Do I Have A Problem?

One thing I enjoy about running this place.... just when I think I've dug down to absolute rock bottom, somebody shows up with a pick-axe and some dynamite!

First of all we have to define "What is a problem?". In my way of thinking a problem with drinks, pot, drugs or other substances or behaviors is what we start thinking about when our use of these things becomes center to our enjoyment of life and begins to cost too much money or too much time or begins to cost us relationships.

A problem can be spotted by excuse making and a gradual replacement of activities we once enjoyed by only one main activity that must occur before any other activity can coexist.

Below is a list. Pick 3 to 5 that you can honestly answer "yes" to and I'd have to say that there is a pretty good chance that you have a dependency. In other words; you are beginning to depend on a substance. Hence dependency.

You should know you have a problem when...

• You count the money in your wallet by the number of drinks you can buy.

• You stop brushing your teeth in the morning because the toothpaste

clashes with the taste of your beer.

• When you would rather pee yourself than give up your barstool.

• You are arrested for DUI-especially more than once

• When you constantly lie about numbers-I only had three.

• If jail doesn't really bother you, or you view jail as a Red Badge of Courage.

• You and your friends have long involved conversations about how none of

you are really alcoholics - while sitting a bar.

• If you have ever thought you have a problem.

• If your family says; "Hey! You have a problem!"

• If money is always in short supply.

• If you cannot predict with accuracy how much you will use at all given times.

• If you use more than three times a week or to excess when you do use. (more than 3)

• If you find yourself defending your usage.

• If you keep a list of different beers you've had.

• If your penis is impaired-viagra bait. Big Red Flag Here! Poor Circulation.

• Frequent yeast infections-Alcohol & Certain Drugs cause these.

• You keep waking up with people you can't remember meeting.

• Being mean to people is sport.

• Arguing becomes a way of life.

• Impatience is what you are best at.

• Sick destructive jokes are funny.

• You think everyone is screwed up & wrong except you { You may have that one reversed.}

• When you will not go to social affairs where you cannot drink.

Huge Red Flag! When you will not go to social affairs where you cannot drink.

• When handcuffs become almost a fashion statement.

• "Mr or Mrs Coors, I'm calling about this balance you've ignored..."

• When your car insurance bill looks like a weekly Lotto Jackpot Figure.

• When your social circle is comprised of people you met doing Community Service.

• When your lawyer is like a Pal.

• When you constantly make up stories so others will think you are having fun.

• When you tell people your fantasies like they were real events.

• When intimacy is a Porn Flick and your greased up hand. I know that's gross, but it can be true.

• When men in bars pass you around like a bag of chips.

• When your spouse leaves you because you don't have a problem-but you will not stop.

• Memory loss { What did I do or say last night?}

• When you lose your car-can't find it.

• When you check your car for damage in the morning.

• TALKING REALLY LOUD IN BARS!

• You look around the night club and realise you are the only non-staff there.

• When you haven't a clue what you hit or find someone Embedded in your windshield!

• When your car is parked on the lawn several feet from your driveway.

• When you can't find your keys and they are in the ignition.

• When you wake up in your car in strange places.

• Saying the word "Occifer".

• When your neighbors consider you a joke.

• When you are on a first name basis with multiple bartenders or connections.

• Selling your stuff.

• Selling other peoples' stuff.

• Going To Pawn shops.

• Going to check cashing services.

• Auto tellers at 1 am for booze or drug money.

• Paying bills late.

• Over drawn checking accounts.

• Using cosigners.

• Credit history reads like a Stephen King Novel.

• Stalking an Old Flame { How romantic-sic}.

• Visiting prostitutes because you turn women off completely.

• Sleeping with drunk people.

• Beating up your wife or girlfriend.

• Constantly thinking about inappropriate sex partners.

• Beating on your husband or boyfriend.

• Having to use in order to have sex- being chicken

• When your coworkers whisper about you constantly.

• When a Judge tells you that you have a problem.

• If you are down right pissed or embarrassed by reading this.

• If you are accident prone.

• If you misuse credit often.

• Running up bar tabs.

• Constantly blaming your problems on others.

