Wendy’s Story: A Drinking Memoir

by Paul Churchill | Jul 25, 2017 | Alcohol Relapse, Blog, Early Sobriety, The First 24, The First 30

June 28, 2017

In an effort to get my story down on paper this is my attempt.  This burning desire has stirred inside me for quite some time.  I think more ever over the past 6 months as I have been listening to others on the recovery elevator podcasts.  Also with my own year of sobriety this week.  Where to start is  so difficult so I will try my best not to jump around too terribly much.

I am 41 years old, live in Hewitt, TX, have been married for 10 years and have 2 children that are 6 & 9.  I was born in New Orleans and lived there for 25 years.  I do not have to tell anyone that in this particular culture alcohol is the norm of the day complete with .25 martini lunch specials.

I grew up with 2 teetotaler parents.  Mom never was quiet about letting me know that she grew up with an alcoholic father (her reason for not drinking)  who has passed before I was born.  She often recounted how wonderful he was without alcohol and what a tyrant he turned into when he drank.  She also used to talk about how grateful she was during lent as he would abstain from it for those 40 days and how peaceful and happy her house was during that time.  My dad on the other hand did not touch the stuff probably it is my opinion because he was such a control freak.  He was your stereo typical military man and mom was the enabler of his controlling personality.

My only sibling is 9 years older than me, so essentially though a brother was more of my ‘partner in crime’.  He was a very late bloomer. But boy, when he bloomed he was out of the gate and off to the races.  More on that later.  But back to me.  With the brief description of my home life above I think the recipe was there for me to be the rebellious child that I turned out to be.  I don’t remember my first drink but remember getting drunk at 12 with the Wild Turkey in my parents’, barely, if ever touched liquor cabinet.  I came of age in the time of hair bands and fell in love with the whole image portrayed in all the music videos.  II fell for the image hook, line and sinker as I was very impressionable by way of lyrics and video- very deep like that lol…. The NKOTB and boy band girls, well in my mind, they were just the goody-goodies in my all girls Catholic school.  From that time on, my ‘drinking career’ began and my school days were filled with planning the weekend escapades always centered on the need to get drunk.  While there was some pot and acid during the high school years, later a bit of cocaine, alcohol was always my drug of choice.  I was the one who always drank unto complete obliteration and was sloppy from the beginning.  During that time my brother was also involved with a woman who worked at a ‘dance club’ in the French Quarter.  I remember it being so cool to go see her in these clubs, drinking at the bar getting men to buy drinks and getting to know the dancer’s, I mean what other 15 year olds get to do that?  For some reason I romanticized their life choices, so different from my typical upper middle class suburbia life.   I also recall going to Lollapalooza at the UNO Lakefront being passed out before it started due to my gatorade/vodka concoction.  I mean that gets you drunk super fast right?  I remember even now the ‘far off’ voices as people passed pointing me out while I was passed out on the grass.  There were many, many  times of episodes like these which eventually led to my mom telling my dad that I needed counseling.  He was not super keen on this idea as his ‘ship’ was absolutely fine in his mind, after all I went to an upstanding school and my grades were good so what else could matter.  The counseling was most likely a good move as we (my mom included) learned a lot about our family.  The counselor characterized my dad as a ‘dry alcoholic’, which explained his propensity to fly off the handle and be emotionally abusive without the need of substance fuel.  It explained how my mom just went from one dysfunctional alcoholic home and just so easily walked into a similar life with my dad.  The counselor did at that time put me on an anti depressant at around 16.  I think this is important to mention because I am not sure, but think this may have to do with why mostly all of my drinking was ‘black out’ drinking and/or a contributing factor.  As I write this, I am pained because I realize more and more that every important event during my ‘formative years’ were in an alcohol induced haze.  This is so fundamentally opposite from everything I hope and pray for my own children.  I will also mention just I never did go to a high school- school dance, was never asked, nor did I ask anyone.  Looking back I see was due to a non existent self esteem and never feeling liked/loved by my father.  The male in the family who is typically the one who molds a girls view of herself and relationship with the opposite sex.  With my dad being gone now, that is hard to say but I really felt that way.  He did a great job as being the ‘family provider’ and I do believe he did the best he know how to do, but was emotionally absent as a father.  More of the same continued with my senior year presenting some more poor life choices and lessons.  One being on the day before of my senior year reflection ‘retreat’, I snuck out and took my parents car.  It was closing night of a popular local bar and I just couldn’t miss.  I proceeded to get drunk, drive and receive my first DUI at 17.  (those charges were reduced as I was a minor and never did follow me)  Hence, I was in a holding cell while my peers were at the retreat and my parents could not get me out.  My dad’s pride got in the way as going to get his own daughter out of jail would be an epic failure.  So my brother’s lady friend came to get me out later that day.   There were also some other life changing poor choices I made that year which were the indirect results of alcohol.  For the sake of not setting out to write a book, I am just trying to highlight some of the things that are really painful to think about and for the most part I like to leave in the recesses of my mind.

