1 sad but exciting secret you discover soon after you quit alcohol

I, like most people, started drinking alcohol because I thought it would make everything easier.

I hated my job and my boss at the time, and I knew I’d made the wrong career choice after dedicating 4 years of university to the field.

In other words, I was low.

My 14-year addiction began the way every alcohol addiction does: with just one drink.

I mean, sure, I’d drink on weekends and stuff in university.

This time was different.

I still don’t know why it happened on this night in particular.

But on this one night, after another unfulfilling eight hours at my job, it occurred to me that we had some leftover whiskey from a gathering my soon-to-be wife and I had hosted at our apartment.

“Hey, why not have a drink?” I thought to myself. “This is what people on TV and movies do all the time to relax after a hard day’s work.”

I swished the brown liquid around and sipped away while I read my book, remarking silently how sophisticated I was.

That night, I had one drink.

What we pretend makes our lives easier is actually, literally, poison. (Credit: James Julian/Gemini)

The habit metastasizes into addiction