•Flashing Your Tits In Bars. Now that's real classy.

Now the reaction is....."I don't do ALL of those things!" Don't get too excited here. I'd have to say pick any three and you are on your way. And the list will become more and more true for you as time goes by.

Some of these are YETS!

Some were YETS for you not too long ago.

Someday very few will be YETS!

What to do? Wimp out and click to another site or stay and think seriously about where you have been and where you are going versus where you really want to go or the plans you used to have. Question yourself. Be brave. No one is looking.

• Think about what you have lost by drinking or using.

• How many sick mornings with pounding headaches and a thirst that won't stop?

• How much money you lose by leaving work early?

• How many times you elected to use instead of go to work.

• How many times you couldn't go to work?

• How many jobs you have lost?

• How many $$$ for your bills you spent on using or drinking instead?

• How many times your impulsive nature has gotten you into trouble?

• How much time you spend in remorse?

• How much time you spend feeling guilty?

• How much time you feel angry?

• How much time you feel resentful of others?

• How much time you feel jealous?

• How much you feel envious?

• Why you think people are constantly talking about you badly?

• How much time spent thinking about revenge for perceived wrongs to you?

• How much time anxiety rips at your stomach?

• How often you have jitters that won't stop until you use or drink?

• How you overcompensate hoping against hope that it will buy you respect?

• How many lies for excuses?

• How many times you humiliated yourself in public and then went out and did it again and again and again?

• How many broken relationships?

• Why some people avoid you?

• Why social users avoid you?

• How many accidents you've had or injuries?

• How much have you spent on fines and legal expenses?

• Think about how much this is so unlike most people at your job, in your neighborhood, in your church and on the street.

• Think about why deep down inside you that you feel you are an outsider in life.

If you really think about these issues and are honest with yourself a pattern emerges that will sooner or later take in most of these things. You see I've been there. I've done that. And I've returned to the scene of the crime to give you a message. It doesn't have to be this way! Not at all! Addiction is a Psychological Problem. It is a treatable problem. If not treated, it is always fatal.

Life is a choice. Life is the choice. And if you drink or use drugs you are choosing Death By Ultimate Default. A painful death. A slow death. And a legacy of nothing valuable. A dead forgotten drunk or addict that many people were glad to see go. Now that's pathetic to live that way and die that way is it not?

Think about this.

• Would you like to wake up every morning feeling good and confident?

• Would you like to feel fearless in almost every situation?

• Would you like to instinctively know how to handle all of your problems?

• Would you like to have relationships that work?

• Would you like to have friends that really respect you?

• Would you like to have a spouse that is proud of you?

• Would you like to have economic security?

• Would you like to have friends at work instead of people who tolerate you?

• Would you like to stop trying to get people to envy you?

• Would you like to stop making people afraid of you?

• Would you like to live by full measures instead of cloudy foggy half measures?

• Would you like to like yourself?

• Would you like to get joy from a child's smile?

• Would you like to appreciate the opposite sex without grabbing the mounting instructions? Real friends, not sex objects or someone to use and then hurt.

• Would you like to stop feeling so needy?

• Would you like to feel comfortable when you are alone?

• Would you like to really see trees, birds, wildlife, grass, flowers and nature in a way that you really enjoy it as a gift?

• Would you like to dream dreams that come true instead of having fantasies?

• Would you like to feel happy most of the time?

• Would you like to live by reason instead of for no particular reason?

• Would you have the courage to believe these things?

This list describes how millions of recovering drunks and drug users now feel every single day. It's a fact! We went from the negative list to the positive list. And the positives just keep coming. It's quite simply amazing. And we who have been down that road are best qualified to lead others to the fork in the road that we took in order to conquer our problem of addiction. Unless you have lived in an alcoholics' or addicts' skin, there is absolutely no way that you could possibly know exactly what that kind of pain feels like.

Psychologists, Medical Doctors and Psychiatrists cannot know what addicts and drunks feel unless they have or have had this problem. The truest of empathy is through direct experience. So, if you think you have a problem go to a rehab center staffed by the people among us that have personally conquered this horrible problem. Within these pages you will find such places.