Enjoy the Benefits of Being a Drunk Without Negative Consequences
My enthusiasm for alcohol began on my First Communion Day. To celebrate this first encounter with the tiny free bread handed out by priests, my family took me to the pub. This is my earliest memory of being in that kind of environment, and it was love at first sight. I was only 7, so there was no way I was ever going to be served, but this did not deter me. After a few hours of observing the proceedings, I started to just pretend that I’d been drinking alcohol (even though the only beverage to enter my gob was red lemonade). Just by the power of imagination, my behavior radically changed. I felt confident and at ease in my surroundings. I started talking complete gibberish (even more so than usual), and I even swayed from side-to-side when I went to the toilet.
All alcohol (or any drug) ever does is change perception. I grew to love the perceptional changes triggered by drinking. There is no mystery here. Of course I was going to be attracted to something that helped me to feel comfortable in my own skin and more at ease around other people. How could I not be attracted to something that made life a bit more…well… magical? These were reasonable things to want, but my mistake was to believe that alcohol was required to create these perceptional shifts. I didn’t realize it at the time, but there was very little difference between pretending to be drunk and being drunk (other than the former doesn’t create a hangover unless I pretended to have that as well).
My point here is not to suggest that people pretend to be drunk – although it would be much cheaper and make rehab more fun. What I am saying is that the things alcohol provides can be obtained in better ways. We don’t need a drug to change our perception. It just requires the realization that what we are perceiving is just an interpretation, and we can learn to perceive in new and wonderful ways.