I proceeded to get thru college doing the bare minimum and skated on by with a Bachelor in Business. These days I wonder what I could have/would have done if I had applied myself.  I think I would have pursued veterinary science which is my passion.   During these years I worked in the restaurant industry in New Orleans and like every good server, had a great shift, proceeded on to the bar down the street and close it down always tipping extraordinarily well.  And as was my MO I was extremely generous, buying everyone in the bar and bartenders shots even helping them clean up at daybreak as this is New Orleans as there is no 2 am closing time.  Not sure how I ever made rent during this time as I am pretty sure I circulated every penny back into the local economy by way of my bar tab.  I cannot say how many ‘next day’ visits I had to go back to the bar and retrieve my lost credit cards.  Also I can recount how my hand would shake while serving guests for their work lunch and how I would profusely sweat out the alcohol.  I am not sure how people did not complain and I was not fired from smelling like liquor, though many of my motley crew at the restaurant probably gave off the same aroma. Now I realize also that I was most likely still drunk during those lunch shifts.  That was pretty ‘par for the course’ for me.  A time during this period I think is worth high lighting that was a ‘I could have been dead’ is an evening I had been drinking with my roommates and decided to go off by myself.  I went to a French Quarter dive and drank until they closed.  I then went to my car and passed out.  I was awakened by a thug in the passenger’s seat.  He said he had a knife and told me to drive.  In my dazed state I did as he said and only remember I kept pointing to the fraternal order of police sticker I had on my front window.  I kept telling him my dad was a cop (not true) and he would not get away with anything.  While I had to stop at a light he must have been spooked by my ramblings as he took my keys out of the ignition and ran.  At this time a transvestite (I kid you not) came to me as I screamed and went after him under the bridge.  A short time later he/she (an angel to me) came back with my keys!  Wow…..  He/she asked me for a ride.  So shaken up I agreed.  I took them a short distance and because they saw how traumatized I was, they got out and asked the car in front of me to lead me to the interstate so I could get home!  Just writing this gives me chills and I have never waned on my gratitude for this angel nor lost the knowledge I could have easily have been dead during that whole ordeal.

When I was 25, a job opportunity sent me to Austin, TX.  The only thing that changed in my ‘drinking career’ was I became a bit more ‘refined’ in way of what I drank.  Good red wines, Bombay gin, and Grey Goose were the name of my game. I was a young ‘professional’ now.  So my life would consist of working and stopping on the way home for a bottle of wine.  My golden retriever Teddy and I would sit and listen to music and I would pretend to learn to play my Takamine guitar on the balcony.  Then I would finish that bottle and head to the store nice and buzzed with my loyal Teddy to get another bottle.  So essentially 2 BIG bottles of wine were essentially normal during these days along with many drunk calls to family and friends.  I would also, always ‘clean up’ my apartment really well in a blackout before I stumbled in bed.  This was mainly because I did not want to awake in the mornings and see or feel the ‘shame’ of my behavior.  If the wine bottles and glasses were gone I could ‘pretend’ it never happened.  Never mind the sometime urine soaked sheets or sickening and agonizing headaches.! Gosh I hate to think about all this, but this was my life for so long.  My first ‘official’ adult DUI came during this time at age 29  in  2004 on one of my ‘second runs’ to the store for wine and a drunken stop to Jack in the Box.  Thankfully Teddy did not come along on that ride.  I had over negotiated a turn and ran off the road thankfully only wrecking my car.  Here is one of the many insanity stories.  I was so drunk, I went into a bar less than a block away.  I told the bartender I needed one more drink as I knew the police would be looking for me and I would be going to jail.  Smart guy or gal did not give me a drink, the cops did come in, and I went to jail- in my pajamas……

