The Sober Emcee entry 18: Swag

Does an Alcoholic loose swag when the alcohol is out of the equation? Let’s examine, when inebriated we tend to think that we have more game and we (at least me personally) care less about the outcome of our advancements. It’s like if I strike out, who cares I’m still the shit! That’s the mentality that most of us have when we’re drunk. Alcohol takes away the shyness that a lot of us experience making it easier to talk to the opposite sex in social and private situations. And at the end of the day everyone looks better once the liquor starts guiding our vision. I’ve had many of nights in the past when I thought some girl looked like Kim Kardashian the night before but in the morning she looked like Rosie O’Donnell. When I was in my drinking days I thought myself to be quite the ladies man, sort of like the black Hank Moody and after a lot of vodka I thought my swag was at a million. Now that I’m sober, does that change??? I look better and feel better than I’ve ever felt, but I must admit that the shyness I felt when I was a teenager has made an unwanted return. It interferes with me on many levels in my home life and if I was single I probably wouldn’t be the mack that I thought I once was. What’s the solution? Many of us alcoholics ponder the answer and this is proven by many people’s stories shared at the 12 step meetings that I attend. I’ve heard many stories of how that now in sobriety that we feel more apprehensive and the result is a lot of social and sexual frustration. A lot of times unfortunately this drives a lot of us back to bottle, me personally I plan to stay strong at all cost. Nobody likes the drunk 40 year old guy at the club trying to pick up young party girls and I’m happy with what I got at home, even if things aren’t always sunshine. What we need to do as recovering alcoholics is re gain our confidence and remember that we are better than the way we used to be. Even though it’s easier said than done, it still can be done. All my single recoveries can still meet someone and go out for a drink with someone even if we don’t drink anymore; soda doesn’t make you a nerd. Also, if a one night stand happens you can make better choices and remember what happened the night before. For us in relationships we need to get back to that state of mind and romanticism that we had when we first met our spouses and remember that they had to endure the monstrous version of the old drunk us to get to the way we are now, so we owe it to them to try to keep that spark alive without the influence of the liquor. So in conclusion...liquor doesn’t really give us more swag, that's suppose to come from the inside! It’s up to us to bring it back out. So continue to pop your collars all my recoveries! Bless