10 of 180 QUOTES by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous in ALL DRINKING ASIDE (Chapters 1 - 10, Part One of Nine)

Chapter 1 Alcohol Is Power

"I ENVY PEOPLE WHO DRINK - at least they know what to blame everything on." - Oscar Levant

I did once envy people who drank. That, of course, was before Alcohol taught me what Addiction feels like on the inside. I was a Bartender when I first got Sober 26 years ago. I remained Sober for that first year only. Eight years of being on and off the wagon followed. I've seen the BLAME, SHAME & PAIN of Addiction in my childhood, before my first drink, during my 30-year Drinking Career and in all the years since. 

Just about everything Oscar Levant is Famed for saying is a little off-center as if from his slightly askew perspective he may shed light on the hidden humanity he allows the reader to reveal (almost in secret) to themselves.

DRINK RESPONSIBLY is my granddaddy OXYMORON.  

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Oscar Wilde opens Chapter 1 (Alcohol Is Power) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

"Because you are alive, everything is possible." - Thich Nhat Hanh

Being OVERLY OPTIMISTIC has some possible DRAWBACKS. If or when failure ensues, as it inevitably on occasion will, Self-Blame and a sense of Moral Failure may result rather than a Realistic Humility and Reassessment of Goals and Strategies to Achieve them. 

This very moment is Theoretically Impossible. After all, who could have predicted it? Every moment has many potentialities and possibilities. "If you're dead, there ain't much happenin'!" falls short of the logical conclusions one is to gather from this Quote by Thich Nhat Hanh. 

If I can survive ADDICTION (& I have), a Good Life is at my feet and RECOVERY is POSSIBLE, DOABLE & IRREPLACEABLE.

I am more aligned with this Quote than is perhaps comfortable to admit. How do I explain that? I BLAME YOU, CULTURE OF RECOVERY!

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Oscar Wilde closes Chapter 1 (Alcohol Is Power) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

*****

Chapter 2 Psycho Analysis 

DO NOT CONFUSE the INSANITY of ADDICTION with FUTILE ATTEMPTS at ACHIEVING ECSTASY. ADDICTION is NEITHER a SPIRITUAL nor a RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 

Addiction is an Exercise in Futility Before the Barn Door Even Opens.

 "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." - Frederick Nietzsche

The PERPETUAL & SYSTEMATIC seeking of OBLIVION, years in its formation, Does Not a WHIRLING DERVISH Make. 

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Frederick Nietzsche (pictured) opens Chapter 2 (Psycho Analysis) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

*****

Chapter 3 Color Me Empty

"People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar." - Thich Nhat Hanh

PANIC ATTACKS & AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS. Drinking took me there and still I could not let go. For 30 years, the Drinking Life was the only Life I knew. Eventually, even Relapse felt familiar.

The world seems never quite the way I perceived it yesterday. I must be gentle with myself. Letting go can be learned. Letting go of yesterday, retaining lessons learned and letting in the present moment. Life is impermanent. Wave after wave, yesterday, today, tomorrow, letting go.

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Thich Nhat Hanh opens Chapter 3(Color Me Empty) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy!

"I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it." - Garrison Keillor

On Reflection, this Garrison Keillor Quote led me to this Favorite Verse:

“Halfway to Nowhere and Another Drink”

There was a time when I was not there,

But I did not know it yet.

I would drink to forget,

Forgetting what I did not know.

Not yet.

I did not know yet.

Where was I then, when I was not there?

For years I lived somewhere between myself

And the next drink.

I would drink to forget what I could not think,

Halfway to nowhere and another drink.

I was grieving and I did not know it.

Someone was dying, but I could not feel it,

Feel my own dying.

I could not own it because it owned me.

Denial is so hard to feel,

Yet, there it is, standing next to you.

You: Halfway to nowhere and another drink.

[from All Drinking Aside]

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Garrison Keillor 

closes Chapter 3 (Color Me Empty) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

*****

Chapter 4 Disease Management [omitted]

Chapter 5 Maintenance Drinking

"THE CHAINS OF HABIT ARE TOO WEAK TO BE FELT UNTIL THEY ARE TOO STRONG TO BE BROKEN." - Samuel Johnson

I WANT TO WRITE THIS IN THE SKY:

"By the Time I Had a Reason to Stop Drinking, Reason No Longer Had Anything to Do With It." 

