I decided to write my book, The Mind Detective after spending some years working with really damaged, difficult and often homeless alcoholics and seeing some success. I am not going to pretend getting people better from their addiction is a walk in the park, only a few actually make it long term.

I was never addicted to alcohol in the sense I could go for days without one but on the days I did drink, I could drink for England. Getting drunk in the fast world of stocks and shares, champagne and cocaine, money and often debauchery, I trained with the best drunks the City of London square mile had to offer. This internship helped me develop a huge appetite for over indulgence but not because I wanted to drink to forget but because I actually enjoyed the social whirlwind that went with it.

In my opinion and from my hands on work with alcoholics, the only way to get better and become an operating human being again, is to stop drinking. I have found there is no point in trying to help sort someone out and help them quit drinking, until they have stopped and this choice to stop must come from the individual alone. Getting drunk is often done to escape your truth, by dulling your thinking, feelings and internal emotional pain. It is a fact if you spend your life drunk you will remain stuck in the same place, always going down a snake right back to start again because drunks always come last.

Most of you reading this probably drink too much and too often, some will still have a handle on reality but getting drunk at all to me is pointless if you can't remember the good time you think you are having. Life is what you make it and true happiness comes from being at peace with yourself and the world. My advice is as follows;

Don’t drink to forget. Just forget to drink.

Photo by: Alex Knight Unsplash