I hate to ‘skip around’, but I did not mention a couple of important things.  First I haven’t said much about it, but throughout this journey there were several failed relationships.  Kind of a no brainer they would not succeed as either the counterparts were also alcoholics or if they weren’t the alcohol would cause its demise.  I also did ‘know’ in the back of my head I had a problem, doing all of the you may be an alcoholic if quizzes etc..  I also read books written about recovery, mostly while I was drunk!  One in particular I recommend to this day as it resonated on so many levels with me, it is Drinking: A Love Story by Carolyn Knapp.  I loved that book and read it multiple times. I would call my mom drunk and read it to her.  She was my confidant and always knew I needed help and reminded me it was ‘in our genes’.   I also was managing a restaurant where a lovely man named Patrick Wilson Blue worked.  I knew Patrick went to AA and got sober with Stevie Ray Vaughan.  They would have been about the same age.  I asked him about AA and he took me to my first meeting off of S. Congress in Austin.  I remember feeling at home and thinking wow, cool sober people who would’ve thought it?…..  I did hang around those rooms and go to daily meetings, eventually stringing together 6 months I know for sure and it could have been some change too, I cannot exactly remember. I worked all of my steps, making amends and met with my sponsor regulary.  I was agnostic for the most part, but eventually came to accept some sort of HP had been keeping me alive for some reason (today a complete 360 on that topic).   I did stop going to meetings and ‘thought I could now handle it’.  This specifically thinking back had to do with when I started dating a normie, and thought I could drink like him.  At first I did ok, but obviously not for long as on I went to the DUI.  

So the cycle continued, I knew where to go this time as I had to do something.  I went back to AA and made it a year sober.  You see I am the epitome of the having an obsession I can one day drink like a normal person.  I managed this time to gain a year and get my chip.  Life was always so good in sobriety that looking back I don’t remember anything specifically that ‘triggered’ the drinking again.  Rather it was just that obsession.  Because this time again it was ‘oh I think I am ok’, went on dating a normie and then thinking I could drink with/like that person.  In late 2005 I was ‘out’ again and met my husband.  I had been keeping my drinking ‘in check’ during this time.  He knew the bare bones minimum in terms of my drinking problem. He is a normie, but I had/have never seen him drunk.  He is not one of those people that get drunk every now and then, but rather really enjoys beer.  And I mean like in a way I could never understand.  He really just drinks 1 or 2 beers a couple of times a week.  How crazy is that.  We dated for a year, got engaged and married 7 months later.  He helped ‘keep me in check’ that entire time which I mean not allow me to drink much when the occasions arose which were not often.  In fact, the only time we did argue in our relationship was when I had 1 or 2 and wanted MORE.  It would make me soooo very angry, ‘how dare he tell me I can’t’.  Well thankfully I didn’t and that worked for a time.  Then 3 months after our wedding I was pregnant.  We were in a hurry being over 30 and all.  Well I was thrilled!  My husband was on his 24 hour shift so I called a girlfriend for dinner.  I knew I could only be 2 or 3 weeks and rationalized in my head that most people wouldn’t even know at this point.  So this was the start of my alcoholic thinking……  I remember thinking about another friend of mine who was in Ireland not realizing she was pregnant and drinking like a fish.  Well I knew that baby was fine, and certainly no harm could be done so early in the pregnancy.  So onward with the celebration!  I drank that evening, trying to drink as I always had, though it had been a long time since those days. I remember my friend having to go home and me wanting to continue on.  That was also my  ‘MO’ in earlier days, never wanting the party to end.  But it did and I drove home.  I drove home and proceeded to rear end a car.  Again, thankful not to hurt anyone.  There was no damage to my vehicle, no air bag pop, so I did what every good drunk would do and continued on until there were sirens in my rearview.  I blew a .24 that evening.  I just remember being in the holding cell just so utterly disgusted with myself and knowing how disgusted and disappointed my husband would be with me.  I remember meeting with the bail bond lady that morning and asking how upset my husband was?, and her response to me was it was the first time anyone had ever asked about how someone else was feeling…..  He did forgive me, we moved through all the motions of outpatient therapy, back to AA, classes etc. etc..  The most embarrassing thing was that my in laws drove and picked me up from work every day and when I could drive I had to use the interlock.  As a bank manager this was as you can imagine was  a very humbling experience on many levels.  Nobody would ever during this time think I had a problem as this particular circle of people including my in laws never knew all of my previous struggles.  It wasn’t until I was 7 months pregnant that the case finally went to court.  The DA somehow managed to find my minor record from LA during this time too, which put this as technically my 3rd DUI though legally 2nd.  The woman I hit got up on the stand, not knowing anything about me, and said how ‘unfit’ of a mother I would be. I cannot find a word for how deeply that cut to the core.   It ended with the judge in Williamson county, a notoriously tough county for drunk drivers, saying I deserved jail time but due to me in ‘my state’ (7 months pregnant and huge) he would not sentence me, but give me probation.  Wow!  This is the specific reason 2 months later we named our daughter Grace.  My life was forever changed when I became a mom at 32.  My son came along 2 ½ years later.  My life was more fulfilling than ever and happier then it ever had been as well.

