Hi there, sorry for my out burst, I have been a little down in the dumps of late. I am feeling not too bad today and intend to keep it that way. I understand that alcoholism is a disease not just a moral issue.
Hi Robert, dont know anything about your outburst but yes alcoholism is a disease no one in thier right mind would have done the things I did to get a drink or the things I did when I had a drink in me! If it was just a moral issue I dont think I could cope with the guilt and shame. knowing it is a disease (but taking responsibility) helps me a lot. Trudi
I'm glad that you're back. Kept searching for posts from "Robert", and drooped when they weren't there.
I too am sensitive, and it is so so easy to hurt my feelings, it's almost embarassing. I dont react well to hurt feelings, they usually come out as defensiveness----I keep asking for that particular character defect to be taken, but alas, I think I hang onto it as armor. Like, one day I may need it? LOL, I dunno, I'm just happy that you're back. Love Wren
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Funny, isn't it, how friends and a Power greater than ourselves can neutralize nightmares?
Hi Robert, dont know anything about your outburst but yes alcoholism is a disease no one in thier right mind would have done the things I did to get a drink or the things I did when I had a drink in me! If it was just a moral issue I dont think I could cope with the guilt and shame. knowing it is a disease (but taking responsibility) helps me a lot. Trudi
Trudy you are right, a moral issue/mental health issue would not kill as much people as it does unless it was a disease. I believe firmly that if alcohol was discovered only recently, it would be a class A drug. the body of an alcoholic is much different to a normal man and it has been proved that the alcoholic turns the alcohol in to a highly addictive opiate ( combines with brain neurotransmitters to make tetrahydroisoquinolines "THIQs" which is addictive and ephoric and is on par with morphine and herion. I think alcoholism is underplayed in the UK
It might be better to see it as we didnt accept you leaving.. perhaps.. or atleast we didnt realy see you as leaving at all you were just taking a break.. Either way.. YOU'RE HERE.. perhaps the word STILL would be better than AGAIN...
Very Cool! to see you back, and I agree with Rob, we did not ever accept you leaving in the first place.
Yesterday is done gone.
As far as this Disease being a Moral Issue, that is what kept me drunk for many years, I thought I was immoral. So happy to find out it is a Medical Illness, per the AMA. American Medical Association. What a relief that was to me.
I got upset, a month ago, said I was leaving and had to come back with the "Hi You Guys, I'm Back. No one said anything but welcome back, and that is all we are saying to you. Felt So Happy when I say you Hiya Post. How did Monday go? o.k.???
And plain old "WELCOME BACK MATE" HaHa Im starting to pick up that U.K. dialogue.
If you want to see real examples of unenlightenment, you should see how the much of the so-called "developing world" treats alcoholism.
I've spent considerable time in SE Asia and it's been pretty hard for something like AA to catch on there. There are many reasons.
Thailand is one of the more developed countries I visit. I recall a conversation at a small meeting at a hospital in Bangkok several years ago.
There was a British woman there who told me about her Thai husband who'd passed away years ago from alcoholism. He'd been an member of parliament at one time and had once served as a physician at that very hospital. In his later drinking career he'd drink anything he could get.. including mouthwash.
This woman was not alcoholic herself (it was an open meeting). Rather she was there out of concern for her teenage daughters who she felt were beginning to exhibit the tell-tale signs of abuse.
Meetings in that area of the globe are almost entirely comprised of tourists, expatriots and other "westerners" (by which I mean westernized .. e.g. Australia, NZ, etc.).
I would note that on my last trip I saw some exceptions to this at the very last meeting I attended in Bangkok. At his meeting there were several Sikhs (N. India) and a person from Taiwan (a very westernized country).
Some of the AA literature has been translated. I brought a bunch of BB's and some pamphlets that had been translated into Khmer (Cambodian) with me and attempted to do some outreach via the monks and RC clergy I met in Cambodia.
Problem is that it's hard not to come off as proselytizing as there's a good deal of well earned suspicion felt in many of these countries.
hanuman, thanks for sharing that.. being bicultural myself I find things about various cultures very interesting, and helpful in seeing other peoples' perspectives.
amanda
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do your best and God does the rest, a step at a time
