Have You Quitted Booze?

[hellodolly]

...

My life slid down hill from there and relationships as well. The only choice I felt I had left was death by firearm or drugs. Fortunately, I had a spiritual event that lead me to reach out for help which saved my life. It is though AA that I have found a new life, full of abundance and happiness. I found other people that shared my experiences, some less and some more. I found acceptance, support and understanding that only someone in the program can understand.

...

One Day at A Time.

I am happy for you. Now been few weeks sober and it really helps me think more positive and have more energy to deal with my work and duties.

I find your honesty extremely refreshing. My aunt was an alcoholic and unfortunately the closest person to me in my family. I saw her prolonged alcohol induced demise very close. I probably would have needed some sort of consulting by a shrink the moment she was buried. The problem with alcohol induced suicide is that it takes so long. Suicide? I hear you ask. Yes, in my opinion some alcoholics know what's coming and at the same time they make their family members and closest ones suffer greatly.

She was also the greatest person to invent excuses for her lifestyle and dealings. She was not poor. I say this because if she would've been not much would have separated her from the gutter - literally.

Somehow I feel that alcoholism runs in our family. That is one of the reasons that I want to put a stop to my own drinking. I don't want my life to turn into a shrinking spiral around the bottle. Many alcoholics have very pathetic lives. Their life circulates around their own navel. And drink, of course. Other people, especially those trying to separate them from the beloved bottle, are not important. They may need a lot of affection but it normally is very one way road. They really don't care about other people. If they would, they would give up their love to drink.

I have seen what drink does and still been too weak-minded to give it up totally myself. I hope that time comes. I am happy that people get rid of drinking - by any means. I myself am not sure if AA would suit me since it involves religious elements and that is another matter that I suffered in my youth but not into talking about it now.

As you say...One Day at A Time.

First of I would like to congratulate you on a 90% reduction in your drinking.

then I would like to talk to you like a Dutch Uncle (picked that up some where don't remember where fact is I don't remember a lot of things.)

With a 90% reduction in your drinking and you still have to stay away from others who know you maybe you should think a little more on the matter. When you disappear they know what you are doing. Don't know who the people in your life are but did you ever consider that they know what you are doing and still worry about you. It is to the point where they would rather worry than take the eternal on-slot of alcoholic actions that you have developed over the years.

In the world those people live in it is not uncommon to hear he/she are such wonderful people but when they drink------------

I can tell you lot's of different stories but I will stick to mine. I knew what I was and every one else knew what I was in fact many of them were also an alcoholic. The only one who said I wasn't was my wife. The day came when she faced the reality that I was and would never change so she threw me out and told me to never come back if I was still drinking. I didn't care.

I left that city and went to another one about 100 miles away I had to stop 3 times to attempt to sleep. That very night my mother told me I should talk to her sister as she was an alcoholic who had quit drinking. My aunt took me to meet a bunch of people just like me where alcohol was concerned. Some of them were living in the slums and jobless some were business owners there was all kinds of different people there who shared the same disease if not the same outward life style. Most of them didn't drink any more and they said they had found a way to be happy as well as cope with their problems sober. I was hooked. The only fear I had was that it wouldn't work. I listened to them and took a lot of their advice and slowly my life began to change for the better.

My wife took me back. 5 years later we divorced. Here I am 29 years later and that women is my best friend. We should never have been married. We got married in my addiction my addiction did not allow me to take her feelings into consideration. It had to be all about me. We should have stayed friends. We care for each other but not as a marriage partner. My life is all in front of me now. The dark years are over. When I was drinking I had no life I was buying my death on the installment plan. Every day was the same as yesterday only a little worse. They were never that much worse than the day before them but over a period of time the days became noticeable

Today I have a future that is unknown to me. I look forward to it.

I strongly urge you to reach out. This thread has had several good suggestions on it. Take them. I did and have never had to look back. I have found friends so far North I had to look South to see the Northern Lights and friends in the southern hemisphere. The bottom line is I no longer have to drink.

[jaffacakes1]

Drink responsibly

Responsible drinking is an option if one is not an alcoholic.

From my personal experience, alcoholics generally don't live their lives responsibility or moderately.

