
Special thanks to Misha Priv for translating this article into English.
Visit Misha’s website: Thetawrite at http://thetawrite.com/
Russian version can be found on I CAN CHANGE MY LIFE website: http://icanchangemylife.info
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Sergej Terpenev
In the US my drinking binges came in succession about 4-5 months apart. And between binges I habitually lied to myself and everybody else that the previous binge was the last ever. Telling you this right now, after 3 years of sobriety, the entire sordid lifestyle and lies seem ludicrous. I am not going to bore you with all the romantic details of my life from hangover to hangover. It suffices to mention that I was hospitalized twice, each time for just one night. They’d kick me out in the morning, detoxified with some kind of IV and pumped with pills that seemed to make my legs freeze so I couldn’t even make it to the bathroom unassisted. They also charged me over $2000 for each of my hospital stays. As fog would eventually clear from my head, I’d realize once again that drinking mouthwash just set me back financially more than if I’d been drinking very expensive collectors wines.
You could always work more and earn more money but where are you going to get the health needed to work?! That is the question! I will tell you a secret: I am very lucky in life since I am still alive despite all the poison I consumed.
And I lucked out once again—I met a Russian doctor, a psychiatrist, also from Moscow. Our conversation was private so I will not disclose his name here. My new friend told me straight as a reply to my inquiries as to the methods of treatment, “Sergey, open your eyes. Alcoholism is incurable. Do you know why? Because it is not an illness, it is a dependency. There is no medical way to cure this condition. Intro-venous injections, cleansings and abstersions, pills and death threats do not rid a person of his addiction, they simply cause a remission. Therefore, if we consider alcoholism an illness, you will be stuck with treating it for the rest of your life.”
That wise and, to me, honest doctor advised me to try a lemon therapy, which supposedly reduced alcohol dependency. He did mention in passing, however, that we should check my stomach and health in general before we start such an abrasive therapy—just to avoid any adverse consequences. I replied sadly, “Alex, what are you talking about? What consequences? I drank everything, including glue. Don’t worry! A lemon diet to my stomach after everything it’s been through is gentle like a diet!”
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