Booze was never the issue for me. It had been in the past but to be honest, I was drinking far too much and living just off a vibrant part of the city near a group of mates who would go to pub to celebrate the opening of a Mars Bar.
Spending time in my own head was the worst place to be. I was literally my own worst enemy. My old job was travelling all over the country spending anywhere between 2 and 7 hours driving. I covered an area from Boston Lincs, across to Carmarthen, up to Lancaster and back across to Durham.
As a consequence, it affected my driving to the point that I nearly lost my licence due to several small speeding issues (not condoning- just drifting off into my own world and going 4/5 miles over the limit).
One of my jobs was in Manchester and as I packed all my tools in my van, I sat there in a carpark sobbing and looking at a massive pack of Paracetamol.
That was me at my lowest.
Anyway, I've changed jobs now so I'm not driving all the time and I'm with a great set of lads so there are very few times when I can drift off and even if I did, I can bring it back in line fairly quickly.
This is the first time I've discussed this in an open forum - only my Mrs, two of my friends and my parents know how it has hit me.
Thankfully, things have levelled out and I've not seen the black dog for a long time. I do feel that even if I did see the bastard, I have the tools to tell it to **** off.