Here we are, about to enter twenty-eight years of continuous drinking to excess. In that period there would only be very few days where alcohol would not be involved.
My God, my religion;
It is not so much the drinking during this time that is of interest; it is what it did, physically, mentally and socially.
Remember everyone out there; your drinking habits could be the first step on the slippery slope to alcohol addiction.
Could be a picture of me.
I would like to break this down into several areas, dwelling a short time on each.
Hospitalization.
Luckily, I have only been hospitalized on four occasions, but add to this three alcohol dependency hostels.
As an alcohol dependent, I would use these 'stays' as a method of saving my unemployment or sickness benefits. By doing this, I would be able to have a heavy 'booze-up' on release.
HAPPY or is he.
This an indication of the how the alcohol abuse takes over your thought processes, as one would do anything; beg, steal or borrow to get your next beer.
Hospitalization serves as a chance to detoxify, bed rest and accrue money.
A place of rest, or abuse of the system.
The hostels were no drink places. If I had a drink, I would sleep rough in bushes or waste ground. In the morning when I would go back to the hostel and sleep and rest.
Where to Sleep, when no one wants you.
I will sleep anywhere.
Physical Problems.
There are several physical problems that I can describe. These descriptions are applicable as they happened to me. Issues well documented in books, but books cannot express the emotion and pain one goes through.
Feeling sick one night I staggered to the toilet and vomited 'coffee ground' vomit, from nursing training I knew I was suffering a haemorrhage from the stomach.
No one in the house would help, a consequence of my drinking. So I staggered to my car and drove to the hospital, not thinking of the drink driving laws.
Admitted to the hospital where I was an inpatient for one week. The staff was quite intolerant, another drunk taking up bed space.
On one drunken spree, I staggered backward and split my scalp open on a wall. Not feeling anything and taken to the hospital, where they stitched the wound with many sutures. Then admitted for a week with severe concussion.
I can sleep on a bus.
These are two examples of the several times where hospitalization was a result of alcohol related accidents.
A more dramatic and embarrassing condition happened on several occasions.
When one drinks excessively, it can cause the material in the digestive tract, especially in the anal canal to liquify. The anal sphincter cannot cope, and an explosion liquid faecal matter exits the body. This condition is uncontrollable.
This situation happened to me on several occasions and always in public places. When one is addicted to alcohol, there is no embarrassment; I think back, my face goes red with complete shame.
To show the desperation of an alcohol addicted person, I would site my case.
No caption needed
Now I have to find my way home.
My doctor prescribed Antabuse a medication designed to increase the blood pressure when alcohol is drunk. The effect is to cause perspiration, shaking and an immense pressure in the head(brain) and most striking feature, your face will become a bright orange/red.
I took Antabuse and drank, it would be impossible for me to describe the resultant distress I suffered. Did it stop me from drinking, no it did not?
Friends.
Your family was holding you at a distance not trusting you, where do you go. I did find friends, well so called friends, friends with the same problem as myself.
I would meet them in a park; the relationship consists of when I have money, I share the drinks with them, when I have nothing they share with me.
A rest after an afternoon drinking.
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This not my favoured situation as they are cider drinkers which they compliment with a 'spliff'. I am and always have been a beer drinker, and drugs are not my scene, but when one is desperate anything goes.
I will finish the last instalment tomorrow, but remember this; there are many out there who think they are in control of the alcohol consumption, ARE THEY?.
What is left.