Had lunch with a long-term friend. (Note, I did not say old. That would make me old, which I am not, I only feel that way sometimes.) She's been my friend since she moved into my school district in second grade. So, that's what?, something like 30 years?
She detoxed in December. She said it wasn't bad - in fact, she rather enjoyed it. Nobody to look after but herself, they made all the food, she could hang around all day in her pajamas. How sad is it that the only way we can get a few days to ourselves anymore, and reduce the pressure we feel, by checking into detox? When did the madness that's become the life of a working mom get so bad that we need to self-medicate with alcohol and prescriptions? When being on an anti-depressent has become a way of life. My grandfather was an alcoholic. My mother tells me he wasn't always. The people he worked with had a hard drinking lifestyle. They could handle it; he couldn't and, in the end, he was "asked" to retire. I wonder if the pressure of providing for a family, of meeting the needs of everyone but himself were factors for him. My grandmother worked too, and hard; she was a brilliant woman who helped set up Medicare in our home city. Did he feel he wasn't good enough because she had to work. My mother says my grandmother worked because she had to. But would she have worked if she didn't have to?
I don't know.
1 comment:
I totally understand how easy it can be to start using substances for stress relief. Sometimes we just need an escape, and it's easier to find it in a bottle than it is to sit and ask your family/friends/surrounding people for help. (How often have you said "I'm stressed" only to be answered "you think you have it bad? Listen to me..."?) It is sad that medical situations are more relaxing than vacations sometimes!
I had a friend who had gone through a detox right before senior year. She showed me pictures of her from when she was using, told me about detox... that was enough to keep me pretty far away from chemical substances. Now, being a mom, I feel like I have to stay healthy and alert for my Munchkin, so substances are not an option. My escapes center around music and reading. Sometimes it even works.
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