All Drinking Aside

13 September 2023

My Choice of Colors, Typeface Choices and Design [All That Good Stuff] Would Convulse My Team of Advertising Designers If They Saw This!

"Catch Autumn Before It Leaves" [For a Women's Fall Clothing Line] & "Rare Dining Well Done" [For a Restaurant Billboard Advertisement] are among my favorite headlines written during my decades long stint as an Advertising Copywriter.

The writing skills I developed in the Ad Biz were invaluable assets in writing my first book, ALL DRINKING ASIDE; The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal.

Today, September 13, 2023, marks the 10th Anniversary of its publication.

In celebration thereof, let me share a few of my favorite excerpts with you.

Feel free to share this post, including the Amazon link to All Drinking Aside.

Please consider offering it as a gift to any and all.

SIX EXCERPTS:

"My father was a wood carver. He carved ducks out of wood. Like Michelangelo searching for the block of marble that contained the statue he would sculpt, in a block of wood, my father searched for a duck. he had the right tools. He was motivated. He was inspired.

For years I never had a reason to quit drinking and by the time I had a reason to quit, reason no longer had anything to do with it. I drank for escape and I ended up being unable to escape from drinking. Now, years later, I have found many of the tools of recovery. There are those who have inspired me, motivated me. Slowly, patiently, I must carve the frustration, self-pity and despair out of this block of wood. Carve out the envy, anxiety and intolerance. File down the burrs of hatred, jealousy and resentment. Chisel out the suspicion and sarcasm, the mistrust. Get rid of the apathy, the remorse, the self-deception. Cast out the doubt, the blame, the fear. Scrape out contempt and cynicism. Smooth out the rough edges." - All Drinking Aside, p. 241.

II.

"I can remember standing on the front porch of our house with my father when I was maybe ten years old. We lived in a small valley and a few miles away to the west was the rim of the valley. This was called South Mountain. We would catch storms approaching from the other side of the mountain. My father taught me how to predict when the storm would reach us by counting the seconds between when we saw the lightning and when we would hear the thunder. The closer the storm, the less time it takes between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder. It takes a long tie, too, when you first get clean and sober to get a clear picture of reality. Relapse now and you many never hear the thunder and feel the rain was clean the debris of your disease.

My father and I stood on the porch. We saw the storm get nearer, saw the lightning, heard the thunder, the dog and cat beneath the couch because they were frightened and did not understand. And then the rain would come down in buckets, the street still hot, giant puddles of water, the steam rising and sometimes, just sometimes, after the storm, we would see a rainbow." - All Drinking Aside, pp. 201 - 202.

III.

"Alcohol is my poison, my prison. A brick wall, a trap door, a cancer, a bad joke, an empty bottle, an excuse, a leaky faucet, a loan shark, a broken promise, a cracked mirror, an earthquake, an avalanche, a train wreck, a recurring nightmare.

Alcohol is my insanity." - All Drinking Aside, p. 127.

IV.

"My brain knows my disease. My brain loves my disease and my brain will never forget my disease because my disease has carved permanent grooves into my brain that no amount of sobriety can ever putty shut. The grooves in my brain lay waiting for me to pick up again so that the grooves can progressively deepen. I must depend on the help of others. Acting alone, I will be devoured by my disease. For addicts, alcohol will devour memories of the past and anxiety about the future, drowning them in the unreal, insane world of addiction. A living lobotomy. A blind man descending a spiral staircase leading to nowhere. No past. No present. No future. Addiction will survive by eating you alive.

Now, in recovery, I'm learning how to thrive." - All Drinking Aside, p. 162.

"Addiction is godless, headless, insane. It rejects faith, reason, feelings. Addiction is heartless, the blackest night. No light. So sun. No stars. In its nothingness, we feel nothing and accept that nothingness is acceptable and true. 'Cunning. Baffling. Powerful'" - All Drinking Aside, p. 135.

VI.

"Loving to drink. Living to drink. Dying to drink. Dying from drinking. This is the progression of alcoholism. Wanting to live. Learning to live. Loving to live. Living with love. This is the progression of recovery." - All Drinking Aside, p, 252.

