ALCOHOLISM
AND
ME
Growing up I did not really know what
Alcoholism was. Oh,I knew that people
drank, and sometimes more than they should,
but I did not realize until I was 12 or so
,that it was also a disease.
This happened when I learned about my dad's
father. He had been a respected judge until
he became an alcoholic and was forced to leave
the bench. From there it was all down hill, with
him drinking all of the time, flopping where
he could and drinking as long as his social
security checks lasted.
When I was 15 he died. Not from the alcohol itself,
but from the drinking all the same. He was found dead
in the gutter the day after he received his Social
Security check, rolled and beaten to death.
It was also about then that I also realized that
my father was more heavily into drinking than I had
thought. How did I discover this? Once night he came
home SOBER. THIS was an entirely different man
then the one I knew! Gone was the happy,
cheerful, smiling, man and in his place an
irratable guy going through withdrawal!!!
Over time I learbed that my mother's side of the
family also had drinking problems and that ALL of my
uncles were also drinkers. Since then they have ALL
joined AA and been "clean and sober" between
10- 25 years. CONGRATULATIONS GUYS!!!!
When I met and married my husband I learned that
he too came from a family with several generations
of alcoholics, and all of his immediate family had
drinking problems too!
Ok, so they all worked hard, never missed work as a
result of their drinking or went on long binges.
However,without exceptions,
when not working they could all be
found with a drink or beer in their hand or
visiting at the corner bar.
My husbands drinking never created a serious
problem with or marriage until we retired to
Florida and he joined a social men's club.
These guys, all really wonderful people
have too much time on their hands, and hang
together at the lodge much of the time,
sitting around, drinking their beer and talking.
when there are activities in the morning he is
there from 8am or 9 am through sometimes 6pm,
drinking one beer after the others, encouraged
to do so buy his "friends" buying round after
round.
He stays on, enjoying the fun and the beer and by
then has totally lost track of time or the number of beers
he has consumed during the course of the day.
When he arrives home he either falls asleep in his
lounger for several hours, gets up and either goes to bed OR
wants to stay up half the night!
Sometimes he comes in and goes right to bed around 6-7pm,
and sleeps 12 hours.
Now to ME this is a problem!
My Husbamd does admit he has a
"drinking problem" and that
he has learned to control it a lot.
However he still cannot
say "NO" to his friends, and that
concerns me. After this past
weekend it bothers him also.....
He has promised to read these
pages and to learn more about this
"illness" he has.
I wish to offer condolences to my
nephew and neice,
for the recent loss of their father,
my husbands older brother,
who died of dehydration and severe
starvation as a result
of acute alcoholism. His blood could
no longer hold oxygen, his stomach no food,
and his body no life.
It is a sad loss of a once wonderful man,
lost to the powers of "alcoholism".
God bless you brother ((((HUGS)))).