- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Friends & Family
I was with my daughter and two of her friends and their mothers and fathers. We were in a restaurant in the Greek Quarter of Paris. We had ordered dinner and a bottle of wine to go with it. Everybody ate their dinner and sipped a little wine. Not me! I was all about the wine. It wasn’t until I finished the last drop and looked up that I noticed the girls and their parents were staring at me with disbelief. My own daughter’s face was set in a mask of disgust. I was drunk again. The turning point had arrived in the looks on their faces, especially in the look on my daughter’s face. I had never before gotten drunk in front of her friends and their parents.
I never took another drink, but it was two and a half years before I got help. I asked a friend to take me to a support group meeting as he was a member. He agreed to take me and served as my courage, I was terrified of what they would say to me, but I learned that those in recovery form the most supportive, loving group you could imagine. I learned how to live a real life.
I’d advise anybody having trouble with drinking to open her or his mind and go to a group meeting. Listen to the people sharing, and make notes of the similarities to your drinking. I have been a member of my group for 16 years. It helped me get help for my major clinical depression. It also helped me realize that I had been a drug addict using prescriptions to get high.