Michael Nikas and Hughie MacDonald
January 3, 2024
-by April MacDonald
“I didn’t like drinking...I loved drinking.” – Hughie MacDonald
The culture of drinking in Canada and especially in Cape Breton is something everyone here is acutely aware of. You’d be hard-pressed to not find a family whose life has not been impacted in one way or another by alcoholism.
Alcoholism is defined by alcohol dependence, which is the body’s physical inability to stop drinking and the presence of alcohol cravings.
We grow up having our first beer or cooler, binge drinking usually makes its way into a young person’s life and that often follows them into any post-secondary schooling and throughout their 20s and 30s.
What begin as “harmless fun” or socializing can lead one down a path that eventually their lives are no longer in their control.
Common causes of alcoholism are said to be stressful environments, drinking at an early age, mental health problems (like depression or self-esteem issues), using alcohol as medicine for mental or physical pain and, of course, family history.
Photographer and filmmaker Michael Nikas has made a vast number of incredibly personal short films highlighting people in Inverness County who are willing to share their stories of personal triumph or their struggles – or simply just the story of their life, who they are, what they love, and what makes them tick.
Recovery is the name of his latest short film with the subject being Hughie MacDonald, who very candidly opened up about his life as an alcoholic and what it means to finally be in recovery.
“It’s one of my better personal interviews as it was 100 per cent spontaneous and without any preparation at all,” said Nikas. The film is informative, helpful, insightful, honest and incredibly brave.
“My life changed and it was for the worse,” said MacDonald, in the film. “Forty years is along time to be doing the same thing,” he explains. MacDonald added that when he was drinking he took everything in his life for granted.
MacDonald has watched the video himself and has approved it to be shared widely in the hopes that he can inspire and help even one person. “If I can help just one person, it would mean a lot to me,” he said.
The easiest way to view the video is on the Oran.ca/dmnikas link, it’s also being shared widely on Facebook.
Overcoming the power of addiction is no easy achievement. Every day can be a struggle against inner turmoil and outside pressures, all of which exert influence on you.
You can quit drinking and you can remain sober, but you have to take it one step at a time. There’s no certainty for any day, but today; so use today to quit drinking. Use today to remain sober. You cannot change the past or the days you spent drinking, but you can control how you live daily from now on.
And that is exactly what Hughie MacDonald is doing.
In closing, MacDonald said, “I hope some day they’ll say ‘we’re proud of you’.”
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