Intervention and Alcoholism

This has been one of my favorite shows for awhile now. For those who don't know, it's a reality series on A&E profiling addicts, their families, and the steps they take toward intervening. It's on Monday nights at 9 pm.

Last night's episode followed an alcoholic named Bret. He had two children who were just distraught over his alcoholism, and at the intervention they were sobbing and pleading with him to go to treatment.

He finally ended up going, after much arm-twisting and yelling. It turned out that he had esophageal cancer, which is caused by excessive alcohol use. He discovered this in treatment and obviously it was very advanced by the time they figured it out. He ended up dying at the end of the episode, but was sober, and his family took comfort in that fact.

I've seen many moving episodes of Intervention, and what I love about the show is that it is real and you really do get involved in the person's life, and you want them to get well. I was very attached to Bret's story and his family, and was sobbing at the end. It just reminded me so much of my grandpa, who died 10 years ago.

He was an alcoholic, though I never knew that as a kid. My family is Italian and we Italians do like our wine! He just took it too far, and in recent years my mom has told me more about his struggle with alcoholism. She said he was never so proud as when he got his AA coin, and was so happy that at the end of his life, he was sober.

As someone who has had their share of excessive drinking, I can say with certainty that when you're out drinking with friends on Saturday night (or in my case, every night), you don't think about the long-term effects. I knew that it was bad for you but figured I was young enough that I never had to worry about anything.

I started drinking as a means of escaping reality when I was very unhappy years ago. Then I started hanging out with more and more friends who were drinking, and it was really fun. I can't tell you how many pictures I have of me with drinks in my hand! I always seemed to take it farther than every one else, though, because I drank each and every night, whether I was with people or not.

In recent years, I've gotten really into wine, and would drink every night. It started giving me worse and worse headaches, and in the morning I would wake up with bad kidney and liver pain. I also take a lot of medication for headaches and other health problems and finally came to the conclusion that I could no longer keep mixing all these things.

Last night's show really brought all that into focus for me. I still occasionally have a small glass of wine, but it always brings about an immediate, severe migraine, so it's gotten to the point where I can't even enjoy it anymore. I have full bottles of wine in storage and in the fridge! I was sober driver for 4th of July! These are monumental accomplishments for me.

So if you have time, check out Bret's episode on http://www.aetv.com/intervention/index.jsp You can also see what his family has to say about him. If you think you might have a drinking problem or know someone who does, you can check out http://www.aa.org/?Media=PlayFlash or call 1-800-662-HELP. I was told recently about the book Recovery Without Religion which offers a non-religious take on recovery.