2024-01-14 11:30:50
Par Mathieu Vich
Published on 14 Jan 24 at 12:30 See my news Follow Le Républicain Lot-et-Garonne
It takes courage to get rid of your demons. Jean-Luc Alonso had it. Formerly a driver, this 66-year-old from Lot-et-Garonnais is a former alcoholic, who tried to end his life. He does not forget his past and as part of Dry January (month without alcohol), he testifies.
Today he uses it to try to help people who suffer from addiction, through an association of which he is vice-president: “Friends of Health 47”.
“I had to drink, otherwise I wouldn’t last the day”
With great emotion and sincerity, the Agenais testifies:
I started working at 16 and I always liked partying, drinking… But it remained festive and moderate. It was around age 35 that I started drinking alcohol. Lots of alcohol.
Jean-Luc Alonso
How did this addiction come into his life? ” I do not know. Already, I had to love this product. Then, I experienced a trauma in my youth. I was sexually assaulted by a man when I was 10 years old. I think it comes from there. »
Father of two children, married, he fell into alcohol at the age of 35: “I consumed up to two or three liters per day. I got up at 6 a.m. to work, but I had to drink. Otherwise, I wouldn’t last the day. My hands were shaking…”
Jean-Luc was a truck driver. For around ten years, he drove drunk.
“I wasn’t dead drunk when I was working, but I was positive. On the other hand, when I came home from work, I got into a pitiful state,” he remembers. He no longer saw anyone.
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“My wife was ashamed to invite people to our house. I spent my days drinking and crying. » This situation lasted ten years. It almost cost him his life.
At 45, I mightn’t take it anymore. I was at the bottom of the hole. I saw myself ruining my family’s life. So I wanted to end it. I went into the garage and tried to hang myself. I was drunk and I don’t know how I did it, but I messed up.
From then on, he decides to try to get out of it.
“I thought of my family and wanted help so I called for help. »
He discusses it with his sister, with his wife, and heads to the Agen hospital to follow a treatment of around ten days, “on the sixth floor of the building, where eight beds were intended for people dependent on the alcohol “.
No more alcohol
This cure saved his life. Or almost.
“For years it was. Until the day I found myself alone. My wife wasn’t there. I said to myself ‘following all, I’m cured, I can start drinking a little alcohol once more’. I took the bottle once more and that evening was a disaster. My sister arrived, luckily, to help me. »
The latter sends him a flyer from an association, towards which Jean-Luc is heading.
And that’s when I was first told that I was sick. It clicked for me.
A blessing since today, the sixty-year-old no longer drinks a drop of alcohol.
“I got through it and that’s why I try to pass on my experience to people who need it. This is the added value of this association: sick people are faced with people who have gone through the same journey. My goal is to show them that there is always hope to get through this! »
And to conclude: “When you are in this situation, you spend your day thinking regarding how you are going to find alcohol the next day. I drank everything and anything. Even household products. So if I have one piece of advice to give to people who need it, it’s: get help. You need three things to get through it: a doctor, a psychologist and an association. And above all, be ready. »
Friends of Health: 09.77.25.04.14 (free call). They will speak during a film debate in Tonneins this Friday (see page 23).
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