When I was renovating a house a few years back I developped a repetitive strain injury in my elbow from sanding and stripping and painting ( commonly called tennis elbow) it was very painful and required rest and support.
Thankfully this was not my career so I have made a full recovery and could now resume that activity without a problem, but now mindful that in excess the 'disease' will return. If I had not rested I would be in permanent pain and have done irreversible damage.
Surely this is how we should view our drinking. At the beginning we were doing it to excess, ignored the warnings, the hangovers, the DUIs, the damaged relationships. If we had reduced our drinking and never returned to those levels we would have been able to be 'normal' drinkers again. But we did not, we continued drinking too much, too often and became chemically dependant.
Why I chose to drink to excess in the first place is the part I can now address. This is the work to prevent relapse. The 'disease' of alcoholism is now part of my makeup. I can no more reverse it than I can reverse my grey hairs.
We are not alcoholics because we HAD a disease, we are NOW alcoholically diseased because we did not reduce our consumption in time.
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