YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Before I got sober on 6-15-08 (yay!), towards the end of my drinking career my hand would tremble in the morning. I was never a morning drinker, and I’ve not trembled since.

Is a hand trembling in the morning a sign of alcoholism?

Hi Oak,

I just want to congratulate you on your 12+ years of sobriety. Definitely something to be proud of!

rg

It definitely can be.

I guess to lengthen my answer, I have heard of alcoholics having trembling hands in the morning and needing a drink to stop it. I have also worked with a couple of guys who would get the shakes at work because of their need for a drink. The one sadly had to start bringing vodka in a water bottle with his lunch to make it through a shift. I am so glad and proud of you for getting sober.

Thanks Rivergirl and Brownblob.

Maybe the answer, for me, is to be grateful and to do what is in front of me.

Who gets sober and who dies is a hard thing to understand.

I'm currently reading "Riding The Elephant" by Craig Ferguson. I have a lot left to read in the book, but Ferguson is a recovered alcoholic and says in it that it was never the low times that tempted him to relapse but the good times when he started to think too highly of himself and kind of downplayed how bad he had been.
I don't have the book in front of me so I will have to paraphrase but I was reading something that hit a chord for me today. He was talking about how he succeeded in stand up comedy when he was younger because of his anxiousness, awkwardness, anger and various other negative things. He was saying that he was grateful that he had gone through all these things because it helped fuel him into this odd profession but that he was even more grateful that he did not feel that way anymore. It sounds better the way he wrote it, but I loved that sentiment of being thankful for the things that made me who I am, but more grateful for who I am now. I guess I wish I felt that. Maybe that is something to shoot for.

In the serenity prayer where it talks about discerning what you can and can’t control, I suspect death comes under the heading of something you can’t control.

In fact, if you take the step of resolving death out of your plans, they can get super simple.

Hello BB,

Not sure what you mean. " ...resolving death out of your plans...."

Usually death is an unpleasant subject that we only think of occaisionally (maybe a little more often these days in keeping with the current situation).

Using "Death" and "Planning" together is fraught, and can be read any number of ways. In the best light, I think we'd all like long, peaceful and happy lives, ending in a gentle sleep..

But maybe I'm overthinking your note

I apologize. Your feedback suggests I inferred something which I never intended. I try to put things in a way that hopefully helps but I’m not always up to the task. You’re also not always needing my help and I am still learning that. That and how to simply comfort and encourage.

Not to worry! Language is such a wonderful but difficult thing.

And I, for one, do appreciate your input and insights, Beany.

Be well.

SD