A mother sends a message about her alcoholic son. She says she finally got him connected to one of our halfway houses. She seemed happy because he'd finally made it here from the East Coast.
Like maybe her problems were over now that he was in a place that could help him. I didn't disillusion her with reality.
But the truth is that there's more to getting sober than simply arriving at a place that's willing to help.
When we get the alcohol out of our system we now have to deal with the real world. To deal with reality without any kind of chemical buffer to ease us through the day.
Soon after arriving her son will be working. He'll have regular meals. He'll be able to rest at night. He'll start feeling better.
And that may be when the danger starts. Because when we begin to feel better we might forget all the issues we had that got us here in the first place.
We might decide that things weren't quite as bad as we thought. We might even get the idea that we can make another run at it.
But I didn't mention any of that to her. Let's all hope that he remembers the pain and doesn't get any ideas about being able to successfully drink again.
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