On my nine-hundred-fifty-first day without a drink…I still thought about alcohol abuse.

That’s what they don’t tell you, the day you check out of an alcohol treatment center: It never goes away. Alcoholism stays with you, whether you like it or not. Alcoholism stays with you forever…or at least for the first 951 days after the fact.

Somehow, I’m thinking number 952 won’t be anything other than more of the same.

So right alcoholism stays with you…and the truth is that that’s okay, because alcohol treatment (effective alcohol treatment, anyway) teaches you how to live with it, how to wake up and want to drink and then (miracle of miracles) not drink, from Day 1 to Day 951 and then on into eternity. Alcohol treatment works when it teaches you to manage, and to cope; alcohol treatment works when it makes you master over yourself…which sounds corny, I know, but if you or someone you care about has stared down the demon—

Well, you know, and you don’t need me to tell you about it.

My only point here is that it works, alcohol treatment. You can get better if you want to. You can get healed if you try. But it’s not easy, can’t ever be easy. You’ve got to work for it. You’ve got to struggle. You’ve got to sacrifice.

Because you’ve got to get sober. But if you’ve been where I have, you damn well don’t need me to tell you that.

 

Filed under: Drug Treatment on May 24th, 2007