August 10th 2021. My little brother, Ali, was in a place where he had nothing left to live for. His mental health had got darker, his drinking and drug-taking had gone from social to dependent and his fiancée had just left him (no judgement, that girl put up with a LOT). We were running a business together and he was spiralling downwards. I needed to do something. Fast. I sat him down at my kitchen table and told him he had a choice, he was in control of who he wanted to be now. At the time, my best friend was going through IVF and had been told she had a 40% chance of success, tops. I told him this, and that by comparison, he had a 100% chance of getting sober. “You need to think of your future self. What would the Ali of 3 or 6 months time be grateful that you did now.” He didn’t have the energy for a sibling argument. “Write your future self a Christmas card.” “In August?” “Yes. Do it now and leave it in the hall, so you walk past it daily.” So he did. He started it “It is now Christmas Day, and I have been sober for 4 months…” He also wrote about the other things he wanted to sort out - credit card debt, getting back to the gym, eating better. And on Christmas Day, he was so proud of himself when he opened that letter and he’d made all of those things come true.
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