Alcohol

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 5: Nerves, Sickness, Lies, Loneliness For the first time in October 2006 I suffered what became a constant thorn in my flesh while in Toronto on vacation. Living back home in the UK, my drinking zig-zagged between consistent and out of control. During this vacation, it was steady without any day-long binges. My holiday came to an end as I rode a shuttle bus to the airport. The driver was fond of his own voice and decided to turn the journey into a one man comedy act. No one was laughing. His …

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Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 4: Detox A new day and an afternoon taxi ride into the unknown wilderness of rehab. Hazy sleep brought some levity as my emotions stopped bouncing like a pinball. I set out hoping my destination would result in improvement on yesterday’s fiasco. I had no alternative. Pity party was not on today’s agenda. I registered and took a seat in the waiting room. No fights outside, a good sign. Inside, it was spacious, clean, almost too quiet for a medical facility. The pale green walls were adorned with a number of framed …

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Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 3: Drinking I didn’t become an alcoholic overnight. My journey, if you can call it that, into dependency began in my mid-twenties. I started drinking at fifteen and despite finding it as attractive as swallowing sludge, my worn down taste buds lost the fight. Gradually, it became tolerable. I transitioned from being a teenager hiding in alleys drinking cheap cider to a young man enjoying an active social life with alcohol at its core. It was part of the fabric in almost every social setting. Soccer matches. Drink. Date. Drink. Holiday. Drink. …

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Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait An Introduction During his first couple of weeks sober, Simon Tait began journaling some of his immediate thoughts and experiences. Moving from rehab to outpatient treatment, the writing assignments at the latter challenged him to dig a little deeper into his twenty-year alcohol addiction and he enjoyed the process of channeling his truth to paper and sharing it, warts and all, with others at the center. Indeed, some of the counselors advised Simon to continue writing after his three months finished not least because his fellow classmates started to request copies of his …

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“Alcohol withdrawal” is the term given to the symptoms one experiences after sudden cessation of excessive and regular alcohol consumption. The more (or longer) you’ve been drinking, the more severe the withdrawal symptoms are likely to be. Alcohol withdrawal can be extremely dangerous; if you or a loved one are experiencing symptoms, even if you believe them to be mild, please consult with a physician or call 911 immediately.   How do I know if I’m going through alcohol withdrawal? Common symptoms include anxiety, depression, fatigue, incoherent thought, irritability, jumpiness, mood swings, and nightmares. Other symptoms may include dilated pupils, …

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Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 2: Alcohol Test It had all the hallmarks of a typical Monday morning. Feeling lethargic from a weekend dominated by alcohol consumption—sweats, shakes, sickness and paranoia of how I looked and felt. Nothing new there. In fact, I felt okay because I stopped my binge at 8:00pm the night before to sleep off the day-long session at the soccer game. My neatly pressed pale blue shirt was complemented by camel trousers. My hair was neatly styled and although my eyes were bloodshot, that could be attributed to tiredness. But deep down I …

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