Of which, i am not a hard drinker
Drinking too much
- Thread starter koolpc
- Start date
Of which, i am not a hard drinker
No its not dramatic you really don't know as I can tell from your response. You drink 6 to 10 pints a day for 11 years and its hard core.
The morning rattle, the shakes if you don't have a drink, the loss of appetite, collapsing for no reason, inability to do day to day tasks, sleeping 12-14 hours a day, the list is endless. It screws you up big time.
Being an alcoholic is **** period and I would not wish it on anyone.
Its time that catches up with you, am not a hard drinker don't like being drunk, don't like hangovers but over time it will take you the cleaners.
Just do what you can and try to sack it, before like me it takes over your life to the point of disability.
When you **** your pants just using your PC and you don't know then it trouble big time.
As for your problems chin up and soldier on, its the British way. Don't use booze to help as it only makes things worse in the long run.
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Caporegime
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I don't disagree that tapering is probably a good idea - if only for the mental aspects of 'letting go' - but I do disagree that daily drinkers will die within 72 hours of stopping drinking. That's a huge sweeping statement that will only affect a smaller proportion of drinkers, and those drinkers will not just drink every day but will drink a LOT every day and over a sustained period of time. You were silent on these other factors, and I'm only mentioning the obvious ones. Anyway, it's not important I suppose.
koolpc - I hope you turn things around. Good luck.
Soldato
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OP it sounds like the booze has stopped working. Many people drink to escape and forget but anything taken to excess, whether it is street drugs, prescription drugs or alcohol (a liquid drug), will eventually stop working and the things you're running from will haunt you again.
Now is the time to get help. You'll need to learn to live life without using substances to change the way you feel and get used to feeling raw emotions again. It's a rollercoaster at first but once you get used to the highs and lows of clean living life is so much better. All the good things will find their way back into your life.
Take it from me OP, no matter how low you feel there is always another rock bottom, much lower than the last one!
Now is the time to get help. You'll need to learn to live life without using substances to change the way you feel and get used to feeling raw emotions again. It's a rollercoaster at first but once you get used to the highs and lows of clean living life is so much better. All the good things will find their way back into your life.
Take it from me OP, no matter how low you feel there is always another rock bottom, much lower than the last one!
Its time that catches up with you, am not a hard drinker don't like being drunk, don't like hangovers but over time it will take you the cleaners.
Just do what you can and try to sack it, before like me it takes over your life to the point of disability.
When you **** your pants just using your PC and you don't know then it trouble big time.
As for your problems chin up and soldier on, its the British way. Don't use booze to help as it only makes things worse in the long run.
Cheers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens
I got the T-shirt its nasty as hell. Lucky we have the NHS which are brilliant and made me get though it. I was on Chlordiazepoxide in hospital.
Although I have to say I relapsed, being the Richard I am.
Associate
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I’ve had a long relationship with alcohol. Weirdly when I was a child and even teenager, I didn’t like the taste and was sure I wouldn’t ever really be a drinker, even though my parents are.
It started when I was 17, going out with mates to town. Didn’t enjoy it then either, but peer pressure. Also suffered anxiety, felt physically sick just being out amongst crowds of drunks in town. Only way to get through it was to try and get a few drinks down.
Somewhere along the line, I decided I just really enjoyed getting ‘wrecked’. Not just booze, anything I could lay my hands on.
Eventually, it turned into a crutch. I was fat, unhappy and lost in my 20s. I drank more. Vodka coke every day after work. Until one Xmas when I was going out every other night, on top of the vodka, eventually one hangover too many and I had my first panic attack. Went to docs, got checked out, high liver count in my early 20s. Gave up for 3 months.
Once I felt better, I gradually started again going out on the lash. One night even ended up in hospital after collapsing in the street.
My parents liked wine so in the house red wine replaced the vodka.
Another 5 years down the line, met the OH. She also loved a drink. Not a great combination, as you can imagine.
Red wine every day for the god knows how long. It was slowly killing me, 100% sure of it. 1.5 - 2 bottles a night after work. Hangovers every day.
At some point last year after months of depression and daily hangovers, gave up red wine completely. Too easy to drink, and I was totally sick of the hangovers and heartburn.
Replaced the wine with IPA beer. Best thing I did. Much harder to get genuinely drunk. It was progress. Having about 4 cans of brew dog punk IPA was better than 2 bottles of red wine for sure.
Fast forward to now, I’ve decided to try and have 4 dry days a week. Already feeling better for it. I want to save money and lose a bit weight, and improve my health.
Still love a night out if I’m honest. 40 this year, that may never stop. I do feel like I’m finally getting control of my life again after 20 blurry years.
Good luck to anyone trying to get better.
