Inspiration
and Advice
H
H By Navajo
elder
(
I decided to stop drinking many years ago. I was walking through the sand dunes one day looking after the sheep, and I saw a T-bird bottle sitting there by a bush. I looked at it and I noticed that there was a little lizard near it. There was a little bit of wine left in the bottle and the lizard was lying right by it. I noticed that the lizard was dead.
“How did this happen?” I wondered. I thought about it. That lizard must have saw that pretty bottle, and it was curious, and maybe it smelled the wine, and it wanted to go inside the bottle to see what it was like. That lizard got inside the bottle and it got up to that wine and maybe it drank some of it. It drank some of it and then when it tried to get out of the bottle something happened. It drank too much wine and then the sun came out, and it made the bottle hot and the alcohol killed the lizard. The fumes killed it.
It’s like that with people too. I’ve seen people that are like that lizard, and I myself almost went that way. But the day I saw that lizard I stopped and thought about it, and then I decided that I didn’t want to be like that lizard, so I stopped drinking. If you don’t watch out alcohol will make you like that little lizard.
By A 40-year old husband and father
I was just drinking, drinking, and that’s it until my first daughter. I slowed down after she was born. I knew then. Every time I drank, my wife would call the cops or run away with the paycheck. It didn’t feel right spending all that money on booze all the time. I was all hung over and sorry.
I stopped drinking when I was about 28 years old, when my second daughter was born. I quit everything. I realized it was a problem. …My wife has helped too, and I had a couple of ceremonies to get back onto the right track. . [I had] all different kinds of ceremonies. Every time something bothers me…I tell my grandfather and he does a ceremony, Hozhooji.
Alcohol is always involved with problems. Grandfather would always try to push it away with his mind. He would say it’s not right to drink because when I drink it makes me crazy. I want to be on the good side. He tells me you got to put your mind to it, and he would do a prayer to be on the good side. Alcohol is bad for you. I told him it was hard when my friends come by and they want to drink. And he told me, “When they bring alcohol up to you, you can say no. You have your own mind to stop it.”
You have your own mind. You can stop yourself. I did…that’s what I tell [people]. I wish they could do something with the alcohol and give the people back to the Navajo. Instead of this alcohol…it’s the only problem they have, this alcohol, I know.
By
An elder Navajo
If a person wants to drink, there is no cure. Drinking is very strong and very powerful. Since I quit, I have a wife, children, livestock, a place to stay, vehicles. If I ever go back to drinking I’ll lose it all. I would lose myself. There is no medicine to quite drinking. Nothing else can cure you except yourself. You are your own medicine. There is a choice between the good life and the bad life. That was a bad road.
I will never look back. I look forward to the future. I am walking the good road and thinking good thoughts. I think and worry about my children. IF you want life, that’s what you make. You make a life and you make a home.
The authors of these stories stopped drinking for their
own reasons and did it without treatments. There is a possibility to stop
drinking on your own without a treatment center. Whether it’s for traditions,
family, health, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to count on treatment to help
you recover and stay away from alcohol, but it does help to have support system
either from family, friends, or a group. Support system can come from anywhere
or anyone. In most cases, support groups are found in treatment center, such as
Yellow Creek. Here are some statistics
about the success of recovering from alcohol without treatment.
Mattew J.
Kelley, Ph.D
(http://www.alphatalker.com/native_american_outcome.htm)
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