Happy St. Patricks Day - Are you wearing the green today?

[John_fromNY]

Any Irish lads and lasses here to feel free to comment....

[stickyvicky]

Don't drink too much green beer you guys! lol....

[WalterB]

Everytime I think of Rokkerr, I turn green with envy. Does that count?

[John_fromNY]

I didn't drink green beer when I was an active drinker ....never did ... :roll: ..Every year, I drank Jameson's Irish whiskey. As that is the proper drink to have on St. Paddy's Day.

...So one year I felt really festive, and I decided to combine the Jameson's with shots of creme de menthe because it was green. Well, that idea wasn't the best one that I ever thought of because :oops: :oops: yes, I was really turning green. Later, I was praying to the porecelain god, my toilet, cos I was really ill!!

Also, please don't wear orange into an Irish bar today --- but it's fun --- really!!

But you'll have to ask yourself why did I say that last thing?? ... stay tuned.

[stickyvicky]

Some of the newer folks here may not know this but St. Paddy's day is my AA birthday! The last time I ever drank was when I went to a St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown Montreal. I made it home 3 days later, my poor bf and parents had the police out looking for me, and it wasn't the first time either... after that I went to AA. Let's see that was in 1986, so that means it was my 21 year AA birthday! Holy cow!

[WalterB]

Congratulations, Vicky, to you and all who have beat the demons. I can remember waking up in someones front yard with two of LA's finest nudging me with their feet, not knowing how I got there. I had to walk up to a Weinerschnitzel I saw and ask the guy where I was.
Or waking up sitting in my car in the driveway with the engine running and no recollection of how I got there or where I'd been. I was lucky. Never went to AA, but am sorely thankful I finally got over that silliness.
I still go out with the guys now and again, but know now how to handle it (very slowly.)

[John_fromNY]

Since you responded - I guess I'll have to tell you why you shouldn't wear orange in an Irish bar on St. Paddy's day...

Ireland is about 97.4% Catholic. The majority being the Republic of Ireland - mainly in the south. Dublin is the capital. They wear the GREEN. The Irish Republican Army (IRA), made up of Catholics, was fighting until recently to unite all of Ireland - the Republic and the portion controlled by Britain.

The remaining 2.6% of the Irish population is Protestant. They are mainly in the North in Ulster and Belfast. This is the area controlled by the loyalist Protestants and the British Army who are fighting the IRA. They, of course, wear the other color in the Irish flag, ORANGE.

Therefore in Ireland, it is not safe to wear orange, anywhere in the country on St. Patrick's Day, otherwise they will kill you!! Seriously...

[John_fromNY]

Congratulations Vicky.... on being sober 20 years!!

I'll tend to agree with Walter - The addictive part that being alcoholism, or any sort of drug dependency or addiction is the most crazy part. As it takes over one's life.

However once the mind clears and you become open, honest and willing - getting clean and sober - as that is when life really begins. Unfortunately, people have to be incarcerated, locked up in asylums, or they die before they get the that needed help. So very sad...

...And by the way, for the most part, "the season" for the majority of us (those troubled by addiction) runs from Thanksgiving to New Years - however it can run into St. Patrick's Day as well (for those of Irish descent.)

I finally ended my drinking on December 23, 1992. This after my suicide attempt. Then a family interventioon the next day. So my sober date is on Christmas Eve 1992. Mind you, there were years of counseling under two doctors, a psychiatrist and a pyschologist. Along with the daily AA and the NA meetings (I'm cross addicted - that being cocaine)

[WalterB]

Well, they say that the first step in recovery is simply being able to admit that you do have a problem. In my case, I think it was the DUI's. I only got 2, one in about '84 in LA and one in 1990 in Colo. That doesn't seem like much of a motivator, and certainly has not motivated thousands of others. But, I think one thing that helped motivate me was, if there is one thing I am terrified of in life, it is prison. That is what made me wake-up. I love my freedom, and am not really interested in sharing a bunk with "Bruno." :shock: I am no saint, certainly, and realise that I am and have been very lucky, to come thru it all. Being able to be upfront and honest with others is a big step. Talk to me anytime, John.

