I have seen people in my own circle who enjoy parties and control the amount of drinks and enjoy drinking without having any dependency, they will take 2-3 drinks weekly or twice not more then that and get back to life, alcohol seems to have no big issue for them.
But for me it’s all a different scenario once after a break if i just sip one pint of beer become unstoppable for quite a long time, it never happened to me that i stopped after a drink or two , for me it’s like not at all or all at once, has anyone else experienced the same , is there any way for a person like me to have a normal drinking routine without affecting my life?
This is the question we alcoholics have asked for years. I don’t know why some people can drink casually, while we can’t. I just know that I either have no drinks or a dozen, and I’ll buy a bottle on the way home. The same way some of my friends will have a few cigarettes on a weekend camping trip twice a year. There are books about returning to "responsible drinking ", I’ve read a couple of them, but my personal experience is that it does not work for me. I once stayed sober for 16 months and the little Devil in my head told me that should be a great time to return to having an occasional drink. Wrong! A few shots with friends, and I was right back where I started 16 months earlier. An alcoholic friend said it best, "one drink is too many and 1000 drinks is not enough ". If your drinking is causing you problems, like mine was, I recommend quitting. Cutting back has not been an option for me. Good luck with your journey.
Yep. I’m built different. It’s either 0 or 100. I can go without. But I can’t control when I start. The doctor asked me one time. How many times a week are you drinking. I said Probly 3 times. He said how much are you drinking during those times? I just said all of it. He looked at me and knew immediately what I was saying.
Hey! Welcome. I am just like you. Two weeks off then I make sure I drink enough for three weeks. Wake up feeling terrible and with humiliation and shame. Tell myself I’ll stick to this, or set up rules which go completely out the window as soon as I pop that first too.
I was there for a while. Then I began hiding Booze to keep a level amount of buzz. This worked for about 8 months. Then it got out of hand. I am an alcoholic. I’ve been sober for some time now. Even now I know if I have one, I’m going to drink that whole bottle, so I must abstain.
I was not ready to stop drinking. It wasn’t until I was that I tried AA. I never went to jail or lost a job or anything big, but I was an alcoholic. I still don’t like saying it. The thing is I cannot moderate. I cannot control it. I’m not a bad drunk. But I am a drunk. If you want to stop drinking try AA, do 90 meetings in 90 days, get a sponsor and work the steps. It’s truly that simple. I know the fear of the idea of saying or thinking never drinking again, but what about a wedding or this or that. There is a phrase suggesting don’t think about the future just take it one day at a time. That actually works. I wish I could drink, I think, but I know I can’t. As an adult, I must have the own personal responsibility to act forthrightly.
As someone who has so much self control and success in every other area of life, alcohol was not something I could overcome. I don’t always like what it said or professed in AA but it works to stay sober, and I like that more, and yes sometimes I don’t like it more, but I do things I don’t necessarily like all the time.
Hope this little story/word vomit helps. You got this, just be willing to listen to the advice here. You’re here in this moment reading it for a reason. Just like I’m here posting on this forum to a stranger for a reason. And the even more beautiful thing is that this conversation could not be for you but for someone else who won’t even post on it, but it will hit their spirit in the right way and the right time to save their life.
I don’t know how it works or if it’s a real thing, I’ve never taken the time to really look into it, but I’m a 4th generation alcoholic. All the men on my moms side of the family have been very good at drinking alcohol. I always thought I’d be the one to end it, but here I am. One shot leads to finishing an entire bottle with ease and needing more if I haven’t passed out yet. I wouldn’t wish this curse on anyone.
After so many failed attempts being made for responsible drinking i agree you totally on this actually there is one thought which can trigger series of thoughts and temptations which leads to binge drinking for me as well i have finally accepted the fact that i am either sober or an alcoholic there is no middle path
I don’t know why and honestly I don’t really care. Genetics, upbringing, my body, my mind? I know the fact is I can’t. My intake kept increasing and the only way to do something about that was to stop. And stopping worked. All success to you.
Thanks , looking at your post i can feel we have lot a common experience on the subject, I was lost and i felt very humiliated before joining all of you guys but your words gave me courage to build up , it helps you a lot when you know you are not alone
This simple sentence has a lot to it, Every time i have drink to the reason thinking about a future event in which i might be drinking for sure and that single thought ruins every possibility which exists now
Im the same and yes I AM an alcoholic. Im on day 19 of my sobriety now and have a great AA fellowship full of support. I just listened to a speaker on an app called Free AA Speakers. They explained the physical difference between a contrlled drinker and someone like me that drinks to excess. Very interesting. Our bodies do not process alcohol the same. Alcohol Broken down into different chemical compounds. At one point it becomes Acetone. A normal drinkers body will break that down to carbohydrates. Our bodies seem to stop and slow down at that point and retain it. They have found that the Acetone produces a craving from the body for more. That is when we start wanting that next drink. I know its not as simple as all that. There are alot of mental and emotional factors that play in to. But this physical portion is something that we all seem to share. Give AA a chance. It has been a lifesaver for me. Sending lots of Hope your way !
Thanks, i think its important to be resilient, i have been not successful in last two attempts but my determination keep getting strong after every failure
I wish you the best of luck in your journey as well, friend. It’s a challenge, as I’m finding out, that you’ll learn a lot of new things as you go. Just gotta keep that focus.
As a non-drinker, I intrinsically know that alcohol has zero value. It’s completely worthless. Why injest some poison that could eventually kill me and others around me. I don’t envy drinkers. I pity them. They need our pity. Because alcohol doesn’t fill a void. It creates one. It doesn’t cure anxiety. It creates it. It doesn’t remove stress. It dumps more stress on the drinker than ever before. And pleasure and fun? Nope. The only pleasure it offers is the pleasure of releasing the withdrawal pangs that were caused by alcohol to begin with. That’s not pleasure. That’s a lie; an illusion: a miserable existence. It’s a trap to suck me in. Alcohol is addictive. Anyone who starts to drink, will desire to drink more. That’s all.
Oh man, I hear you!! The mental gymnastics I went through for years trying to figure out the magic key to drinking ‘responsibly.’ Seriously, I wasted a lifetime on that one. You are not alone in wishing for something that for us simply does not exist.
I want to share one of my very favorite threads on this topic. I hope you find it as inspiring and helpful as I have…
Some of us just can’t anymore. The first sip demands another, another, another… and when you realize, your consciousness has gone and you’re falling apart. The other day? Panic, extreme heartbeat, trembling, that’ll go away just with another sip and so on. When I got to that point, I realized that I was actually sick.
If you’re asking yourself that then you already know the answer. My issue was binging during hard times rather than facing them. When I truly asked myself if I had a problem the answer was yes. I used it as “medicine” and felt like I needed it to deal with issues, but all I was doing was ignoring the issues, making them worse, and hurting myself.
