Alcoholism and How It Has Affected Me

Alcoholism is a disease that affects millions of lives everyday. Most don't realize they even have a problem until it's too late. It is a disease that affects almost every family in America in one way or another including mine. I learned a very important lesson about the disease that afflicted my grandfather when I myself had a bout with alcoholism.

I have always heard from my father what a smart boy I am. My father also talks of how much I remind him of his father, I'm mechanically inclined, have good common sense, and I have an intelligent personality. But I always found a way to screw things up and make a mess of myself. I couldn't hold a job, I was failing out of school, and my family life was almost non-existent. I had no motivation and it was apparent to others that I was a heavy drinker. I didn't consider Drinking to be a problem though, it was just my way of relaxing. Having a few drinks on the weekends with my friends quickly developed into an all day every day event.

I had been drinking everyday for about a year when my father and I began talking about my problem. I knew I had a problem, but I wouldn't acknowledge it publicly. My father one day in a conversation we were having, mentioned a poem I wrote about drinking. One line in particular at the end "a real friend won't disappear when your thirsty" gave almost definite proof of my knowing I had a problem. At the end of that discussion, we decided to check me into a rehabilitation program in Falmouth called Gosnold.

It was a two week live in program at which I learned a great deal about alcohol and other drugs that damage the lives of normal intelligent people. I learned that it's not something I could control, and that I was predestined to have this disease. It was hereditary. I learned of the affects it would have on my reaction time, my nervous system, my thought process, and my reproductive system. I learned of all the different ways it changed my personality; how it made me a