[stickyvicky]

OMG, the stories I could tell you, lol... the things I've done, haha... stealing cars and driving them naked! Stuff like that, good thing I don't do that anymore, the stealing that is, LMAO... I can be just as crazy now without the alcohol.... when I used to drink, any damn crazy idea that came into my head, I'd do it, it was scary, it always started out fun, but ended up dangerous....

[John_fromNY]

Yes Walter, the first step in the program of AA and all the others; NA, CODA, OA, Alalon, Alateen (which are all based upon AA's 12 steps) is "Admitting that we are powerless over alcohol and our lives have become unmanageable". We compensate that by getting a Higher Power into our lives, you know him as God, Jesus Christ. Buddha, Allah, etc. It's a God of your understanding - not a punishing God as we were brought up in Catholic school, Sunday school or catechism (steps toward the sacrament of communion) but a God who won't use fire and brimstone in dealing with us, the troubled. As God is needed in one's life.... By the way, that is the only time alcohol is mentioned by name in the twelve steps....The other programs just substitute the word alcohol with the item they want to put in the forefront, i.e., drugs, overeating, etc.

Yes Vicky, I can relate to the insane things I did when I was drinking. When I first picked up alcohol at age 9, I was actually punished by the controlling parent in my household, my mother. Anything you did was never good enough for her. You could come home with a report card of 5 A's and a B. And she'd criticize both me and my older sister unmercifully about the B grade. I could tell you all the mental torture she put us and my father through when I was growing up. Insanity!! I drank to escape the feelings of anger, hostility and rage towards my mother. I started playing guitar at age 14 to escape these feelings. As I said, my mother was not a nice person. That caused me great resentment and anger later when I was in my teenage years and into my twenties. I started to hate her. I even threw her down a flight of stairs at 15, in a fit of of rage and anger. That very night, I had a fight/wrestling match with my Dad. And I broke two of his ribs. Both of my parents were in the hospital, one in a room the other in the emergency room, at the same time. My parents did not press charges. But the authorities mentioned "family" counseling but everyone, me especially, hushed it away under the covers. Because we refused to look at ourselves that way. Years later, the guilt and remorse became so unbearable by this one action of mine and it had a lot to do with my suicide attempt,...I kept saying over and over again, "I murdered my mother" As such I could really never could form a loving relationship with another human being, sure I had girlfriends and I did use them for sex, that's about it... I threw them away as I like to refer to them "as garbage at the curb"... But I couldn't form a close bond nor could I ever commit to a lasting loving, relationship with a girlfriend. I developed a better relationship with a bottle of Jack Daniels or Jim Beam whichever was handy. As they "burned on the way down and on the way out" I started to visit, then frequent, strip clubs on Long Island and in the City... I got off on masturbation. Once I hit my twenties - 18 was the legal drinking age in New York at the time; later it became 21. - I would get into bar fights, and me being only 5'3" I'd get my ass kicked up and down the bar. My drinking took off at 22 after my mother passed on. This point in my life I hated God and I stopped taking communion, as there is a point in the Catholic mass, where the priest says "I am not worthy to receive You" Feelings of guilt, as well, I guess. Eventually I stopped going to Sunday mass totally as I found another "Higher Power" - My cocaine use and abuse started at 23. I became so paranoid and I'd isolate, just playing my guitar and such. The cocaine abuse lasted until I was 28 and so did my guitar playing as I busted my left hand in a drunken stupor,..I punched a glass door... The cocaine made me too crazy and paranoid, and unkempt too as I grew my hair very long and I also grew a beard. Later, towards the end of my drinking in my late twenties, I went the other way, as I had great feelings of guilt and remorse. Leading to great periods of isolation and depression. I actually would stop talking to my Dad, weeks at a time, and I being a great manipulator (I learned that character defect from my mother), and I would start a disagreement and argument either with him or my stepmother and there would be my excuse to drink. I'd leave for hours sometimes days at a time. When I finally stopped at age 30 - which was actually three days after my 30th birthday on Dec 20th...I was still alive, God had spared me. And that's just a part of my story....