I do not have problems turning down alcohol yet. I am not sure if that is due to lack of influence or weak temptations. My brother’s girlfriend offered me white wine on Friday night. She said she put a bottle in the fridge earlier. It seemed she bought it for my visit. I declined it and requested water instead. She did not encourage or ask offer it again. Neither she nor my brother were drinking booze that night. So no pressure.

I am visiting my mom now. She is aware of my intentions to quit. I shared with her some of the things I learned from the audiobook I was listening to on my roadtrip. She asked me if I believe alcoholism is a disease. She never believed my dad had a disease. She thought he just did not have the desire to quit. I told her I believe there are different levels of alcoholism. I think delirium tremen seizures are proof that it can be a medical problem. I do not have a physical addiction. But I am hoping I will be encourage to never drink again by noting some of the problems and mistakes from my drinking habits.

Mistake #5: Well this was not just one mistake. There were many times I would stay up late drinking wine or beer while my mom visited or when visiting her. Then the next day, I would sleep in while she would read the newspaper and drink her coffee. Sometimes it caused us to have a late start if we had site-seeing plans. Or I would sleep away most of my visit. She would place the empty wine bottles in the recycling bin and I would apologize when I woke up. If I drank a bottle during dinner, she would make some comment about not knowing how I could drink that much. Then she would give her consent to open a second bottle. I think living in denial of a husband’s disease formed her beliefs that her children could control it too.