The Distraction

It has been a long week since I posted the interview with Des Bishop. I plan on getting as many informed reformed famous people as possible to talk to me about the drink, and am working away on it behind the scenes. Watch this space for some other “celebs” who will share real life battles with the booze with us. It is reassuring for me to know that getting messed up on drink happens to so many people from all walks of life.

 I went to see Des at his gig here in Sydney and was really impressed. Very funny. He has a good gag about drinking where he talks about the symptoms of alcoholism…..

…….Pissing in your bed in the middle of the night after being out on the lash is a syptom of alcoholism, but does not make you an alcoholic. Buying plastic sheets for your matress on the other hand, well……

 I think that a lot of us have symptoms of alcoholism in us. I bet if most people took the “Are you an alcoholic?” test on the AA website, that they would be told they had a drinking problem. But the point is that in reality once you are generally looking after yourself and these occurences are random and sporadic, then you should not worry too much. Drinking is only a problem if you are constantly blacking out, losing friends, jobs, fighting, money, hiding from pain etc blah etc

 I have been meaning to make time to write something down, but that very substance itself, time, keeps on slipping by. I have been a busy boy. I have activated a whole load of things to do and the things are being done. Let me put it to you this way. I am moving house. I am playing a lot of poker. I am going to the beach. I am trying to play football again. I am working. I am enjoying time with my lovely young wife. All these things are positioning my life that I dont even have time to drink, not to mind worrying about it, missing it or even contemplating it. They are distracting me from the old lifestyle I had. Nowadays I don’t have the habit of alcohol consumption. I have created different ways of doing things where the gargle isn’t involved.

This leads me to thinking about how often I used drink as a distraction in the past. A distraction from work, from relationships that were struggling, from jobs I didn’t really care for. It was a distraction from everyday life, the mundanity and the banal. Going on the lash served as the ultimate in taking my mind of things. It soothed any insecurities. It made me free to experience things at an unreal level, which relieved the manic boredom I found in the day to day.

I suppose what I have to say is this – if you want to give up the drink, but struggle with doing so, then distract yourself from it. DO things. Take up hobbies. Start projects. Start rollerblading, minding pidgeons, trainspotting, cliff walking, sky diving, chess playing or womanising. DO things which will fill up your week with as many things as you can think of so as not to fall into being distracted into drinking again. This has been a short blog but I am working on a few good stories at the moment and will keep you up to date on whats going on.