These next five posts, over the coming days and weeks, will be a series of  abbreviated  chronicles of my alcoholic life, how I got sober and how I am staying sober some 14 1/2 years later. They will be titled to corresponding segments of my life– childhood years, school years, heavy drinking, early recovery and present sobriety years .

Before beginning I would like to apologize for not contributing to this site in some time. It should be a reminder to  me that complacency  is so easy to take over. I am just glad I can recognize that and try to get back into some action of recovery.

The Childhood Years:

One thing that I have learned over time with  the benefit of some personal counseling and a few years of sobriety is that, as a small child, referring to my preteen years, I really had no control over my living environment or some horrible events that occurred. Where some children may have the ability to change their environment I lacked the courage to do so.  In any case my experiences where as they were.

I lived with an alcoholic father in my youth and watched him drink to the point of utter illness until he would have to be hospitalized. He binge drank  that way numerous times per year. I can recall having to find someone to get him alcohol when he was incapacitated. I was taught early on that sudden  withdrawal from alcohol could kill you. This terrified me as a child. My mother, who was divorced from my father was usually my savior in these times once I informed her my father was drinking again. Other times I just rode out the events of my fathers binge. I was young and afraid. You might ask what my mother was doing to allow me to live with my father under those conditions. At that time she had remarried and lived with an alcoholic herself with that household being detrimental as well. In any case I managed to get by.

I would just describe myself as a very timid and shy child on the outside when in actuality I was screaming in fear on the inside.

I started drinking at the age of 14. I will discuss this more in the next series titled the School Years. I just wanted to mention that to let you know that in early childhood I had not begun yet.

Thank you for reading today. Please feel free to comment on this post and share your experiences in order for the suffering alcoholics out there reading may realize that many of us may have shared similar events in our lives. As always feel free to also comment on any past post made on this site. Together let’s make a difference. God Bless You.