That is how I explain it in my book. Addiction is Insanity. 100% Under the Influence, EVEN AFTER the Substance of Abuse has been removed from the body. The brain has been changed. The Grand Canyon of the Brain has been Drained of the Substance and the slightest Rivulet could bring back a Tidal Wave. That's just me. That's how it always happened for me. No matter how long the period of absence from drug use, in no time flat, it was like I had never stopped. 

I WANT THE SKY TO KNOW that Addiction is Progressive, but Recovery is PROGESSIVE, too: 

"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."

A bit Repetitive (all of the above) to regular readers of my post. Repetition is a great learning tool. I have a thick skull. If yours is thinner than mine, please accept my apologies! Variety is the Spice of Life, but as I've heard said, "if you stick with the basics, you never have to go back to them."

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Samuel Johnson closes Chapter 5 (Maintenance Drinking) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

*****

Chapter 6 This Disconnect

"IF I TRY TO BE LIKE HIM, WHO WILL BE LIKE ME?" - Yiddish proverb

It was never my intention to create a Roadmap to Recovery for Readers to blindly follow. I suggest that you start from where you are and read my books through the prism of your own experience. My realities (and unrealities) and yours will intersect and diverge many times as you turn the pages. I am not a Sherpa helping you scale Mount Everest. My Addiction Experience is not yours. Your Recovery is not mine, faith-based or evidence-based, the choices are yours to make. Each of us must and will find their own tailor-made path to a rich and rewarding Recovery Lifestyle.

My story will entertain, inform and offer you differing moments of self-reflection & self-determination. To paraphrase the Yiddish proverb which opens today's post: Do not try to be like me, discover the you inside yourself through connection with me and others. ALL DRINKING ASIDE is but one of many journeys. Enjoy them all. Ditto, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction & Recovery.

Courage can be learned and should be shared. 

Be You! Strive on! 

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

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

The Yiddish proverb which opens this post is from Chapter 6 (This Disconnect) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

*****

Chapter 7 The Bottleneck

"THE DEEPEST DEFINITION OF YOUTH IS LIFE AS YET UNTOUCHED BY TRAGEDY." - Alfred North Whitehead

DO THE MATH:

"The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy."  

+PLUS+

"The best slave is the one who thinks he is free." - Johann von Goethe

=EQUALS=

"By the time I had a reason to stop drinking, reason no longer had anything to do with it." - Jim Anders

MATH DONE: A+++ for YOU!

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Alfred North Whitehead opens Chapter 7 (The Bottleneck) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

*****

Chapter 8 An Alcoholic Is.

"WE LEARN AS MUCH FROM SORROW AS FROM JOY, AS MUCH FROM ILLNESS AS FROM HEALTH, FROM HANDICAP AS FROM ADVANTAGE - AND INDEED PERHAPS MORE." - Pearl S. Buck

Negative experiences present challenges. Overcoming these challenges sharpens our skills. In principle, we want to erect guardrails to protect and to prevent damage to our children, but the excessive use of them may create an insular life with little sense of triumph. I would not wish addiction on anyone. There are enough 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' in life without addiction being piled onto the mix.

I am lucky to have survived most of the unnecessary consequences of addiction. We don't need A PROVING GROUND FOR HOPELESSNESS. 

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Pearl S. Buck opens Chapter 8 (An Alcoholic Is) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

"NOTHING HAPPENS UNLESS FIRST WE DREAM." - Carl Sandberg

As a child I knew drinking alcohol was a hallmark of being an adult. "If you want to be treated like an adult, then start acting like one" was an oft-heard chorus of my youth. I would drink and I would smoke and I would show them all exactly how adult I was (my reactionary train of thought). When I became an adult, I could and did do as I wished. In a few short years I would be living my dream.

That dream became my nightmare.

30 years after my first drink (& 8 years after my last drink), I learned that "You can have Drunk Dreams Sober, but you can't have Sober Dreams Drunk."

How's this for a Twist?

Eyes Wide Open, Living New & Sober Dreams.

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in this Autobiographical Fiction. Emerge more fully whole.

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery #books

All Drinking Aside bookends each of its 90 Chapters with Quotes by the Famous, Infamous & Anonymous.

This Quote by Carl Sandberg (pictured) closes Chapter 8 (An Alcoholic Is) of All Drinking Aside.

Resolve to read it. Explore your own mind within its pages. Check out the 5 Star Reviews on the Amazon page while you're there: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO Enjoy.

*****

Chapter Nine: Packing Peanuts

"Everything you own, owns a part of you." - Gracie Allen

When I hit bottom, I accepted the pain of loss,

but not the loss itself.

My beautiful, beautiful alcohol had died.

Oh, Gracie, Gracie, Gracie, if you only knew

that what you say is true,

but only partly true for me, you see,

I'm an alcoholic and part of me was not enough.

Alcohol wanted all, to have all and to be before all else.

And when I crashed, it crashed with me, yet only it had died.

I cried, I cried and wished that I had died instead of it.

How would I live when alcohol was the only thing I finally lived for

after alcohol took all else?

"Everything you own [alcohol owned all of me],

Owns a part of you [until there's nothing left]."

Oh, Gracie, Gracie, Gracie, what you say is true.

If only, only, only someone knew.

When I hit bottom, I accepted the pain of loss,

but not the loss itself.

My beautiful, beautiful alcohol had died.

*****

The message that is here, if you're anyone like me,

is that you are not alone, I am not alone - after alcohol's demise.

Together and without it, we shall build new lives.

The truth I've learned: I own nothing if I don't own me.

To be free of alcohol is the only free for me.

*****

"Everything you own [Recovery is my everything],

Owns a part of you [Without it, I'm not free]."

Oh, Gracie, Gracie, Gracie, it's me who's thanking you.

For it is you who taught me that all of this is true.

After I hit bottom, I worked through all the pain,

and the loss of alcohol was nothing

but the freedom I had gained.

Now, "Everything you own, owns a part of you"

is beautiful, a beauty found within, connected.

Your words, the same, Gracie,

You see, it's me who changed.

Today, I own Recovery

Like Alcohol once owned me.

Recovery is shared as I become unbroken.

Gracie, Gracie, Gracie: No truer words been spoken.

"Everything you own, owns a part of you."

*****

ADDITIONAL QUOTES BY GRACIE ALLEN:

"When I was born, I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half."

"This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it's all checks and no balances."

"Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school, I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years."

*****

#alcoholism #addiction #recovery

*****

I hope you enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

The PRISM of EMPOWERMENT or The PRISON of ADDICTION

 

(Zazzle on Pinterest)

The Idea of Progress is Passed on from One Generation to the Next. 

I was that Next Generation to Mac (pictured here), who I'll loosely call my A.A. Sponsor, but who, more importantly, is the man who inspired me to chance taking my next step forward. Sadly, Mac is deceased. I am one of the many to whom Mac gave the Mantle of Responsibility to Pass on the Idea of Infinite Possibilities to those who would follow him. Then, from me to you and from you to whomever is your Next Generation. 

*****

Wear your Recovery like a Loose-Fitting Garment. It will require Modifications and Adjustments with the Passage of Time.

Learn the Give and Take of Human Connection. It's about all I have and all I can offer you.

After multiple relapses, it became clear to me: The Prism of EMPOWERMENT or the Prison of ADDICTION. If the choice were easy, there'd be no need for Recovery Books, Recovery Meetings, On-line Groups and the Whole Shebang of Recovery Options. 

Choose wisely. Choose many.

*****

Mac was my Prism. He Empowered me. No Greater Gift have I Ever Received. Almost by Definition, it is my Responsibility to Give Back.

Thank You, Mac, for All That You Have Freely Given Me (Capital M for me, here, for in Recovery, We Learn to be Bigger Than Ourselves).

Prism accepted. 

Mantle worn loosely.

Gratitude unending.

*****

That's all I have and that is enough Just For Today.

****************************************

I hope you enjoy ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 6,100+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

WHAT DO Punxsutawney Phil & ALL DRINKING ASIDE Have in Common?

 

Punxsutawney Phil is at the Center of the Groundhog Day Celebrations in Punxsutawney, Pa. every year. "The event is based upon a communal light-hearted Suspension of Disbelief. It is organized by the 'Inner Circle'- recognizable from their top hats and tuxedos- who ostensibly communicate with Phil to receive his prognostication. This Suspension of Disbelief extends to the assertion that the same groundhog has been making predictions since the nineteenth century." - [Wikipedia] 

Jim Anders is the Central Character of the Autobiographical Fiction ALL DRINKING ASIDE. It, too, is organized around the Suspension of Disbelief. The Author describes his descent into Alcoholism while three Fictional Alter Egos (unnoticed by him) discuss his prospects for Recovery. Suspension of Disbelief is the Glue by which your eyes will be Affixed to its Pages as the Story Progresses.

SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF!

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 6,000+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

"A Toxic Cocktail of Emotions Enflamed by Alcohol, Narcotics & Prescription Drugs"

Denial, anger, fear, depression, self-pity, doubt: a toxic cocktail of emotions enflamed by alcohol, narcotics and prescription drugs. In this 90-piece orchestration of autobiographical flashbacks, the author describes his descent into alcoholism while three fictional flies-on-the-wall (unnoticed by him) discuss his prospects for recovery. This intense, introspective and illuminating fiction looks at alcoholism and addiction from the inside out and back again. The vicious cycles of alcoholic addiction: hospitals, detoxes, rehabs and relapse. Repeat, repeat, repeat. A textbook case of chronic chemical dependency. ALL DRINKING ASIDE will provoke, deceive, disturb and annoy you while it entertains and informs/ ALL DRINKING ASIDE IS "Everybody's Autobiography," if you're an alcoholic and "Someone You Know," if you are not. 

**********

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

Find it on Amazon. Book it here: http://amzn.to/1bX6JyO 

Find 7,500+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

WARNING: Graphic Language of Drug Use: DO NOT READ If Easily Triggered

 

MY TRIGGERS are EVERYWHERE: on television, in magazine ads, unavoidable on billboards and on the many menus of restaurants that serve liquor, to name a few. So, what's the big deal?

I've seen the icy stares of social drinkers and have confronted my own fragility.  

"Go ahead. Have a drink. One won't kill you" they used to say or words to that effect when I first got sober. I have faced the fact that addiction is addiction is addiction, whatever the substance, its social acceptance or its legality. "One is one too many" is my thought, but a simple "No thanks. Not today," usually suffices.

My perspective has moved outwards since then. Social drinkers, some of them anyway, may never understand the power alcohol once had over me and how my risk-assessment laughs in the face of their mere suggestion of a drink. 

A little over-the-top, perhaps, but here's how I once expressed my addiction to alcohol being like heroin to a heroin addict:

"Slow the injection of truth. Insert the needle of truth into my vein, into my brain, slowly. First, hold the needle upright. Squeeze out any air. Leave only the clear, the liquid, the truth. Inject me slowly. I want to watch that crystal clarity enter my vein. The truth, too fast, could only scare me. Inject me slowly, or quickly watch me die."

Well, there you have it. Right or wrong, that fairly captures how I once felt. I had to confront the absolute fact that I am an alcoholic and that abstention, for me, is "the easier, softer way."

Confront. Confront. Confront. 

My addiction to alcohol was a brutal truth, separate from the glamorization of alcohol in our culture. I was an addict, addicted to alcohol. Stopping drinking, staying stopped, learning to deal with it, was truly an internal confrontation. Complete acceptance accrued over time.

Calling myself an alcoholic felt like a deadly admission that rattled me to the core for a long time. "Poor me." Self-pity, doubt, fear, a volatile mix of emotions.  

Today, after more than 19 years of continuous sobriety, it is still necessary to reflect upon feelings even after they have evolved and are long passed. Odd perhaps, but memories sometimes help me stay grounded and focused on the future.

Dead or alive, people of all ages are garnering another day sober somewhere: in AA, NA, Group & Individual Therapy, Smart Recovery and more. My hat is off to anyone anywhere who finds another day clean and sober. We, the men and women in recovery, strive daily to right our rudders on our clean and sober ships.

I hope everyone reading this is TRIGGERED to remain on the path of recovery and not revert to their old behaviors. 

Chill. 

Strive on. 

Socially distanced, close, close to acceptance of whatever comes my way. 

Sober. 

Today.  

Chilled.

*****

Passages in quotes are excerpted from my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

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

Find 7,500+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

Remembering THE TERRIBLE TWEET STORM OF AUGUST 8TH, 2020*

 

(art.com)

I posted 21 Tweets on Twitter on August 8, 2020. Here they are in chronological order as posted:

1. "Can my past, too, be infinite or are all the stones already carved?"

2. "How come if alcohol kills millions of brain cells, it never killed the ones that make me want to drink?" - Author Unknown

3."At least I'm not an addict." That's the sense of moral superiority I once had. Today, that statement would be sadly laughable.

4. "Alcohol separated him from the world in his addiction and loneliness can take him back out there."

5. "No one ever knew he needed help because he was so good at hiding it from himself and from others. Sweet oblivion. Pretty poison."

6. "Not that I'm making excuses, but it just seems that once you slide so far down into your alcoholism after so many years, you are so entrenched that it seems the only answer is another drink."

7. "Where do you turn when more is too much, too empty, too lost?"

8. "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without also helping himself."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

9. "I don't think we get more alcoholic. I think it just shows more as time goes on." - A New Pair of Glasses, Chuck "C"

10. "I don't know if I can ever feel as empty as Jim has felt. Knowing the cause does not erase the effects of his emptiness. I don't think I've ever felt an emptiness quite like his."

11. "A mind stretched by a new idea never shrinks back to its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

12. "Being drunk allowed me to deal with the drunk in me."

13. "But when he turns his back on empathy, he turns his back upon himself."

14. "Diplomatically searching for others equally high, we (my disease and I) would manufacture memories out of blackouts like free-range intoxicated chickens."

15. "His sobriety, at first, was like a bad translation."

16. "How many keys did I have to lose before I would learn that alcohol no longer opened doors?"

17. "I measured my life in pints instead of hours."

18. "If the brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we could not." - Emerson Pugh

19. "It's not trespassing when you cross your own boundaries." - Anonymous

20. "When I thought I could stay sober alone, I wound up drinking alone."

21. "You are what you eat, but what are you when you are only what you drink?"

*(All quotes, except where noted are by the author of All Drinking Aside. All 21 Tweets are excerpted from this same book.)

*****

Immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, 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

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery 

(Find it on Amazon, Book it here): https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Both Books are Available in Print and Kindle Editions.

This illusion offers us comfort.

In our vain attempt to make sense of where we are at any particular moment, we tend to tie the story of our lives together in such a way that past events are twisted into conforming to the narrative we write for ourselves. Where we are today, when explained as inevitable, gives us reassurance, explains us to ourselves. How did I get to this point, we ask ourselves and it seems in retrospect it couldn't have been any other way. 

This is not destiny, although to many of us it may certainly seem that way. Every moment, thus, has the potential to be a sort of Deja Vu. It most certainly couldn't have been any other way. No wonder it feels so familiar, as if we had known this very moment had somehow already happened before. Deja Vu.

An almost forced inevitability threads our narrative as we move forward in our lives. This illusion offers us comfort. We find evidence where none exists because we want to continue to believe that where we are is right and good and could not have been any other way.

Were we to travel at the speed of light and then come back to ourselves, we might be younger by some small fraction. Questions of Destiny and Freedom of Choice are best left to Philosophers, we tell ourselves, all the while living it out as self-explained. The answers to our questions seem obvious because we ask the questions that will be supported by the realities of our strings of moments. 

All of this is an illusion. Or none of this is an illusion. Or so much a most curious mixture of both and neither that we rarely give it a second thought. By now, we have already reassured ourselves and so pay little or no attention to all of the above.

*****

I almost hate to say it (but said with a certain relish) but some of this post is part of the questioning that went on for me as I moved from Victim of Addiction to a Person Responsible in Recovery.

The things that unite us (and by Us, I mean those of us who have survived addiction, those of us who still feel a sense of entrapment and those who have never been addicted to a substance or a behavior) are far greater than the things which divide us. Our common humanity, truthfully, is the framework upon which my recovery (falteringly at times) has been built.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

*****

You may also enjoy my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal  

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

Find 5,900+ Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4 

Reader Review, "ASTONISHING," by Jan Trew-Smith (From ACROSS THE POND)

Reader Review of ALL DRINKING ASIDE

"Astonishing" 

by Jan Trew-Smith

"This is not just a novel but a journey into the mind of Jim and you as the reader. The author's writing left me stunned and, at moments, frozen in my own thoughts. Be prepared to have a light shone into your subconscious. I cannot recommend this book more highly."

*****

Read all the Reader Reviews of ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal 

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

Recovery Tweets here: twitter.com/jimanders4