The Morning After, The Life Before
The Hangover Squinting, I reached over to grab my phone. The green LED was flashing, and I couldn’t resist that little hit, a dose of dopamine when I needed it the most. I checked the time and it was 10:30am, that was disturbing. Megan and the kids were playing downstairs and I could hear them laughing and enjoying their Sunday morning. They were present together physically, mentally and emotionally; I wasn't there and even hearing them wasn’t enough to spark me into life. Lifting my head from the pillow brought a wave of nausea, and the thought of facing the world, even my beloved family, filled me with dread. Instead, I opened my WhatsApp, perhaps in the hope of finding something that would miraculously shift my state of mind at least. This was a monstrous hangover though. I couldn’t focus so I shut one eye to unblur the writing on the phone that was in my outstretched arm across the bed. There was a thread in the chat and while I lay there thinking of something witty to respond ...