Joined: 14 Jan 2005 Posts: 175 Location: Tampa, FL
Good Luck & Bad Luck Posted: 04-04-06 08:52am
It has been my experience that two things
trip up a recovering alcoholic. Those two
things are good luck, and bad luck.
I put forward the notion that just saying
no to alcohol might not work as well as
one might suppose. That thought is based
in the concept that this disease is
manifest in the phenomenon of craving more
once I begin drinking, that is true to be
sure, but another far more insidious game
is also at play here.
Picture this if you will...
A guy stops drinking, he feels better, he
has more money in his pocket, he gets or
keeps the girlfriend, he gets a nice car,
and a decent place to live. Things are
really starting to look up. Then one day,
he's sitting around the tube watching a
ball game with his buddies. Or at a
barbq, or out fishing, etc. Etc. His
buds are enjoying a few beers with
impunity, and he says to himself "maybe
i've made too hard a go of this not
drinking business, maybe I pulled the plug
on myself too soon, it wasn't that bad, I
can have just one."
it's like watching a man pick up to a hand
grenade and pull the pin. I have seen
this scenario or something very much like
it play it's self out way too many times.
That's the good luck scenario.
The bad luck one goes something like this,
a man reaches over to tie his shoe and the
lace breaks, he has been working on a case
of the f*** it's for a while, no liquor to
smooth out the rough spots, and he drinks
at his broken lace. Mostly a man doesn't
drink over the big things, it's the little
disappointments that add up, and in
response he makes a bad decision.
It's difficult to be technically precise
about the nature of what the big book
calls a spiritual malady. But spend
almost any time in the trenches of this
disease and we gain insight into it's
subtle and tragic manifestations.
I wish everyone nothing but success in
this common struggle. But a wise man
would be well advised to have someone he
can drop a dime on himself to. Have
someone he can tell the whole truth to
when the notion that maybe he can drink
just one, just this once. Every man I
have ever worked with has had that thought
run across his mind at one time or
another. It sure ran across mine early in
the game. At that time someone needed to
tell me to remember what it was like the
day before I showed up. The human mind
has a marvelous capacity to remember the
good stuff, and minimize the really crappy
parts. I can see that sooner in someone
else than I can in myself. I need the
other mans perspective and insight.
