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Considering I enjoy a drink first thing in the morning I’ve
been doing superbly well. I’ve just been apologising about how difficult it is
to go the whole day crawling the walls inside a council flat without a few
lagers. I know I should join a gym, before moaning, but still…four cans make a
dire situation easier.
I got accused of ‘glorifying’ alcohol by the facilitator. This is a big no no. Honestly, I wasn’t, I was just trying to make it clear how hard it is to go without your best friend. It was a reasonable challenge to my statement, but everything I say lately attracts challenges from others around the table, it seems. They pounce on my word game because I’m a threat to their fakery. A challenge intervenes your syllabic flow and changes the subject to the challenger’s agenda. Anyone could challenge anything just to be a spoilsport.
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For example: “I just can’t cope lately. I lost my brother. Lethargy and persistent thoughts have knocked him over the edge. He was on the Liverpool Pathway (end of life care).” CHALLENGER: “How can you be sure he’s dead?”
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Does it matter? Does anything matter? Because he died in my feckin’ arms. Just let me get to the juicy bit! People say anything to interrupt. When you’ve waited an hour to apologise in a room full of tension with plenty of strangers and powerful superegos it’s not easy to start speaking. A newcomer might be relying on you. You might want to use your experience to help a youngster who is struggling to share.
I usually have a couple of topics identified in my head to discuss to the group. I give my speeches names. Bored Grief might be one. Faithful Gratitude may be another. I do this only to remind myself of what I’ll be on about, in case I forget. Because I do forget. My mind goes blank sometimes. I blame all the residue of chemicals lodged on my brain stem. I used to do talks called Depressive Medicated Slumber Gym when I felt more up to it. Or Upbeat Insomniac Crafts Therapy.
These days I’m challenged as soon as my trap opens and shut down for good. Just don’t mention Painted Dolls Legs Akimbo, Assassin Bed Sharp Mandibles, or Stealing Of Nanny’s Purse.
Women are freezing me out on purpose in the group by taking calls and leaving the room and making strange signals to the facilitator in my peripheral vision and then expecting a hug when it’s over. It’s full of conmen, clones and doubles mate. An elderly lady dropped her walking stick on purpose just to interrupt my flow. They stand up and ruffle their coats to distract me. One woman started playing with the bin for some reason. The world renowned famous jangle of keys is not dead yet either. That old chestunut’ll never run out of fashion. It doesn’t sound like much but in a silent room where people are concentrating it makes its cumulative mark. Especially if you know that it’s all about you! And they know too! Of course they know, or they wouldn’t be doing it!
The classroom is like a government experiment with me in the centre.
Good news – it’s easily stopped. You just raise your voice and demand they quit being immature. But then they report you for being passive-aggressive. I’m the one with the record so I’ll be first out the door, no one will believe me. And there’s no such thing as a thug apologist. We’re all gentlemen at the end of the day. This is England, for Christ sakes. I may be black, with a history of uncontrolled serial thrill-killer sprees in Chelsea beer gardens, but I talk rather eloquently when I’m not falling over my thick tongue and I have 11 (yes 11!) G.C.S.Es.
Plus I enjoy it. So stop freezing me out and let me talk!
They even make people scream within earshot to freeze me out. This is no joke. Torture follows me around and I can’t do anything about it. Call me dim, but I still don’t know, even after all these years, if it is in my head or the shady isolated rooms above and around me. I often tried to follow it to its source, to no avail. Now I ignore all.
Apparently, when I was younger, my stupidity cheered people up. I still have no idea what is going on in the world. Perhaps you can tell by the quality of my writing. I spill my guts to you guys and where does it get me? Google knowing everything about everything concerning my backdated porn stash in the shoebox in the attic, that’s where.
I have helicopters parked on the field, spying neighbours, UFOs above my house, invisible men in futuristic suits in the kitchen, black ops, and a demon and a ghost and a spectre or two hanging around my person, every minute of every day. This is mental, but the general public are no ease on the strain, as they huff and they puff and they curse my mood away with their spite and their insults and their general animosity.
Isn’t life a bowl of cherries, eh? And they have a pill for this. C l o p i x o l. Remarkable.
Just to rewind a moment – there’s nothing wrong with glorifying alcohol. I think you’ll find its common in comedian’s stand-up shows. My best story involves drinking a bottle of whiskey and falling asleep on a pre-warmed electric blanket. I forget to turn the blanket off and baked myself to toast overnight. My mouth was like an ashtray in the morning. My organs were overheated, I was profoundly dehydrated, it was certainly no jubilant period of rest. I’d passed out for Lord knows how many hours with a lie-in to polish the occasion off.

