Alcoholism-My Fate Worse Than Death and My Resurrection

By Granddad Clem

This tale has a happy ending that can be replicated by any alcoholic.
I am an alcoholic over 30 years dry. No need for me to keep track of the exact number since there is no danger that I will ever drink again. I don’t need to live one day at a time from the perspective of my alcoholism and never have since the beginning of my dry period. Why not? Read this and find out how I can make this claim.
Additionally since becoming dry I can serve others alcoholic beverages in my home, go to parties where drinking is prevalent, and even enter a liquor store and happily buy booze for someone else with no temptation to myself.
‘I know with absolute certainty I will never again drink because I know for me even a single drink of alcohol is a fate worse than death’.
This is my story supplemented by a personal family impact narrative and an inspiring ‘power of the mind’ story written by Clem’s Niece.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Granddad Clem
• Release date: Apr 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310717604

Book preview

Alcoholism-My Fate Worse Than Death and My Resurrection

By Granddad Clem-with Clem’s Niece

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Granddad Clem 2015

Preface

This tale has a happy ending that can be replicated by any alcoholic.

I am an alcoholic over 30 years dry. No need for me to keep track of the exact number since there is no danger that I will ever drink again. I don’t need to live one day at a time from the perspective of my alcoholism and never have since the beginning of my dry period. Why not? Read this and find out how I can make this claim.

Right away I have made a statement that defies many alcoholics and experts on alcoholism’s sense of the reality of this disease. So please be warned that some of the material concerning treatment is unconventional and controversial. Some of the content and much of the presentation are also unconventional. On the other hand this is why this small book will perhaps fill a unique slot in the alcoholic literature.

I have purposely included light hearted incidents that although they bear significance, sometimes only remotely to my alcoholism, it is important not to get completely mired in the doom and gloom of my disease. Yes alcoholism is a disaster but I have beaten this scourge forever and have the right to tell my story with any type of episodes I think might be supportive and/or pertinent.

I spent half my life living in a state that involved some degree of alcohol dependence that progressed to the point at which I was a ‘hopeless’, deadbeat alcoholic. I was a hazard to myself and the world around me. Then out of the blue came my epiphany.

This is my story supplemented by a personal family impact narrative (Chapter 5), and an inspiring ‘power of the mind’ story written by Clem’s Niece. Any book written by an alcoholic would be misleading if the Alcoholic tried to surmise the impact of his life on those around him, especially family and close associates. I was very fortunate to have a good friend, the wife of an alcoholic and talented writer, to provide the details of some of the most crucial parts of the story. But that is only the formal part of her contribution. Without Clem’s Niece this book would never have been completed. Her editorial genius and advice plus many sections totally revamped, rewritten and added too, overcame wrenching difficulties that often plagued me.

There have been disasters in my life that often send dry alcoholics back to drinking. Yet I have not touched alcohol for the above mentioned 30 years. Some foods and drugs contain alcohol and I have no doubt unwittingly consumed tiny amounts in this manner, but also with no after effects.

Additionally since becoming dry I can serve others alcoholic beverages in my home, go to parties where drinking is prevalent, and even enter a liquor store and happily buy booze for someone else with no temptation to myself.

The reader might think I am inviting disaster or even stating the impossible when I make the following statement. ‘I know with absolute certainty I will never again drink because I know for me even a single drink of alcohol is a fate worse than death’. Although I am 77 at the time of writing and 30 years without a drink, thus closer to death than most of my readers, so for me this may seem an easier task. Yet any ex alcoholic no matter how old or how many years sober is just one drink away from another certain bout of alcoholism.

This book is short. There are plenty of longer treatises full of facts and figures and experts various opinions and comments for those of you that prefer such treatments on this subject. This is mostly a no holds barred personal story, peppered here and there with relevant accounts of my experiences along with the bare bones facts and figures, ending with a solution that has guaranteed my abstinence for a period of 3 decades. Although at my age I might have only few more years to live, my resolve and ease of maintaining abstinence is stronger than ever. In fact the thought of ever drinking again would make me feel nauseous and filled with a searing contempt for myself. Thus even though inflicted with a terminal disease I never think of drinking again.

Are you an alcoholic, think you might be, or have you any connection with an alcoholic? If the answer to any of these is yes then this short book is a must read for you.

Disclaimer

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. All incidents have been written in a manner to disguise the actual event.

Chapter 1

Introduction

The Paramedics found me dead drunk, passed out, face down, inches from the periphery of a shallow creek. Many years of drinking and finally I had sunk this deathly low, lured here by the love of my life, alcohol. This single incident was only one in what was becoming a series of near death experiences.

I will share only a couple of these with you because I want to keep the emphasis on the road signs to full blown alcoholism with the hope that many of my readers will recognize their alcoholism before reaching such near fatal consequences. I will do this by telling stories not only about my own decent but through incidents involving other alcoholics whose lives intersected mine.

It’s a conundrum, the government sale and sanctioned use of a poisonous mind altering substance. Alcohol stands alone in most jurisdictions as the widely available mind altering ‘drug’ that may be legally purchased and used by mankind anytime at his own discretion. Its availability and use transcends the history of our species.

Alcohol is the widely used moniker for the poisonous chemical substance, ethyl alcohol, present in alcoholic drinks. However ethyl alcohol is the least poisonous member of a large group of closely chemically related alcohols. All ingested alcohols including ethyl alcohol cause alteration to human mind and body functioning and all if imbibed in sufficiently quantities will cause severe bodily harm and death.

Early in human history humans discovered that certain fermented liquids contained a substance that when consumed could be used to create a desired pleasurable reaction. Thus ethyl alcohol containing liquids become an integral part of our social menu. For many a social function without alcohol is a dreadful ordeal. For some, like me, alcohol becomes an essential component of everyday living. At this stage alcohol inevitably becomes the be all and end all of our existence, our greatest love, and the only essential component in daily life. Unless this pattern is truncated, chaotic incidents and ill health prevail and death is almost a certainty. Death can be the result of a wide variety of pathetic scenarios.

Chapter 2

Alcoholic, The Definitions and Typical Actions and Reactions

The material set forth here is intended as an introduction to many of the crucial topics that define an alcoholic and alcoholism. In chapters that follow incidents, that is, basic stories from my own life and that of Clem’s Niece will be forthcoming.

Definition of an Alcoholic

Clearly there is no unambiguous definition of alcoholic. The following would appear to cover this term.

An alcoholic is someone who depends completely on the consumption of alcohol to live daily life.

Google on its search page under