Substance Abuse – needing acceptance from others & yourself
When I was in my early 20’s – at my first real job out of college – I remember a rather humiliating experience at the company’s annual Christmas party. It’s an event which has forever solidified my reluctance to drink alcohol in excess. As so many of these stories go, I was trying to impress a girl. Looking back on it now, my attraction to her was based more on how she made me “look” in society than any real feelings. Never a good way to start off a relationship. I can still remember clearly me trying to convince myself that if I just kept drinking like everyone else, she’d see me as one of the “bad boys” she was attracted to. Pathetic, I know, but no matter the generation…