Sober Living

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 10: Relapse I continued my baby steps through IOP, reading, making new friends, getting back to work and, in general, applying myself. But relapse struck faster than it took me to build this my new reality. It seemed as if I had discovered a new property, surveyed…

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 9: Recovery Sandwiched in between the weekends in New Orleans and Las Vegas, I began intensive outpatient treatment (IOP), a new experience on my recovery road. An information brochure at the facility told me it uses twelve step and proven clinical treatment methods to help you make…

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 8: One night in Vegas My second, pre-detox booked trip arrived two weeks after New Orleans – a night of boxing in Las Vegas for the fourth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. I was out of the southern frying pan into the Nevada fire.…

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 7: Fade to Black By spring 2012, my California misadventure continued in the same way as described. At work, I still enjoyed my post but applied for a role in Texas better suited to my communications background. But on the drinking front, affairs literally darkened. My boozing…

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 6: People, Places and Things During Detox, a number of counselors advised the group to avoid familiar people, places and things as they may trigger relapse. At first, I struggled to grasp the concept. ‘People’ represented me and a handful of others as I lived thousands of…

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 5: Nerves, Sickness, Lies, Loneliness For the first time in October 2006 I suffered what became a constant thorn in my flesh while in Toronto on vacation. Living back home in the UK, my drinking zig-zagged between consistent and out of control. During this vacation, it was…

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 4: Detox A new day and an afternoon taxi ride into the unknown wilderness of rehab. Hazy sleep brought some levity as my emotions stopped bouncing like a pinball. I set out hoping my destination would result in improvement on yesterday’s fiasco. I had no alternative. Pity…

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait Chapter 3: Drinking I didn’t become an alcoholic overnight. My journey, if you can call it that, into dependency began in my mid-twenties. I started drinking at fifteen and despite finding it as attractive as swallowing sludge, my worn down taste buds lost the fight. Gradually, it became…

Six Weeks Until Christmas by Simon Tait An Introduction During his first couple of weeks sober, Simon Tait began journaling some of his immediate thoughts and experiences. Moving from rehab to outpatient treatment, the writing assignments at the latter challenged him to dig a little deeper into his twenty-year alcohol addiction and he enjoyed the…

“Alcohol withdrawal” is the term given to the symptoms one experiences after sudden cessation of excessive and regular alcohol consumption. The more (or longer) you’ve been drinking, the more severe the withdrawal symptoms are likely to be. Alcohol withdrawal can be extremely dangerous; if you or a loved one are experiencing symptoms, even if you…