What Is An Alcoholic?

In case you missed the video on the homepage, here it is again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju2IcS0OK6M 

The sound is downright crap, so best you put some headphones in.  I know my ADD ass couldn’t sit and watch something like this if I couldn’t hear properly.

There is so much for me to say, but not enough time to say it.  I haven’t blogged in such a long time.  Split between 6 different projects (massive in size), I’ve neglected blogging and it’s starting to show.  When I don’t get things out of my head I start to go a bit cray cray.

I’ve been meaning to post this for ages, but have kept putting it off.  Then, yesterday I had a good hour long chat with a parent re: the state of his daughter.  Just as I experience in every Kamp we run for teen girls, generally 50% of these girls are dealing directly with a parent who is an alcoholic and/or an addict.  The impact this has on a young person’s life is devastating.  But, the first step in breaking this cycle is educating the girls as to what the dis-ease of alcoholism and addiction is.  Teaching them what I wish was taught to me as a young person.  Growing up, had someone told me that my mom wasn’t a bad person who needed to get good, but rather she was a sick person who needed to get well.  If someone would have forewarned me that this is a progressive, fatal dis-ease and is said to be genetic and learned behaviour, I probably would have avoided all of the mess I refer to as ‘my life’.  Despite me not wanting to be anything like her growing up, I turned out to walk directly into her shoes without even realising what I was becoming.

Prevention is so much cheaper and more effective than a cure.  And in fact there is no cure for alcoholism.  But it can be arrested, and we do recover.  A big part of my mission is to create more awareness around the effects of alcoholism/addiction, how much of an impact it has on the wellbeing of society, and the ripple effect it has outside the immediate home.

The crazy part about alcoholism/addiction is the level of denial.  As addicts/alcoholics, we can justify everything.  Our mentality is one of being a victim and we blame the outside world around us for all of our issues.  Issues that are solved with another drink or a drug.  Which of course never seem to work…. yet we keep repeating the same mistake over, and over, and over and over……

AKA insanity.

I hope this video helps at least one person understand a little bit more about alcoholism/addiction.  Alanon is an amazing 12 step program for anyone that is struggling with the after effects, or immediate effects of an alcoholic or addict playing a negative role within their life.

Applogies for this blog sucking.  But I gots to go!

May I recommend reading this blog if you have time http://konfidencebykortney.com/work/mental-health/

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