Please and Thank You

If it wasn’t for Please and Thank You I have no doubt that I would have done some jail time by now. Good manners can be priceless, both in and out of addiction. I have over forty previous convictions for being intoxicated in a public place. I would be known by most of A&E, Ambulance Crew and Gardai. I cannot express how much having manners has helped me. I was taught from a young age that good manners cost you nothing. It’s important not to look down on others too. I don’t know why I decided to publish this on a website that focuses on sobriety but what the hell. In Cuan Mhuire they teach you to be a disciple to yourself. Recovery can be hard, but you will make it ten times harder if you bring the wrong attitude along with your sobriety. I had a good laugh a few weeks ago at my last court case. The guards on duty handed me four new summons for being intoxicated. Bizarrely I thanked them. Hopefully the day doesn’t come that I’m back in addiction but I have no doubt that my respect for services and my thankfulness will be rewarded. We are all only human beings at the end of the day. We don’t know what is going through anybody’s lives. Everybody is entitled to a bad day. Guards and other services struggle too. Some of them are lucky enough to have mortgages, some are not. The point I’m trying to make is don’t judge a book by its cover, we are not mind readers as I have been told by my psychiatric team. The moral of this short post is ‘be nice, it’s nice to be nice’. Good vibes are attractive. If you are blessed enough to get recovery try not to be a ‘dry drunk’. A ‘dry drunk’ would be defined as someone who is sober yet their behaviours are still those of a person in the midst of addiction. One of the best things about recovery is you have choices again. You can choose to be free, you can choose to be happy. On the flip side you can choose to be arrogant and miserable. This choice should be cherished. I only hope you choose the right side of the coin.