"At first, alcohol is the elegant figure standing on the corner by the bar, the handsome one in the beautiful black tuxedo."
I used to spend too much time wondering how my story began. Living in the story of my past.
I soon realized that everything that has happened, has happened for a reason. I wouldn't be here today helping other stop over drinking if I didn't have my story.
Here is a story that I read a few years ago that really took my imagination to a story of how my intimate relationship with alcohol began.
Maybe you can relate.
The talented author Ann Dowsett Johnston describes it perfectly. Here is an excerpt from her prologue from her book, Drink, The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol.
"For most of us, booze is a loanshark, someone they trusted for a while, came to count on, before it turned ugly.
Every person with a drinking problem learned this the hard way. And, no matter what the circumstances, certain parts of the story are always the same. Here is how the story goes.
At first, alcohol is the elegant figure standing on the corner by the bar, the handsome one in the beautiful black tuxedo. Or maybe he’s in black leather and jeans. It doesn’t matter. You can’t miss him. He’s always at the party, and he always gets there first.
Maybe you first saw him in high school. Many do. Others meet him long before. He finds his moment, sometime when you’re wobbly or nervous, excited or scared. You’re heading into a big party or a dance. All of a sudden your stomach begins to lurch. You’re overdressed, or underdressed; too tall, too short; heart sick, or heart-in-your-mouth anxious. Doesn’t matter. Booze waste no time. He sidles up with a quick hit of courage. You grab it. It feels good. It works.
Or maybe you’ve fallen in love. You are at a wedding, a dinner, a celebration. You want this moment to last. You fear it won’t. Just as your doubts begin to get the best of you, booze holds out a glass, a slim stem of liquid swagger, blonde and bubbly. You take a sip and instantly the room begins to soften. So do you, your toes curl a little, your heart is light. All things are possible. Now this is a sweetheart deal. This is how it begins. And for many, this is where it ends. Turning twenty-one or twenty-five or thirty, some will walk into a crowded room, into weddings or graduations or wakes, and for them, he’s no longer there. Totally disappeared. Or perhaps they never saw him in the first place. And he doesn’t seek them out. They’re not his people.
But you? You come to count on him, this guy in black. And as the years pass, he starts showing up on a daily basis. Booze has your back.
In fact, he knows where you live. Need some energy? Need some sleep? Need some nerve? Booze will lend a hand. You start counting on him to get you out of every fix. Overworked, overstressed, overwhelmed? Lonely? Heartsick? Booze is there when you need him most.
And when you don’t. Suddenly, you realize booze has moved in. He’s in your kitchen. He’s in your bedroom. He’s at your dinner table, taking up two spaces, crowding out your loved ones. Before you know it, he starts waking you up in the middle of the night, booting you in the gut at a 3:45am. You have friends over and he causes a scene. He start showing you who’s boss. Booze is now calling the shots. You’ve decided you've had enough. You ask him to leave. He refuses. A deal is a deal, he says. He wants payback and he wants it now. In fact, he wants it all, room and board, all your money, your assets, your family, plus a lot of love on the side. Unconditional love.
You do the only thing you can think to do: you kick him out, change the locks, get an unlisted number. But on Friday night, he sneaks back in, through the side door. You toss them out again. He’s back the very next day. Now you are scared. This is the toughest thing you’ve ever dealt with. You decide to try the geographical cure: you quit your job, pull up steaks, relocate to a new city where no one knows you. You’ll start anew. Then within days, booze comes calling in the middle of the night. Like all loan sharks, he’s one step of head of you and he means business. This is how it happens."
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