*****

May you find your own favorite passages within the pages of ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal.

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: https://www.amazon.com/All-Drinking-Aside-Deconstruction-Reconstruction/dp/149239730X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1NJOTD50MMO6N&keywords=All+Drinking+Aside&qid=1668889292&sprefix=all+drinking+aside%2Caps%2C3803&sr=8-1

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

09 September 2023

Do Your Best!

Like an inactive volcano always ready to spew forth, my addictions, like my cancer, are in remission.

The Best I Can Do is to Do My Best!

Do Your Best! Read:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

02 September 2023

CELEBRATE $4.00 OFF List Price with this Special 10th Anniversary Offer

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal
Find it on Amazon. Book it here: https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c
#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books
Five Dozen+ Five ***** Star Reviews

31 August 2023

Coming Soon

In the Meantime, Read:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

13 August 2023

Alcohol is a Poison. *

I am a Man.

In my case, Man + Poison equaled being caught in a never-ending maze, nearly killing me.

For thirty years, from the age of 16 to 46, I drank daily. By the age of 25 I was a full-blown alcoholic who suffered near-daily blackouts and rarely, if ever, consumed less than 5 alcoholic beverages, usually much more each and every day.

Binge-drinking was the new norm and had become totally acceptable to me.

By my third decade of daily drinking, accidents, hospitals, detoxes, rehabs, firings, evictions, on and on.

DO THE MATH: 781 gallons of alcohol divided by 30 years of daily drinking = an average consumption rate around 9.1 ounces of alcohol per day, not an unreasonable amount by any estimate.

I will stand by the pictured statement: "MAN GUZZLES More Than 781 GALLONS of POISON and Lives to Tell"*

*****

Read my book. Here's the link. Check out the 60+ Five Star Reader Reviews:

ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

*Alcohol is a drug and works on the brain and other body parts which may cause unwanted symptoms, poisoning and even death.

11 August 2023

Solitary Confinement?

Mostly Solitary.

Mostly Confined.

For 30 years, I drank and drugged every day.

That's over 10,000 days and in excess of 50,000 drinks.

The past is part of me. The future is part of my clean and sober self today.

The Fever has Broken.

Today, I am Free.

https://www.amazon.com/All-Drinking-Aside-Deconstruction-Reconstruction/dp/149239730X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23I1UUP1AI4I6&keywords=All+drinking+aside&qid=1691763023&s=books&sprefix=all+drinking+aside%2Cstripbooks%2C64&sr=1-1

07 August 2023

Untwisting "The Twisties"

Let's face it: My Fears were mostly Known Unknowns.

I knew I didn't want to be known.

I did not know if I would be accepted or if I could accept myself.

I knew I was hiding myself behind my addictions, despite not calling them addictions at the time.

I knew I liked to drink. I knew I liked to drug. I knew I liked to party.

"Here's looking at you," that oft heard toast to an uncertain extent really meant "Here's not looking at me," despite all the I-I-I's detailed above.

Like Renowned Gymnast Simone Biles's Case of "The Twisties," physical and mental deterioration walked beside me in my slow-motion descent into the hell that is addiction.

Here's how Google summarizes Simone's fall from grace: "Biles's competition future was in doubt after she dropped out of the Tokyo Olympics after suffering a case of the 'twisties,' a spatial disorientation neurological problem that forced her to take herself out of multiple events in Japan."

Similarly, and divergently, my Professional Drinking Career came to an end.

Addiction, to alcohol and other substances, was crippling me, if not downright killing me.

Juggernaut or Astronaut, I was good-for-naught and would have to be grounded. No more being higher than a kite searching for the moon. No more blackouts, pass outs and coming to.

Coming to had come to almost dying, almost dead.

No more brief sabbaticals to restore my body for another brief or long-term onslaught.

No more More.

Something so simple as being who you are was not so simple for me after all.

Being responsible came to mean asking for help.

Shared Courage.

No more cases of "The Twisties."

No more bottomless days and empty bottles.

No more Professional Drinking Career.

More courage. Shared Courage. More of this. Less of that. Untwisting "The Twisties.":

"Nothing matters more than that we remain sober because when we remain sober everything matters more."

