Category: – Quitting Drugs & Alcohol

Letter to My Body

Photograph by Iris Pohl. “The body is the marker of all truth.” (Serge Benhayon)
Photograph by Iris Pohl. “The body is the marker of all truth.” (Serge Benhayon)

September the Nineteenth in the Year Two Thousand and Sixteen, London, United Kingdom

Dear Body,

There has been no other like you who has stuck with me through thick and thin, never to give up on me, yet ironically the very one I had used and abused like I would no other!

Who else would down those small or copious amounts of alcohol, a substance defined by our very own scientists as poison, and force it onto the liver, your sweet organ of harmony, whilst you patiently kept processing the killer substance? No other kind would do this. And yet we (I) call ourselves an intelligent species. Continue reading “Letter to My Body” →

Seeking Connection in Techno Parties

Recently I had the chance to re-visit a scenario that for a few years was my normal. I went to a techno party with a couple of friends who were visiting from abroad; one of them was DJ-ing for a couple of hours. Continue reading “Seeking Connection in Techno Parties” →

Alcohol is Not Normal

I grew up in a family with a lot of alcohol. A lot. My mother was and is an alcoholic, though to single her out as the only alcoholic is in fact the very first step in society’s clever and insidious avoidance of the whole picture.

An addict is defined as someone who is “…dependent on a substance and has formed a physical and/or psychological habit around that substance…”

Which also exactly describes my father’s relationship with alcohol and all of his friends. Because they all ‘needed’ to drink pretty much every single day. And all did. They were all “…dependent on a substance and had formed a physical and/or psychological habit around that substance….” Continue reading “Alcohol is Not Normal” →

The Abuse of Alcohol – The True Harm

I recently read about a woman’s experience of alcoholism in her family detailing the abuse of alcohol and its ‘second-hand’ effects on her, and as I read I found my eyes darting as if not wanting to read and feel all that was being presented.

As I read the blog I could feel my own agony of living in a familiar feeling – my own household as a young boy would lurch from sunshine to violence through the use and continued abuse of alcohol. Even as I write this I can feel the questioning of that statement – it wasn’t every day, or every week – and this is how we can allow and not claim that even once is too much, and too many times.

Continue reading “The Abuse of Alcohol – The True Harm” →

Alcohol: Cancer, ‘Safe’ Consumption and Choice

Recently I attended The Annual Women’s Health update forum held in Melbourne, March 2013, for doctors, nurses and allied health practitioners. Professor Ian Olver, CEO of Cancer Council Australia, shared his latest findings on alcohol and cancer. He presented evidence that alcohol consumption is a known cause of cancer and that:

  • the sites for these cancers are the mouth, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, female breast and colorectum,
  • cancer is increased because of the ethanol, regardless of the type of alcohol consumed, and
  • smoking and alcohol together are risk factors for 75% of head and neck cancers.

In summary, he stated there are no safe levels for alcohol consumption.  Continue reading “Alcohol: Cancer, ‘Safe’ Consumption and Choice” →

Marijuana Addiction

I grew up as a teenager in the 80s and a surfer. We watched as our parents self-medicated on a daily basis with alcohol, cigarettes and coffee, but our generation worshipped the sounds and spirituality of Bob Marley and escapism and marijuana was our medicine – we used it to escape and check out, to not truly see what was going on in our lives, and as a rebellion against a world that didn’t make sense.

It was ours exclusively as our parents didn’t understand much about it. From its innocent beginnings the so called ‘non-addictive’ drug wreaked havoc in our lives as well as those of everyone connected to us as we under-performed, buried our issues, told lies to cover up, broke many laws, endangered other people’s lives, as well as our own, and failed to commit to our lives and relationships. Continue reading “Marijuana Addiction” →