The demon drink

Tweet

Do you like a relaxing drink at the end of the day? Watch out, there’s a fine line between tradition and addiction! My uncle was an alcoholic. When I was growing up he had a very high-flying job, travelling the world. Then he was made redundant and suddenly found himself at home, lonely and with no particular purpose in his (I guess) 50s. He turned to drink and only a year or so later things had got really bad; my mother (his sister) would get calls to say he had crashed his car, or was lying drunk in a ditch, and she would have to go and get him home and try to take care of him. Then when he recovered he would get in a rage, resenting her interference. I remember him attacking her car with a tree branch one time when we called on him (I was about 10 at the time). Not long after that he died from pancreatic cancer. Yesterday I went to the funeral of a friend from university, who died suddenly from a stroke. What none of us had known was that he was an alcoholic, and that he had refused treatment for it, saying he was happy that way. He also had prostate cancer, liver cirrhosis and atherosclerosis. A group of us had stayed in touch since our university days, meeting regularly and going on holiday together. As the years went by and people got busier with different things the meetings became less frequent and it got more difficult to tempt this friend out to social gatherings, but he did come to a friend’s big birthday party last year. There, he seemed his usual self, although slightly more portly. He had a few drinks of course, but we didn’t think anything of it. Now we know it wasn’t just an innocent beer or two. Then this morning as I walked home from dropping Little One at school, I bumped into another old friend I haven’t seen for a while. Although we live in the same village nowadays we don’t see that much of each other, especially as they recently had a lot of work done on their house and had to move out for a while. But today when I cheerily asked ‘How are you these days?’ he replied ‘I’m an alcoholic’. Thankfully he has realised he has a problem and has been working through it, he hasn’t had any alcohol for a year now and is slowly getting over the associated depression, but still finding things difficult. When you think of alcoholism perhaps you have a certain image in your mind, maybe of a down-and-out sitting on a street corner. But all three of these men were highly educated, with good jobs and from the outside looked to be in a pretty good situation. You just never know, especially as alcohol is such a socially-acceptable ‘vice’. Maybe if you find yourself unable to relax without a drink in your hand, take a good look at yourself and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2019.