Michelle has been trying to stay sober all year. A 28-day
stint at Thunderbird in Seattle in March was supposed to be the solution to if only I went to inpatient treatment for her. That was little help and she spent the last
three months back out in the homeless camps in Seattle called the Jungle. It is a tough place for anybody to survive, much
less for a 45-year old woman that is alcohol and drug addicted.
She decided to give sobriety another try on Monday night.
When I picked her up, Michelle agreed she was willing go any length and would
get a sponsor and start working the steps in the first week. Her fear masquerading as pride blocked her
from doing that earlier this year. The
beat-down provided by additional drinking is key for alcoholics to find the
humility to stop trying to do things their way.
She is going through alcohol withdrawal that is painful yet not
bad enough to give her a case of delirium tremens (DT). It always seems strange to me that alcohol
withdrawal is a more lethal withdrawal than from heroin or other heavy narcotic
addictions. Maybe
it is because alcoholics change their metabolism to feed off alcohol instead of
regular food.
I never had the experience of having to be a morning drinker
because of the shakes/DTs. I
have seen those that are. For
a drug addict like me that stopped smoking crack when it was all gone, it is
peculiar to see late-stage alcoholics save a drink for the morning instead of
doing all they have the night before. Clearly
the DTs are a powerful motivation to get alcoholics to stop drinking before
running out of booze the night before so they can have a morning drink.
I am grateful that Michelle is giving sobriety another try and
that I never experienced the DTs from alcohol withdrawal.
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