The Dangers of Alcohol – A First Hand Account

I noted with extreme embarrassment that my last post was dated 1 July. Has it been that long?!

Enough with the babbling. The semester is coming to an end really soon and like the previous time, I’ll be back in SG before I know it. Although the concepts behind the lectures is significantly easier to grasp as compared to Semester 1, I feel as if I’ve worked myself to the bone because of SCIE3012.

My research didn’t exactly turn out well because there were too many unforeseen interruptions in between. I think it was a major case of bad juju because whatever that could go wrong went wrong. It’s also doubly depressing when you have to head to the lab after classes end every day. I was so spaced out each time I got home that my house mates had to approach me with caution to make sure if I was alright. Then J had to return to Taiwan and that left an immense vacuum in my life because I was so used to her presence and to having her around.

All of that happened in September.

When October finally snuck up on me, it was hell in terms of the stress levels I had to face. 1 major paper (60%), 2 reports (40%, 25%), 1 practical exam (20%) and 1 poster (20%)… all within a month. All that plunged me into a stress-induced depression (uni students should know what I’m talking about). My insomnia returned and I gradually lost my appetite. There were the rare occasions when I felt a fleeting bit of happiness but they were few and far in between.

Eventually, I came to rely on alcohol. It was quite the pal and helped me to sleep if I drank a little before bed. The problem eventually came when I started to drink whenever I was in a foul mood (which was very often).

In the morning of 13 Oct, I was rushed to Wesley’s emergency department because of severe dehydration. Yours truly, in a moment of desperation, gulped down half a bottle of wine before going to bed the night before.

The events began to unfold when at 5-ish am in the morning, I got up and stumbled blindly into the bathroom to puke my guts out. After that, I managed to stumble back to my bed (albeit in a daze) before passing out on it. When the alarm rang at 7am, I could barely manage to shut the damned thing off. Everything felt wrong, from the heavy thumping of my head to the deadness in my limbs. It was a miracle as to how I even managed to ring D (my house mate who lives in the room opposite mine) for help.

I summoned whatever strength that was left in me to speak. What came out of my mouth was, “D, I wanna die,” in a barely-there hoarse whisper. Much later on after the fiasco was over, she told me she initially thought I was playing a prank on her. WTH.

Anyway…

D, my savior, came over in a fluster and passed me some medicine and a mug of water. I felt like absolute shit then but I knew I had to get some water into my system (or at least try to). That didn’t work too well because I ended up puking into my waste paper basket instead.

Somehow my shrunken brain then managed to figure out that I needed an IV drip ASAP. I recall ringing D again and asking her to get my landlord to drive me to the hospital. The rest passed in a haze. What I remember was being injected with some drug before being hooked to the drip.

I slept, for a good two hours while the osmotic balance in my body was being restored. I awoke when I heard the creak of a chair. As I didn’t have my glasses on, I squinted and made out a familiar form sitting a distance away… It was C.

When I woke up from my 2 hr slumber, it was as if my brain finally remembered to use the ’sharpen’ function. Sucking the drug-infused banana bag dry made me feel so much better. I managed to smile and whisper hoarsely to C in a feeble attempt at conversing. I asked her not to let J know about this incident.

She then told me that in the middle of things, D tried to contact her but when it became apparent that she was still asleep, D left a message instead. When she was awake enough to read the sms, she literally dashed around the house in a mad attempt to get dressed before rushing over to Wesley.

I got discharged shortly after and my landlord came to pick C and I up (because she insisted on going home with me). For the rest of the day, I was under strict orders to get some R&R in my room. However my guts took a few days to fully recover from the escapade.

So boys and girls, that was the highlight for October. Never ever binge drink and even if you do, remember to drink lots of water after that.