Mar 02 2008
These 3 Problem Drinkers Eventually Got Help
What Will Motivate You?
David P.
David P. was an insurance salesman and financial planner and hating every minute of it. He was successful enough but was also bored. He began drinking in college and back then it was almost a sport. When he wasn’t in classes he was partying with friends. He eventually left school, bounced around in different jobs settling on work in the insurance industry.
He married a nice lady, started a family and was living a Norman Rockwellian life by all appearances except for the heavy drinking. In reality his life was a mess. His kids were getting into trouble at school and after. His wife was fed up with his “working late” and coming home smelling of booze. David was legitimately working in the evenings but when he finished work he would go to the pub and meet with friends, old and new.
David would continue drinking when he returned home from work, skip many meals since they were always cold anyway and listen to his wife complain about everything in her day including about his drinking. He loved her dearly but she didn’t understand that even at his watering hole he was working and meeting new people…”prospecting” as he called it. He was making a decent living and never had a problem with his employer so things must have been okay.
That is they were, until he was pulled over by the police on his way home from the watering hole late one evening and was arrested for DUI. He was held in jail until he could arrange for his wife to get him out. On their way home she gave him an ultimatum: “Get help now or I’m leaving you.” David didn’t have much choice since his lawyer insisted that things would be easier if he could prove to the court he was in a program. Within 2 weeks David P. was being treated for acute alcoholism and undergoing detoxification in a private clinic.
Donna T.
Donna T. was an area manager for a fast food company with 12 restaurants to look after. Her days were like a whirlwind of intense pressure and her responsibilities were many. When she got home at night she was too exhausted to do much more than crash in front of the TV with a glass or 3 of wine. Many nights she would fall asleep and find herself waking up on the couch early the next morning, only to have to hurriedly prepare herself for work.
Though her health was suffering she didn’t realize it because she was relatively young at 37 and divorced with no kids, so she could pretty much live as she pleased. Donna worked herself to exhaustion but was trying to advance at work, and since it was just her now, she needed to make as much money as possible for her future. She fell into a pattern of work-hard / drink hard. Supplier meetings held at bars, liquid lunches, after hour meetings in bars/restaurants were common.
One afternoon Donna had to pull her car off the road because she couldn’t stop shaking and felt dizzy. It was as if her head was trying to twist off her body and she was forcing it not to. Donna was going into early withdrawal and needed a drink fast. Close to home she decided to take the afternoon off and over a couple glasses of wine decided she needed to get some help because this physical reaction to her ever-increasing alcohol intake scared the daylights out of her.
She knew she had a problem, and fortunately Donna was intelligent and motivated enough to look into treatment options for her. Donna went online and searched for “alcohol treatment programs” all the while nursing her wine so she could feel normal. She decided it was best if her treatment was confidential so she arranged for a private treatment option with a medical professional experienced with alcohol recovery. Donna continues to work, was prescribed anti-craving medication and receives consultative coaching sessions every month to maintain her now controlled drinking.
Barb S.
Barb S. was a self-employed book keeper and helped her husband run their 30 unit motel business. Alcohol started getting the better of Barb after her son was killed in a boating accident. She tried to maintain the aura of a strong independent woman, but life was a daily struggle. She had health problems, her type 2 diabetes was out of control, and her desire to drink alcohol was against all good judgment.
Barb’s husband found her unconscious on the bathroom floor one evening and called 911. The ambulance medics immediately asked how much she had to drink and her husband had no idea. Barb had been hiding it from her husband and he was shocked. The doctors hooked her up to IV’s, ran tests and realized her drinking had given her an inflamed liver and extremely high blood pressure. She had a bleeding ulcer and was passing blood orally and rectally. Barb was lucky to be alive.
When Barb was conscious and comfortable her doctor spoke to her and her husband. If she didn’t stop drinking she would be dead within 3 to 6 months. She had a choice to make and an alcohol treatment program would be her only wise decision. Her husband demanded she enter treatment immediately upon her release and he would support her every way possible.
She attended an alcohol rehabilitation facility for 38 days and was released into the world as a non drinker. She attended daily A.A. meeting for 90 days then weekly meetings after that. It was very difficult for Barb to stay sober, and lo and behold, Barb had a slip that lasted 48 hours. It would have gotten much worse if not for a young man who was in her A.A. group and into his third year of sobriety.
He understood Barb and because she reminded him of someone in his family, they hit it off and became friends. Though he wasn’t her sponsor, she called him when she had her slip because he was so ardent about his own recovery. He said she needed to get to a meeting that night and he would meet her there. After 2 hours of listening to her drunken stammering, the young man told her she better show up and he wasn’t at all convinced he’d see her. To his surprise she showed up at the meeting, still pretty out of it but she was there and seriously participating.
Shortly after that the young man started attending a different meeting and they lost touch. 2 years passed and he was walking out of an office supply outlet when he recognized Barb walking in. She looked great, was still sober from that last meeting and was now also a sponsor herself. Barb was a new person and perseverance was paying off for her. She was finally receiving the help she needed at her meetings and life was good.
Three stories of 3 people whose lives were threatened by alcohol and each found a different form of recovery. Each had a different motivation to get help, and did receive the help they needed. Excessive drinking has ruined many lives, robbed many people of their dreams and has taken too much from too many.
Your motivation to get treatment could come from an unexpected source, with consequences too dire to imagine. Find the motivation to get the help you need before alcohol ruins your life and those around you.
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