Hi all, Still very happy with nal other than I went out to a 40th bday party last friday night and over drank. I went hungry as there was food there but alot of it was heavy stodgy stuff and I didnt eat alot- very little actually. I wasnt too upset about getting pretty drunk but I really suffered the day after. Ive never had a even a mild nal hangover and this took the legs from under me. I had a pounding headache and nausai all day long. I ate absolutly nothing untill 10pm that night. We were due to meet some other friends Sat night but I had to cancel. Needless to say I didnt drink and haven drank anything since. I will never again be so stupid as to drink on an empty stomach. Nal or no nal normal rules of eating before you go out still apply.

emoty stomach sucks. I hate that anemic, weak feeling when I drink on an empty stomach, yet I used to always postpone dinner as long as I could. "just a few more minutes for the grill to heat up" keep it up mario

Addiction in all its shapes has shown its ugly head to me this week. Hubby and I rent out a house to a single mom with three children. Because temperatures have been droping in the last few days we decided to put in attic heaters to prevent pipes freezing so we called to the house last night. Her friend was baby sitting stoned out of her head. We couldnt leave the kids there with her and couldnt get in contact with their mom so so we rang their grandfather who arrived drunk but at least he was in a better state to look after them, furthermore these are not people who I would try and argue with so we left. I came home pretty shook up, I have actually never seen anyone stoned before.

My daughters friends Mom phoned about 10pm this evening to check if her daughter was at my house, she wasnt but as I knew she was drunk on the phone I offered to go over to their other friend where I knew she probaly was. I went over and the Mom of that house was absolutly pissed. She is the neighbour who has been to rehab and who Ive givin nal to but she has never taken it. One of her sons followed me out the door to check what he should do. She went into an alcoholic coma a few months ago and had to be taken to hospital. I put the fire guard up and locked up the house and came home. I told hubby but to be honest he doesnt want to know any more, this has been going on so long with this neighbour that even her family are immune to it now. Its hard to see her kids watching her out of the corners of their eyes though.They cant afford to get immune to it. Unfortunatly their Dad is still in another country working, Personally I think no matter what about money his job is to look after his family here but I think he is just trying to get away from it all at this stage. I maybe wrong.

I know for a fact that Im no one to criticize anyone as ive been pretty close to being in the same sittutation myself but its quite hard to watch small children watching their parents and baby sitters trying to judge how drunk or stoned they are. I have actually been onto the social services about one of these families but was told there are so many worse families out there that basically it was pretty much a waste of time. How can we expect these kids to grow up with a healthy respect for alcohol and drugs when they have had to deal with it from an age that they should be still thinking about Santa.

Mario,
It is all so sad. I shudder at the idea of my kids seeing me drunk, even for an evening. That is my primary motivation for staying sober. The thought of children being raised by drunken parents is so sad. I remember my mom drunk a lot when I was a child. You learn quickly how to avoid them in the evenings. Sometimes children learn to avoid alcohol because these early observations scare them and make alcohol unattractive.

Sorry about your party last week. I am keeping my guard up at all times. Enjoy the drink but remember alcohol is still a drug. Eat and drink non alcoholic beverages whenever consuming. It will help with the effects during and after the night.

I am glad your community has you looking after them. You are helping more than you know, just by checking in.

These situations just keep perpetuating don't they. I feel your pain about the kids. my sister's kid is now in my parents custody. he spends the week at my mother's and the weekend at my dad's with my dad's other 2 little ones. I've been spending more time with him as he has no father.

the sis blames everyone else for all of this. it's amazing how irrational drugs/booze can make people. I don't ever see her having any humility and dealing with the fact that she's screwed her child's life up. she'd rather keep going like she is and pretend she's doing great and the family is out to get her. idiot. when it's her time to see him, the 5 year old says he doesn't want to see his mommy. so sad

she had her child taken away and doesn't seem to be making any changes. just going through the motions and doing what the court makes her do with no remorse. still hanging in sleazy coke bars. I hope I'm wrong, but I think it'll take some horrible cataclysmic event like an OD or car crash to make her deal with herself. I'm hoping for prison time. never ev thought my family would be in a situation like this. we're a well off, relatively healthy family otherwise.

Mario you are a great person and I have so much respect for you trying to help children. it might help to detach from the situation as much as possible, hard as that may seem. I've been trying. it's rough. Take it easy.

That whole sittutation with your sister sounds pretty difficult. Some kids really get a raw deal in life.

TSM wise things are going well. I ve had a number of christmas parties in the last few weeks and meeting up with friends that we typically only meet once a year.. Its great not having the worry of going over the top with alcohol. Last sat night I was leaving the end of all my drinks because I couldnt finish them. Last night we did our Christmas decorations and it is the first year in 4 years that I could have a glass of wine with Hubby doing it without guilt. I was looking forward to it but didnt even finish the glass, I ended up taking it to the bath with me and didnt finish it there either.It used always amaze me when other people wouldnt finish their drinks, actually it used to annoy me s it would be just proof to me just how abnormal I myself was. Its great looking forward to Christmas without the worry of breaking my quit when I wasnt drinking or the fear of going overboard when I am drinking.

Glad to see you are still doing well over in Éire. Your progress looks great and I'm glad the holidays are going well and AL is playing the role it should (a small one).

I have all the same good feelings about Christmas this year Mario! I bought champagne to toast at duty free and smiled...knowing we will enjoy it and stop until dinner when we will have a couple of glasses of wine then coffee and it will not be a challenge...just normal...HOW AMAZING will that be!!!

Mario. Let me know if you got my PM. I now have 3 messages in my outbox that wont 'send'. I dont know if you are getting them

Great to see such wonderful progress Mario! As an aside, the field I work in means I often have to see terrible home environments for children. When I first started working I wanted to take every single one of theme home with me. So many sad stories. I learned to do what you did-you offered to go over to help look for her daughter and that small act may have a much larger impact than you'd ancticipate. You may not be able to change their home environment but it's important for those kids to see there are good and decent people in the world who care abut others in the spirit of human decency.