Be Responsible. Untwist "The Twisties."

Cheers!

*****

Also #enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

02 August 2023

BEING BOTH (rough draft/incomplete)

"Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes)" - Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

BEING BOTH is a work of introspection in nine parts. I, YOU, WE ARE ALL THESE THINGS in groupings of two, three or twenty. These nine posts are based upon an image of nine Venn Diagrams attributed to Young Minds, the UK's leading mental health charity for young people which I discovered recently on my LinkedIn feed.

See them as I saw them at the top of my August 2, 2023 post here: https://alldrinkingaside.blogspot.com/2023/08/9-venn.html

[Please note that this is a work in progress and will undergo changes large and small as I move forward]

STRUCTURE has been such a huge part of my Recovery. Looking at the subtitle to my first book, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal, you will see that "Structure" is hidden in plain sight three times in the subtitle alone.

Much of my progress has been through looking in the rear-view mirror.

If this is your first reading, bear with me.

There are Woodworkers and there are Word-Workers.

I am the latter.

Rarely is my writing once and done. Likewise, when reading a book, especially poetry, my view is refined with each revisit. Each exposure deepens my appreciation.

Nuance is not a one-night stand with me.

Woodworkers and Word Workers are constantly refining their craft.

Reader Response will help me chisel away at this rough pile of nine stones, so it may begin to look more like Mount Rushmore and less like the debris on this word-sculptor's floor. Any suggestions or reflections of your own on the subjects presented are greatly appreciated.

Enough already.

Let us begin:

BEING BOTH:

1. Capable & Lost:

Lost.

I must speak of being lost first. The word 'Lost' is not far from 'Loss' in the dictionary, and in my life.

Lost.

Unable to find my way home, to a home, to myself, somewhere safe, sane and known. Somewhere, anywhere, home.

Yet I always somehow did find my way to my physical home, my third-floor apartment in the early days of my drinking career. If home were only about our geographical space, we've got GPS for that. But what about lost in the Spiritual sense, or Lost Identity as a human being lost?

"Lights on, but nobody's home" once applied to me. And rightly so.

"Nothing another drink couldn't fix" was my subliminal knee-jerk reaction to anything, everything. "Nothing another drink couldn't fix" or break. Or shatter. Or lose.

Lost.

Bus. Jitney. Taxi. Walk. No matter the way, I was Lost in Space, in a far less entertaining way than the mid-'60's TV Show of the same name. Nothing funny. Nothing admirable. Everywhere, nowhere, Lost in Space. Drunk. High. Stoned. Addicted.

Addiction took me off course from whatever direction my life may have been taking when I was a teenager. Much, most, can never be recovered. Maybe saying "I am in recovery" isn't the best way to express it. It's a little inaccurate and doesn't reflect the better than new reality of what recovery has brought and that may continue to bring to me. Who knows where I would have landed had I not had that first of over 50,000 drinks?

Moot point. Undoing 50.000 drinks is an impossibility. Living in recovery is doable, possible, irreplaceable.

We are all in recovery. In recovery from a drug, a habit, a relationship, from ourselves. We are all in recovery in the sense that with each step we regain our balance and move forward. All this, of course, much simpler when we are not under the influence of some drug. I am becoming free of my addictions and capable of living on solid ground.

Now if I am lost, I am literally lost and feels nothing the same as being in the addiction game.

I am capable of recovery. I am capable in recovery.

I am capable, even when lost. I can find the solutions to dissipate any temporary sense of being lonely or lost.

Purposeful living.

Capable and lost? I can be both.

Recovery is my Awesome Sauce, a tired slang expression, to be sure, but I am in it to win it, so slang be dang!

Capable and lost?

Sounds about right. Feels good. I'll drink to that. A sparkling cider, if you please.

"Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes)" - Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

[Part 2, Being Both: Smiling & Struggling, Coming Soon. Stay Tuned]

BEING BOTH:

2. Smiling & Struggling:

Smiling in anxiety, smiling in depression. Literal masks disfiguring the struggle behind these false fronts

An iota of empathy, perhaps an overdose of it: I have felt both, been both.

A smile can help or hurt. It's situational.

