Category: – Quitting Drugs & Alcohol

Alcohol & My Kind of Friday Night

by Harry White, Gold Coast, Australia

My kind of Friday night is one that Saturday will thank me for.

There is a saying that, “The best nights are the ones that you don’t remember”. Well I have had one of those nights before, and if I didn’t remember it, my body certainly made sure that I did with the constant vomiting, headaches, stomach cramps and un-easiness.

Are those big party nights really worth it?

I mean, alcohol is expensive and it makes you do things that you will regret doing, like: Continue reading “Alcohol & My Kind of Friday Night” →

A Little Bit of Alcohol seemed Safe Enough

by Gayle Cue, Bangalow NSW

I never really liked the taste of alcohol. However, it was part of being normal in society and so I tried. I wasn’t very successful at enjoying or abusing alcohol. Nonetheless, it has played a major role in my life.

My father had fought in the trenches of Germany during WWII. By the time he came back to the US, met my mother, and I was born, he was heavily into a relationship with alcohol, to try and drown out his memories and nightmares. My mother held off for several years while us kids were really young, but she eventually joined him in his misery and chosen relief.

I married at 18 to get out of the house. At the time I married my husband, he wasn’t truly an alcoholic – yet, but he was well on his way. His parents were also alcoholics so you can appreciate that it was difficult for us to see drinking as a problem. It was just part of life. I was still trying to be part of the norm and would try to drink, but I could never stomach more than one or two so rarely experienced being drunk, although I often experienced the headache and lethargic day that followed my attempts.  Continue reading “A Little Bit of Alcohol seemed Safe Enough” →

Alcohol – It’s More Fun Living Without It!

by Carmel Reid, BEng DMS CertEd MCMI, Somerset UK

When I was a young child, I was occasionally offered the opportunity to sip some wine. It didn’t taste nice to me.

At some point, in my late teens/early 20s, I started to drink. I don’t know why I overrode my body’s natural dislike of the alcohol, I can only assume it was in order to be like my friends, who also drank. Unfortunately, I would often drink too much and end up being sick in the most embarrassing places. Continue reading “Alcohol – It’s More Fun Living Without It!” →

Hiding Behind my Beer Can!

by Mick S, Tradesman, age 42, Australia

Let’s start by asking first, what is alcohol? …To side track just for a moment, let’s use our kids drinking water with cordial added to it as an example. Many of us have told our kids less cordial more water. (And more than once!) This waters down the sugar intake thus leaving us to deal with a lesser grade of sugar infused craziness and definitely no red cordial please. Is this making sense!

So we then move on to alcohol, which as many of us would know, is basically fermented sugar. But did you also know that the body actually treats this type of sugar as a poison to the point where we get sick if we have too much (that would be the hangover) or even really sick if we have way too much… (and that would be the vomiting). Not to mention the fact that alcohol is usually flavoured – requiring more sugar, to which we then add a mixer, which is even more sugar. So the end result is a drink made from sugar to which we then add a HUGE amount of additional sugar  – and we’re worried about the kids’ crazy behaviour! …Are we really this crazy? Continue reading “Hiding Behind my Beer Can!” →

Choices, I’ve Made A Few… Shockers!

At age 28 my life was out of control. I had a job, girlfriend, home, car, etc and everything appeared to be fine (I sure thought it was) – but for me to get through the day I needed my cans of coke, chocolate, cigarettes and my pot. And that was just the days through the week – come time for the weekend and I needed all that, plus ecstasy and speed. My life was a blur, and whilst I was holding down my job as a bricklayer, I was completely thrashing myself. I took so much pride in being the fastest brickie in the gang, but not so much care in what I was building. I was always a neat worker but I just wanted to get the job done so I could get home and get out of it: I was even contemplating a career change as I had had enough. At the time I thought it was my job that I was sick of, but I look back now and it was my life that was turning me off. Continue reading “Choices, I’ve Made A Few… Shockers!” →

Hey, Maybe There Is Another Way

by Natalie Hawthorne, London, UK

My life is and always will be forever developing, and I’d like to share just two examples of where I started to look at it and say “hey, maybe there is another way”. Such as when I started to play with the idea of Self-Love and things stuck out like a sore thumb…

I was living the ‘normal life’ as a general manager of an extremely busy restaurant/bar; I started to realise that the way I was choosing to live wasn’t loving, nor did it feel right. I would take the deliveries, and as you can imagine, it’s with large quantities of stock involved with the beverage side of things… back then to me moving the kegs of beer and carrying all the bottles of wine to the storeroom to prove that I didn’t need any help and I was strong! (This being part of my Kiwi upbringing: girls can do anything – even play rugby!) I was ignoring any signs that I felt when I was straining myself, as it was good for me and making me strong! Continue reading “Hey, Maybe There Is Another Way” →