Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

[InChains]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

haha, hey guys, no nobody upset me but I wasn't joking, my mother loves rats so I bought her two for her presents, set them up with a cage and everything, she loves them

[Recluse]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Hiya panno, how're you?

Hi inchy, your choice of mother's day present is very original

[startingover]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Wowser! Lots of emotional stuff on the thread today. Its wonderful to read. I dont mean wonderful that people had to go through it but wonderful that it can be shared. Hugs to all who require one.
I kind of feel as if I have dumped another layer of shite lately. Still up and down but right now I feel in control and ready to tackle most things.
This life aint easy to be sure

[Panno]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Recluse;1279669 wrote: Hiya panno, how're you?

Hi inchy, your choice of mother's day present is very original

Not too bad Reccie, could be better thanks. I've got some gardening work if your up to it flipping gardner here at work has been on the sick for 6 weeks and just handed another note in for 4 !!

[JackieClaire]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Zens, I hope you don't mind but I've copied this bit of your post. I agree with every word written and Jan I hope you know that these words are said with friendship and caring for you both.

Jan… Bonnie is not the enemy… she’s doing what is right for Ollie. Why can’t you just accept that Ollie is in a good place with her… much much preferable to him being in a centre… and take this time to work on yourself and get yourself back on the straight and narrow.

I’ve been watching you contradict yourself all the time… you want Ollie back, you get him back but you can’t deal with him, you want Ollie gone in the worst possible way, Bonnie takes him and now you want him back. Maybe you can’t see it Jan, but you are not being rational.

If Bonnie DID take your passport (and there’s a good chance it’s in your house somewhere) it’s because she’s worried you’re going to do a runner. And if they want you to speak Spanish, it’s so they know what you’re saying to Ollie. They are WORRIED about Ollie and the whole situation.

Quite frankly, I think you are blessed to have such a wonderful daughter. How many 21 year olds do you know that would take all that on? So instead of being angry at her you should give her a big fat hug and thank her from the bottom of your heart for helping you out in such an unselfish manner. If it wasn’t for Bonnie, Ollie could end up back in a centre and your visitation rights would be nothing like they are now. She has given you a chance to get clean… so why don’t you make use of this opportunity Jan?

[anon]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Back from a lovely walk, with lovely people. Have eaten 3 packed lunches ended up at the pub.
Very emotional stuff on here today:l
Hope everyone is OK?

[JackieClaire]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Right then good evenings, general wavings and yoooooooooooo hooooooooooooos to all.

Zens, my dear friend. Big hugs to you.:l

Panno you beat me to it tonight.

Incherooo I :h pet rats. Can I adopt you just for the weekend.

[satz123]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

InChains;1279668 wrote: haha, hey guys, no nobody upset me but I wasn't joking, my mother loves rats so I bought her two for her presents, set them up with a cage and everything, she loves them

JAZUS wept - hope I don't get any rodents as a Mother's Day gifts. Enough 2 legged rats knocking around my life :H
Don't get me wrong I love animals but..........:no: HELLO ........ RATS ???

[satz123]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Talking about gifts - my brother in law got his wife a Vacume Cleaner once for Christmas - you can imagine where that hose ended up :H:H

[Panno]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

satz123;1279683 wrote: Talking about gifts - my brother in law got his wife a Vacume Cleaner once for Christmas - you can imagine where that hose ended up :H:H

:H:H:H

[Panno]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Its worth forgoing the wine just to come here for the crack!! I've been frigging miserable all day

[satz123]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Panno;1279687 wrote: Its worth forgoing the wine just to come here for the crack!! I've been frigging miserable all day

Ah Panno - sure the craic here is mighty !!! Ms Zen is a tonic !
Wait 'till Limers & Oney get into their stride !

Are you struggling Panno ? I think the L-Glut is working a bit on me. I don't seem to get the same 'kick' as I used to ?

[satz123]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Panno;1279687 wrote: Its worth forgoing the wine just to come here for the crack!! I've been frigging miserable all day

AND PLEASE DON'T BE MISERABLE .............................. have the wine later if you need to - put put it off a while. That's what I'm doing . There I've said it ......... but it's my way of getting to the AF stage sometime in the future !

[Panno]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Always struggle Satz on day 3 and 4, don't have withdrawl just mental issues. I have started taking the L Glut and also having dinner early which helps me.

[stirly-girly]

Army Thread Tuesday 13th March

Hello Army!! I haven't read back over the posts since this morning so will do that after posting this so I can address the goings on of the day.

Warning – this is a long post in answer to something Reccie posted yesterday. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. I’ll understand completely that you’ve got better things to do. :H

Recluse;1279227 wrote: You talk a lot of good sense, as always, stirly. I think my point was that without the bad stuff in our pasts, maybe we (some of us or perhaps most of us?) wouldn't have become alcoholics. As you say, there's nothing we can do about the experiences that helped form our personalities.

Reccie, this is only my point of view, my humble opinion on our past, our personalities and our experiences that helped form them and if there is a connection between that and us being alcoholics.

First of all, I have to say that I firmly believe that alcoholism is something we inherit. Well, the likelihood that we will become alcoholics. Just as they have discovered that the daughters of women with breast cancer have a much higher possibility of getting breast cancer, so the children and grandchildren of alcoholics have a much higher possibility of becoming victims of the disease. However, I have to agree that circumstances can lead to us actually becoming alcoholics.

