The Plea — This Alcoholic Found There Is a Solution — E.J.A., Orlando 

How many times and from how many sources did we hear The Plea? You know, “please do something about your drinking. Please seek some help or at least cut down.” This story discloses in a general way WHAT IT USED TO BE LIKE. It was like a fairy tale. I had a loving and nurturing family, a host of friends, a great school and a positive outlook on life. I ran track and, I don’t mind saying, I was pretty good. I played a musical instrument. I loved the chase for the most exciting girls. Again, it was a fairy tale upbringing. WHAT HAPPENED? Well, it was a nasty twist of fate. It was a living nightmare, a hell on earth. I was innocently introduced to John Barleycorn. I was amazed at how it made me feel, how it gave me that false but ever present sense of being all powerful. I felt that I was invincible and could achieve heights I had only dreamed of in the past. How great it was to be alive with no worries. Then, out of the blue, people I loved started saying things like “slow down,” “you’re drinking too much,” “your starting to alienate your friends.” My mother said, “We’re family so we won’t turn our backs on you, but you had better take a realistic look at who you are becoming.” I not only failed with family and friends, but was no longer true to myself. I started to suffer from many of the alcohol related illnesses which, in time, led me in and out of hospital stays. I went to numerous detox units, a couple of rehabs, and one long term treatment facility. Meanwhile, the words “please do something” rang in my ears. One day, the words AA came up, and a counselor said she went because she had lost everything in life that mattered, and had nothing to lose by trying it. So I tried it. I said, “What the hell; I have nothing left to lose.” WHAT IT’S LIKE NOW. I now have a life that is second to none. I go on vacations and see more than the bottom of a bottle. I have a relationship with a GOD of my understanding. I don’t have a problem looking in the mirror and identifying who I’m looking at, who’s on the other side. I have a host of friends who accept me for who I am, who understand that I have a disease that requires daily medication – that medication is meetings. Keeping my disease upfront at all times and that talking about it is the way to a daily reprieve from the degrading life I left behind. So the bottom line is, if I want to retain the life I now live, I have to be diligent and always remember where I came from and the words – PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR DRINKING. EASY DOES IT, BUT DO IT.