Restraint of Pen & Tongue
This topic was suggested by a beloved member. It brings many thoughts to mind, and because I know I can get long on the keyboard, I’ll try to be concise.
Drinking can cause our tongues to loosen up. Sometimes when we sober up we don’t lose this quality. Consequently, sometimes we hurt, sometimes we’re hurt.
One of the side effects of my traumatic brain injury is reduced inhibitions; a neuropsychologist equated it for me by saying I have the inhibitionscompletely soberof someone who’s consumed a couple of drinks. That just means I have to be careful. For me, my lack of restraint means I get overly friendly. I will, for example, approach someone at Wal-Mart and remind them how blessed they are to have those two beautiful children (though I usually approach it by asking the children if their parents know they’re blessed to be related to you? ). Most of the time is a welcome reminder; however, there have been times when I’ve over-done the props. But, not always.
When drinking I would flirt a bit too much with a cute guy. Enough to make my husband feel very uncomfortable if I was with him; that behavior was one of my reasons for sobering up. My amends is to stay sober and not repeat the behavior.
Lack of restraint with the tongue also includes giving someone our opinion of just what we think of either them or their behavior.
Now that we’re in an era of the Internet, we have another way to apply our tongues, and it’s less personalthough it still feels personalthan face-to-face contact. So, it’s easier to let others really know what we think.
This week, please discuss if you’ve used your tongue (or proverbial tonguethe Internet) to hurt someone,, and how you made amends. Or, conversely, if you’ve been hurt, and wereand howwere amends made.
Or, of course, anything you need to discuss this week.