To all.
On November 21st I sent out an email with no title, now I will give it one. I received an email in October 2022 from a man named Dave in response to my book and my blogs on www.addictionrealityeducation.com. The content about what alcohol and drugs do to the individual’s brain and body struck home with Dave and turned from drinking to get his body back. His email is below.
Dave sent a follow-up email about his progress and the fact that he fell back which many people do once, twice, or never come back. Dave’s email to me that going back was not the same and he again decide to abstain and drink lemon water. His 2nd email is below. I sent him an email back that it takes multiple approaches to alcohol and drug recovery, not just one approach or self-abstinence. So, consider, after reading Dave’s emails multiple approaches. It includes getting away from the people and places that reinforce bad behavior, finding support groups, (recovery orgs), volunteering for organizations that help others, getting involved (church/temple groups, St. Vincent DePaul, town programs), any job to set a financial base, housing to stay off the street, food programs, and creating good and helpful friends that support.
“Highway to Homelessness – Road to Recovery”, in chapter 3, how the character, Brian Masters, develops and progresses, 11 point action plan for setting a recovery foundation, and the “Recovery Capital Scale and Category Assessment” which I collaborated with William White, a world renown expert in homelessness and recover, to modify his original scale and publish it with Category Assessments. All my books are nonfiction addressing today’s social issues and talk to real people, places, and events in their lives. The books contain not only my experiences but also doctors, surgeons, nurses, and patients as well as people on the street, recovery facilities, and recovery experts.
For help for most addictions and homelessness, what to do, where to go, where are rehab facilities, and shelters for individuals, women, women with children, and families, check out and nationwide resource by type of substance abuse, the resources necessary, and which state and town, go to “help.org”.
Please take the time to read below, it may help you, a family member, or a friend.
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Dec 9, 2022, 11:43 AM | |||
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“Bill, I went to NYC with my kid on thanksgiving and drank alcohol at dinner with him two nights in a row.
When I came home I actually bought a six pack of beer and tried one and poured it down the drain. It tasted like shit and I just didn’t want it. I threw the rest away and just went back to my delicious ice cold lemon water.
I don’t drink now not because I know it’s bad for me. I don’t drink now because I just like who I am now and like the way I feel. I’m thinking if I wanted to start my old habits again it would be a very very difficult thing to do. This new way of life really requires zero effort at all.
Dave
Ps- I check my skin on a regular basis looking for improvements so the psychological self consciousness about that damage will probably never go away. I realize that the damage my skin incurred took decades to occur and will not repair itself in one year, if ever.”
The 1st email I received in October:
“Highway to Homelessness – Road to Recovery” is what people should know about the tragedy of street culture, homelessness, and substance abuse.
Below is an email I received in October of 2022. My earlier writings and material in “Highway to Homelessness – Road to Recovery” turned this man, Dave, away from a life of overdrinking so his body and his brain could heal. I have received many emails and verbal comments with the same message. Please read and pass it on as Dave asked. You may help yourself, a family member, or a friend.
He read a blog I wrote. Dave’s interest came from my early research and seminars. I wrote the blog, under the name Brian Masters https://addictionrealityeducation.com/2016/05/10/after-one-year-sobriety-your-brain-may-recover/
“On Tue, Oct 4, 2022 at 9:04 AM David<david@aol.com> wrote:
Hi, I saw your post about brain repair from sobriety, and I wanted to add my own observations to your storehouse of knowledge.
I am 64 years old, and started drinking beer in high school. All my adult life I drank beer after work, probably 3-6 a night, pretty much every night. That’s a lot of decades of abuse.
My eyelids were reddish, my nose darker, with spider veins in my cheeks. I could feel my swollen liver, with sometimes sharp pain starting 20 years ago in the upper region, moving lower as time went on.
I quit last November 11th, replacing beer with lemon water, and looking back I can say it was pretty easy! I wondered what took me so long to do it. I no longer have to take empties to the recycling center, go to the liquor store daily, wake up not feeling that great.
I’ve noticed definite improvements in my thinking. I don’t forget where I put stuff anymore, remembering even the stupidest things easily. I don’t now exactly how to explain it, but my brain is much much much better.
There is no longer any perceived swelling in my liver, the sharp pains have disappeared, and my bilirubin levels have returned to EXACTLY where they should be after reading 50% above normal two months after quitting.
The red eyelids have returned to perfectly toned skin color, most of the spider veins have disappeared, and I can’t tell about my nose yet.
There’s a lot of good stuff on the internet about sobriety but not a lot about specific changes in the body after quitting which is why I liked reading your post. For some, it’s almost another carrot dangling in front of the donkey reading about how the body fixes itself after quitting. Thank you for your time in doing that.
I’ll never drink again, knowing how devastating alcohol is to your body, and how good I feel now that I can see with my own eyes how, if given the chance, your body can forgive you for abusing it for so long.
I’m hoping some day I can look in the mirror and see 100% normal skin.
It’s strange writing to a total stranger about this, but if anything that I wrote is useful to anyone else, it was totally worth my time. Thanks for listening.
Dave”
William Reiley Butler
williamreileybutler@gmail.com