Normal

When I was growing up and old enough to understand, I realized people drank alcohol a lot. The county I grew up in is known for underage drinking and it was just a normal part of life, which is probably why I started using it at such a young age. The thing is with drinking, its legal, its glorified all the time on television and media. Its sold almost everywhere and even during the pandemic Ohio was allowed to get drinks to go. The same substance that was banned a hundred years ago and caused mass crime was that ended in murder, extorsion and a list of other horrible crimes.

One Hundred years later and you cant go a few minutes without seeing an advertisement for alcohol somewhere in your life. The normalcy of alcohol and the hate for other drugs makes no sense to me. Especially after going through a small battle with pain pills and then slipping into alcoholism. I have been addicted to both, I have withdrawn from both and they both took me to the edges of hell. Alcohol was worse than anything I have ever experienced in my life. It was all so normal at first, drinking at parties in high school and then partying all the time in college.

In college drinking was basically a way of life and it led to daily drinking at the bar to daily drinking by myself to being physically addicted to alcohol to having seizures with out it to almost dying. Yet when you go through an addiction of a substance that is illegal, you don’t usually see people using or struggling in your daily routine. Alcohol on the other hand is still everywhere and most people don’t think they are even struggling with it. There are so many people I hear on a daily basis who can’t wait to get off of work to drink or can’t wait for the weekend to drink.

When I go to sporting events most of the people are drinking, at restaurants, zoos, amusement parks, everywhere you go it is so normal. I think back to before we as a human species realized how bad smoking was and then the tobacco companies started getting fined and having to reveal the awful truth about cigarettes’. Granted there are still millions of people who smoke, but I feel if the general public where to see the dark sides of alcohol and thought about it and how many people lives it has destroyed, that maybe it wouldn’t be so glorified. All of the people affected from drunk drivers, drunk fights at bars that lead to assaults’ or worse murders.

All the marriages ruined from things said but not meant from drunkenness’. Or marriages ruined over adultery committed while under the influence of alcohol. How many other things would we put into our bodies on a regular basis that distort our inhibitions , cause us to say and do things we don’t mean and would normally not do. How many other things would you be willing to put all of your life on the line for ? It happens every second of every day all over this world. I’m not trying to write this and harp on drinking all together. To each their own.

If you can handle alcohol and it doesn’t ruin or take over your life, then more power to you. I am writing to express my feelings on the point that we should know both sides of alcohol. The good , euphoric, ego enhancing, carefree feeling that people chase, and the dark side of all the deaths, accidents, addictions , medically issues that come along with it. I didn’t think going to bonfires and having beer in high school to partying in college, would lead to me almost losing my life, giving up hope on life after losing everything I ever had and going through hell and back.

I just thought I was fitting in and was trying to just feel comfortable being myself. It is a slippery slope, and it’s so easy to cover up pain with substances. It’s so easy to lose yourself in a bottle and I have watched to many of my friends lose themselves completely and die very young. I know it is a normality in society but in reality what is a normality and just because the general population does something, doesn’t mean that it is the best thing for you. Don’t think you have to drink to be normal, always be yourself and always follow your heart.

Never listen to anyone trying to bring you down or hurt you. Always surround yourself with good people who care about you and your choices and respect the life you are trying to live. Don’t be me, don’t drown your depression, anxiety or hurt with any substance. Don’t let it take till you are almost thirty to be confident enough to be yourself. Don’t waste your precious time or God given abilities. Life is so beautiful and it goes so quickly. Enjoy life and all it has to offer and whether you have kids, plan to or have some in your life, be there for them.

Be sober and let them teach you the wonderful things life has to offer that we seem to become blind to as we grow older. Stay strong , stay happy and if you are struggling, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! ONE DAY AT A TIME ONE STEP AT A TIME.

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

— Reinhold Niebuhr