Posts Tagged ‘sobriety’
Peter’s Story
My first experience of the effects of alcohol was when I was in my mid teens – it made me feel suddenly relaxed and calm in body and mind.
I felt guilty because by alcoholic father was still alive then and I knew where alcohol could take me. I could see what alcohol had done to his health, personality and to our family. He eventually died from alcoholism.
I wondered in the early year how long alcohol would take to get hold of me. Almost immediately I started to think about booze when I was at work and how long till my next drink. People would say “Can’t you remember what you did and said last night” but often I could not “(blackouts).
I married and continued to drink every day and night to oblivion. My wife couldn’t understand how I could do this and perform my job as well. But I knew my job was getting less of me as the years passed by. Eventually my wife left me, taking our young daughter with her.
I reached my rock bottom some years later when I was diagnosed with severe cirrhosis and fatty liver, very high blood pressure, jaundice (yellow eyes) and red blotches all over my body. I was hospitalised and told when I was discharged that I had only 2 weeks to live if I continued to drink.
I decided to give sobriety “a go” but not to tell anybody. I knew this was my one and only chance. I can now say it was my higher power giving me the ‘gift of sobriety’ – the desire to drink was removed and I have not had a drink in nearly 13 years.
My first AA meeting came a few days later. I saw people who were really happy, friendly and well dressed. I must have fallen in love with AA from the start as I was attending 14 meetings per week in my early year of sobriety. With the help and love from my higher power I try to put the 12 steps of AA into my life.
My daughter is older now and is completing her university degree. She visits me regularly and we love to bushwalk in the Blue Mountains, attend Opera House Concerts, movies and go to the beach.
None of this would have been possible without my God’s gift of sobriety and the warmth and love I have been given from the members of AA
Peter from Sydney
