Alcohol is Dangerous

 

Theresa in 2001

Alcohol is a very powerful substance. I can write about it because of how it affected me during my time as a child and early adult. Even my late wife Theresa was affected by this awful malady: Her family was full of them. 

I remember years ago, back in 1985, waiting for my father to drive in from a town an hour away and he never arrived. A snow storm hit Winnipeg back then, and I waited in vain on the street hoping to catch a sign of his brown truck rolling by.

I waited for hours, until my mother called him up, only to find out he had passed out drunk, and forgot to drive in to pick my brother and I up for the weekend visit.

It was a disappointing memory. There was many times I was at my grandma's house in Portage la Prairie, and found that he was either drinking or on the verge of passing out. The power of alcohol consumed my entire family. 

Party weekend drinking can slowly turn into daily drinks. Once you cross that road it's really tough to turn your life around. I won't get into details, but to say alcohol is powerful is an understatement. The seduction of that substance is extreme. 

Just having alcohol available is enough to tempt people. Those innocuous bottles of high-grade whisky and tequila? Oh boy. Suddenly having a drink on a Friday evening is not such a bad idea.

Except that it is. Some people have problems with alcohol, and my entire family, myself included, can't be trusted with it. Having discarded a bottle of tequila a few months ago, I realized it was something I never wanted.

I don't agree with outright banning it. You can consume it with moderation but it requires extreme actions. I am not addicted to alcohol, it's just that I realized that if my family can become addicted, so can I.

It would be stupid to think I'd be immune. The fact is, most people don't know how strong the pull of alcohol is until it's too late. Those women bragging on social media about being a 'wine mommy' are clueless dimwits who underestimate the invisible powers of alcohol. It's seriously strong.

That partying mentality is something I never really enjoyed. It starts like this: You have a few friends that invite you over for drinks or going to a bar. Before you know it, you're half in the bag and stumbling around the room, passed out in your bed while the world spins.

After my father's spectacular failure, he tried to apologize by giving us candy bars. Later on, he would stop drinking for about a year before relapsing again. But by that time, the alcohol had eroded his stomach so badly that a vein burst, causing him to bleed internally, causing a fatal heart attack. 

It wasn't pretty.

You can't just steel yourself up if you're addicted to it. Even if you're locked up in a room for 24 hours a day, your mind will roam to memories of drinking. That's how awful it can be. 

Mercifully, I never became addicted, but I could see other people around me suffering it's long-lasting effects. It ages you something awful. The fact is, if you grew up in an alcoholic family, there are serious PTSD issues that await you.

And that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy.