Schools have been teaching kids for years now about the dangers of alcohol, but they never seem to mention how it affects your family.
Drinking on occasion and moderately is not an issue.
The issues start when you never seem to put the bottle down.
Once it becomes an addiction your family and friends will take notice.
The people who love you will start to count your drinks and start hinting or outright telling you that it’s time to cut it off.
That’s where the excuses and assurances begin.
You start explaining that you’re a heavy drinker and can handle it, but you never seem to convince anyone.
This starts an issue with your family and friends.
Once my family noticed my bad habit of drinking heavily to the point of intoxication they started trying to limit my drinking.
They’d start with small hints that I have had enough and then they would tell me it was time to quit it.
If that did not stop me then they would start telling me that I had a problem.
My family would stop buying alcohol to try to limit my access to it.
When that wouldn’t work they’d start conversations with me about how I had a problem and should change my habits before I became addicted.
The interventions started soon after.
My family, girlfriends, and friends decided that I had an addiction and decided that they needed to intervene.
They each individually had conversations with me about how I needed to learn how to control myself and how this was becoming an issue.
They begged me to stop before I hurt myself from driving intoxicated or the future medical issues this could cause me.
Once they realized that wasn’t working they tried a group approach.
This caused a rift between my family and I.
They’re concerns were valid because in the end I realized I did have an issue and that I was not one hundred percent after drinking.
It was not safe for me to be driving after drinking so much and I was also angry when I drank heavily.
I would pick fights with friends, family, and strangers alike.
I would drive even though I was intoxicated and not completely aware of my surroundings.
My family and friends started distancing themselves from me because of my attitude and my complete disregard of their concerns.
I found myself alone with not as many people to turn to when things hit rock bottom.
I only started listening to their concerns after I got in an accident.
I was driving home completely wasted in the middle of the night and veered off the road hitting a telephone pole.
That night I totalled my car and was lucky to escape with my life.
I was arrested and was forced to call my mother to bail me out.
It was a stroke of luck that all of the damage to my car was to the right side of the vehicle and not the left, because if it had hit the drivers side I would not be here today.
No other vehicles or people were involved but if I did have a passenger or had hit another car the ending would have been very different.
I have started to repair my relationship and trust with my family after this experience and I am thankful to continue to be here everyday and have them in my life.