If you are a normal drinker, you may wonder what to do about your occasional drink or about keeping a supply of liquor at home, now that the alcoholic in your life is not drinking.Will it help if you abstain completely?Should you stop serving liquor to guests?
If the sight and smell of alcohol upset the newly sober alcoholic, you might use a little discretion and avoid the old drinking crowd, cocktail parties and bar room society whenever possible.In the last analysis, alcoholics must look after their own sobriety.
What counts most, now that they are sober, is their attitude toward their own drinking. They must stop drinking for themselves and stay stopped for themselves. A word about “slips”Most people who turn to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) for help achieve sobriety without too much difficulty, and continue to stay sober.
Others have trouble understanding and accepting the AA programme. All too soon, they forget what being an alcoholic means.After their physical health returns and their lives become a little more manageable, they may drift away from the program- either mentally, by forgetting its principles, or physically, by going to fewer meetings.
These people may have one or more relapses or “slips.” They may get drunk again. This can be discouraging – and very painful – for loved ones.Fears and feelings of hopelessness may be reawakened. The AA Estcourt branch hosts meetings every Tuesday at Forderville Primary School from 7pm to 8pm. Contact Desigan on 082 849 3014.
