My Story (part two)

From the very start, I drank differently from others. While they were busy sipping away on their beer, bating their pole, or counting their cards, I was downing two or three. I got drunk fast and often got sick. As I met more and more new friends, it seemed that they all drank and/or smoked dope. I worked in restaurants during the day and partied at night. Just a few nights a week at first, then every night. Days that I didnt work, I began spending at the local pot suppliers house. People liked me, I blended in easily, made friends, and got lots of free dope and booze. I never saw a problem comming. I never drank more than three to five beers at a time, even though it was a daily routine. I knew guys that drank 12 packs, did hard drugs, drank liquor. I figured they had a problem.
I could hold a steady job. Older people trusted me. I never fought or passed out. Every thing was cool. I met a girl around the time I turned twenty one, and we moved to Florida. Im not sure what happened, mabye I missed my friends, or my lifestyle, but I began to drink a little heavier. I graduated to a six pack a day, seven days a week. I worked in a seafood restaraunt, and they served beer. Every night I filled up a gallon jug and brought it home. By the time my first daughter was born a few years later, I was drinking a 12 pack and getting high every day. I kept up my job, always had a car, and paid the bills. I just drank at night, so again, I figured it wasnt a big deal. No problem. At two years old my little girl learned to bring daddy two beers from the fridje. I always pulled two at a time, because one was gone in minutes. Beer was for drinking, not sipping. The next year I was drinking a case a day. Thats twenty four cans of beer. And that was on work days. On my days off Id drink two cases. Soon I noticed that if there was no beer I was miserable. I found out I had to drink... it was no longer a choice. I needed the beer. Our bills fell behind. I started loosing jobs. My wife and I began to fight.
One day I came to the dreaded conclusion. I had it. I had "the drinking problem"