I just talked with a young man who is a recovering heroin addict. He moved to another state far from his home because he wanted to get away from heroin and everyone who might use it/sell it. He’s been an addict since the age of 18 and he’s 25 now.
That’s a lifetime on the street.
He’s been clean just five months, but hey it’s a start. Unfortunately one is not considered to be even slightly safe until five YEARS have passed, but time passes quickly.
I listened to the horror stories he told me of going down to the ghetto to try to score his drugs and having guns put to his head, OD’ing, and doing all of those things he would have never dreamed that he would be capable of doing in order to get his fix. It brought back dark memories of my time on the street.
As we talked he told me that he would never have dreamed that he would ever put a needle in his arm to shoot dope. He just did like millions before him and steadily progressed from pot to pills, to snorting, and one day he got the “real-feel-deal”.
Sigh . . . It only takes once with most people with the needle and then they’re hooked for life.
As I counseled him to stay far away from anyone who takes drugs, I asked him what he was doing now. He told me that he goes out drinking every weekend.
What?????? – What kind of twisted logic is that???? Geez . . .
His thought process is that drinking alcohol is not nearly as bad as heroin and he has to have something! I tried to offer advice from an alcoholic’s perspective. I told him the progression from social drinking to alcoholism is similar to drug addiction. No one sets out to be an alcoholic or thinks they will ever end up as one.
It starts out slowly having a few drinks here and there and builds upon itself to occasionally getting blasted on a weekend, and then getting blasted every weekend, and then occasionally getting blasted during the week too, and then getting blasted at every opportunity and literally drinking every day and night.
Blasted, blasted, blasted, boom, boom, boom . . .
Just like heroin addiction, it takes more and more alcohol to achieve that desired level of numbness of the brain in order to become a numbskull and then one day you look around and it’s causing all kinds of serious problems in your life and you cannot even begin to think about quitting.
You’re an alcoholic!
How can you tell you’re an alcoholic. Examine your life and objectively ask yourself if your drinking is having a negative or positive effect on your life. Is it negatively affecting your relationship with your family, friends, career, reputation, or health? Could you stop drinking entirely, or is it out of the question?
Is it a positive thing in your life?
Society abhors heroin addiction but heartily embraces alcohol. How dumb is that? Alcoholism is a far greater problem than heroin addiction in this country. In fact 45% of all households are said to have at least one alcoholic in it here in the USA and it’s far worse in Europe, Russia, and elsewhere. The devastation caused by it is mind-boggling and I meet people in prison all of the time that are there in part because they were under the influence of alcohol when they screwed up and committed their crime. It’s one of satan’s most powerful weapons against us.
I wish I could social drink like some of my friends, but I cannot. I will empty the bottle(s), so I don’t drink. Alcoholics cannot drink socially . . . Period!
Be forewarned, if you order tea or water instead of wine or a mixed drink at a party or dinner you will be considered an oddity in society.
Hmmm . . . That’s all right. I suppose I’ve been an oddity all of my life, better that than crashing my car and blowing a 2.0 and going to jail and having my license taken for 6 months or a year.
Ughhh! I hate hangovers and I’ve had a million of ‘em; bad taste in the mouth, headache, trips to the toilet, and recollections of acting stupid the night before.
I told my young friend that what he needs is Jesus in his life and to find some new friends that don’t need to have something in order to get through a week or weekend and have some fun. If you have Jesus you don’t need anything else.
I’ve tried it all and I can say that these days I enjoy the wholesome things in life. I love to get on my horse Dusty and ride through the fields for hours, hunt, fish, walk around God’s wondrous outdoors, and be around people who love the Lord. To me the people who do those things are the real heroes and champions of this life.
And before you write NO I’m not claiming to be a hero or champion or perfect and readily admit I still act like a damn fool sometimes, but I’m nowhere near those dark days where I was when I was pointing a sawed off shotgun at someone in order to steal money to buy drugs, or getting blood transfusions from a serious car crash that was due to my being drunk as a skunk, or sitting in a jail cell with blood all over me after being in a vicious fight . . .
As for me I want to be sober, bright eyed and bushytailed and ready to serve God. How about you?
Isaiah 5:9
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks.