discussing the matter with an alcoholic because you...

Photo by amalia▲chimera You can't beat alcoholism but you can control it. If you can control it for the rest of your life, you have beaten it. That's the theory. You know when you watch sport on the TV and the commentator says that the person about to take a penalty in a soccer match is the best penalty taker in the business. What happens next? Yep, he misses the penalty. Sods law or the kiss of death by commentary. I won't, therefore, say that Jane is controlling her alcoholism. I won't even say that she is beginning to control her alcoholism. But reading between the lines you might get the message that I am trying to convey. Jane has been good for about 5 months. That does not mean no drink. It does mean control over it. There is still work to do. For example, Jane is always secretive about her drinking. Only she forgets that alcohol affects you and that it is noticeable to someone else. I always know when she has had a drink, even a small amount so to deny ...