The Diary of a Victim of an Alcoholic

Today was sunny. We had a nice day today. Jane came over and we went for a walk down by the river. Then we had a coffee and a cup of tea at a café. Then she went back to her flat and I went to my flat. That was pleasant. We are seeing each other regularly. We are enjoying each other's company.  Don't be fooled by this. It isn't this good ;) We just live day to day. Jane is still, if one is brutally honest, a practising binge alcoholic but the time between binges has dramatically extended over the 20 years that I've known her. I don't wish to be boastful but she has dramatically improved over the time that I have known her. She still denies that she is an alcoholic. She still denies that she has been drinking when I know she has been drinking and therefore she cannot really say that she is a recovering alcoholic. All recovering alcoholics have admitted that they are alcoholics which is the first stage in a true recovery. However, putting that behind me for ...

I just want to thank Google for making such a great product as Blogger. It is superb and it gives me, in this blog, the chance to just speak my mind, express myself and get things off my chest. This is therapy for me. It is a life saver. It is so easy to begin a blog in Blogger. It all works so well. The Google engineers are the best and there is absolutely no doubt about that. Thanks again Google, keep up the good work. I for one need you. Photo copyright and By jaredchapman

Alcoholics may be able to benefit from neuroimaging in the future. Functional Imaging (an aspect of neuroimaging) is a process whereby the processes of the brain functions can be seen and therefore studied. The idea as I understand it is to study the reward process (a person drinks alcohol and gets the reward of feeling better; action = reward ) to see if it can be adjusted or interfered with to stop the addiction or gain more control over it. The ideal would be some sort of pill that alters the brain chemistry, blocking the addiction. That must be the holy grail of alcoholism treatment. Neuroimaging may be able provide some clues as to how the action/reward process functions in the brain and therefore help to find a solution. photo copyright camerge

Of course vitamins don't stop you being or becoming an alcoholic. Rather alcoholism and vitamins go together in a negative way. You don't get enough vitamins when you're an alcoholic and that is why Jane, my partner, has a stack of vitamins that she is taking on a daily basis; before the next 7 day binge :-) When she is not drinking she'll eat OK but too little (in my opinion). When I wasn't living with her she would tend to lose weight and become very thin (below 8 stones for a 5 foot 6 inch tall women). When she goes on a binge she eats very badly indeed, normally eating biscuits, nuts and drinking lots of high carbohydrate drinks as the neat Vodka makes her thirsty as hell (dehydrating her badly). Her main source of food when she is on a binge drink is the calories in the alcohol (empty calories). On some occasions in the past, less so now, she would become skeletal after a binge and it would take months to get the weight back as she eats so little. She takes mul...

Alcoholism stories are something that I know a bit about, being a victim of an alcoholics behaviour. There's a nice story already on this Blog - the story of Christmas day ahhh so lovely.. Here's a another from a memory full of them. There are more to come. About 5 years ago my alcoholic partner wanted to go to the theatre to see a pantomime . The theatre was not that far away and she organised the tickets. I drove the car. We parked not too far from the theatre and she said she'd direct us to the theatre on foot after parking. She couldn't do it. She was confused and lost. Bad news and clear signs of the booze. However, but for the fact she was confused I couldn't tell she was drinking (I am better at it now). So, we get to the theatre (I kind of knew how to get there). She wants to go to the toilet when we get there. Fine. We get to our seats and during the performance she criticizes the show, unjustly (the booze talking). By the time of the intermission she ca...