Healing from alcohol addiction
H. W. (62), Mödling (Austria)
Alcohol was a part of daily life in my family. At about 15 years of age, I myself also began to drink beer and wine with my friends. After I had become self-employed, I hired an employee for one day a week in 1982. It came about in the daily routine that we would begin the day with a "breakfast beer". As time went on we would occasionally spend the entire day drinking in a bar - sometimes until late in the evening - instead of working together. On the remaining days I worked in the office, where I occasionally drank two or three bottles of beer. After work on these days my alcohol consumption would consist of three bottles of beer and five mixed drinks. From 1985 on, my colleague worked full time in my office and with this my daily routine and drinking behavior completely changed. I drank all day long and got home several times a week after midnight. Nevertheless I was at work every day at 7:30 and felt fit for work.
Alcohol determines the daily routine
By 1995 I even had the habit of enriching my breakfast tea with a shot of schnapps. My alcoholic condition was accepted by my business partners, but not by my wife and my family. My wife moved out of our apartment at year's end 1996, and we were divorced in 2001. Then I lost my driver's license for three months and suffered some business losses. Up until the year 2000, I drank up to ¾ liter schnapps, eight bottles of bier and a liter of wine daily. I would have physical withdrawal symptoms if I didn't have the right blood-alcohol level, and my hands would shake and I would break out in a sweat, among other things. In the period following I tried everything to become free of the addiction. My companion did her best to support me and I visited a psychologist and made an effort to control my drinking behavior. I even went so far as to take a course in self-hypnosis. Nothing helped in the end, not even the Alcoholics Anonymous, and I went on secretly drinking. I had already heard of Bruno Gröning in 1995, but it wasn't until October 2004 that I got myself introduced to the teaching of Bruno Gröning on the advice of my partner after seeing the documentary film on Bruno Gröning. I regularly attended the community hours and did einstellen to the Heilstrom*. I often asked Bruno Gröning for help to be able to keep the amount of alcohol within reasonable limits; in secret I went on drinking the same amount of alcohol as before the introduction. My partner kept discovering my hidden schnapps bottles and my partnership was thus sorely tested.
To my surprise I had no withdrawal symptoms
On the morning of September 27, 2005, my breakfast tea remained alcohol-free for reasons inexplicable to me. I had completely forgotten the schnapps. Since that day the desire for schnapps and wine has been simply gone, as if I had never drunk. To my astonishment I had neither physical nor emotional withdrawal symptoms. I am totally happy and very grateful to finally be freed from the compulsion to drink and lie, and from the continual games of hide-and-seek. And it doesn't bother me when people near me are drinking socially, as I have no desire at all. Today I feel as if newly born and enjoy the harmony in my family.
Psychologist's commentary:
H. W. impressively describes how an initially limited alcohol consumption in his youth became an intensive, ever-increasing addiction within a few years. During the first years his physical robustness appears to have protected him from symptoms. It was only after the separation and divorce from his wife, the losing of his driver's license and the increased appearance of somatic symptoms (sweating spells, trembling, compulsive drinking behavior even in the morning . . .) that H. W. began an out-patient therapy, albeit an unsuccessful one. Even attendance at meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous was useless. It is extremely astonishing and unusual, and from the point of view of traditional medicine as well as of psychology and psychotherapy it is inexplicable that Mr. W. was able to totally discontinue within one day the drinking behavior that had been somewhat reduced by that time. He tells of no withdrawal symptoms of any kind and of a total lack of desire for alcohol, while at the same time speaking of a "rebirth, and harmony in the family". Therefore I attribute his sudden and radical renunciation of the alcohol dependence to the help of God through the teaching of Bruno Gröning.
