Working to clear overgrown sections of the property, sweating and dizzy in the hot sun. A gardener hired for the day who sings and shouts as he works, to the delight of the dogs who are all confined indoors. I hate having to cut back now when it is so dry, but by autumn parts of the garden will have become impassable.,
Spontaneous remission of addiction? I know two sober friends who simply got sick and tired of being sick and tired, the desire to drink or use just left them overnight and didn’t return. For most of us it is not that simple but here’s Dick van Dyke, an irrepressible Peter Pan:
Despite his relentlessly upbeat nature, there have clearly been darker times. He talks openly about fighting alcoholism, which led him into deep depression in middle age. “I was an alcoholic for about 25 years. In the Fifties and Sixties, everybody had their martini, everybody smoked incessantly. The funny thing is that all through my twenties and early thirties I didn’t drink at all. Then we moved to a neighbourhood full of young families with the same age kids and everyone drank heavily, there were big parties every night. I would go to work with terrible hangovers which if you’re dancing is really hard.”
He checked himself into treatment clinics twice, but they didn’t help. “I was in deep trouble, you get suicidal and think you just can’t go on.” Did he really contemplate suicide? “I had suicidal feelings, it was just terrible. But then suddenly, like a blessing, the drink started not to taste good. I would feel a little dizzy and a little nauseous and I wasn’t getting the click. Today I wouldn’t want a drink for anything.”
New Year’s Resolutions and that feisty optimism about quitting. A jaunty poem from Edgar Albert Guest to strengthen resolve another day or two. If only recovery had more to do with grit and less to do with surrender:
On Quitting
