[emgreen]

I've been sober a few 24 hours, but some of us don't make it. The following newspaper piece was published statewide. It details the last days of a good friend of mine from high school & my early 20's -- we partied hard. The person described in the article, surrounded by "mountains" of beer cans was once me, so I'm not being self-righteous. If anything, the memories of us using & drinking make me feel guilty,as I was pounding beer for beer with him. It really hit me...This is a deadly disease.

A xxxxx man lay dead inside his unheated home for months before police officers found his body on a couch.
xxxxx police Capt. Jeff O'Brien said a relative of xxxxx contacted authorities after she hadn't heard from him in months, her calls went unanswered, and her mail to him bounced back. He said officers on Thursday checked xxxxx's State Street home and found him dead inside.

"He had been there since December we think, on his couch," O'Brien said.
December is when a neighbor last spoke with xxxxx, O'Brien said. He said the home had mail stacked up in front and the post office stopped delivering Jan. 24, which ultimately led a concerned member of xxxxx's family to contact authorities.

"There was no heat in the house so he was preserved," O'Brien said.

O'Brien said a medical examiner determined Rose's death to be from natural causes. He said "mountains" of beer cans surrounded xxxxx's body.

I don't know what else to add. It's just that it could easily have been me.

[mountain human]

But for the grace of God...

[spondiferous]

My sister passed away in September, in my mother's home, from alcoholism, at the age of 29. She was so far gone (health-wise) by the time she passed that, even though she'd been trying to sober up for at least 2 days and probably a couple more than that, my mother thought she was drunk right up until she took her last breath and because she didn't tell anyone that she was trying to sober up to go to treatment, nobody could get her the medical support that she so desperately needed. None of us even knew the real cause of death (withdrawal) until we got the coroner's report back, just this past February.

Alcohol is indeed a deadly disease. It doesn't just kill the people who are alcoholics, but it kills pieces of the hearts of the people who love them. I am one of the lucky ones; I've been sober since 2006. My other sister celebrated three years of sobriety earlier this month; as the first sober member in our alcoholic family, my own sobriety helped pave the way for her to see there was another way to live. We both live every day with the remorse that our other sister couldn't get there in time.

Congratulations on 24 hours. Anyone who has ever been in any kind of active addiction (alcoholic or otherwise) will know what a huge accomplishment it is to stay away from anything for that long. I wish you a journey full of as few obstacles as possible and great self-awareness, and if you ever need anyone to talk to (aside from the forums - one on one), please don't hesitate to message me.