6,574 days in a row devoid of hangover

18 years without a drink.  I started drinking in my eighteenth year.  But those middle eighteen years (I’m 54) were a journey with alcohol, and ultimately, I became dependant on drinking.  It was not only one way I enjoyed myself, but it also became the way I destressed.

I can distinctly recall a time early in my adult life where I foolishly thought to myself, “I’ll never have an issue with alcohol.  I’ll always be able to control it.”  That should have been warning enough of what I was blind to.

Over the years, my alcohol intake crept up on me, but to be honest, I always gave it a nudge in my earliest years.  Then the years of family came along, and my drinking took on a more ‘refined’ character.  I became interested in wine, especially what wines accompanied different foods—the whites with fish and chicken, reds with red meat, etc.  I think it was convenient that I could hide my desire for the effects of alcohol behind a feigned interest in high taste.

I went through a season of brewing my own beer, and a highlight in my memory was to get home from afternoon shift at 11:30PM at night and have four beers and a snack before going to bed—yes, that’s four beers each day (whether you think that’s a lot or not much perhaps says a lot about your personal approach to society’s ‘friendliest of drugs’, alcohol).

Alcohol was something that always constituted much weekly thought and planning.  But at the time, I don’t think I really considered it.

Alcohol does so much damage in society and given there’s so much broad acceptance of it only compounds the problems.

In my later years on the journey with alcohol, I subconsciously planned my Friday, Saturday and even Sunday nights to include drinks.  Alcohol became bigger than those things that should have been first priority.

But it all changed one Monday night when my drinking career finished without me even knowing it yet.  I had a more important fight on my hands—to win back my first marriage.  Well, that wasn’t to be.  But by the time I gave up fighting to rebuild my first marriage, I’d already invested nine months at AA, and, because I’d advanced so much in my personal journey with the ‘steps’, I’d become the secretary of the Kwinana Town Group that met at the Catholic Church on Thursday nights.  I’d received a lot of help and felt that call of God to help others.

18 years after the decision was really made for me—the drinking had to go!—I’m so thankful, because I’ve NEVER missed it.