The Hangover

Sometimes I love a drink. But after one drink it is harder to turn down the second, and after the second it’s harder to turn down the third. And before I know it I’m drinking shots, spilling my drinks all over the place and flashing my tits at passers by. Somewhere in the back of my mind is a little voice saying “this isn’t right, you’re gonna regret this” but I tell myself that I have reached a point of no return, and I’m having too much of a good time to stop. And I will usually continue until I run out of cash, the bar stops serving me or I throw up (I have even been known to continue drinking after throwing up in the name of powering through). I will think about the repercussions tomorrow when my head is banging out of my ear holes and I can’t keep any food down (except McDonalds).

Hangovers are just another proof to the Law of Cause and Effect, every action has a reaction. And really a hangover is not just something you get after a night on the sauce. Hangovers come in different guises, sometimes called repercussions, sometimes called rewards. We often only have a split second to decide whether or not it’s worth the fall out. Either way, that moment is there, we are standing at the crossroads and have a choice to make, water or wine, hangover or headache free.

I have recently discovered that I have got a stress related ulcer. This isn’t something that just happened by coincidence, this was caused by being under stress and my response to that stress. It is a painful daily reminder that I should have managed my stress levels better. I have a stress hangover.

But now that I have this hangover do I have to live with it for the rest of my life or can I do something to change it? Is there such a thing as a point of no return? Are the choices we make set in stone, if we have had a few drinks, got stressed, whatever, can we turn it around and make it all better? I believe we can, we can use cause and effect in a positive way. I am now looking after myself, having treatment and hopefully the ulcer will retreat into a painful memory.

The beauty of the Law of Cause and Effect is that it is endless. You can have a few drinks, get really drunk, and have a hangover. The next day you can take some painkillers to take the edge off your headache, apologise to people you pissed off, untag the unflattering pictures of yourself on Facebook and move on. The hangover may remain for a few days, and you’ve learned your lesson that Jegermeister is not good for you, but it could have been worse if you hadn’t stopped drinking when you did. You don’t have to carry on the same path.

It’s like being on a dual carriageway and missing your exit. You can’t actually turn around where you are but you can wait until the next exit and get off. Yes it may have increased your journey time, even made you so late that you have missed your appointment, but that doesn’t mean you should then keep driving all the way to Scotland.

This is what I try to tell myself when I’m having a drink, just because I’m a bit merry and am going to have a hangover, it does not mean I should continue drinking until I pass out. Because the more I push past that little voice saying “Stop now!” the repercussions will be worse and I will be spending longer in recovery.

The road our lives take is purely down to the decisions we make, a hangover is the universe telling us that we have taken a wrong turn somewhere down the line, and it's our job to find our way back. And despite there being any number of un-measurable factors, as long as we take control of our own path we can always turn around at the next junction. Maybe we will be a little late, and maybe we will have a bit of a headache, but free will means that how late we are, and the size of our headache, is dictated by ourselves.