This is gonna be the first personal post I’ve written in this blog for a while. I don’t usually have an urge to write about my personal life since this blog is supposed to be for poker, but I suppose situations that affect my ability to play properly are indirectly related to poker anyway.
I didn’t plan to play a lot of poker in December, but I ended up playing way less than intended. Someone I care for very much is a chronic alcoholic, and things took a turn for the worst near the start of the month. I’m one of the only people in her life that she has for support, so I spent a lot of my time trying to help her.
It is one of those situations where the alcoholic has refused to get help for years and finally is at a point where if they refuse any longer, they are probably going to die. To say that the situation has been emotionally tolling is an understatement.
The worst part of the situation is that a month after everything started, she is still not doing what she needs to do to get better. She spent two weeks in the hospital but apparently did not heed advice of counsellors regarding rehab. She was discharged last week and only lasted a few days before she started drinking again. I actually went to pick her up this past Thursday and she was so intoxicated that she couldn’t stand.
The ironic part is that I was picking her up to take her to a daytox orientation. When I found out that she had no rehab plan upon being discharged, I suggested she at least attend daytox. There were several days before she could attend the orientation, though, in which she obviously started drinking again.
So instead of daytox, I was able to get her a bed in detox. She called me today asking me to pick her up, though, because she wanted to be discharged. I asked her if she had a plan for rehab and she said no. I asked her why she wanted to leave and she said that she needed to take care of something at work.
I ended up telling her that she really needed to stay there and get a plan for rehab before leaving because I couldn’t keep helping her with detox. I said that I would come meet with her and a counsellor to try to find the best option for rehab.
She agreed to stay. Now I’m waiting for her to call me and tell me when to meet up with her and the counsellor. In the meantime, I have appointments to meet with her accountant because the accountant is about to go on vacation and stuff needs to get done before she goes.
Sigh.
Everything would be a lot easier to deal with if I knew that she was going to get help the way she needs it.
Needless to say, it’s been pretty tough to play poker with this happening. Not only has it taken a lot of my time, it has also stressed me out emotionally. It’s a really bad idea to play poker stressed out and emotional, so I haven’t been playing.
I’m hoping that writing this just now helps to alleviate the stress I feel at the moment, however, because I really want to play a session today. If you’re reading this and have any experiences dealing with alcoholics, feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.
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