I did, have a plan – to quit drinking…
When I was a kid, maybe in the late 50’s, early 60’s, I saw an old black-and-white movie where this guy goes to his family doctor for a physical. When the doctor finishes the exam, he sits down on this old rotating stainless stool and says, “Charlie, everything looks ‘okay,’ but if you don’t quit drinking, you’ll be dead within 6 months. Somehow, that scene registered with me.
So, as an aviator I had to take a physical once a year. Man, did that ever make things easy for me. I resolved, albeit in my subconscious, that I could continue drinking until some flight surgeon told me I was at the ‘6 Month’ point, then I would quit! Made perfect sense to me!
Only ‘they’ never figured it out, and I kept drinking. Their incompetence damn-near killed me! Maybe that’s why doctors only ‘practice?’ Of course, lying to them probably didn’t help either…
I think that’s why accepting recovery was so easy for me – I always knew I was a drunk; I just didn’t want to face it, or the consequences until 28 July 1994… and man, am I ever glad I did!