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I put an exclamation point on the title of this article because I wanted to you to think I was really excited for Ocsober to be over and that I was rolling about on the floor, clutching at my throat, gagging for a shooter, gasping for a martini, choking for a lick of the edge of a salted magarita glass.
A month without a drop of alcohol is something many adults would never even contemplate and I must admit something to you – I didn’t think I could do it. Now, at Day 26, I’ve come to realise that I can do it. I have done it. And it’s been a hell of a lot easier than I ever imagined.
No, I have not been rolling around on the floor gasping. I’ve been getting on with life, coping with life and feeling better than I have in years. There have been moments where I would have loved a wee sip – but for the most part, it’s been just fine.
So, the exclamation point in this article title is really over my despair at being re-released into a world where guzzling vino at 5pm or pickling myself in spirits at 10pm is ‘allowed’. It’s amazing when you are officially ‘allowed’ to do something… you generally do it. And part of me doesn’t want to be allowed to indulge any more. Part of me is nervous that I won’t have that buffer zone to help me prove that I can abstain and feel all the better for it.
But this is not really about me. It’s about the fact that kids as young as 12 are indulging in binge drinking that puts the average adult barfly to shame. It’s about the fact that drugs are now infiltrating primary schools. It’s about the fact that nearly a quarter of Australian children are overweight or obese.
It’s also because I want to support Life Education Austalia on their quest to infiltrate more schools, more clubs, more groups where children are vulnerable to the pressure of subtance abuse. I want them to help raise funds to teach children how to eat properly – to avoid ill health and obesity and disease. I want to help them raise funds to teach our kids how to deal with bullying and peer pressure. I want our country to have a really strong foundation of kids rising up through the ranks to take hold of our country and guide it into this new century. I want to feel safe under their guidance when I’m old.
Hmmm. Maybe it is all about me after all.
But seriously, Ocsober is now almost over. I’ve done my bit – now it’s up to you to spend a few minutes (literally) to whip out your credit card, click here and sponsor my teetotalling efforts. Come on, AWO readers! Show us your mettle! I have reached less than 10 percent of my grandiose goal of $5,000 as a representative of AWO, and not one of those donations has been from an AWO reader. I know our readers are intelligent, worldly women who are impassioned about life and its trials. With your help, we could send that total even a teensy bit higher.
I really encourage you to donate now. Every dollar counts. Even if it’s only the cost of a lattè (or margarita), every cent goes to helping our kids achieve healthy, happy lives, free from the life-changing and often devastating effects of drug and alcohol abuse (or even bullying). If you would like to raise children who escape the terrible (and sometimes fatal) curse of substance addiction, PLEASE do your bit.
Your kids will thank you.
YOU CAN HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE BY SPONSORING TANIA HERE.
Read more about Ocsober and it’s amazing fundraising efforts here.
For more information on Life Education Australia and its fabulous work, click here.