Alcohol Abuse

I've been watching your show since it's started. The topics are all great and I do hope you keep up the good work. I was watching your show on Alcohol and it's true that alcohol does ruin everyone's life. My father and brother both drink and I tried to stop them but it's doesn't work. And also I've seen with my own eyes how alcohol ruins the family. My cousin who was an engineer and had a drinking problem. He would wake up in the morning and start drinking and I told him one day that you're going to die like this and he said it does not matter. A few years’ later doctors told him that his sugar levels were really high and he had to stop drinking but he still didn't and then he had a major stroke which made half of his body stop working. A few years later when he got better he started at it again and this time the stroke was the worst. He couldn't walk and speak anymore we didn't understand a word he was saying. His wife would take care of him every morning and put him in a wheelchair. He would be cranky and fight with everybody. Even his kids despised him. A few months later he passed away leaving two beautiful kids that are yet to be married off. But now his son's taken up his path and we try stopping him too but it's not helping he's still young and I do hope he realizes what he's doing is wrong. It hurts to see when your own family members are affected by this. I felt so sad for Curran's dad when he was telling the story of his son. I went through the same with my father when he's drinking he wants to drive and I told him that he's not going too but they don't listen and on top of that they want to take my kids along. I've had a huge argument with my father one day telling him if he ever takes my kids when he's drunk I'm going to be the first one to kill him. One day we're coming back from a fair and my father was drunk and he started arguing with me that he going to drive. I got out of the car and told him that I'm not going with him and told my kids that we'll rather go on the bus. But my father didn't listen to me and took the car away drunk. Thankfully, he's made it home without any incident. But there's been a few times that he's hit other cars and come home and sleep. While the cops would come behind him and hand him a ticket while he's in bed. I've told my father that one day you're going to kill someone and I'm not going to help him at all. I think that alcohol is very bad. I do enjoy going out but I don't drink and have more fun sober than my family while they're drinking. I enjoy watching your shows and please do keep up the good work. Even the episode on farming. That really made me scared about eating the food in India now and even the food that comes from India that would also have the pesticide in it. I'm going to have the food agency in Canada check the food that are being imported from India because I don't want my kids eating something that's going to kill them or hurt them down the road.

Dear Aamir and team, Thank you so much for spreading the AA message in your last show. My dad was an AA member .Just like your show showed, he hit rock bottom and then only after joining AA did he get a wonderful life for himself and his family. He became a successful executive, dad, husband and son but it was only because he became an AA member first. My sister and I never saw our dad as an alcoholic but we know every bit of the havoc it caused and the trauma that my mom had to go through living with an alcoholic husband. We had a wonderful childhood and an amazing life thanks to AA. My dad did relentless work spreading the message of AA and helped 100s of families - it was his dream that the AA message be spread such so that every alcoholic who desires to recover knows where to go. We spoke to my dad’s AA friends yesterday and they said they got 70,000 calls after you show was aired. I lost my dad 13 years ago and what your show did was his dream come true and so I wanted to thank you on his behalf. Every show of yours is amazing beyond words and we are grateful to you for each and every one but I cannot thank you enough for this one. Regards, Grateful daughter of an AA member

