Jump to content

Does Your Thinking Change When You Give Up Drinking. ?


scorpio

Recommended Posts

Hi,

im new to this forum, i started drinking when i was 11years old, im now 44. i used to drink everything in my early twenties. sometimes in my life though ive went without alcohol for a year on end but all in all i would say most of my life i have been a bit of a party boy. Now i drink only beer. Sometimes coming off beer my thinking is not normal, i get depressed, i cant think straight, im undecided about everything and cannot think rationally. If i need advice on something i need to phone a friend.

As i sau i drink only beer now and havent drunk spirits in seven years or so. so all of you in the same boat, dors your mind set, thinking get better when you stay off the drink and if so what way, what way do you feel. ??

thanks

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alcohol is a depressant. When you stop drinking you get depressed.

If you have been drinking heavily for many years you may have liver damage. People normally alcoholics lose the power of rational thought and suffer hallucinations.....how much do you drink a day?

Edited by maprao
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So u only get depressed when you "stop drinking " ..i drink now on fri,sat,sun nites, beer only, about ten pints of beer on a good session but usually eight pints. Never spirits. I try and get to gym as much as i can through week but its hard when ive had a long weekend on the liquor.

When im in thailand i find it impossible to stay off. Hopefully in future something will just click in me and i will end the habit.

Thats another question, is there anyone out there who have drank all their lives then suddenly something within you just says youve had enough and you can stop easilly.

i had a friend that thos happened to, after drinking really heavilly he just stopped, he can take it or leave it now.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

since i stopped drinking a while back some of the changes to me have been subtle ...... but my thinking is definitely clearer now and i focus on medium to long term goals much better without wavering ....... my moods do not vary as much and i don't have "bad" dreams anymore

all in all i am a more content person now, happier with my own company ...... i don't miss the social life here which was heavily centred around drinking either

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Functional-Middle aged. They tend to be educated, married and in a job. They seem to live a perfectly normal life despite their daily drinking.19% of U.S. alcoholics belong to this type.

What does it mean, does it mean you can still function if your an alcoholic or what ?

If you can keep a job and your not killing your body, then let them though i suspect they are not doing their liver any favors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Functional-Middle aged. They tend to be educated, married and in a job. They seem to live a perfectly normal life despite their daily drinking.19% of U.S. alcoholics belong to this type.

What does it mean, does it mean you can still function if your an alcoholic or what ?

If you can keep a job and your not killing your body, then let them though i suspect they are not doing their liver any favors.

Many people think of alcoholics as disheveled, homeless winos who have lost everything, but there are people who meet the criteria for a medical diagnosis for alcohol dependence who are highly functional in society and still have their jobs, homes and families. This type of drinker is known as a functional alcoholic.

The functional alcoholic consumes as much alcohol as any "full-blown" alcoholic, they just don't exhibit the outward symptoms of intoxication. This is because they have developed a tolerance for alcohol to the point that it takes more for them to feel the effects (including hangovers). Consequently, they must drink increasingly larger amounts to get the same "buzz" they want.

http://alcoholism.ab.../functional.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes. Your thinking changes after you have given up drinking alcohol. To the point that you think back to the drinking days and wonder, "Who was that person?"

I was a binger most of my life (including blackouts), but finally at age 49, I finished. It was like I had completed the mission. It kind of pisses me off when people accuse me of having quit drinking. "I didn't quit. I spent most of my life honorably completing the mission."

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After the initial challenges of quitting, you come to feel like you have a new lease on life. The hard part is not regressing when you encounter lifestyle difficulties.

Sent from my PC36100 using Thaivisa Connect App

Meant life's difficulties, not lifestyle difficulties. Auto correct smartphone...

Sent from my PC36100 using Thaivisa Connect App

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Your thinking changes for sure but only in a good way. Alcohol is a poison that causes many symptoms, depression which in turn causes many side effects such as be irrational, serious health issues, compulsive behavior and much more.

I stopped drinking now 6 months and must say it is fantastic, I am 80% happier and considering I am a moaning miserable sod anyway that is good for me !!

Still get stressed and moody but not due to not drinking it is down to just general life and the things that happen to us all, the good thing is with a clear head I can solve and sort those issues with ease.

So yes you do change the thought you have when not regularly drunk as you have a clear head.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I think that thinking has to change or it's impossible to quit.

When I gave up drinking 14 years ago, I had a big problem with making decisions. I went to AA and made friends with many guys who were a great help. I'd phone one up daily with huge dilemma such as, I can't decide where to go for dinner, or should I take the bus or taxi. It was advised to me not to have any major life changes in the first year, not to start a relationship etc, which was great advice.

Also, something which I find very important - not to let a doctor prescribe anything for me. When coming off alcohol, it's normal to feel confused, depressed etc. A doctor with no knowledge about alcoholism(all in Thailand) will give a wrong diagnosis. The only way out is through - the easy options all have consequences which I wouldn't want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you need to go to an AA meeting and discover that you are not alone. The old chesnut that I only drink beer so I am OK, doesn't really cut it. If the doctor told you that you had diabetes and you have to stop using sugar that doesn't mean that chocolate is OK

Drinking is a life style choice and giving it up is both a medical and a life changing event. The first rule is that you can't do it yourself, you need help and only fellow drunks can give you that help, since they are the only ones that know what you are going through

In rehab, we call it stinking thinking and is one of the first steps to recovery

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I gave up drinking many years ago.

