Hello my name is Craig Beck, I didn’t realize it at the time but my childhood was tainted by alcohol from a very early age, and I am in no doubt that it played a part in my eventually developing a problem with it.
As a teenager, I was allowed to have the odd glass of wine and join in with the adults. It made me feel very grown up and as though I had suddenly become a member of a very special club.
Little did I know that it was laying the foundations for nearly 20 years of misery. During my twenties, I kept up with my friends in the drinking stakes.
How I Got Hooked
I was very sociable and would be the first to agree to a night in the pub. I drank faster and more than anyone else I knew – they considered me to be the life and soul of the party… a man who could handle his drink!
I was proud of this reputation, and at this point, it didn’t worry me in the slightest.
Alcohol was not dominating my thinking; I was just the same as any other young man – drinking to have a good time.
I am not sure at what point my drinking habit changed from ‘social pleasantry’ to be a primary focus of my day-to-day life.
Deception 101
Such is the deceptive nature of this drug; it takes so long to get hooked that you don’t even notice there is a problem (until it is too late).
Alcoholism is very much like the old story of the frog in the boiling pan of water…
If you drop a live frog into a boiling pan it will jump straight out of the water in shock, but if you place the frog in cold water and slowly increase the heat it will eventually boil to death – this is alcohol addiction personified.
In my early thirties, I started to question if my drinking was usual, of course deep down inside, I knew it wasn’t, but I was desperate to prove to myself that I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
I probably spent five years fighting to keep drinking; I just couldn’t see how life could be worth living without alcohol.
){kind=link}
Comments
Comments are disabled for this post.