John's Advice on Alcohol:
Well, Jack, you see, if you continue with your addiction to alcohol, and it is very real, as you know, you will, within this next year wake up sometimes, as you already have quite often, and wonder where you are, and it'll be kind of funny, sometimes. You'll roll in here or elsewhere for detox, and do that time. You'll feel better, after 4 days usually, as you have. Terrible headaches, maybe, or maybe no headaches at all. Some tracts of awful vomiting, or maybe none at all. You may even feel sometimes a great clarity for awhile. You might have some bruises and a sore lower back you never had before, or some strange cuts you don't remember ever happened.
But one time, when you wake up after your normal bender, you won't know where you are, and that'll be okay, true, and even funny, but, also, you wont know who you are, and that won't be okay, to you, at all. It will be scary, for awhile. Not knowing who you are may not ever go away, and so you will join the ranks of the respected and loved demented..who we do respect and love. That's what happens, naturally. A liver function test can show you everything is fine, and then one day, out of the blue, the liver, the way the liver works, the liver ...just dies and there is no useful function at all, and far too much of the brain naturally dies as well...and then, exponentially.
Your option, Jack, is what you do with this talk. It is a small journey. Very brief. Try hard... or simply embrace dementia. That's what comes next. If you're really up for dementia, you have no problem at all. Life of the party, Jack? Think about that now, if just for me, while you still can, whilst we all still care, for something may also happen to all of us and you cannot be alone.