It started when I was 17, going out with mates to town. Didn’t enjoy it then either, but peer pressure. Also suffered anxiety, felt physically sick just being out amongst crowds of drunks in town. Only way to get through it was to try and get a few drinks down.
Somewhere along the line, I decided I just really enjoyed getting ‘wrecked’. Not just booze, anything I could lay my hands on.
Eventually, it turned into a crutch. I was fat, unhappy and lost in my 20s. I drank more. Vodka coke every day after work. Until one Xmas when I was going out every other night, on top of the vodka, eventually one hangover too many and I had my first panic attack. Went to docs, got checked out, high liver count in my early 20s. Gave up for 3 months.
Once I felt better, I gradually started again going out on the lash. One night even ended up in hospital after collapsing in the street.
My parents liked wine so in the house red wine replaced the vodka.
Another 5 years down the line, met the OH. She also loved a drink. Not a great combination, as you can imagine.
Red wine every day for the god knows how long. It was slowly killing me, 100% sure of it. 1.5 - 2 bottles a night after work. Hangovers every day.
At some point last year after months of depression and daily hangovers, gave up red wine completely. Too easy to drink, and I was totally sick of the hangovers and heartburn.
Replaced the wine with IPA beer. Best thing I did. Much harder to get genuinely drunk. It was progress. Having about 4 cans of brew dog punk IPA was better than 2 bottles of red wine for sure.
Fast forward to now, I’ve decided to try and have 4 dry days a week. Already feeling better for it. I want to save money and lose a bit weight, and improve my health.
Still love a night out if I’m honest. 40 this year, that may never stop. I do feel like I’m finally getting control of my life again after 20 blurry years.
Good luck to anyone trying to get better.
I can understand how people get hooked on drinking. Heavy social drinking runs in the family, though for some drinking more than socialising became the main focus.
Lost one cousin due to drinking and then drugs after breaking up with his then girlfriend.
I've never liked the feeling of being out of control. But when I was a younger man discovering the clubs, pubs and bar scene I took a liking to hard cider to give me some dutch courage and relax me. I can see how so many people get beyond drink when out as those 2 for 1 deals can be a killer. To order 1 pint you have to order half a pint. But I didn't realise that on the first night I went out and ordered 2 pints, so I had to drink 4 pints before we moved to the next pub.
A close friend works for a mental health hospital and they have quite a few alcoholics on the wards. My friend is the nurse who brings the medications around. He told me for the alcoholics they are prescribed alcohol at various doses by the doctors otherwise they would have seizures and die. Being physically addicted to alcohol to that point is a long road back.
Lost one cousin due to drinking and then drugs after breaking up with his then girlfriend.
I've never liked the feeling of being out of control. But when I was a younger man discovering the clubs, pubs and bar scene I took a liking to hard cider to give me some dutch courage and relax me. I can see how so many people get beyond drink when out as those 2 for 1 deals can be a killer. To order 1 pint you have to order half a pint. But I didn't realise that on the first night I went out and ordered 2 pints, so I had to drink 4 pints before we moved to the next pub.
A close friend works for a mental health hospital and they have quite a few alcoholics on the wards. My friend is the nurse who brings the medications around. He told me for the alcoholics they are prescribed alcohol at various doses by the doctors otherwise they would have seizures and die. Being physically addicted to alcohol to that point is a long road back.
I was close but they sorted me out sort of, I could not walk for days and even now I have trouble walking. Am ok sitting down and driving but walking is a no go at the moment, am not talking DD just in general going about without a drink.
End of the day its brutal being an alcoholic, nasty pasty gear and I have took every drug you can think of in my time but booze is bad. Its a creeper and happens over time, I will try and I hope OP tries his best good luck.
Associate
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For most of my life since my teens I’ve been a textbook binge drinker, in that once or twice a week I’d go out with mates and get a bit hammered, or when I was married, we’d go up to Norfolk for the weekend and I’d be in the pub on the Friday night, Saturday lunchtime and occasionally Sunday lunchtime with my missus and her Dad. Wouldn’t drink at all the rest of the week.
Fast forward to August 2017 when my marriage ends and then began the time when I had my most serious problem with alcohol - not so much the quantity I was drinking (usually only a bottle of beer per night), but the fact I was doing it every night, weekdays and weekends. And when I ran out, the next day I’d be straight round the offy near where I work and bought another box of 12 or so. Classic drowning my sorrows/comfort drinking - I was in more emotional pain than I’d ever experienced in my entire life and it was a crutch or coping mechanism.
The reality began to hit home when I saw photos of myself taken at work’s Xmas party in early December 2017 - I looked bloated, like a stereotypical darts player. The final straw came on Xmas Day when I was at my Mum’s - at one point she took me to one side and just said: “I think you might be drinking too much sweetheart ...” That hit me like a smack in the teeth and brought me to my senses.
