The Virtues

[Jimbo92]

Recently started watching this show. sure it resonates and rings home with a lot of people. Almost gave me anxiety watching it, especially the scene in the pub!

Has anyone else given this a go?? What do you think?

[SoberDrunk1]

I saw one of the episodes on youtube after I saw your post. Could relate. But the problem drinkers think it wont get this bad and keep drinking.

[LilyAnnepuppy Ambassador]

I’ve never watched it but read synopsis of each episode on Wikipedia. Too dark for my tastes. I lived the horrors of active alcoholism. Why relive that pain?

[Jimbo92 in reply to LilyAnnepuppy]

I agree it’s quite dark and unsettling butMaybe the awareness is what some people need?

[SoberDrunk1 in reply to Jimbo92]

The problem is we cant scare people into recovery. Most problem drinker out there, never thinks the calamities out there happening because of drinking is not going to happen to him or even if it does, it scares him a bit but he shys away over a period and returns back to the old ways of drinking. This cycle is repeated over and over again. Until and otherwise, he has a deep realization that he is doomed. Even then it could go either way. Some seek for solution sincerely others give up.

[Jampacked]

Hi I haven't watched it yet. I am tempted, I need to be reminded of the horrors of alcohol but it can be painful. I also watched 'The Dry' on ITVX it has some humour a little lighter but painful in parts. I like the idea of the recovering alcoholics voice. I think in life people tend to look at and sadly down on people with alcohol issues. It's good to hear the voice of the recovering alcoholic to recognise their (enviable) strength, resolve and resilience rather than looking on pitying. My faith, Books , TV everything and anything that turns me away from alcohol is part of my toolkit.

[Jimbo92 in reply to Jampacked]

Spot on. That comment about looking down on people with issues, is the problem. The archetypal ‘alcoholic’ that no one will ever become. Instead of taking account for our own faults, we look down on people that we deem to be lower than us or further down the rabbit hole. Think it’s a way people cope and reassure themselves but unfortunately it adds to the damage.

It’s good to have that tool kit, mate. I hope you do watch it and let me know what you think!

[fauxartist]

I stay out of bars and pubs, it's just a place to go and drink and I don't drink. I'm not interested in re-living my drunken babble days of stupid drunkeness by being around people getting drunk, or watching movies like 'the hangover'. Been there and done that. Now if I don't remember something, I can blame it on old age.

[Isinatra in reply to fauxartist]

10-4 on that. The drinking days are deeply imprinted enough for me. Thank goodness. When I was in early recovery and watched movies about alcoholism, they made me want to drink. I watched Lost Weekend in a detox. I told the tech it made me crave alcohol. They took it off the movie roster.

There needs to be more “I’m in recovery, this is how I did it and I’m glad of it.”

Education, lecturing and scare tactics never got me sober. I had to experience it myself until I had enough and life became like death.( Metaphorically speaking.) I wasn’t close to physical death, but I knew it was coming if I didn’t stop.

[fauxartist in reply to Isinatra]

Exactly.....alcohol should be a controlled substance...but because of the money making machine it is... we are inundated in life with it being an acceptable norm...it's not. It's the most dangerous drug out there....

[Isinatra in reply to fauxartist]

It’s a killer for sure. But the deal is that not all people who drink become alcoholic or abuse it. To make it a controlled substance for everybody, in a lot of minds, would be unfair. How to make it unavailable to some and not for others at the same time would take some careful thinking and planning. How would a person be determined if they have alcoholic tendencies when even some people inherit the tendency for abuse but never become abusers. Science is having a hard time with that. There’s the rub. Or atleast one of them.

[fauxartist in reply to Isinatra]

I agree that not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic. But I also believe you don't become an alcoholic, I believe you are genetically pre-disposed. And if you never drink although you are born with addictive pre-dispositions, your probably okay not calling yourself an alcoholic until you pick up drinking and can't stop.

The argument said that alcohol isn't the problem, it's the person drinking it goes for the same as heroin or any other drug I think. Not everyone is a drug addict, but the drug is still illegal. And not everyone will become an addict by trying an addictive drug once.

I never had the blackouts, memory loss, complete personality change, anger outbursts with no filters which alienate people around you, loss of self-control and dignity with anything else I've ever tried or taken like I do with alcohol. I just never was so out of control of my actions when I had smoked a joint, or did a line of coke. Nothing affects me the same as alcohol does...maybe that's just me. It's why I don't and can't drink, it's a personal choice.

[Isinatra]

I understand what you’re saying, faux. I was mostly referring to difficulties in making alcohol a controlled substance. It would require laws (politics) and a backlash from people not wanting their rights taken away, who, at the time , don’t have a problem with alcohol.

All addictions aren’t the same and have different outcomes and treatments and reasons for the addiction. Alcoholism is one unto itself. I hesitate to compare it to other addictions.

Your last paragraph fits me to a T. It was a personal choice for me also. I just didnt want to die or wish I was dead.