THE BATTLE AGAINST THE BOTTLE- by Adv. Jos. Peter D’Souza

Remember the good old tape-recorder? Remember when it suddenly went dead? What was the first thing we did? A drop or two of ‘feni’ on a handkerchief, wipe the head, and voila, it worked!! Alcohol did the trick. As one author put it: There is no solvent better than alcohol – not only does it remove stains, aches and pains, but it is also known to dissolve bank rolls, bank balances, marriages etc.

Which five year old in Goa does not know the value of alcohol!! Home from school on a rainy day, all that the little brat has to do is sneeze just once and out comes mom’s magic remedy. A saucer, a little ‘caju’, a lit match, a few seconds of tantalizing blue flame, yes, its pure, then down the hatch. Wow! No cold, no flu, no fever; not to say there ever was one. Sure Alcohol is good, and there are no two ways about it. The problem is not alcohol, but the drunk, or, to use a more refined term, the alcoholic.

The question is how does one get an alcoholic to recognize himself as one. Pose the question to the daily night drinker: who is an alcoholic? Doubtless the answer will be the one who needs a drink every afternoon. Ask this noon to night tippler, and he will point to the fellow who needs the early morning eye opener. Approach the bank officer, or clerk, who needs his morning dose to stop the shakes, and his answer will assure that he has never fallen on the road, that’s the alcoholic. To the fellow who has to be regularly carried home, the alcoholic is one who has landed behind bars for being dead drunk. The chief problem with the alcoholic is the denial syndrome.

Ironically, those who help the alcoholic in this merry-go-round of denial, are none other than the immediate family members. The social stigma attached to alcoholism is just too much to accept. Hence, family will do everything to cover up what they think nobody knows. Wives sitting at the hospital bedside of their alcoholic husbands when asked what’s wrong? Oh! Nothing. Just some liver problem. Does he drink? Who said so, people are trying to spoil his name. And so one more person fails to get help.

Today, alcoholism has been identified to be a ‘disease’ by the medical fraternity. Studies have indicated that only ten to twelve percent of drinkers turn out alcoholic, meaning thereby that their lives are definitely impaired by the imbibing of alcohol. And alcohol is no respecter of either gender or pedigree, prince, pauper or preist. There is no cure for alcoholism, but one can arrest it and prevent it from doing any harm. This is by total abstinence. The disease of alcoholism is often compared to ‘diabetes’ in which case the intake of sugar does the damage. In alcoholism, the body cannot handle alcohol in a normal manner. And as the sensible diabetic stops intake of sugar, similarly, all that the alcoholic has to do in order to live a normal life is to stop alcohol.

Yes, alcoholism is just another disease, but it is known to be killer disease number one. But before it kills, either directly or indirectly, but it also destroys all the good things in life. Ask any doctor, and he will frankly admit his worst patient is an alcoholic.

But there is hope even for the hopeless. The first step is, for those around the alcoholic, especially his family, to admit that their loved one is an alcoholic – that he/she has this disease. Next, stop the cover-up job. No excuses for his drinking. Seek help from any one of the various self help groups. Most effective among these is ‘ALCOHOLIC ANONYMOUS’(AA). Get in touch with them. Their priceless help comes free of cost. There is also the sister organization - ‘AL ANON’, which is for the non-drinking family members of the alcoholic. Start attending their meetings. But most important is to do something. Do not be ashamed, it is only an illness like any other. And if you are really concerned for the alcoholic, stop the screaming, yelling, pleading, emptying of bottles, threatening, and get help.

As for the alcoholic seeking help on his own, the odds are against his doing so. He suffers from a disease which is cunning, baffling and powerful. He has to overcome the most difficult hurdle – that of denial. No one except an alcoholic tries to stand on one leg to prove he is not drunk. No one, except an alcoholic, will make the claim that he can down a bottle and yet drive home without any problem. He is the only one who has to continuously try to convince, not only the whole world, but also himself, that he can and does control his drink. He has excuses galore for his drinking. Either he’s celebrating Sachin’s century; or, drowning his sorrows because of India’s loss; or, its nice and sunny, so lets start off with a chilled beer; and if its raining, then he needs the feni to keep him warm.

As one author put it, it is only when the alcoholic reaches the moment of truth that he decides to do something about his drinking. This moment is when he finally admits to himself: today I drank not because my team won or lost, they did not play; I drank not because my boss fired me, I haven’t worked in months; I drank not because my wife nagged me, she left me for sometime now; I drank not because the dog barked all night, I buried him a week ago; I drank because I wanted to drink. It is when the alcoholic has reached this moment that he is able to gain a resounding victory in his battle against the bottle. Then he stops fighting, and is on the road to recovery just one day at a time.