In January 2018, I gave up drinking during the week and restricted myself to weekends, the only exceptions to that being if I went out with one of my mates on a weekday evening. I combined it with a better diet and weight-training and happily, the belly went back to its pre-divorce level. I lapsed a bit around May and June when our nephew and niece were living with us for a bit while the place they were going to rent was coming up for availability. Being teenagers, they liked a drink and enjoyed getting drunk with their uncle and, for the first time in his life, getting him smoking a bit of weed.
As of now, I’m renting my own place and when it comes to alcohol, honestly I can take it or leave it - if I’ve got a bottle of wine I might have a couple of glasses, but I won’t habitually go down the village shop and buy another bottle immediately when I run out. We’ve just finished the Christmas season obviously, so I have a few bottles of beer left over, but I only have one if the mood takes me - I won’t habitually reach for one when I get home from work. When those are gone, I intend to go back to my ‘only at weekends’ rule.
The point of this is, most of the time I drink either because I enjoy it or on social occasions and I have it under some kind of control - I love real ale or a dry white like Pinot. Only on the one occasion outlined above can I honestly say I lost control of it, or certainly lost sight of the regularity with which I was doing it. It needs to be remembered that alcohol is still a drug, albeit a legal and socially acceptable one, and as such it is dangerous and needs to be treated with respect.
Fast forward to August 2017 when my marriage ends and then began the time when I had my most serious problem with alcohol - not so much the quantity I was drinking (usually only a bottle of beer per night), but the fact I was doing it every night, weekdays and weekends. And when I ran out, the next day I’d be straight round the offy near where I work and bought another box of 12 or so. Classic drowning my sorrows/comfort drinking - I was in more emotional pain than I’d ever experienced in my entire life and it was a crutch or coping mechanism.
The reality began to hit home when I saw photos of myself taken at work’s Xmas party in early December 2017 - I looked bloated, like a stereotypical darts player. The final straw came on Xmas Day when I was at my Mum’s - at one point she took me to one side and just said: “I think you might be drinking too much sweetheart ...” That hit me like a smack in the teeth and brought me to my senses.
In January 2018, I gave up drinking during the week and restricted myself to weekends, the only exceptions to that being if I went out with one of my mates on a weekday evening. I combined it with a better diet and weight-training and happily, the belly went back to its pre-divorce level. I lapsed a bit around May and June when our nephew and niece were living with us for a bit while the place they were going to rent was coming up for availability. Being teenagers, they liked a drink and enjoyed getting drunk with their uncle and, for the first time in his life, getting him smoking a bit of weed.
As of now, I’m renting my own place and when it comes to alcohol, honestly I can take it or leave it - if I’ve got a bottle of wine I might have a couple of glasses, but I won’t habitually go down the village shop and buy another bottle immediately when I run out. We’ve just finished the Christmas season obviously, so I have a few bottles of beer left over, but I only have one if the mood takes me - I won’t habitually reach for one when I get home from work. When those are gone, I intend to go back to my ‘only at weekends’ rule.
The point of this is, most of the time I drink either because I enjoy it or on social occasions and I have it under some kind of control - I love real ale or a dry white like Pinot. Only on the one occasion outlined above can I honestly say I lost control of it, or certainly lost sight of the regularity with which I was doing it. It needs to be remembered that alcohol is still a drug, albeit a legal and socially acceptable one, and as such it is dangerous and needs to be treated with respect.
I was an alcoholic for about 10 months. I had drank occasionally for years before but during that low period I drank at least a half-pint of liquor and a box of 6 beers literally every night (usually a pint of liquor and a box of 12 beers, and sometimes a lot more). I was a heavy smoker as well for about 7 years. I quit both on the same day cold turkey about 8 years ago, and probably the reasons I was successful were that I immediately took up working out and mending some friendships I had neglected.
I went back to drinking/smoking one night like 2 years ago and the next day I had the most horrible hangover of my life, and I took that as a sign to stay away. Apart from that one night, I've been free of both for about 8 years, and I wish other people well. Edit: I'll still occasionally have some weed, which was never a problem for me like alcohol/nicotine were, and fortunately I've never abused anything else.
I went back to drinking/smoking one night like 2 years ago and the next day I had the most horrible hangover of my life, and I took that as a sign to stay away. Apart from that one night, I've been free of both for about 8 years, and I wish other people well. Edit: I'll still occasionally have some weed, which was never a problem for me like alcohol/nicotine were, and fortunately I've never abused anything else.
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Well, bought 2 bottles of vino today. I dont plan on drinking them both. Just feel like a drink. Escape from this horrific reality i am in. Yea, i know its pathetic and i am a wimp but being in my shoes at the mo is not good.