Corn.

The word itself usually brings a smile.

Corny. More likely.

Corn Corny: Smile ear to ear.

A genuine smile reduces blood pressure, increase endurance and may help to reduce stress. A weak or forced smile when asked how I was doing in my addiction was more often than not a mask to disguise my true feelings of loss and hopelessness. Definitely not a blood pressure reducer or good for either stress or endurance. Ultimately, addiction seems to have added to any problems and slowed my progress in achieving solutions.

Life is not easy under any conditions.

Some days harder than others.

Addiction is harder than living clean and sober. Illness casts a veil over perceptions. When I am ill, the world is not so rosy appearing. Ill health colors my view of the world.

Surrender, waving the white flag to addiction, admitting that "I am powerless over alcohol and my life had become unmanageable," although the seeming solution, felt impossible in the thick of it until recovery had a firmer grasp on me than addiction did.

Strive on Fellow Travelers. My mind's eye sees a sailor struggling with the ropes to maintain an even keel, teeth gritting in the grapple.

Call this a smile.

Call this a struggle.

Strive on Fellow Travelers. Life is good. Smiling and struggling, strive on.

BEING BOTH:

3. Kind & Setting Boundaries:

I have a mean streak. Don't cross my boundaries or I will likely strike out. Setting boundaries is building fences, closing doors and windows, closing your clam shell and hiding within it.

Sometimes I don't even know I'm doing it. It can be harsh, unintended or not. Did something that happened to me in the third grade, for example, which I am still colors my world decades later?

I don't think so. It doesn't feel that what. But how would I know? Self-truth can be slow to present itself.

"Mistaking Kindness for Weakness" was not my creation. It lives and breathes on its own. Abuse is a fuel. "Hurt People Hurt People," but that cannot be an excuse or permission for inappropriate response to your kindness.

Set Boundaries.

Kindness has its limits.

Mankind doesn't quite capture it, yet Humankind somehow does.

Kindness defines our species. But so does Hatred and Rage.

I will continue setting boundaries for self-protection, and, occasionally, to protect others from me.

I wish to let kindness be king, but self-care often forestalls it.

BEING BOTH:

4. Vulnerable & Powerful:

Others may see that I can be taken advantage of. I may fear losing out on possibly deepening relationships by building walls of protection unnecessarily. Power plays and vulnerability play a part in personal and business transactions. Vulnerability can be powerful. In fact, power without vulnerability veers on abuse.

In a work situation, power over others may border on Master and Slave. Wield power wisely if you have it. So much of this being human thing is touch and go.

Or don't touch and don't go.

The longer I remain in recovery from addiction, the more I seem willing to lay down the gauntlet and be open to pleasure where I once hid within my own pain.

Everything has its limits. My vulnerability vacillates. In danger, at risk, unprotected, being vulnerable can be a scary place to be. Weighing the likelihood of being hurt against the possibilities of connection and growth. Being in touch with who you are, who you aren't, as well as the perceived judgement of others.

Yes.

Judgement has a place.

Doing the math of being emotionally well-balanced is both and art and a science. I trusted my drug dealer though, didn't I?

This recovery thing is a whole new life. Learning from real life mistakes can be very expensive.

Being invulnerable is not an option. That is for Greek Gods and Philosophers beyond my ken.

BEING BOTH:

5. Successful & Traumatized:

By outside measure, I might be regarded as a relative failure. Thirty years of daily drinking and drugging most certainly changed my chances to succeed in the world of power, money and possessions.

But I possess myself today (not self-possessed, that, a horse of a different color).

Being at the top of my game is one of the positive results of overcoming "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." Life can be painful and feel so unfair. "Why me?" eventually serves little to no purpose. Life as it is must be dealt with.

Success against all odds, including decades of traumatic experiences.

No one ever said it would be easy. Life is difficult, but surmountable in some degree or another.

BEING BOTH:

6. Extrovert & Alone:

From years of being a food server and bartender, I have learned well that the more I turn on the charm, the more money I will have in tips at the end of each shift.

Behind the bar, easily, the mask of acting like a good friend and a psychoanalyst were tools of the trade.