I lived in a small place and was a bit of a loner, doing my own thing and drinking, the pub and parties, was the only real social thing I did.

One morning I woke fully clothed in a strange bed with a naked, fat, loudly snoring female along side me in a strange house not knowing where the hell I was.

I had a thumping headache, a gut that was threatening to empty its self on the floor, eyes that almost had to be prized open with a crowbar and a mouth like a sumo wrestler’s jock strap and to top it all off I couldn’t find my shoes.

No one else was awake so I staggered around for a bit till found my way out to the car where I sat in the drivers seat and thought “Why the hell am I doing this to myself?”

So I stopped and haven't touched the stuff since.

Joined the local badminton club and helped with a charity and they became my social bit.

Now I live in Thailand , still in a small place and still do my own thing, ride around on my bike, fish in the river, do a bit of photography and try to get in an overseas trip every year as the budget allows.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I was determined to stop yestarday.

At about 11am i was doing some emails and the phone rang. Friend of mine who lives in jontiem in local bar 10 mins from me. Well he left about 3 and i got home about 6 pm

Woke up at 10pm and 3:30 am

Wasted day yest and tired today

No more

Sent from my GT-S5570B using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Hello friend. I've quit for 12 years now. I didn't have a problem with alcohol... Just my father was a sad, violent depressed drunk. I decided to quit alcohol to make a show of strength to my father that I could quit where he couldn't. My father died a miserable alcoholics death. My first time quitting lasted about 1/2 hour and then I started drinking again? I would get so insanely angry being so weak-willed at not being able to quit. I went through this iteration 8. Times over 2 months before I began successfully my 12 years of sobriety and continuing...

There were signposts along the way. In the first couple of months, anxiety attacks, extreme anger, depression, craves. Til finally they melted away. I created a list of what could I pursue if I was sober. My education... When I was a kid I was always drunk or at this party or another. I had party friends who graduated college, but that wasn't my destiny.

I like to drink, and then I fall asleep. I needed a bit more to truly say I had a life with accomplishments and goals.

Friend, you must quit the beer. There's no half-assign about sobriety. I'm moving back to Thailand in about two years...

If I start drinking...(?). Maybe

Do what's right for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Drink and it's effects are hugely dependent on the individual. I was in the oft mentioned 'functional alcoholic' category. I held down a senior management position in a hitech company, while simultaneously being quite capable of downing at least a bottle of gin daily, starting at breakfast. I wasn't violent, but I know it impaired my cognitive functions. Sometimes I wonder how successful I might have been without the 'juice'.

I decided one day enough was enough, poured all the booze I had down the drain and haven't drunk since. Effects for me:

I sleep better and longer, and I experience vivid dreams. I think this is a result of the fact that drunks don't really sleep, you collapse in a stupor

It reduces snoring a lot, again because you sleep, as opposed to being in a stupor

I've always exercised, but I lost weight after the drink stopped. Your liver is the biggest fat burner you have, but if it's maxed out dealing with processing booze, you gain fat.

Depression: Now that's an interesting one. I don't ever think depression was the correct word for me, but melancholic might have been a better word. That vanished almost instantly when I stopped drinking.

Do I still crave drink? Not really, but I think it has an analogy in the ex smokers who often say they miss the 'act of smoking' I miss the act of drinking, but that can be mitigated by coffee, juice, water, just drinking something.

I still use the nickname GinBoy to remind myself of what I used to be, and not least in case I forget how much money over the years I donated to the Gordons, and Tangeray companies!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you give up the so called good things in life.isn't it time to reflect on life and end it all.

Im not saying that you do away with yourself by any means,but isn't that the first part of depression setting in unless of course it is done through health reasons to improve the quality of future life,if the latter applies then my best to ya your my hero.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you give up the so called good things in life.isn't it time to reflect on life and end it all.

Im not saying that you do away with yourself by any means,but isn't that the first part of depression setting in unless of course it is done through health reasons to improve the quality of future life,if the latter applies then my best to ya your my hero.

Not sure where you are going. I gave up the good things in life when I started drinking. 20 years later I picked them up again when I quit drinking. I took it to the point where I had to go to AA I had tried to quit for the last 2 years of my drinking to no avail. For me the first day with out a drink was like heaven I had arrived I didn't have to drink and it just got better and better. Physically I was in pretty bad shape even though I did not realize it.

I was sober 18 days when the wife and I met a couple. Two weeks later we ran into them again. The Lady looked at me and said O thank God you are OK. At 18 days I looked a mess. I was unaware of it because I was so happy I didn't have to drink any more or use other non prescribed chemicals.

Not every ones experience but it was mine. We all react differently. I admit I was one of the lucky ones from day 1 it was a piece of cake. The last year quiting every morning and going to 1 AA meeting and never having to stop again. The train to hell had turned around and was going the other way.

It doesn't really matter how you quit the important thing is that you quit and find other things to do with your time.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Could be the alcohol muddying your thinking. And it could be diet... toxins... mold... hormonal... blood sugar... ad infinitum.

I will say that MY thinking got MUCH better after I quit drinking. By that I mostly mean - my attitude.

My thinking got foggy after about 45 years - maybe get yout testosterone checked. A complete blood workup is always good insurance - even as a baseline for later changes.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




  • Popular Now

×
×
  • Create New...