You've reminded me of the one thing that I haven't been able to do up until now, forgive myself. I will try to forgive myself from this moment on. Thank you.
Hi Erick. Thanks for reading and I'm glad this somewhat rambling philosophical introspective resonated with you. I think many of us can know or 'glimpse' uncomfortable truths about ourselves, often for many years, but because they are uncomfortable or scary, we avoid or justify them, and thus we see the truth... but we don't actually see it. Forgiveness must happen for us to be comfortable enough to properly analyse ourselves, and from there we can begin to grow or change, and once that happens we are much better placed to analyse the behaviour of others and what is going on in the world around us.
Jul 19, 2023·edited Jul 19, 2023Liked by J.J. Dawson
Nothing complicated about my reasoning, J. J. It is simply based on my professional knowledge. As it happens, for more than 30 years (between 1959 and 1997) I worked as a senior staff nurse and psychiatric social worker in 5 different psychiatric hospitals in New Zealand and Australia. We always had some alcoholics in our admission wards - in Melbourne Repatriation Hospital in 1962, in fact, we had a whole ward just for alcoholics. While they were drying out our psychologists would work on them - knowing full well that only a spiritual awakening of a sort could possibly heal them from their fatal illness. With their agreement, we would usually transport them in a hospital car to the nearest AA meeting - the most likely organisation to succeed in helping them.
And, of course, in our geriatric dementia wards we met with the pitiful remnants of very many once proud and able individuals, the ones not already dead from cirrhosis of the liver or lung cancer (they always smoked), ending their days with crippling organic brain damage from their many benders.
This is fascinating. Thank you Andy for sharing some of your background with me. I will say that you have given me something to think about, which is precisely why I am open about my own journey -- I value all perspectives, especially clinical ones such as yours. I hope we can talk more about this as I continue to evaluate my sobriety. Thanks mate.
You've reminded me of the one thing that I haven't been able to do up until now, forgive myself. I will try to forgive myself from this moment on. Thank you.
Hi Erick. Thanks for reading and I'm glad this somewhat rambling philosophical introspective resonated with you. I think many of us can know or 'glimpse' uncomfortable truths about ourselves, often for many years, but because they are uncomfortable or scary, we avoid or justify them, and thus we see the truth... but we don't actually see it. Forgiveness must happen for us to be comfortable enough to properly analyse ourselves, and from there we can begin to grow or change, and once that happens we are much better placed to analyse the behaviour of others and what is going on in the world around us.
After all this, J. J., here is one bit of advice : "Don't ever drink again".
Straight for the jugular! I still have to respond to your last comment, but I'm curious to hear your reasoning on this Andy.
Nothing complicated about my reasoning, J. J. It is simply based on my professional knowledge. As it happens, for more than 30 years (between 1959 and 1997) I worked as a senior staff nurse and psychiatric social worker in 5 different psychiatric hospitals in New Zealand and Australia. We always had some alcoholics in our admission wards - in Melbourne Repatriation Hospital in 1962, in fact, we had a whole ward just for alcoholics. While they were drying out our psychologists would work on them - knowing full well that only a spiritual awakening of a sort could possibly heal them from their fatal illness. With their agreement, we would usually transport them in a hospital car to the nearest AA meeting - the most likely organisation to succeed in helping them.
And, of course, in our geriatric dementia wards we met with the pitiful remnants of very many once proud and able individuals, the ones not already dead from cirrhosis of the liver or lung cancer (they always smoked), ending their days with crippling organic brain damage from their many benders.
This is fascinating. Thank you Andy for sharing some of your background with me. I will say that you have given me something to think about, which is precisely why I am open about my own journey -- I value all perspectives, especially clinical ones such as yours. I hope we can talk more about this as I continue to evaluate my sobriety. Thanks mate.