As I mentioned in my first post, I am an alcoholic, and while that term is what I am, it is not who I am. I see myself as a person with an illness, something that I need to fix. Traditionally, they say that alcoholism is for life – that you never really recover – and that you will fight it for the rest of your life.
I don’t accept that.
If I resign myself to that mantra, I may as well go drink myself to death right now because I will be accepting that I am going to fight myself every day. I don’t want to live like that. I was thinking about this today and it seems more and more like people with conditions are routinely told that all they can do is cope and take medications.
Diabetic? No hope there, just take insulin. Never mind changing your diet, there is no way you are going to get better.
MS? None here. Take these pills as you slowly degenerate, since you can’t fix this one either.
Ulcerative Colitis? Just treat the symptoms with steroids. Don’t bother fixing the underlying problem.
Fibromyalgia? Celiac? How many other conditions are really “permanent”? While alcoholism is different from these conditions, I still have to think that if I can treat the underlying reason I drank that the term “recovered alcoholic” may someday be what I am. As for that underlying reason, thats a topic I’ll have to unpack.
healthordeath 