"My name is Walter. I'm an alcoholic. I haven't had a drink for one day.
"I grew up in San Diego and I went back there after college. I drank a lot in college, but everybody did. It wasn't anything, it was just normal. The thing is, I never stopped. I needed a vacation every day. It wasn't fair: Everybody wanted something from me. My wife always wanted something, and the boss did, and when we had kids they always needed something. I just needed to relax. I needed to get out of the house and have a few drinks. What's wrong with that? Okay, I needed a drink or two to wake up in the morning, but I could hold my liquor. What's wrong with that? I was doing okay. I should have been the regional sales manager in a few more years."
"I've been there!"
"Then there were times when I'd find myself driving, and I didn't remember getting in the car. I lost a few jobs: I knew I could have gotten it together if they'd given me another chance, but they never wanted to help me. What could I do? My wife took the kids and left. I don't know who beat her up; she said it was me. Well, she's the one who remembered it, so I guess she was right, but I thought it was pretty unfair to blame a man for a thing he couldn't remember doing. How could I get my life together if I had all this blame to deal with?"
"Keep coming!" "I hear you!" "Keep coming!"
"Things got pretty bad. I lost a few more jobs. They wouldn't let me drive a bus because I couldn't keep it going in a straight line. That's pretty bad: I used to be a hotshot. I had some nice suits and a new Oldsmobile. At the time I was pissed off at the bus company: Couldn't they just give me a chance? They didn't want me to get my life back on track. They didn't care. My life was going down the drain and they didn't care.
"I don't know where my wife is. I haven't seen my kids in ten years. The last time, she said she didn't want them to see their father like that. That was pretty hard. It was unfair, I thought. I'm their father, right?"
"Keep coming!"
"So it got worse and worse. Finally I just couldn't take it. I needed a new start. San Diego was like death to me and I knew if I got out, if I just got myself someplace new, everything would be different. I just needed a change. It wasn't me, it was everything around me. San Diego's a Navy town. It's all bars and liquor stores. I couldn't get away from it."
"I've been there!" "I hear you!"
"I pulled a white-knuckle and got myself straight for a few months. I got a job sweeping out a supermarket and I kept it. I got some money together and came here to Australia. Everything was going to be different.
"Well, within two weeks after I got here, everything was the same. They've got bars here too, and liquor stores... That was five years ago. It's still the same. It's always the same. I move to a different city and I go right down the drain again. It's always the same. It's not the bars, it's not the liquor stores, it's not my wife, it's not my friends.
"It's me. I'm the problem."
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