| When I started drinking, I was drinking with | | | | the worst, I would pick up a drink first thing in the |
| everyone else in high school. What took me by | | | | morning to fend off the sickness, and that one |
| surprise was down the road everyone else tapered | | | | morning drink would turn into another drunk, so I |
| off, but by that time I was drinking every other day | | | | would have the same situation to contend with the |
| or so. For a long time it never occurred to me that | | | | next morning. A vicious cycle. |
| this kind of drinking was abnormal. | | | | Needless to say anyone in that condition is |
| Every other day turned into every day, and of | | | | unemployable, not really capable of maintaining |
| course when you drink every day, you end up | | | | relationships, and can barely function in daily life. Not a |
| drinking alone. And drinking alone is a sad and lonely | | | | recipe for any kind of happiness or contentment in |
| way to go. I desperately wanted to stop drinking, | | | | life. After countless attempts to stop drinking, I was |
| but was unable to because every time I'd try to | | | | able to finally stop. Many people are not so fortunate. |
| stop, my body would go into a state of detox. No | | | | Knowing you have a drinking problem and wanting to |
| sleep, shaking, feeling completely out of it, flu like | | | | stop is not enough. You have to take that next step |
| symptoms, and just plain miserable in general. I | | | | to pull out of an addiction to something as powerful |
| understand under more advanced conditions the | | | | as alcohol. I was unable to stop drinking through |
| detox will involve hallucinations too. | | | | conventional methods like A.A. and rehab. I was only |
| Another by-product of drinking so much is I gained a | | | | able to get sober using the formula in How I Stopped |
| lot of weight and had a terribly unattractive bloated | | | | Drinking by Max Fisher. Getting sober is very serious |
| kind of look to my face - I was definitely a victim of | | | | business, and I am actually still surprised that I was |
| alcohol addiction, and since I was addicted, I picked | | | | able to do it. |
| up a drink even when I sincerely didn't want to. At | | | | |