NICK CHARLES MBE – BLOG
INTRODUCTION
50 Years of Hard Road
Nick Charles MBE is a pioneer in treating alcohol dependency. As the founder of both the Chaucer Clinic and the Gainsborough Foundation, he was the first person to be honoured by the Queen ‘for services to people with alcohol problems’ and his work – over four decades – has helped tens of thousands of people. But Nick’s decorated success overlays an extraordinary and unforgettable personal journey, for Nick was once an alcoholic vagrant sleeping rough on the streets of London. In 50 Years of Hard Road, Nick details his time in the abyss of alcohol addiction; a period that dispatched relationships, his health, his career, and so much more. Forced to live on the streets for four years, Nick recalls the tough times, the characters he met, and the ever-present call of alcohol, but also how he slowly built up two carrier bags-worth of painstaking research into alcohol and its effects on his fellow man. It was through the documents in these carrier bags that Nick’s life was to change forever when, in the mid-1970s, he was taken under the wing of a doctor who cared for those on skid row. This dedicated medic recognised the treasure trove of information Nick had developed. 50 Years of Hard Road is a remarkable, uplifting, and often humorous story of one’s man’s journey from the depths of life-crushing alcohol dependency to running alcohol clinics and programmes across the country. It describes an incredible life filled with high points, low points, and amazing adventures in-between.
JLC
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Alcohol… A Drink as Clear as Mud
In the same way we all go to work but do not necessarily understand each other’s occupations, we all enjoy a social life but do not always share each other’s choices. One of my neighbours loves fishing, but I think he is quite mad sitting on a river bank in the rain under an umbrella for hours on end. I study alcoholism and write books and help drunks, and he thinks I’ve got a screw loose! Other age group likes and dislikes often leaves us bewildered. The girl at the stables loves riding horses and yet her best friend is always on her phone or tablet playing computer games; everyone is different, it’s the way of the world.
People who spend hours working out in the gym eating healthily and exercising at every opportunity are horrified by others who spend all their time at home, feet up watching the telly drinking wine, lager, beer or whatever else. Another group may frequent pubs and restaurants. You will often see them pop outside every half an hour or so to smoke a cigarette and the only exercise they get is going backwards and forwards.
Those keeping fit and living cleanly see the absurdity of a reckless disregard for body and mind. Those who drink regularly are frequently unaware all alcoholic drinks contain a drug similar to an anaesthetic; so they are not completely conscious of what they do, and are never clean of drugs and so less capable of good judgement. This is why many of those who recognised alcohol was doing unacceptable things to them stopped using it, and now look back in horror and disbelief at the things they did during their drinking days. Alcohol’s effect on people’s brains could be likened to the difference of wavelengths on a radio, where different megahertz send out entirely different programmes. Sinisterly it takes very little alcohol to switch off completely a one-way-of-thinking station onto another. So should we take a look at our lifestyles or carry on as we are, or is it already too late? Perhaps it is time to examine the issue more closely.
Let’s call those who drink regularly Mr and Mrs Alcohol. If they do so to the point where it becomes troublesome, they may very well recognise their plight and stop drinking. More often than not, they will then view the days when they drank to excess with the same alarm and dismay, as abstainers do at the gym who we shall now call Mr and Mrs Clean. Which suggests something was seriously wrong with Mr and Mrs Alcohol before they ceased to drink.
Now if you think carefully, it is becoming clear there are two worlds living alongside one another. One which sees through eyes completely unaffected by a drug, and another where a powerful drug called alcohol has completed a mind altering process. Too often this is to an extent where it appears perfectly normal to behave in a way that is unacceptable to someone who has not taken alcohol. One is socially acceptable because it does not cause distress or anti-social behaviour which may affect others. The other sees the world and its rules through a drugged distortion of reality, which refuses to listen to criticism of their behaviour or extreme points of view.
Let us now look even more closely at the place where Mr and Mrs Clean and Mr and Mrs Alcohol live together in a strained atmosphere. It soon becomes clear there are two additional bewildered parties. One we shall call Mr and Mrs What’s All the Fuss About, are able to use small amounts of an extremely powerful legal drug called alcohol on rare occasions, and do so enjoyably and acceptably and wonder what on earth all the fuss is about.
Next there is Mr and Mrs Binger, who never drink from Monday toThursday but from Friday to Sunday transform into Jekyll and Hyde and party recklessly, becoming Mr and Mrs Alcohol for three days only. With no sign of conscience whatsoever, they will unashamedly pretend to be Mr and Mrs What’s All the Fuss About from Monday to Thursday, yet they eagerly look forward to Friday when they can escape into their inner world.
Worryingly… in prominent positions at the head of this confused community, are establishment figures, among whom sit Mr and Mrs Alcohol, Mr and Mrs What’s All the Fuss About, Mr and Mrs Binger and Mr and Mrs Clean. This is why a society who by and large like to drink, see each other through very confused eyes. Depending from which way you view this conundrum, Mr and Mrs Clean can be considered as stuffy stick in the muds and Mr and Mrs Binger as occasionally mad. Mr and Mrs Alcohol are quite insane and are a blot on the landscape, and Mr and Mrs What’s All the Fuss About an absolute irritation.
They all sit together confused and often unhappily, while national confusion and mismanagement reigns supreme; and the reason is quite simple.
Amongst the population, those on drug altered wavelengths are widely represented in government, local councils, law, order, emergency services, health departments and in fact all places of power and responsibility. Indeed, for the most part, the entire populace has as their lover, confidante and very best friend, the most powerful drug on the planet.
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
Albert Einstein
nickcharles@sky.com
https://hawksmoorpublishing.com/ACR
