Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Monday, June 30, 2008

The Real Danger of Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol abuse is a big focus of mine. I pay more attention to that than anything. I put a lot of effort and scrutiny into it. I want to be on my guard I guess.

See, I like alcohol. I love it! It's been good to me. I enjoy it. It's a sociable companion at any gathering, and a comforting relaxer at the soft end of a hard day. It isn't that I can't live without it. It's that I'd hate to think of losing it. It's a real nice part of the nice part of life.

And I want to keep it that way. I want to keep alcohol on my buddy list. Because from what I hear, from what they tell you, once you cross that line...once you let it fall out of your control, once you become addicted, once you cross that line into alcoholism, once you become alcoholistic, once you are an alcoholist*, you can never ever go back. You have to cut alcohol out entirely. Can you imagine? Jesus help us! Is it worth it? Is it worth it, to just keep indulging la-di-dah, when that's the price you pay?! I'd go cold turkey every other week for a month to ward that off. And I have done. Hell! You've got to be on your guard. You can't just coast along without paying attention, drinking and drinking. Because if you slip - and you'll never see the line as you glide across it - but if you go too far and become dependent on it, then it turns into your enemy.

And you can never enjoy an innocent beer again.

Is that what you want? I've seen it happen to people! I'm telling you, the second you start to worry you're getting near the danger zone - you HAVE to CUT BACK immediately! And stay cut back, until you feel you're completely out of danger. Don't do it for yourself. Do it for your friend! Your good friend, alcohol. Do you want to have to abandon your friend, all the good times you've had together?

I'm telling you, that's what I do. I'm dead serious. Any and every single time I worry I'm straying into the danger zone, I get scared to DEATH - I cut WAY back, barely touch the stuff for weeks! And then when I finally have another, it'll be: one a day, two a day. Healthy levels. It's okay to cut loose once in a while! As long as in general, you take a look at your consumption and you see that you set: healthy levels.

Shit, three a day's okay for me at my size. That's not the point. Point is, I'm not going to let something wonderful turn into a problem for me. I'm not going to put myself into that position! That's not what I want for me. I love my beers, my whiskys, my wines, my scotches and vodkas and various sundry others. I even love my gins. I don't want them to be forever denied me! I want to be able to have a drink any time I want. I'm having a beer right now.

Here's to ya, friend. You'd tell me if I was getting too clingy, wouldn't ya?

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