More than 700 people attended the annual Alcoholics Anonymous convention at the Palais des Congrès du Futuroscope this weekend. Two patients, now abstinent, told us about their struggle with their addiction.
They agreed to confide, with their faces hidden. To tell us about their extra drinks. How they have lost control of their consumption to the point of risking losing everything. How they coped with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. And how proud they are.
We will therefore call them Gladys and Julien, two names borrowed. These shy people have one thing in common: they started drinking to feel good “more comfortable” in the society. “It happened gradually, Julian says, I drank at parties with other people, the alcohol uninhibited me, it made me feel at ease, I reached out to other people, it was amazing.”
I had discovered a product that took away my fears and discomfort.
Julien, abstinent alcoholic
Julien was then 18 years old and very quickly added drugs to alcohol. Everything changes. “I took it all. My excessive drinking calmed everything that passed through me.”
This feeling of “to live better, to feel better, to better manage (one’s) emotions in public”this is also why Gladys started “drink alcohol quietly” in the bars of Niort. That, and alcoholic parents. Like the father of his daughter after all. “One day my sister, who is a nurse, told me: I think you drink too much. So I stopped, alone”.
Gladys lasts for four years. She meets the father of her child, gets married and dives again. She more beautiful, she for eleven years. “I was often sick and when we received people at home my husband excused me. He said I had gastro” she remembers. “What gastros I had…”.
At the time, neither Julien nor Gladys was ready to admit that they had a problem. That they are sick. “I was in denial. I couldn’t accept that I was an alcoholic, Julian says. I’m just saying I’m helpless over alcohol and I’ve lost control of my life, it took me years.”
The process of acceptance has also been long for Gladys. Until one day her family gives him an ultimatum. “They told me: it’s us or the alcohol. If I had continued I would have lost everything”.
Determined to get well, she then goes to her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where she remembers crying “for an hour and a half”. “At first I went there to please my daughter and save my couple”, he admits, before hearing “better to better” for weeks and meetings.
“AA is a family” Julian analysis, they give us the tools to take another look at life. They support us.” Several times he tried wean yourself, “but each time the disease resurfaced and progressed”.
The 50-year-old is entering his seventh year of sobriety. The 16th for Gladys. A satisfied grandmother, she now claims to feel “better”. “Sometimes my shyness comes back, but I can control it better. I can even express myself in public.”
I have accepted my illness and I do everything to make my children forgive me. I was told that my daughter had put me to bed several times, I don’t remember…”
Gladys, abstinent alcoholic
The shame of the past has given way to the pride of having climbed a slope that could have taken them away. Gladys never misses an opportunity to spend time with her children and grandchildren. Julien resumed his studies. He has done a training and works in the social sector. A scenario that he thought was impossible. “Today I can say that I am happy to live, I have a joie de vivre that carries me, it was unexpected” gets excited. “I thought I’d never get out of this, but when I look at my journey, it’s miraculous.”
