This might be a weird question/topic, but I am wondering if anyone else has ever "personafied" alcohol in their lives. And by that, I mean that if "alcohol" were a character in the play of your life, what would it look like, sound like, act like, etc.? I ask because I feel like the power of alcohol is that it can tap into each of our individual desires and fears, and manifest itself in our minds in ways that will make us feel weak and helpless to its strength.
For me, I imagine "alcohol" looking a lot like the little girl from The Exorcist. Remember how terrifying that movie was? It was one of my favorite scary movies as a teenager before I started drinking. After my addiction really took hold of me, I started personafying alcohol like the evil spirit from that movie... being drunk resembling posession: losing control, acting irrationally, slurring, being mean and hateful, and tapping into the worst parts of my personality. I don't think that being drunk is totally unlike that movie, for me, and it scared me a lot more after that.
The more I distance myself from alcohol, the more in control I feel of my life. And that is such a blessing. Yet, that frightening image is always in the back of my head.
-Adam
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When every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual growth, no situation can really be a bad one.-Paul Brunton
What an interesting topic ... In the past, when I really got into my addiction to alcohol, I always imagined the devil ... much like you're depiction above, an evil spirit invading my mind and body ... and having such control that no one, excepting someone with the 'power of God' could help me ... I truly did felt 'possessed' ...
Today, I often refer to alcohol as 'King Alcohol' ... in that I feel he can promised me pleasure beyond belief if I just bow down before him ... oh yes, he has power, and plenty of it ... but now I have God watching over me and I have faith that He will protect me from the lures that King Alcohol put in front of me ... King Alcohol rules his own domain and me taking one drink is like bowing down before him because he then has his rule over me just the way he intended ... at that point, I become his slave again ... this is one reason I pray daily, to maintain my spiritual fitness ... with that, I can tell the King to go 'F' himself ... LOL
Pappy
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Interesting observation, Adam. I never saw the movie -personally, but I can relate to those feelings you talked about. This movie and our alcoholism do have one thing in common, though: It's called 'exorcising our own demons'. Sobriety is just that, Adam: A redemptive rendition of "A Wonderful Life". Amen to that...
-- Edited by Mr_David on Friday 28th of September 2012 11:35:11 PM
Personify alcohol? I see a man who is somehow sick in a spiritual sense. In a bad way. He is a complete turnoff to everyone around him. He resembles a clean cut, likeable man but little. He speaks in ways that is disgusting and even disturbing to those around him. He is often someone people like, but before they know it hes saying or doing many things to create enemies..He is gross, He's a perfect painting on the wall, but he sits outside in the rain letting the colors run, he lets people down, he lets himself down, he's in a constant spiral going downward making trips to the liquor store again and again until he has little or nothing.
I hadn't thought of that in a long time ... we had to do that in one of the rehabs I went to ... it does help make the whole thing more personal ... thanks for sending me back for a second ...
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'