Where From? Where Now?

Going cold turkey

It’s been a week since I was last in the hostel. I don’t like being away a full week. It feels too long. I was happy to look into the TV room when I arrived and see Jakki, one of the residents, sitting there tucking into some toast. I’ve always been an advocate for food in the morning, but Jakki’s not a breakfast person.

I got the usual warm welcome from Jakki. I think today I was ‘Green Eyes’…one of a few names she’s given me. Some more repeatable than others!

This is Jakki.  She was a demon today on the pool table.

Since I last saw her, she has been really unwell.  I asked if we could talk more about it.  This is what she told me:

“I’ve been ill due to the alcohol. I tried to go cold turkey, but I went into fits and it’s not a good thing.

“The news that Amy Winehouse had died shocked me.  That’s one of the reasons why I went cold turkey for two days.  She was only 27 and was such a nice person. I’d met her in North London.  I was begging outside a pub and she says come on I’ll take you in for a drink. It’s going back many years now when she bought out her second song. We were there about an hour and a half because other people were coming in congregating, but it wasn’t like they were looking for autographs or anything they were just down to earth people.”

I asked Jakki why this news made her decide to go cold turkey. She told me:

“I’m soft I guess, I don’t know. And its just sad to see someone that’s so talented throw their life away and I know that if I stop drinking and get my act together, I can get my life back on track, get my health back together, get back into work and even get back into sailing. Going back into racing my yachts. Maybe that’s it, I don’t know.”

“This; Skol Super, Drink, Alcohol, is my major curse. As soon as that goes out the door. I’ll be a completely different person.

“I’ve been told by the doctors that I need to reduce the drink.

“I want to stop, but I can’t just stop. I’ve been offered to go into detox and then onto rehab but I know my personality. As soon as I come out of there, the first place I’m going to go is to the off-license, so it’s going to be a waste of tax payers money to put me in there. I know my demeanour.”

Hostel staff are discussing the different types of detox with Jakki, including the option of asking doctors if a home detox would be a possibility.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 at 6:15 am. It is filed under blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.