Hangover?

"How was your Memorial Day weekend?" I asked a twenty-something woman working out beside me at the fitness center this morning.

            "Horrible," she said. "I have a terrible hangover. I got drunk all weekend. I hope a workout will make me feel better."

She looked like she didn't feel well and it took me back over 20 years when I used to sometimes feel the same way. But I didn't feel that way for long.  Because, unlike her, I never suffered from hangovers because I never got sober. And I didn’t work out to feel better. I just drank more and more.

When I finally entered the minefield of alcoholism if I was awake I was drinking. It was that simple. And it continued that way until I finally showed up at a detoxification unit January 13, 1991.

My interaction with her illustrates the difference between alcoholics and non-alcoholics. Once a real alcoholic – someone like me – takes that first drink there’s no turning back. A real alcoholic drinks until something intervenes – whether it's mental institutions, incarceration, or death.

In my case I spent time in a mental institution and was incarcerated for many years. Then I finally went to a detoxification unit because I could no longer stand the pain in my life.