Alcoholism, much like cancer or diabetes is a disease according to medical science. It is extremely difficult to manage by "responsible" or "moderate" drinking, much as trying to be a "responsible" or "moderate" diabetic.

Hospitals, mental institutions, prisons and graveyards are full of people who thought and lived otherwise.

One Day at a Time and Good Luck My Friend.

'According to medical science' - can you cite your sources? To compare alcoholism to cancer is disgusting.

The 'disease' reasoning is a convenient way for the weak minded in this pathetic victim culture to excuse their own lack of self discipline. Cancer victims don't bring it upon themselves - alcoholics do.

It is entirely possible to be a moderate drinker - the majority of people who drink alcohol would fall into this category. When it stops being fun it's probably time to stop drinking.

Alcolholics have serious difficulties drinking "moderately", unlike the majority of people who are not addicted to,it.

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After reading your post, the tone and content were indeed astounding. My comparison of alcoholism to cancer was purely to relate them both as diseases. As for cancer victims not "bring(ing) it on themselves", it is an unfortunate fact that tobacco use is directly related to lung, throat and other cancers. Please read the many articles available on-line to support my comment.

I supposed I could have compared alcoholism to atrophy of the brain or strictures of the bowel (intestine, not a container for food), but I opted otherwise. My apologies if your disgust resulted from this decision.

Your lack of knowledge and compassion concerning alcoholism is surprising in this day and age. Indeed, your post read like an evangelical tirade from the Victorian Era.

Alcoholics, from my experience, are neither weak minded, victims, or lacking in self discipline any more or less than someone suffering from intolerance or bigotry.

They suffer for a disease as supported by the American Medical Association (1956), The American Psychiatric Association, The American College of Physicians, The National Insitutes of Health and numerous other bodies of higher learning and accreditation. I don't know what credentials you possess to support your position and I won't be so bold as to presume that you lack any advanced education in those areas.

As for moderate drinking by an alcoholic. It's very difficult to moderate an addiction, whether it is alcohol, heroin, morphine or other substances. I have personal insight on this subject, unlike some, who may base their knowledge on heresay, superstition or theory.

With these thoughts in mind, I do sincerely wish you the best of health and a speedy recovery from your present condition."Easy Does It"

Thanks for clarifying, I am amongst those who have lost otherwise healthy relatives prematurely to cancer (not lung cancer) and these I feel are true victims of a disease and deserve all my compassion.

Unlike Cancer and Diabetes and the other examples you cited, sufferers cannot cure themselves by controlling their own self indulgent behaviour. Alcoholics could. Today. There is help out there.

Furthermore, there are no medical tests for the 'disease' of addiction, addiction is simply a behaviour, rooted in the human condition and manifests itself in a whole spectrum of different ways depending upon which substance or experience fires off our dopamine receptors.

Does a shopaholic deserve more sympathy than an alcoholic ? Oniomania is also considered 'by medical science' to be an impulse control disorder, an obsessive-compulsive disorder, a bipolar disorder, or even a clinical disorder. Following your logic a shopaholic should never venture into a retail outlet again, I suggest instead exercising self control. I know many alcoholics who have managed to return to moderate drinking. Works for some, not for all.

You have your own entirely subjective

experience of substance abuse which would suggest the latter and I have mine. Neither should be proposed as a solution but absolute abstinence of any intoxicants seems somewhat drastic and unrealistic in the modern world.

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[impulse]

I know many alcoholics who have managed to return to moderate drinking. Works for some, not for all.

I know a few problem drinkers who managed to slow down quite successfully.

I have never met an alcoholic who managed to return to moderate drinking. That's pretty much a defining characteristic of an alcoholic.

[Neeranam]

I know many alcoholics who have managed to return to moderate drinking. Works for some, not for all.

Now this ridiculous statement just proves you haven't a clue what you're talking about.

[jaffacakes1]

Alcoholic was perhaps the wrong term. These guys were problem drinkers or alcohol abusers.

The OP admitted to drinking heavily once a week which would suggest he is not clinically an alcoholic.

These guys were perhaps 'borderline alcoholics' that just took control of their situation and enjoy drinking occasionally instead of daily.

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