Story puts smile on face of a stranger

As a healthcare professional attuned to some great changes going on, I wanted to share a story of hope for those suffering from Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). 

The other day I was returning from the landfill with an empty landscaping trailer, and I passed a poor guy pushing an overfilled shopping cart up the steep hill.

The bottle depot was a further 2 kilometres, so I pulled over to see if he wanted a lift. The man gratefully accepted, and we secured his overflowing shopping cart in the trailer.

On the way to the bottle depot he said, “It’s almost St. Paddy’s day, and it’ll be a year since I’ve been sober.”

I congratulated him on the great accomplishment and asked how he managed so well. “ Well,” he said “I saw a doctor who put me on a pill that helped me get clean.”

I then asked if he had previously tried other treatments such as Alcoholics Anonymous. He said that he had. “But it was so depressing. Everyone was down on themselves all the time. All we wanted to do after AA was drink.”

As we arrived at the bottle depot I told him that telling me his story had just made my day. Puzzled, he went on his way, and I grinned all the way home.

—anonymous