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Gail shares how her relationship with alcohol changed after rehab.
Gail:
I was telling my daughter the other day, she is almost 18, I have calculated from the time I started drinking, my first concert I went to and that was 29 years of hard drinking and I didn’t know that it was an allergy. I am allergic to alcohol.
I can’t just take a sip. Some people can drink with impunity, I can’t. It’s that one sip that will get me drunk, not the fifth or the sixth.
I have people say, oh come on Gail, you can have a drink or just once a glass of wine.
And I say, you don’t understand, I am allergic to alcohol. If you are allergic to strawberries and your face breaks out or your throat closes would you eat strawberries? Probably not.
Well, I am allergic to alcohol and if I take a drink I’ll get drunk. And alcoholism is a progressive disease and if I get drunk it will get a whole lot worse, a whole lot faster than it did when I stopped the first time.
I have gratitude today. I am responsible today. I am a mom. I am really passionate about my recovery because it’s hard, you know.
It’s a lot of work but I know that by staying sober I know I can never pick up a drink again, for me there is no gray – it’s black and white.
I can’t drink. I am allergic. It’s like the doctor saying, you have cancer but you can’t have chemo.
You know what, I am an alcoholic, I can’t drink, but I have fun. I have fun today. I do things today that I never would have done before.
You know I was always one of those people sitting at the bar going yeah, looking at the Ellen DeGeneres show on TV going, I am going to be on that show one day and everybody at the bar going, oh yeah Gail.
You know that was my pipe dream and I got to do that with my daughter and that was awesome.
You know, I actually drive like an adult and that was an experience, you know that’s something that you never forget. Those are the things that I took for granted, that I didn’t even know I was losing.
For me, even as far back as when she was 10, you know it’s 5 o’clock somewhere. And I realize that now but I didn’t see that at the time.
I didn’t see that by being invited to a barbeque or to a party and people would bring like a six-pack of beer. I would bring like a whole bottle. I see that today. I didn’t see that then.
I have friends today. I am responsible. I am accountable, and I just want people to know that there is help out there and to reach out to a program of your choice and to talk to other people because they saved my life.
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Interview Scheduled By In The Rooms®: A Global Recovery Community.
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