BENGALURU: Theirs was a love marriage but when her husband found that he was helpless in stopping her from drinking, he left her. “My husband used to tell me that I should not drink but I would not listen to him. To me, every relationship other than alcohol was immaterial. Not even my child, who was then with my mother,” said Bharathi, who is an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Bengaluru chapter, which is celebrating its 55th anniversary on August 25 at St Joseph’s Auditorium, Museum Road.
Bharathi is 36 years old. She has been sober for 10 years now and is back with her family thanks to the programme. The road, however, was a long one. “When my husband walked out on me, I felt that the one person, who would nag me for picking up a drink at any time of the day had gone, leaving me unfettered. I was drinking morning to late evening. This continued for a year till my brother one day asked my mother to ask me to join the AA programme. It was there that I realised that I had a problem with alcohol. There has been no turning back since then,” said Bharathi, who is an active member of AA. The programme helped her stay away from her first drink.
The number of women alcoholics in recovery is much less in comparison to men within the fellowship, perhaps because of the stigma attached to alcoholism. “While there are 4,500 men in Bengaluru chapter, there are only 50 women, who are actively engaged with the AA fellowship and have benefited from it,” said the Public Information Chairman of AA, Bengaluru.
Ashwini’s story is no different from Bharathi. She is also 36 years old, and had a serious drinking problem from her college days. Her life also took a turn for the better after she joined the programme six years ago. “I have been sober from the time I joined AA,” said Ashwini, who works as a freelancer. Her addiction, which started with a casual drink with friends in college, turned out to be a nightmare. “I was an introvert and realised that I was uninhibited when I had a drink. I wanted to continue with the sense of euphoria,” she said, talking about how she was a very bright student and was awarded the gold medal in the final year of her under-graduation.
“I celebrated the medal at a pub. Later, I started drinking daily and used to begin my day with a drink. I used to drink so much that I would blackout. My friends tried to stop me but I had isolated myself from everyone. I met with accidents, fell sick and was hospitalised on some occasions,” she recalled. She stopped liking herself and thought she would stop drinking from tomorrow. “The tomorrow would get pushed to another tomorrow. My mother put me in a centre, where some people spoke to me about AA. I joined the programme six years ago and have been sober since then, I attend the meetings regularly. I have got my life back,” said Ashwini.
(AA can be reached through its women’s helpline no. 6364032421, 9845393617)