(Inspired by the website http://www.ehow.com/facts_5127032_alcohol-abuse.html.)
Of the two main philosophies people generally have in
life, my own philosophy is that “the glass is half-full.” To this end, I consider
myself an “eternal optimist.” I have always tried to see life in this positive
way.
Let’s face it though: life is not a bowl of
cherries—it’s full of obstacles, headaches, heartbreak and tragedy. I have
certainly had my share of these things in my life, but I’ve gotten through them
somehow. Whoever designed our human lives here on Earth clearly did not want
human beings to have it easy. Luck or fate or a higher power, if you’ll have
it, wanted us to have plenty of trials and tribulations in our lives, constantly
testing us to find out what we are each made of. Would we pass the “test of the
day,” or would we fail it miserably? Regardless of the particular test,
however, would we thank a wonderful fate for giving us this marvellous
opportunity to prove ourselves, or would we curse the fact that this same
disagreeable fate had just given us a test that had the word “failure” written
all over it? That is a question I’ve not been able to answer satisfactorily,
but I’m trying my best.
For
example, what does one do when a big financial problem appears in one’s life
one day and there is no easy solution? The choice is whether to sit down and
have a badly needed drink and try to delay making the tough decision about what
to do next. If that drink is not immediately available, however, what other
choice is there? Some people can decide that they have a definite
responsibility to their own future lives and that the choices they make every
day will affect their future lives. Other people find it easier to just pour themselves
a drink or two, sit down and forget about making any important choices. Unfortunately,
one drink can turn into two, two can turn into three, three can turn into four,
and so on. When is it enough? Surely it is not that difficult to stop this kind
of destructive behaviour early on and make the tough choices that are such an
integral part of a happy, productive life.
My
name is Lisa. Something pivotal happened to me one evening while I was at a
bar, drinking alcohol socially with my best girlfriend, Marilyn. The drinks at
this particular bar during Happy Hour were ridiculously cheap at three dollars
each—and I started foolishly consuming what I thought I could handle. After
about four rye-and-ginger-ales in quick succession, I told Marilyn I was going
to the ladies’ room.
While
in the ladies’ room, I managed to pass out completely, and when Marilyn came
looking for me and saw me lying on the floor unconscious, she could not revive
me. She told me later that she got me home by asking some guys she knew well to
take me home. Shocked, I asked her the next day if anything had happened with
these guys that shouldn’t have happened (sex?). I asked her why she didn’t call 911
instead and have an ambulance take me to the hospital—that would have been the
safest and smartest thing to do.
But, Marilyn told me that she did not want me to be embarrassed by later having
to explain my unconscious state to the authorities. She said that her good
buddies were eminently trustworthy and that, together, she and they merely put
me on my living room couch at home, which was where I woke up the next
day. She insisted to me that she would
never have allowed anyone to take unfair advantage of me while I was in that
comatose state.
The
whole incident scared me enough to make me realize the real power that alcohol
can have over you. I resolved not to repeat that particular experience.
The next day, after I’d fully awakened and
realized what had happened at the bar, I called Marilyn.
“I know that you care about me, Marilyn,
just as I care about you. But, due to my
extensive first aid training and experience, I know that a person found
unconscious could be that way for any number of reasons. If something bad had happened to me for any
reason, it would have been on your
shoulders because you didn’t do the proper thing by calling 911. So, I want you
to promise me that you will never again take it upon yourself to help a person
who’s unconscious and needs medical attention.”
“Okay,“, Marilyn replied. “You’re right and
I should have called 911 instead of asking those guys I knew to take you home,
passed out as you were. I promise you I
will never, ever do that again.”
Generally,
as far as I know, if a man or woman consumes only one or two drinks per day, it
is relatively harmless to their health. Generally, a woman should probably
drink less than a man per day since women usually weigh less than men. In
addition, a non-pregnant woman is generally considered less at risk than a
pregnant woman when it comes to alcohol consumption. I remember consuming a
small glass of white wine once during my second trimester while I was pregnant
with my son, but I don’t remember it as a problem then nor is it one now, after
the fact. But alcohol consumption can certainly become a problem when the
amount or frequency of drinking increases. This is what’s so dangerous; it just
seems so easy to “drink your troubles away” instead of facing the difficult
issues and making the hard decisions that need to be made. Some people are
better at it than others. These are the people that are so successful in running
their daily lives. They don’t have to resort to alcohol to help them manage
their own lives.
If
people drink habitually, continuing in this pattern, one day they may start to
depend on alcohol to alter their mood. I remember a few people I had known who
thought the occasional drink could improve their mood, and for a little while,
it did. Eventually, however, because their drinking did not stop after their
mood improved, their mood began to depend on whether alcohol was available to
them. It isn’t always obvious to us that the people we see drinking are
actually dependent on it at this point. Drinkers may seem jovial, but, we won’t
ever know for sure that they are dependent. Though we don’t realize it, these “social”
drinkers have started thinking more and more about drinking alcohol and its “beneficial”
effects on their mood.
Someone
in my family, Walt, had developed a severe drinking problem over a period of
years. He was a distant uncle whom I did not know well in my adult years. In
his youth, he had been a very good-looking young man, with short, dark-brown,
wavy hair, a good muscular build, and a drop-dead gorgeous smile. All I knew
about him was that he had started drinking as a relatively young man in his
teens.
However, he could not or would not stop drinking as he got older. He eventually became estranged from his family and ended up living on the streets ofVancouver
However, he could not or would not stop drinking as he got older. He eventually became estranged from his family and ended up living on the streets of
copyright - Anne Shier, 2013, all rights reserved, published by Authorhouse, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
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