They have struck me, but I was not hurt; they have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?

Proverbs 23:35

Louise was an alcoholic who called herself a social drinker. She had grown up in a family of alcoholics and had a lot of unresolved pain, which she tried to heal with alcohol. Unfortunately excessive use of alcohol depletes serotonin in the brain, making emotional pain worse.

Louise’s friend Judith tried to persuade Louise to join an Alcoholic’s Anonymous group and also get professional counseling, but Louise refused help. A week after Judith’s confrontation, with a couple of Bloody Mary’s under her belt, Louise drove her six-year-old daughter to school. There was an accident in which Louise hit her small daughter with her car as the daughter walked in front of her car and little Jennifer was critically injured. She survived, but was permanently brain damaged.

Grief-stricken, Louise finally got the help she should have gotten much sooner. Over time, she resolved the pain of her early childhood abuse. She asked God to forgive her for injuring her own daughter in the accident. She also worked through the grief process, forgiving herself. Louise must spend the rest of her life living with the consequences of her actions, but now she has the resources for facing her life as a growing, emotionally healthy adult.

Thought:  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but better a pound of cure than no cure at all.