Not going to funerals...
- By girly-d
- On 27/04/2021
- 1 comments
Not going to funerals...
Someone I know died recently. The details are sketchy and from what I can gather, not very pleasant, so I won't elaborate too much right now, but what I will say is that the news absolutely floored me...mainly because someone else I know, (and thought the world of) is currently suspected of causing her death.
I got a text.
It was late at night and I’d just finished work, when a guy I know from rehab crept into my DM's and told me the news.
It knocked for six.
And if I'm absolutely honest, I'm still reeling.
Because I can't quite get my head around the fact that yet again, someone I know is dead and that a guy who was like a brother to me, someone I looked up to, is thought to be responsible,
We met in detox.
Two lost souls in a room choc full of other lost souls, and within a matter of days we were friends.
Because that's what you do when you are fighting an addiction that really wants to kill you. You form bonds, you support each other, and you cheer each other on...because there is strength in numbers and you know that if you try and deal with things by staying on your own, the bad thoughts will consume you and the chances are that you will break in there.
So you get your little army together and you stand and you fight.
And you get clean and you leave, and you try to navigate a world where the one thing you relied on more than anything else to help you to cope is off limits to you. And you baby step it, and you baby step it, and you risk assess everything...people, places, getting on a bus even, and you wobble around like a new-born lamb praying that at some point you will get your groove back, and recovery will start to make sense.
But then life throws a grenade at you and catches you off guard...and old thought patterns scramble to the front of your mind, literally falling over themselves in their rush to “help" by offering their solution...which means that now you have two choices. Keep pushing forward with sobriety and trust that this will pass...or reach for the bottle, the needle, or whatever, and choose to drag yourself straight back to hell...
Push or pull.
Push or pull.
Push or...
I am very, very lucky.
I chose to push forward.
I pushed and I pushed and I keep fucking pushing, because I've been to hell already once and with every single breath in my body, I do everything in my power to never go back.
For some of my friends this wasn't an option, and instead of pushing they pulled it towards them, and they took a swig or they chased or whatever...and now they are dead or they're dying, or they're facing fucking prison time.
I'm not going to go to the funeral. Too many emotions in too small a space, with not enough healthy coping mechanisms to go around, means that the stage will be perfectly set for someone else to relapse, and I just can't bear to see another of my friends fall by the wayside, whilst the grim reaper sits there, quietly in the corner, looking like the cat who's got the cream.
So instead I'll stay here and I'll sit and I'll write.
Pin it all down, in black and white, so that anyone who reads this can see the true human cost that comes with addiction.
It can join all the other pieces, here on my blog.
Story after story of heartbreak, loss, and the ravenous, bottomless pit of addiction, written by a woman who is truly fucking sick to death of having to wear black and eating cheap cocktail sausage rolls .
Comments
-
- 1. Grant Maclean On 03/11/2020
There is still no further news at this time - thank you for this .
Add a comment