I am trying though to change things. First priority is to find a home. I am looking to buy. Seen many and had offer accepted on a few too but bad bad surveys etc scuttled those. Hoping as spring approaches more will come on the market.
Other issues like my back are not really treatable. Only painkillers. Been to specialists but no real treatment and today its acting up! The joys of getting older. 55 this year too. Been a member on here for approx 15 years. Thats a fair amount of time. Pity i cant get on MM. Would love to buy a 2nd hand pc from you lot.
Anyway, keep smiling
I am trying though to change things. First priority is to find a home. I am looking to buy. Seen many and had offer accepted on a few too but bad bad surveys etc scuttled those. Hoping as spring approaches more will come on the market.
Other issues like my back are not really treatable. Only painkillers. Been to specialists but no real treatment and today its acting up! The joys of getting older. 55 this year too. Been a member on here for approx 15 years. Thats a fair amount of time. Pity i cant get on MM. Would love to buy a 2nd hand pc from you lot.
Anyway, keep smiling
Drank really heavily mostly my adult life, did the same with fags. My reward was throat cancer which I never really recovered from. Really missed a beer during treatment and once I could finally swallow again I went in to a pub and ordered a pint. Unfortunately I had lost my sense of taste and it tasted foul. Never got my sense of taste back so have not had a beer in ten years, every now and then, once a year perhaps I break out the vodka and get drunk listening to Hardstyle very loud.
Really miss a beer though.
Really miss a beer though.
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Wishing you all the very best mate. Must have been tough with the throat cancer.
Associate
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I have started drinking a can or 2 of beer most nights, ot started after a boozy holiday, not much need to cut down. I don’t feel like stopping, might buy some jd for weekend ha.
I packed in booze altogether this year...I'm 38 and it's just not worth it any more.
I binge drank at least a couple of times a week from about 16 to 36. Hangovers are too much now, not just the day after, but it takes 5-6 days to really get back to 100% mental sharpness.
My other half's dad is a recovering alcoholic. Very, very nearly died last year, was in a terrible state but managed to pull it back from the brink...think he will make it now. Literally sobering to see.
When your liver packs in your whole body craps out. Brain included.
Ain't no beers worth that.
Not looking forward to the inevitable **** I'm going to get when I tell my best mate that I'm not drinking on his stag do....but my health is more important.
I binge drank at least a couple of times a week from about 16 to 36. Hangovers are too much now, not just the day after, but it takes 5-6 days to really get back to 100% mental sharpness.
My other half's dad is a recovering alcoholic. Very, very nearly died last year, was in a terrible state but managed to pull it back from the brink...think he will make it now. Literally sobering to see.
When your liver packs in your whole body craps out. Brain included.
Ain't no beers worth that.
Not looking forward to the inevitable **** I'm going to get when I tell my best mate that I'm not drinking on his stag do....but my health is more important.
Have you considered AA? You clearly exhibit an alcohol problem, being put in the cells twice and drinking significant amounts alone. I imagine this also makes contact with your daughter more difficult?
You can afford a laptop /computer, just don't spend the money on booze.
You could afford a better temporary accommodation, just you choose to sleep in terrible conditions and wallow in self pity. I recall a previous thread saying you have 120k cash to buy the next place? Spend a bit of cash for a couple months on nicer rent.
I appreciate that im being critical, but you should seriously consider access to daughter a priority and stop drinking.
Soldato
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Or less drastic solution https://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Control-Alcohol-ebook/dp/B004AHKC3O have a read it’s £5. I bought it as when I decided to have a few weeks off the booze I was intrigued into why us brits have a tight relationship with alcohol.
Really interesting book might change your outlook and you only have £5 to lose and a few hours of your time which you seem to have a lot of spare.
Really interesting book might change your outlook and you only have £5 to lose and a few hours of your time which you seem to have a lot of spare.
I see my daughter every single day. Not an Alcoholic as it has only been for a few months drinking and even then a couple times a week when really down. Being put in the cells a couple of times was / is, a cry for help! I am waiting to go to counseling. Comments like yours dont help at all.
I did have 120k but been eating into that for various things like surveys, solicitor, car, living expenses. I cant afford to keep doing that as it reduces the amount i will have to get a place. Hoping to get somewhere soon as now is the time people start putting property on the market.
As for wallowing in self pity then you just try being in my shoes! You dont know the half of it. You dont know exactly what i have been going through. Its easy for you to say what you do.
I can and do see my daughter whenever i want. I take her to school and pick her up every day. I see her on weekends when possible. Today we went to the cinema etc. You should not judge harshly. There is a LOT going on with issues in my life including my health, both mentally and physically. Thanks for your comments