Marcel’s first childhood experience with large amounts of alcohol was said to be not pleasant at all. Around the age of 16, he started drinking quite regularly, albeit with various breaks, but they never lasted. “At first it was just excessive drinking, where the addiction wasn’t particularly evident yet, but it didn’t last long, and sometime before I was 30, I so-called fell into it. Three days abstinence at that time they were already causing me great suffering, which lasted until the last treatment in 2011,” says Marcel.

Take a shot at fixing it

Since today 59-year-old Marcel Trunec worked as a waiter right after graduating from high school and had a lot of mobile friends in this industry, access to alcohol was taken care of. He describes what his daily evenings were like in his book Závislák, which he published after a successful fundraiser on the Pointa portal.

“I’m in one of the posh establishments where there was a light carpet with a long pile bead and he didn’t hold back the champagne and pretty much sent it all on him. “It doesn’t matter, it happens sometimes and the cleaner will fix it right away. Give yourself one Becherovka to fix and you’ll see, you’ll feel better immediately,” the owner reassured me.”

The cops were lurking around the corner

Unfortunately, a drunken Marcel had no inhibitions and took pictures of his favorite businesses in the car he was driving. This is how he described his journey home from the last of the businesses he visited: “And it’s already in the puddle again. We drink shots. When we think we’ve had enough, we decide to go for real. We get back into the car and set off. This time, the cops are waiting for us hidden in the dark around the corner, and it’s quite clear that things won’t go so smoothly now. I ride bravely. Will they chase us with Forman? Ridiculous. I drive through the city at full throttle up the hill to the nearest village where I think I might get lost somewhere in the dark. I’m going fast, but per thousand they’re doing their thing.”

I walk the line almost straight

Marcel remembers how drunk first he hit a power pole and then he ended up with the front of the car in the opposite garden. “The car is smoking, the radiator is punctured, we don’t have one wheel, spoilers are all over the street and the window is missing. We are, like a miracle, two-legged, but somehow as a whole.”

When the police took Marcel to a medical examination, the doctor was not surprised: 3.15 parts per thousand of alcohol in the blood. “Someone wouldn’t even get out of their chair after that, while I happily did he drove, and not for the first time. I walk almost straight along the line and I manage to hit it well with my finger in the nose. The doctor writes in the record that I show signs of mild intoxication, but those alcohol levels cannot be hidden.”

A steep fall in gambling

Marcel’s addiction to alcohol was later joined by his addiction to slot machines. “I came to the machines through a completely natural development, when I operated these devilish boxes myself in my restaurant. It was enough to drink a little more and I went to “try” them. The emergence of addiction to pathological gaming is very fast,” admits Marcel. According to him, there is no point in evaluating which addiction is worse, since both are great and insidious evils. Although with gambling, a person’s fall is much steeper and faster than the fall with regular consumption alcohol.

Break out of the environment

How did Marcel finally get out of addiction? “That he is human dependent, he is very well aware and has to admit it. I knew that if I didn’t get out of the environment I was in, and I don’t just mean the restaurants and hotels where I worked, I wouldn’t get out of it myself. That’s why I always chose institutional treatment. I went there voluntarily and without external pressure,” says Marcel, who has now been abstinent for the 12th year.

“I also tried outpatient treatment with various psychologists, but that was absolutely pointless in my case. I was admitted to institutional treatment several times, but in the end it brought success. That I graduated treatment was the foundation, but the support of family and friends is no less important.”

It’s worthless without motivation

“No one-size-fits-all advice to overcome any addiction it doesn’t exist,” Marcel is convinced. According to him, everyone has to choose what suits them best. One must definitely have some motivation and want. Without it, it’s worthless. It doesn’t matter what motivation they choose, whether it’s family, wife, children, work, health, or anything else.

“I consider it the most effective institutional treatment, and then constant reinforcement of abstinence in any proven way is necessary. I’m lucky in that my neighbor and friend – a former manager of a community center – keep me in check, and of course I have the support of my children and the few friends I have left. In addition, I am motivated by the feeling that I can look anyone in the eye. I have regained the trust of my family and friends, I don’t have to lie to anyone and be ashamed of my actions.”

Marcel motivates other people to abstain

Marcel Trunec wrote the book Závislák about his life because he wanted to show similarly disabled people that there is a path that can be taken dependence overcome. That it’s only up to them and that a life without addiction is worth it. “I am pleased that today people turn to me for advice on what to do with their father, brother, son and so on, and in one case, after reading my book, an acquaintance took courage and went for treatment, which he successfully completed,” he adds. the pride of Marcel.