h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

but then he would.

I'm going to get myself into rehab - a detox clinic to be exact. I've been drinking so much, and often, and most of the time on my own. I had a mini-intervention of sorts from Tom on Saturday, and I'm digging a fairly decent hole for myself about it. Time to do something about it, or I'm going to end up like Amy Winelake.

Go for it!

Good luck, hun.

Good luck.

Thanks guys, I'll let you know how I get on. It shouldn't be so hard to not do something. I'm pretty good at that, I don't do things all the time.

Evidently the clinic only deals with drug problems, as they have for me in the past. The only support they have for alcohol as a 'primary' is an NA meeting on Tuesday evenings, likely to be more geared, NPI, towards the more serious addicts there.

Perhaps for the best since things seemed pretty frantic there. They had a crew filming something for Channel 4 in the autumn (related to the murders - the project was centre stage for a time). So the alternatives are AA, private, or I deal with it myself, which may well be the better move.

Thanks for the email Ed

Well...practical steps. I've discovered that with a large bottle of diet tonic water and some Angoustura bitters, you can fool yourself that you're still drinking. Might help to wean you off the habit?

Might do, I'll give it a go. I remember a friend ordering something like it on one occasion, fruit juice was involved. Can't remember what it was called though. Faux Shandy or something.

The real motivation for it, when it started to get serious, was getting to sleep. The guy downstairs was doing crack, and his 'friend' was subjecting him to a campaign of abuse and violence that went on for the better part of a year. The noise was driving me mad - I took it to Orwell, who did nothing, they were in contact with the police, who were reviewing the situation but doing nothing. Finally the daughter of the woman on the ground floor brought a dirty pipe home, it made the local press, and the place was boarded up for 3 months. He came back afterwards, sans his friend.

He's gone now, and things are a lot better. The problem has gone, at home at least, but the solution persists. I found beer, being hops, was sufficiently soporific and did the job, so I got used to drinking every night. Then I took to wine at the weekends.

Another waening possibility...Sainsbury's Alcohol-free German Lager is practically drinkable.

Alternately...other activities may distract from the default activity of opening a can. Use the light evenings to be outside the house.

im in on Thing

I might take the camera out to Belstead when it's nice.

Thanks for the support Ed. I think I'll take this offsite for now.