Rock Bottom

I try to limit my night driving just because I start my work days so early, but sometimes schedules and distant between clients leave me no choice. Tonight I drove between Jackson, MS and Memphis, TN and as you can tell from the timing of this post I got in rather late. So tonight’s post although relevant, will be rather brief.

Getting off the exit for my hotel, I decided to gas up so as not to have to fool with it in the morning. I watched at the other pump as a man tossed a few empty beer cans into the trash and then reloaded his console from the cooler in the trunk. It reminded of the days before I had hit rock bottom, when I drank to maintain.

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My work requires fairly extensive travel. Even though I prefer driving because of the freedom and flexibility it allows in my schedule, sometimes the distances and timelines can only be satisfied by air travel. So I usually find myself flying three or four times a month disguised as a mild mannered businessman.

In such cramped circumstances, squeezed between too many fellow travelers at 30,000 feet you would think that addiction and recovery topics would be taboo but amazingly enough I have had some great discussions over the past year.

There was the time I got to grill the doctor of infectious diseases about ailments directly related to substance abuse. Then there was the time I got to talk to a psychiatrist specializing in sleep disorders about how people new to sobriety can learn how to sleep again without any chemical lullabies.

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