Alcohol - the enemy that claims it’s your friend.
I remember when I was suffering from depression people telling me I shouldn’t drink, that it was a depressant itself and would actually end up making me more depressed. Of course, I didn’t believe anyone and didn’t listen, because I didn’t WANT to.
I had convinced myself that I needed aclohol, that having a drink was the only way to blot out the misery of everyday life. I was like Marvin the paranoid android in Douglas Adams’ brilliant Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Life - loath it or ignore it, you can’t like it!”. A few beers or a bottle of wine seemed to help numb the dullness a bit more, help me get through to the next day.
But of course I was doing myself a lot of damage. By the time I realised there was a problem it had become quite a big problem, a dependancy even. The struggle with the depression was made worse by the realisation (false, it has to be said) that it was going to be all the more difficult without my friend.
Little by little I persevered, having an alcohol-free night here and there, then two, then three, until at one point I actually stopped drinking completely for three months. To my amazement I had more energy and drive in those three months than I had had for years before that! After that, introducing alcohol back in a controlled way was much easier than I expected it to be.
And, now I have left the depression behind me, I can finally enjoy alcohol as I want, with me in control, taking or leaving as I choose and not fuelling my illness even more.
You can find more on depression at www.ultimatetransformation.co.uk.
Til next time,
Nigel Barker.
