Friday, January 14, 2011

Acknowledging Grief Over Drinking

I remember a day, 4 or 5 years ago.  I was depressed and struggling with issues of my own, and with the church leadership.  Sometime in the afternoon I saw an "America's Next Top Model" marathon on cable.  I zoned out of life and into the TV.  I drank Cosmopolitan martinis all day while I was lost in the TV.  I escaped my life.

I remember that as a very good day.  I miss days like that.  Drinking and losing myself and not caring about life.  Why do I miss those days?  I was wimping out.  I was running. I was weak. I was scared.  Not really a concoction I'd normally call good.

These days, I am no longer escaping through alcohol and I am grieving the times that I did.  And that's okay.  I'm going to let myself grieve and feel sad that I am no longer doing that.  But I am not going back.  You see, even though that day seems good in my memory, it was a day of cowardice that if explored again would likely send me spiraling down, down, down into a place where I don't have control over the vice of alcohol, but it would have control over me.

No comments:

Post a Comment