"The tears of a clown" comes to mind, not so much now, but in my drinking days, for sure.

Reaching out, then being rejected, has set be back on numerous occasions. Sometimes it seems the world simply will not let me share. "Go back in your shell" they seem to say sometimes.

Striking a balance between my introversion and extroversion is a high-wire act at times. I don't need a drink or drug to break me out of my shell. Totally alone and undeniably connected is where I find myself today.

We are all works in progress!

BEING BOTH:

7. Valuable & Flawed:

Value is like a six-sided word to me. So many meanings to me. I value friendships and emotions for which no value can be assigned. Deep down, value is those things that bring meaning to my life.

BEING BOTH:

8. Introvert & Reaching Out:

Open arms are not my strength. I am cautious, overly so at times. "Life touches us all," is how I've heard it expressed in Recovery Meetings. Having experienced pain, loss and rejection, self-protection cuts me off from what otherwise may have been positive experiences.

Life is a crap-shoot.

"The Friendly Introvert" undoubtedly could be the title of my next book. There are already books with similar titles, so I guess there must be many of us.

Addiction severed my ties with humanity. Addiction crowds out what were once People, Places and Things and you (by which of course I mean "I") are left with nothing.

In a certain way, Recovery forced me to open myself up to sharing the human experience.

POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES.

BEING BOTH:

9. Loving & Questioning:

Loving, and questioning my love, of self, of others. Life is such a mixed bag.

I have to go back now and number these damned Posts as I may refer to one or the other and I try to untie the mess and the message of all 9.

Damn! I didn't even realize this was the 9th until I numbered them.

Lol. As you can see, I'm not a master of any of them.

My experience is shared here, hoping to expand them all by your varied thoughts and perceptions on #9 or any of the other 8 that precede it.

Possible 10:

BEING BOTH:

Bored & Grateful:

Alone

Bored

Capable

Extroverted

Flawed

Grateful

Introverted

Kind

Lost

Loving

Powerful

Questioning

Reaching out

Setting Boundaries

Smiling

Struggling

Successful

Traumatized

Valuable

Vulnerable

[add from ada saved carve out quote]

24 July 2023

Anxiety-iety-I

Fires won't stop the flooding.

Icebergs won't quell the heat.

Suffering is everywhere

and

I feel beat.

Rock. Paper. Scissors.

Rice. Corn. Beans.

Anxiety-iety-I...

I cannot fly.

Anxiety-iety-I...

I cannot fly.

Doors open.

Light enters.

I am becoming me.

Tea to be served much later.

Rice. Corn. Beans.

No rock. No paper. No scissors.

Anxiety-iety-I

Let it fly. Let it fly. Let it fly.

*****

Also #enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

12 July 2023

"Isn't ABSTINENCE Enough?" I Once Stood on This Very Ground, Hoping Against Hope to Hear a Resounding "YES!"

After 8 years of my not very successful attempts to remain sober, I asked a new-found friend, Mac, with decades of Recovery under his belt something along the lines of "if I just don't drink, won't that be enough for me to stay sober?"

He chuckled as if I were a child telling a schoolyard joke.

"No, Jim. Nature abhors a vacuum."

He paused before continuing, as if he were waiting for me to be swallowed up by the quicksand of the absurdity of my question. His left eyebrow raised an almost imperceptible degree, suggesting, let this sink in: "You will have to replace the behavior you are trying to change with positive thoughts, behaviors and actions in the direction of recovery."

He closed with "Doing Nothing is NEVER an Option!"

To their own detriment, many people wish to remain fiercely independent. After 30 years of being dependent on drugs, I certainly did not want to turn around and become dependent on others to help me break my dependence on drugs, did I?

Or did I?

I didn't want to. I had to. I had no other choice. I was powerless over my addiction and my life was unmanageable. Geez, I wonder where I got that idea? Lol :-)

"Jim. Nature abhors a vacuum."

Fill your life with Recovery. And nothing less.

"Nothing matters more than that we remain sober because when we remain sober everything matters more."

Abstinence isn't enough.

Vacuum filled.

Recovery fulfilled: Happy. Content. Gratified. Serene.

*****

Also #enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books