The Story Of A Toxic Friendship With Alcohol.

The Authentic Eclectic

When a friend is no longer your friend…

I recently parted with a lifelong friend. It was a toxic relationship. Neither of us had treated the other well.

Until I die, I cannot say for certain that we won’t get back together. At the time of writing, however, the split appears permanent.

We’ve separated before. Never for the right reasons.

Everybody needs friends. Alcohol wants to be your friend.

I liked alcohol. I liked the taste. I tolerated the effect. By and large, alcohol was always considered my friend. And what’s better than a friend that’s always there for you?

I started drinking when I was around sixteen. I grew up in a rural area. Men went to the pub, that’s what happened. We, as teenage boys, followed like sheep. This would have been 1980.

That year two of my favourite rock musicians died. Bon Scott of AC/DC and John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Both drank themselves to death (with the help of other substances). Sixteen-year-old me of course never made any kind of connection between these events and drinking at the pub.

Before long, alcohol became part of the fabric of my existence. My close companion. We became at times inseparable. I drank because I was a drinker.

Important to say again that society represents drinkers and alcoholics as two completely separate groups. The media and marketing heavily reinforce this. Drinking is cool and does you no harm, being an alcoholic is a trait of a dirty, worthless and dangerous individual.

As I got older I became what is now called a high-functioning alcoholic. Employed and well paid. Paying the bills. Maintaining friendships and relationships. In denial. In de pub.

The relationship doesn't quickly become toxic just because one of you is literally poisonous.

Eventually, I developed alcoholic constipation. I was unable to pass a pub. My life became focused on my close friend. I planned my time around us spending time together on a daily basis.

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