Here's a bit of my family history to help make my point. My Grandfather on my Mother's side was an alcoholic although I never knew that until some years ago. I did know that he came home drunk once and my tee-totalling Grandmother was furious with him. It was only until a cousin of mine visited me in Greece about 15 years ago that I found out that he drank on a daily basis. Apparently his weakness was vodka and he started drinking when he got to work in the morning - around 7:30 a.m. - and by mid-morning was a very cheery man indeed. At least he wasn't a mean drunk. Actually, he was a very generous man who often gave food and money to families in need. I adored him and never knew that the nap he had after lunch every day was really him sleeping off his morning bouts with AL. One of my father's half-brothers was an alcoholic and his half-sister was very fond of whiskey as well. Apparently in her last few years she mixed her drink with pain killers due to health problems. I believe that I inherited the AL gene from both sides of my family. I don't blame my upbringing or my childhood/teen experiences on the fact that I am an alcoholic for these reasons. My sister, two years younger than I am, another seven years younger, and my brother 9 years younger than me were all raised in the same home, by the same parents. My sister who is 2 years younger than me has a glass of wine, maybe two with her evening meal, if she wants it. If she doesn't, she doesn’t have it. My brother enjoys a beer or two but I don’t think it goes over that and there may be days when he doesn’t even have one. My younger sister starts with her white wine just after noon and continues ‘til bedtime. She doesn't think she has a problem. I think she does.

There was never, ever an alcoholic beverage in our home when I was young. It was forbidden by our church. I had my first drink when I went away to college in the big city. You had to be 21 to buy liquor and buy it from the special licensed government stores. I was 18 but could easily pass for older than that, especially when I dressed the part. I got drunk often when I was in college. Later, I got drunk after work with friends at a place in the mountains I worked at for two winters. It was part of our almost every evening celebration. I can remember drinking wine out of a soda can while riding my bike around the small city where I lived after college and before the winter job. I thought I was so cool. I was just stupid. A short while after the first winter, I came to Greece for the first time. I met Mr. Stirly and we’d go to the local disco almost every night and have one drink each. I don’t recall ever getting drunk when I was with him. At some point in my late teens I had introduced my family to a sparkling white wine called Baby Duck. I can still remember, it was Thanksgiving and I was determined to get my parents to try some wine. I finally convinced them that they wouldn’t go to hell over one small glass of wine. They tried it, they liked it and having wine with meals at family celebrations became a habit. No one ever got drunk - we only ever had one glass each, maybe two tops. Mr. Stirly and I got married a couple of years after I first visited Greece. We only ever drank when we were with my family or if friends came over or we were visiting friends. We didn’t have either wine or beer with our daily meals. A couple of times at parties I drank a bit too much but only once do I remember getting drunk. Note that AL was rather expensive in Canada and that was one of the reasons that we didn’t have much booze in the house besides a bottle of wine, a couple bottles of beer and perhaps a bottle of rum for Mr. Stirly to enjoy a drink once in a while.

Fast forward to us moving to Greece. It is common here for people to drink wine or beer with their meal and it is unheard of that you would go out for dinner with family and/or friends and no one would be drinking. It is also a favourite pastime, especially in the summer to enjoy ouzo and “mezedakia” say on a Sunday morning. I loved ouzo from the time I first tried it and since it was cheap, there was always a bottle in the house, and a fully stocked bar as well in case friends stopped by and someone wanted a drink. I started to enjoy an ouzo on the front balcony underneath the summer sky at night. It was so lovely and peaceful where we lived and it was something I really enjoyed. I started out with just a shot with some ice and water added. At some point I imagine that the one shot turned to two. A few years later, Mr. Stirly decided to buy a small supermarket. We had it for three years. We sold wine from a barrel and we had bottles of cheap gin, vodka and whiskey as well. During the last year or so, I started having a drink or two at work in the evening when I was by myself to break the boredom as business had gone down and customers were few. And I’d have a few glasses of wine after I got home from work at night. I also enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine on the sly while working on Saturday with Mr. Stirly and our sons. We eventually sold the business and I went to work for a TV company. I was under a lot of pressure at work and so the drinking continues to help me chill out after I got home at night – usually around 8 or 9pm – while I was cooking a meal for the next day and tidying up the house a bit. Anyway, the drinking to excess had become a habit that I kept up for many years. I had become a full-blown alcoholic although it was a while before I would admit it. Now I’ve gone into detail about this so you can understand what led up to my getting to that stage. I don’t know if I would have gone that route if we had stayed in Canada. I worked nights at our store in Canada the last three years we were there. I never drank at night, never drank during the day except if it was a holiday or perhaps a glass of wine with Sunday dinner. Drinking wasn’t the way of life there and things didn’t revolve around drinking on the weekend. We had small children and they were the centre of our life. I think that access to cheap booze here in Greece had something to do with my getting into an every-evening habit of having a shot or two. And the fact that alcohol was sold in the supermarkets and the corner stores, etc. It was and is cheap and readily available. In the beginning, I was lonely here without my family and wanted something to make me “feel better”. Then a few years later, there was the worry that the store we had wasn’t going well and then the stress of working at the TV company. I can’t say that I would have become a full-blown alcoholic if we’d stayed in Canada but I can’t say that I would have. My sister who drinks a glass of wine a day, if she does, has been through an incredible number of difficulties both financially and health-wise for both her husband and herself. Yet she never turned to the bottle. My other sister who drinks more or less sailed through life and even tho’ there were financial difficulties for them too, her drinking had started long before the bank foreclosed on their house.

As far as bad things that happened in the past to us having something to do with us being alcoholics, I can’t really say. I had what I considered to be a very good childhood. We were raised by parents who were devoted to their family and to each other. Their life revolved around family times. We were a lower middle class family but they did their best to provide for us and I can honestly say that we lacked for nothing. Money may have been tight at times but there was always a good roof over our heads, food on the table and family times that made wonderful memories.

Conclusion – what I said in the beginning – I believe that we inherit the genes but that circumstances play a great role in whether or not we will suffer from this disease, or simple have dormant genes.