I lost my prime years of bodybuilding to alcohol. Also set my life back at least a decade. I didn’t see it at the time because I was “having fun”. I didn’t think I had a problem because I didn’t drink “every day.” When I did drink though, it was in excess to the point of blacking out on most occasions. It took a lot of bad shit for me to finally wake up. Now, I will drink on a special occasion maybe 3-4 times a year, and am mindful of my consumption. IMO alcohol is one of the most damaging drugs out there. It’s not perceived as a drug because it’s legal, but it’s a drug no doubt.
It has been said that you quit maturing as a human being when you become an alcoholic. This is sad but true.
Talk to any police officer and they will tell you that 9/10 domestic abuse calls involve alcohol.
My brother is an alcoholic I recently learned. It was one of the best kept secrets in our family. Lost a multi multi million dollar business, alienating his children in the process (they have their own set of unique problems to be fair), business and personal bankruptcy, losing their house, life savings, etc., when their irrevocable trust went to court and he lost. He literally lost everything and had zero prospects.
My wife and I bought him (not a loan, free of charge, no payback, and you tell nobody) a family cabin up on Northern California where I spent every other week for 8 months of my life helping him remodel. He never drank around me although I suspected he did but could not prove it and now that he is going it alone, and back to drinking all the time, progress on the cabin slowing to a snails pace if progressing at all. What little money he managed to hide from the government is all but gone and another long, cold and lonely winter, him and his wife who is mentally ill, living in a small room above the carport with no hot water and a wood burning stove for heat. It is a real shit show on the truest meaning of the term. I have done everything in my power to help him in every way I can and know of but until he wants to quit or he hits rock bottom and I mean rock bottom, he is doomed to an early grave, all because of alcohol. I love him with all my heart and soul and always will. May he be well is my mantra.
Some people can drink responsibly and some can’t. He is one that can’t and I was one that couldn’t and I came very very close to killing myself, was blind to it even when it hit me across the face like a used catfish. But that as they say is another story.
I have nothing against alcohol. Really. To each their own. I just saddens me deeply to see the damage it can do to a person and family and friends when they need help and either don’t get it or too blind to see that they need it and don’t seek it.
He says he is getting professional help but at this stage I have a hard time believing a word he says but do believe he is incapable of telling the truth even by mistake.
Recovery can be a monster with a long tail, a long and winding road for some (me; easy peasy) with multiple stops along the way for others. And some never make it
and it just breaks my heart to pieces.
Sorry my friends and members, okay, okay . . off my soapbox, the unintended sermon is over.
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and I don’t miss it one bit. And congrats to all who have stopped
