Hope at Christmas

Its that time of the year again, love it or dread it, its here.  In this video Lou and John talk about HOPE, the hope that can come out of the most challenging circumstances.

This year is even more challenging as Covid 19 continues to make life difficult and stop us celebrating Christmas in a more tradition manner of gathering with the people we love.   However, even here we have a glimmer of hope as , not just one but a number of vaccines are being rolled out.

We wish you a safe and peaceful festive season.

If you are looking for some tips and/or advice on how to handle this time of year you can find it in our video about surviving celebrations.

If you are interested in the spiritual content we talked about you can find it at Beauty for Ashes.

4 Replies to “Hope at Christmas”

  1. Happy new year to one and all. We feel that we are probably saying this more in hope than expectation, especially after the events of 2020 and the first few days of 2021. However, there are some signs for optimism on the horizon.

    We decided that in this first post of the 2021, instead of recording a video, we would just pose a question, well two questions actually. The first is “How was your festive season? What was good about it and what was less good about it?”. The second question is “What topic(s) would you like us to address in our regular videos in the next few weeks?”

    Let us know by posting in the comments section below,

    Look forward to reading your posts.

    Best

    Lou and John

  2. This year was probably the worst Christmas I’ve had, My husband decided to go on a complete bender week before Christmas, he went missing for 3 days and it was the first time I had to get the police involved. The hardest decision I’ve had to make . It took until Christmas Eve until he was sober enough to talk to , I’ve encouraged to sign up to a alcohol support group and to continue with his counselling for his depression, but last night he is saying he would like to be able to drink every now again,
    Can a person who abuses drink in such a way ever be able to drink socially?

    1. Hi Sarah
      so sorry to hear that Christmas turned out so badly for you. I have spent a lot of time helping and supporting drinkers and I can honestly say that most (if not all) say that they would like to drink occasionally, or normally, or socially, or whatever. The evidence suggests that it may be possible for some people to drink again in a controlled way but it is not something that just happens. If it was, then we could close down all the treatment centres and go and do something more useful.
      For someone who has been a problem drinker to achieve that, they need to undertake a training program where they first unlearn old habits and reprogram new habits. That takes time and effort and is not easy. I should also say that the success rate is low. In fact, many who undertake the program decide it is not worth the effort and that abstinence is a better option.

  3. Hi John
    In spite of lockdown my family and I had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas as my alcoholic husband and I parted more than three years ago.
    In many ways I wish we had parted sooner as there was nothing I could do to change his drinking as he is a compulsive liar.He almost died twice last year of a perforated bowel which resulted in sepsis, and is now drinking again.I would like you to speak more about parting as being a possible solution for partners as some drinkers will not change in spite of what the family do.BTW I love your website and it has helped me a lot

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