Ladies/Gentlemen;
Please remember that this is my own experience and opinion.
I am constantly amazed at the "Science of Alcoholism". I can assure you that after all these years, I can very well remember my last bout with the bottle and my first few days of sobriety.
If somebody had offered me any of the definitions of my problem through scientific explanation or any other means, I would probably be dead by now.
What I was seeking was hope, desperate hope from somebody who would understand me. Deep within myself somewhere, was my own understanding that I was in serious trouble and I couldn't have given a tinkers damn about the reasons why. I had already tried all that and drank my way through it.
What I needed and found was another person who had the same problem as I did and could help me find a way out of it and get the monkey off my back.
I believed the people I met, gingerly at first, as I could relate to them, they seemed to have had the same problems as I was having. Hope was at last there and I could see by the way they were living and the stories they were telling, that they were just like me.
If science were to invent a pill today that would allow me to start drinking again, do you think I would attempt it. Not on your nellie. Living was my problem and I drank to escape it and these people showed me how to live again.
Remember the old adage, "KISS", Keep it simple, stupid!.
For those of you whether it is flight crews, FAs, mechanics, rampies or whatever, and you are experiencing that irrational fear that is driving your every moment, find another person to talk to who may have had the same problem. Even at first, it may not solve your problem but it will spark something inside you that will arise again when needed and may prompt you to get the help you need.
I wish I could crawl into this screen and offer each one of you who may be in trouble, a little bit of what I have. I am in the land of the living again and so happy to be here. My life has all kinds of problems today but they pale in comparison to what I had before the cork went in the bottle.
Best wishes to all,
carholme