I have to do all these AA and substance abuse meetings cause I got busted with pot its pretty ridiculous but it beats community service and a suspended drivers license (normal first time offender punishment in va)
anyways I never really thought that much about addiction and especially alcoholism before. but now I talk to these people almost every day. IT FUCKING BLOWS FOR THEM. apparently quitting drinking for an alcoholic is like quitting cigs but ten times harder. and I've had an awful time trying to quit cigs so that must mean its a truly herculean effort.
apparently 12 percent of americans are alcoholics. pretty crazy eh? obviously not all of them are skid row alcoholics but many people at the meetings I go to tell the most depressing stories. like being homeless or searching cigarette bins for butts to smoke and shaking every night vomiting blood.
so if you know an alcoholic who has gotten and stayed sober, props to them. it takes a tremendous amount of effort, especially because a lot of these people had nothing to live for and still managed to pull things together. and the urge to use never goes away. they have to fight to stay sober the rest of their life. every recovering alcoholic keeps a raging beast locked up inside themselves every goddamn day of their life.
and I still cant believe marijuana is illegal and alcohol isnt. its fucked up, alcohol destroys literally millions of lives in america. TWELVE PERCENT. even if that statistic is totally incorrect, six percent of america is still a lot. not to bash alcohol but its waaayy more harmful than pot.