I was 15 when my father passed away, i was studying in navodya vidyalya, it is a boarding school, so by the time i been home from hostel my father was cremated. I never get a chance to see my father last time. My father was alcoholic and he use to drink everyday that leads to fights with my mother. They both use to beat each other and verbally abusive. I was the eldest of all my siblings. My father was a food inspector i one of the government institutes called punsup, so he had field job to check on buying wheat or all other crops for government storage. The farmers or the other people who want to sell their crops they use to give him lots of alcohol, so he always had good amount of alcohol available to him. All other alcoholic were his friends and use to respect him because he give them free alcohol. But on the day of his death his so called friends drinking with him and when they finish drinking they get off to go home, my father was also with them. Outside the alcohol shop there was very big open drainage and my my father fell into that drainage. he was so drunk that he was not able to get himself out and his friends were also not able to get him out they left him there and they were so drunk that they did not not even bothered to inform at our home that my father fell into the drainage. It was 5 feb 1997 and it was punjab election day, and in elections the politician give free alcohol to gain votes. The next morning my grandfather who was mechanic his shop was just next to that place where my father fell. When my grandfather went to open his workshop he noticed a crowd around a person lying on the floor. That body face was covered with drainage filth when my grandfather reached there one person pour water on body's face it was my father's dead body. My father was very handsome 6feet tall young man. People use to call him with the name of joginder singh tiger. He was very kind and daring at heart but this alcohol ruined him and our family. This is all did not finished just there its influence is still on our family. as u said in ur episode about domestic violence that kids who see violence at home it inherited in their future life, my brother is very calm boy but when he get angry he just become do not realise what is he doing. He had drinking problem that u called dangerous drinking. He drink occasionally but whenever he drink he just drink like a fish. I have asked him to stop doing this but he just say i don't drink every day. I told him that binge drinking is more harmful than drinking in acceptable amount every day. I live in England and i am registered nurse in NHS England. My brother come to England for his studies he stayed at my home where i live with my husband and my 2 kids. When he stayed with me that’s the only time i know that he had drinking problem. Now me and my brother had argument and he left my house. He has been physically abusive with him. I did not complain to anybody but asked him to leave my house because i do not want my kids to see any violence and ruin their future. I asked mother to console him but instead of saying him my mother said that i have been changed after been successful and do not want him in my house. I told her if he can raise his hand on me than one day he can be abusive with her or when he get married he can be abusive with his wife. But mother said i am wrong and stop talking to me. She think i am like my aunt (my father's sister) who have tried to dominant her when she got married to my my father. She said it’s in my blood. I have stayed in hostel all my life and after all that my mother said to me i have remain with no faith in relation. It’s been seven year since i have been in England and when i came here i only came with one month of rent with me. I did not get job for 2 months. But i never troubled my mother even for a penny. And once i become settelled i have done everything i can for my mother and siblings. After my father's death i never troubled my mother that i want this or that. i was in hostel and i even saved my whole pocket money she use to give me every months and when i go for holidays i give it back to her so that she can be helped. I know she has been through loads but being a child i was so mature in my thinking and tried to anything to solve her problem. When my father was alive once i took all money out of his pocket and hide it so that he cannot drink. I was 11 year old then. Even at that time she thought i have been stealing. Today i thought my mother has never tired to understand me and she never will may be because i never stayed close to her since i was 11. I have been in boarding since 1993 and only came home for school holidays. I do not know what went wrong from my side. But the differences are so wide that i am not able to fill those gaps anymore. but i will always pray that she should get the happiness she deserve in her life because she has sacrificed all her life for us and nothing is going on right anymore and i am too shattered to take anymore. My patience level has dropped so low that i cannot tolerate anything. I have struggled that much. and there are some other tragic thing happens apart from my family affairs with me that i have never even discussed with anybody and neither want to discuss that my believe on relations has totally shattered. I just had enough. I 29 but i feel like i that i am 75 and do not have any interest in anything anymore. Now i just only live for my kids because they are my responsibility. I do not even built any hopes from them as well.

HI, my name is Geetanjali Mehta currently in residing in Melbourne for past 8 years. Earlier I lived in Chandigarh. My father was alcoholic same as any other alcoholic my mother was teacher who took all the responsibility of whole family. I was elder daughter and brother was 2 years younger than me. Me and mother we worked to make him Engineer .I was earning at the age 16 by giving tutions and studying correspondence. I got married at the age of 21 (as I want to get out of that home with daily alcohol abuse). But my brother he feels so lovely without me .Luckily I was local so we mostly meet daily. The after is Engineer he wants to go aboard for further studies (on student loan as my mother was in Govt job). On 20th Feb while he picked Mum from job both were going to home on scooter they met with an accident with car and dies on spot. The car was driven by young boy who was totally drunk. I suppose nothing happened with that boy who killed my mother and brother. But I lost my family. My father was already an alcoholic also died after 4 yrs in 2008 due to kidney failure. I am the only one left. I think I can't explain my pain in words. But watching today's show made me remember all the pain which I went through and still going through that pain. The impact was on me that I couldn't get pregnant in 10 years of my married life as hormonal imbalance. But with God's grace I feel luck that I got such a nice husband and with his support I got two twins girls in last December. I really wish Indian Govt should make strong steps against the Drink driving.