Alcoholics Are Special

Do you know why alcoholics are special? They are special because they have an uncanny ability to keep drinking alcohol even after the last person has left the party. You might be thinking, “That’s not special, that’s downright unhealthy.” Well, what do you think alcoholism is? Alcoholism is unhealthy in every form imaginable – physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.

Alcoholics have always been a minority of misfits, drinking all night long, hardly able to manage the next morning, until the next drink, and then starting all over again. I’m talking about myself here – I can’t speak for all alcoholics. I literally felt like a misfit when I was in the depths of addiction. Anyway, the repetition or vicious cycle is what makes an alcoholic an alcoholic. If he or she could stop at one or two drinks they wouldn’t be alcoholic, right?

Actually what makes an alcoholic special is the sensitivity of their hearts when they are sober. Notice I said, when they are sober. Through my own research, and asking former alcoholics, I’ve come to the conclusion that alcoholic’s have a high sensitivity level towards people and their feelings that exceeds that of non-alcoholics, in general. This is why sober alcoholics and drug addicts almost always find themselves in a serving type profession helping other people combat their addictions and personal problems.

Former alcoholics make exceptional caregivers counselors, advisers, nurses, and other health care providers. And to me, that is special because the world could always use more good, caring people to teach others what they know and to help them overcome what has trapped them from within. If you ever need addiction help – the first and foremost aspect to look for in the qualifications is if they were former addicts. Rest assured, they will know more about what you are going through than someone that has never been addicted before.

Addiction, Emotions and Our Health

As many of us know all too well, there are many deep-seated emotions that affect us daily – some of these emotions such as depression, anxiety, panic and fear can literally take over our whole existence and because of that we feel the need to subdue these negative feelings with the drug of choice so we don’t have to feel.

So then knowing this, is there a way to combat these emotions without the use of recreational drugs and alcohol? I think that once we get to the root of our emotions we can begin to heal ourselves and conquer what has taken hold of our life and become fruitful and happy people once again. Did you know that our emotions keep us in denial about our addiction? That’s why some of us deny we even have an addiction.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I am a recovered alcoholic (14 years) and when I was drinking I did not know how to have fun without drinking and getting drunk. I thought I functioned better when drunk. I even thought I looked and felt better. Every morning when I was sober, I could not deal with people and their attitude toward me because I was living within my negative feelings of resentment and anger towards them. I was anxious and fearful when I was sober and could not imagine one day without alcohol. This is how alcohol affected me. It may affect you somewhat differently.

My past haunted me, even though I had a pretty normal childhood when growing up, but I was often confused and depressed and I didn’t know why. It was not until I beat my fist against walls, until they bled, that I was told that I had hypoglycemia. That is why I could not focus. That’s why I had anger management issues. And that is why I had depression, emotional outbursts, and the inability to have a rational conversation. I not only had low blood sugar but I was an alcoholic too boot. I was just a young woman trying to figure her life out – no one should have to go through what I did.

Little did I know at the tender age of twenty-five that I was nutrient deficient as well as alcoholic. Every day I added more sugar to an already overloaded pancreas that couldn’t do its job of processing sugar normally. I needed healing and quick! Not only did I need addiction healing but also I needed emotional, spiritual, and physical healing.

Before we can heal though, we have to give up control… of "it"- whatever "it" is. You see, the drinking or the using is only a symptom of addiction. The real issue is within us, whether it is our past of growing up in a dysfunctional family, inheriting the genes of alcoholism, or if it’s sexual abuse as a child, or the inability to manage our emotions, etc. These things are "not who we are”. These are things that came into our life at that time, and we’re not sure how to combat them – it’s a constant struggle.

The great news is we can just as easily rid them from our bodies and mind and become truly whole people capable of loving and being loved. Now that I am sober, I have always thought of addiction as a hurdle – that’s all it is. You CAN conquer the hurdle of addiction!

“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than a drunken man is happier than a sober one”. - George Bernard Shaw