I wish I could say that I didn’t drink at all during that time, but I can’t.  There was maybe 2 times in a period of 8 years I did and did get drunk.  They were both when I rode in Mardi Gras parades and didn’t try to control it, and I guess got a ‘pass’ from my husband because it was a rare experience. Then one year ago is when for me it was my ‘bottom’.  Though to many reading this, they may read and say what? , you weren’t low enough before?….  Well here it is, my in laws rented a beach house in Galveston for us to spend the week.  We went shopping for groceries and my husband asked if I wanted anything to drink.  I thought sure bloody mary’s sound good.  Well later that evening while the rest of the family went out, I went to town with the entire bottle of grey goose.   I enjoyed shooting pool, listening to music etc..  Then when everyone got back I was a blabbering heap of mess.  I let out all of my ‘deep dark secrets’ to my sister in law, talking old days to my niece and nephew.  All and all they had never seen or known me to be like that so they were I’m sure taken quite aback, and my husband none to happy.  I woke up just disgusted and with a hang over I still a year this week fresh in my mind as it was that crushing of a blow.  It blew my ego, pride, and everything else. I made a fool of myself in front of a group of people that did not ‘know’ that side of me.   My in laws had thought the one DUI they knew about, was just a fluke.  Even today they don’t know ‘my story’.  My kids until this point had never seen me drink (I don’t really think they knew the difference, but I did).  This was THE MOST disturbing thing to me.  II was ashamed, but this time I have so much more to live for, so much more ‘on the line’ (2 little ones to be exact) and just surrendered it all- I am absolutely an alcoholic- one is too many and 100 is not enough…..

That morning became day one of the rest of my life and I prayed to my higher power that this insanity must stop.  So as today and each day I take it one day at a time, being diligent about doing an inventory at the end of each day.  Today biggest thing I do differently is that rather than put it in the ‘back of my mind’ I put it at the forefront.  What I mean by that, I think from reading above you can tell there is A LOT I do not want to or care to think about, but alcohol is not one of them.  I wake up every day and thank the good Lord for my sobriety, I run every day and it serves as my me time keeping me sane in the world of being mom, I listen regularly to Recovery Elevator/ SHAIR podcasts. .  I have read the Big Book so much in my life that it sticks with me.  Something that I always think about is the guy that had many years of sobriety and I think it say something to the effect that once he retired ‘his slippers and bottle’ came out.  I think about that and know that- that is me.  I can pick up right where I left off as I have proved that.  Today I choose not to drink.  I am under no illusions that I can one day drink like a ‘normie’. This is what has put me in and out of sobriety each time- insanity.    I have never understood anyone that would want just one or two, that will always boggle my mind.  My prayer has been that I can be of service to others.  I am not sure where that will put me, but it has been on my heart to put this story on paper, and this is my beginning.  While I do not go to AA today the thought of returning has been on my mind, not so much for what it can do for me.  Rather when I walked into those rooms, I was looking for ‘that person’ meaning the one I am today and  that just maybe can help another woman that just needed to ‘see’ the face of hope..

Life has not been all roses as I am still held accountable and reminded of consequences even now.  The most vivid heartbreaking event was when I went to drive for my daughter’s kindergarten field trip and the principal pulled me aside.  She informed me I could drive my child, but not any of the others.  It seems my driving record results came back and I would not allow for that and she was ‘very sorry’. Wow talk about my pride and motherhood taking a massive assault!  Embarrassment and tears filled my face as I ran out to call my husband and come drive as my daughter was confused as to why we couldn’t bring her friends who were anxiously standing next to her.  My secret was out and I felt so much shame. This was a group of people that never would have dreamed I had an alcohol problem.   My alcoholic reaction was to say the heck with it and drink, but I did not!  Funny that wasn’t when I did drink again, rather it was the sneaky, everything is ok and maybe I can drink normally ‘obsession’ that got me.   So this along with not being able to be a substitute teacher because of my ‘driving record’, these are things that are in my life today and I handle them on life’s terms.  I think this is the first year where I will legally be able to drive my kids and their friends at school as it will be 10 years after the DUI, hence things can get better.

Wendy