Think and Drink

Isolate:  To set apart or cut off from others.

"What are we likely to receive from Step Five?  For one thing, we shall get rid of that terrible sense of isolation that we've always had.  Almost without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness.  Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn't quite belong."

". . . this emerging from isolation through the open and honest sharing of our terrible burden of guilt . . . "

This was in the part of the text that we read in our Step study this morning.  The feeling of apartness is a really common feature of most alcoholics.  I always felt like I was missing some really crucial information about how to live.  "I don't get it," I'd think, watching other people maneuver through life in a relatively normal manner.  But I didn't want to talk to anyone about it, either.  The stuff was too personal and too embarrassing.

So I'd sit in front of my TV and think and drink.  I didn't even have a clicker back then to change channels remotely so I'd watch whatever was on whatever channel I was watching until I had to pee or get another can of malt liquor.

Think and Drink.  Boy, if I could have gotten paid for doing that . . .