Blackouts don’t stop alcoholics from drinking
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“BLACKOUT: ‘I did? I was just way too drunk to know what I was doing,’ said Joshua W. Harrison, 27, after he was told the circumstances of his arrest — and why he had been shot. ‘I would never burglarize my next-door neighbor and especially when they’re home. Come on.’ Harrison had apparently locked himself out of the Lexington, Ky., house he shares with his girlfriend, and thought he was climbing in his own window to get inside. But instead he was climbing through a neighbor’s window late at night, police say. The two women who lived there were terrified, and when he made it inside one of the women shot him — and hit him in the butt. He was treated at a hospital and released to the police, who charged him with burglary. Harrison, who has an extensive police record, including multiple arrests for intoxication, isn’t sure if he’ll still have a job — or a girlfriend — when he gets out of jail. ‘I’ve probably lost everything because of this,’ he said. (Lexington Herald-Leader) …But I’ll bet that won’t be enough to convince him to stop drinking.”
Blackouts are periods of time during drinking episodes that a person will never remember because events don’t enter the memory banks. Because “coming to” after a blackout can be so terrifying, anyone experiencing more than one and for whom, therefore, the pleasure of use outweighs the terror, almost surely has the disease of alcoholism. And that is the reason Randy once again gets it right: it is only that “final” blackout that convinces the addict to stop drinking for good, and the “final” drink is a rare one in the life of the alcoholic.
Losing everything at such a young age may sober Harrison up for a while. However, without a program of sobriety, he is unlikely to stay the course. Anyone who knows Mr. Harrison could help by explaining, when he is sober, that his numerous arrests, likely loss of job and girlfriend, along with his bizarre mistake in entering the wrong home were all a result of a disease that compels him to sometimes and unpredictably act badly when he drinks. Mr. Harrison, do yourself and the society to which you cling as parasite a favor: don’t ever drink again.
(Story and tagline from “This is True,” copyright 2008 by Randy Cassingham, used with permission.)
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