Why we Drank.
While working in a psychiatric hospital I was responsible for co-ordinating Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for recovering alcoholics. Because I had never personally experienced alcohol use or abuse I found it a challenge identifying personally with the attendees' addictions.
One recovering alcoholic sensed this and he handed me a hand-written scrap of paper with these words on it:
"We drank for happiness and became unhappy. We drank for joy and became miserable. We drank for sociability and became
argumentative. We drank for
sophistication and became obnoxious. We
drank for friendship and made enemies.
We drank for sleep and awakened without rest. We drank for strength and felt weak. We drank with the excuse that it was
medicinal and acquired health problems.
We drank for relaxation and got the shakes. We drank for bravery and became afraid. We drank for confidence and became
doubtful. We drank to make conversation
easier and slurred our speech. We drank
to feel heavenly and ended up feeling like hell. We drank to forget and were forever haunted. We drank for freedom and became slaves. We drank to erase problems and saw them
multiply. We drank to cope with life and
invited death."
-- Lionel Hartley
