We Had to Binge

 We had to drink because times were hard or times were good. We had to drink because at home we were smothered with love or got none at all. We had to drink because at work we were great successes or dismal failures. We had to drink because our nation had won a war or lost a peace. And so it went, ad infinitum. ~ Alcoholics Anonymous. The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Pages 46-47

When I drank, it tended to be at annual intervals.
I was much more likely to drink in a foreign country!
But I can certainly identify with the feel of this passage.
For me it rings true with word substitution:
I had to binge because times were hard
or times were good. I had to binge
because at home I was smothered with love
or got none at all. I had to binge because at work
I was a great success or dismal failure.
I had to binge because our nation
had won a war or lost a peace.
And so it went, ad infinitum.
But now I have no need to binge
or to eat a tiny snack, I eat according to plan
day after day, meal after meal,
knowing the framework of each day’s consumption,
planned meals with nothing in between,
no snacks, not a bite, a lick or a taste.
I have no more pull to eat otherwise
than I have for a drink.
And the freedom inherent in that status
gives me happiness I wish I had discovered
so many decades, so many binges earlier!
I never need binge again. I have found peace!