Alcoholics Anonymous – Not just for drunks anymore..

Now for those of you who are familiar with A.A. the title of this post may be of some concern but, for those of us who are unfamiliar with the program this could be of some interest.

A couple of months ago I was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous. Not because I needed to be there (I should be so lucky to be able to blame my problems on chemical dependency), but because a family member was finally able to recognize that he had a problem. You see, we all knew that he had a problem but none of us knew how deep it ran and that alcoholism was responsible for at least 95% of his character flaws. For the purposes of anonymity, we’ll call him Frank.. Frank had a lot of problems- he couldn’t stay in a relationship and no one really liked him.. He was an intolerable asshole. Frank didn’t usually drink a lot, but he would drink every day. He’d had multiple D.U.I.’s and always had a way of blaming them on someone or something else. Frank and I never got along, we didn’t like each other at all and would go out of the way to piss one another off. I knew he was a drunk, but I was stuck with him.. He was (and still is), my father-in-law.

Lets get to the meat of this story…

A couple of years ago, Frank was introduced to a woman, that we’ll call Jenny, by one of his other daughters. Jenny liked to have a good time, she loved to drink and she wasn’t a stranger to other forms of “chemical entertainment” either. She had four children, three from a previous marriage and one (from a really good party?) from a previous relationship. The oldest was out on her own and her two younger siblings lived with their father. The fourth child, the unplanned (and seemingly unwanted) child was with Jenny. Well Jenny and Frank hit it off right away, after all they had so much in common- they both loved to drink and party AND they both had a whole slew of kids (Frank has 5 of his own). No one ever expected that they would get married!
Now Frank and Jenny are all hitched up, they both had daily routines which, for Frank, included waking up, having a drink, going to work, and coming home to Jenny, who had called in sick to work, drunk on the couch and ready for a fight. Oft times their evenings consisted of fighting and drinking. Jenny was eventually forced out of her job (get this) as a neonatal nurse due to her absenteeism. But, this gave her some time to really go after her favorite hobby.. Drinking and getting sloppy drunk, she wanted to be the best.

Flash forward one year… Frank’s life savings was depleted from incoherent spending. He once had a thriving small business in the construction industry. It was all but gone, he couldn’t keep any decent employees because of his terrible demeanor and the builders that he contracted through were getting fed up and weaning him off. Jenny had taken a job at a (get this) children’s hospital and planned to support Frank through the recent construction slump. Their marital bliss had degraded into daily arguments over money, booze and Jenny’s kids doing things to force Frank out of the picture. Jenny’s oldest kid, a daughter, had picked up right in her mom’s shoes and found crack along with the promiscuity that usually comes with a habit. She had lost everything and was now living with Jenny and Frank. Now there were three self-centered alcoholics/addicts living together in the same home with a three year old child. Jenny’s daughter was caught sneaking guys into the house on a couple of occasions and finally Frank snapped. He still had a head for what was REALLY right and did not like the idea of having uninvited guests in his home.
This brings me much closer to A.A. (so stay with me).

A fight breaks out between Frank and Jenny the next evening (while they were drinking). Frank exclaims that Jenny’s daughter has to go because she has disrespected the home. But, Jenny isn’t going for that and things become physical. Jenny tells Frank that he will be the one to leave and grabs his arms attempting to force him from the house and Jenny’s daughter jumps in and starts punching Frank in the face. A lot of things were said that night and I guess that everyone had had enough… Frank ended up in jail, he missed work at his factory job and was nearly fired AND he was now homeless.

This is where A.A. starts working and my story could have begun.

Frank had hit rock bottom. His business was all but gone, he had no friends and now had criminal charges against him for domestic violence and assault… But something happened.. Frank found A.A. or maybe A.A. found Frank but either way it happened and not a moment too soon.

My wife and I let Frank move in with us (temporarily, I think). He began going to A.A. meetings with vigor. I, for some reason stepped up first and offered him some support (mind you that Frank has been making my life a living hell for the last 9 years). He started reading from the Big Book and his sponsor let him borrow some C.D.’s from a big meeting.. He’s been sober for almost 2 months now, his longest stretch in 20 years.
So now you are asking “why isn’t A.A. just for alcoholics anymore?” It’s all in those CD’s that he borrowed. The stories that are told by the speakers of the terrible things that they did. Everything is presented in a somewhat humorous manner.. I felt bad about laughing at them at first, but soon realized that they too were laughing. Not because they were joking about their disease, but because in their sobriety, they saw the stupidity of their own acts… Acts in which they thought they were making reasonable decisions.
Frank’s dilemma has really opened my eyes to the “dryly” presented world of Alcoholics Anonymous. I can now better understand why alcoholics and addicts do the stupid things they do.
If you or someone you know has a drinking problem, where their life has become unmanageable and all hope seems lost, please give A.A. a try. It can make a world of difference for you and the alcoholic in your life.

I will eagerly answer any questions or comments regarding this post. Feel free to discuss your experience with A.A. here as well.

For more information about what A.A. can offer you, check out these links:
Alcoholics Anonymous (aa.org)
Meeting Finder

It’s the little things..

Some time ago, I went to one of the most popular “Pay Per Post” sites powered by IZEA and registered a blog. Since I rent some server space I was totally eligible for the program, so I signed up and did everything I was supposed to do. They really ask for a lot including adding lots of little code snippets into your headers so they can collect the page hit as well. Anyhow, after all the B.S. and the spot writing and so on and so forth, I could not get “verified.” No matter how many times I resubmitted my blog, it went out of queue before they could get to it. I often wonder if that site is run by a couple of guys that check in on it when they’re not porn surfing. I guess the moral of the story is that if you’re gonna blog, do it because you love what you do and IF someone comes along and offers to sponsor you listen to their offer. As far as I’m concerned, IZEA is a fucking joke and pay per post is a huge racket. Advertisers are more or less bribing authors to throw in 250 word shit-bits about how wonderful their products are and most of us see right through it.