I try to be as little politcal as possible in this blog, yes. I will not blame political right or left, nor do I want to nameshame certain politicians or spread political views. But I would like to comment on certain developments, political and societal, which really tick me off in terms of having turned to substance abuse in my earlier life or that have the potential to jeopardize Recovery.

There haver been, and still are, things in this country that simply drive me nuts regarding the mentality of people especially regarding their attitude in traffic and things related. I have long worked on my own mood, and yes, I was terrible in terms of impulse control and concentration. But driving a car in Germany is equivalent to owning a gun in the US: Nobody likes too much regulation and everyone always thinks they’re right. And as long as there is no change in traffic laws, this is going to be a stress factor to be reckoned with, especially because I drive around 150-200 km a day and that means traffic stress had a significant impact on my alcohol intake, likewise the mentality of traffic participants, be it drivers, pedestrians or cyclists. Today, for instance, I was almost overrun by a car because he didn’t abide by the pedestrian crossing. But how could he have? There is no proper indication of the crossing of the street, because our city refuses to improve the situation.

This is just a couple of examples of things that set of fireworks of anger and a feeling of helplessness that would have driven me to drink even more alcohol. I don’t blame traffic politics for my drinking, but this is only one instance of where politics go wrong. Today, though, I am trying to stay calmer, change habits in traffic or engage in political change.

Something I really think needs to change in politics, however, is not the speed limit – that needs to be changed, too, since speeding and too lax traffic legislation and penalties leads to too many accidents. What does drinking have to do with it? Well, stricter legislation would probably make the traffic accidents much less severe if a drunk driver would face more constraints after conviction.

Since we are at is: Of course legislation has a lot to do with alcohol, because alcohol legislation is, also, too lax in my country: Youths are allowed to to drink in company of adults at the age if 14 in some areas. You are allowed to buy alcohol from age 16 up, as far as it’s no liquor. And it’s too cheap. Well, the list is more or less endless.

The problem that arises is, too many people complain about their freedom being cropped by too “rigid legislation”. It starts with “I won’t let people take away my freedom to get hammered, or drive 210 kph on the speedway and we are living in an autocratic system anyways”. – Nothing could be farther from the truth. But shitstorms and social media keep up this nonsense.

And a lot of people think their manliness is cropped by this legislation. My take is these people lack self confidence in order to cope with these factors.

Well, it all can feel overwhelming. The good thing is, the changes and developments I made during my Recovery process really help me to build up resilience and resources to deal with all that crap. So, at the moment, the risk of falling into the trap of alcohol is pretty low right now.

And a good way to deal with helplessness and insignificance can be addressed with the philosophical musings about Cosmic Horror, at least for the meantime.

Until next time, take one step at a time and keep up the faith in yourself.