Alcoholism Support Thread - Down the hatch

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thejackal2 said:
My problem is when I go a few days without drinking I start to feel like a million bucks and then I'm like yea let's go drink!
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It's a trap. Your brain has associated endorphins with alcohol, so when you feel the endorphins you think of alcohol. Ignore that nagging thought when you're sober and can still say no with good judgment. Longer term, find a healthy source of endorphin release like exercise to remap your brain to.
 
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I drink a lot. Massive, massive amounts.

Part of it is boredom: booze is an upper for me, and it just makes my mind engaged.

Part of it is pain: I have munchie illnesses that cause chronic pain.

Goes great with weed and pills, let me tell you.

Coof didn't help, I fell into a hole of watching tv shows/movies every night and having something to sip on goes well with that.

Part of the lack of incentive to stop is that I've never faced any consequences for my drinking, even when I should have. I can hold my booze well, so I don't get sloppy.

The rest of the lack of incentive is that I have nothing to fill the time between sunset and bedtime. There's so many boring hours there, so I just drink, watch movies, and shitpost.

I feel like if I went to a meeting, I wouldn't have anything to say.

Best of luck to everyone trying to cut back.
 
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Billy Bob Dick said:
I have alcoholics in my family and I still don't understand how this works. Like, I go for literally months between one alcoholic beverage and the next, because I have shit to do and I can't afford to be hungover at work.

If I'm out with people and I'm driving I have one beer or one glass of wine with a water back, hard stop. Even when I'm home over a holiday and I can drink myself into oblivion (which I do a couple times/year), if I drink too much I start getting physically ill.

How is *anybody* an alcoholic? I honestly don't get it. Just put the fucking bottle down
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A lot of alcoholics such as myself don’t ever get hangovers! There is actually a genetic thing going on, anybody can become physically addicted to alcohol from over use, but the ones of us that love it are missing some enzymes. That means that the alcohol is not digested correctly or normally and goes straight to the small intestine and then to the brain and it hits us as a stimulant whereas with normal people it’s a depressant. Most people feel sleepy after those enzymes digest the alcohol correctly and don’t want more alcohol. Alcoholics have some and are like wooohhooo it’s a party and want more. And very often don’t get sick after so there isn’t the natural urge to not over do it.

George Lucas I really understand the boat you are in and I’m glad you started the thread. I’m currently going through withdrawal after I had stopped drinking for two months and then had five fifths of tequila one weekend. Drinking vodka right now to not seize. I’m going to the dr on Monday to ask for Librium so I don’t have to taper anymore that’s the best way to detox. It’s possible to stop I’ve quit a hundred times lol. But two months ago I think I had alcoholic hepatitis cause I gained 30 pounds of fluid on my stomach all at once like three pounds a day. Ascites. I was sure I had cirrhosis but I was able to get the fluid out with diuretics and was just in the hospital with pneumonia and had them check my liver and it was fine, no cirrhosis and then my dumb ass drank again like an idiot and immediately came up against the DT wall and can’t get off since and I’m miserable. It’s hellish. And I know in my heart I’ll probably quit this time and go back. But every time we quit it helps those organs heal up a bit. Keep being honest about it and telling people, been in a program for years and that’s always what has helped me.
 
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behavioral swamp thang said:
Get into tea. There are so many teas that mimic the flavor of alcohol and well. Harney and Sons Bourbon Cask. Smokey Lapsong. And more. It's a great replacement hobby.
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A few years ago I found a Lapsong I liked so much and drank so much of in short amounts of time that it actually would start to make me feel like shit lol, terrible nausea, worse than a hangover in some ways. Very ironic.
 
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Neighborhood Janny said:
Today is day 955 without alcohol for me. Working on day 956. How we doing so far everyone?
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297.
I always sort of feel like an imposter in groups because even though I used substances as a crutch almost daily for seventeen years, for the most part I had no problem stopping at 2-5 beers, and the substance abuse was very much a secondary symptom of PTSD, so it's been pretty easy for me to stay sober. Not effortless, but never the most difficult thing I'm going through. Or maybe I'm doing myself a disservice by separating the struggle with substance abuse from the struggle with PTSD, because finally addressing that has been one of the hardest things I've ever done, and I don't think it's a coincidence that my longest stretch of sobriety coincides with finally facing my demons. In any case, I question whether I'm qualified to give advice because I question whether my experience is relatable to most, so I just stay quiet and advocate for attending to your mental health.

ETA: if anybody has any recommendations for anonymous/pseudonymous PTSD/CPTSD support spaces I could use it, I should probably bitch to people with a shared background instead of shitting up KF threads.
 
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dick brain said:
297.
I always sort of feel like an imposter in groups because even though I used substances as a crutch almost daily for seventeen years, for the most part I had no problem stopping at 2-5 beers, and the substance abuse was very much a secondary symptom of PTSD, so it's been pretty easy for me to stay sober. Not effortless, but never the most difficult thing I'm going through. Or maybe I'm doing myself a disservice by separating the struggle with substance abuse from the struggle with PTSD, because finally addressing that has been one of the hardest things I've ever done, and I don't think it's a coincidence that my longest stretch of sobriety coincides with finally facing my demons. In any case, I question whether I'm qualified to give advice because I question whether my experience is relatable to most, so I just stay quiet and advocate for attending to your mental health.

ETA: if anybody has any recommendations for anonymous/pseudonymous PTSD/CPTSD support spaces I could use it, I should probably bitch to people with a shared background instead of shitting up KF threads.
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I understand that imposter feeling, though for entirely different reason than you've stated. I'm still a relatively "young" sober person who had a main group where the average age is 54. Having people a quarter century older than me (and, consequently, more sober years than me) was certainly a unique speed bump of an issue. It felt like a long time before I felt like I belonged among them. It felt like I was intruding on sacred ground. Eventually I changed to a different group that has more varied ages and even people who don't have problems with alcohol who just want to be sober. That feeling is still there, but the facet has changed to be more about where I fit in and how do I stay true to myself.


Assuming you're in the United States, have you considered contacting SAMHSA? They may be able to help you by giving you referrals. And don't feel like your voice is not welcome here! To make this work, we've got to keep our minds open and keep communicating. Feel free to drop by anytime.
 
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Billy Bob Dick said:
I have alcoholics in my family and I still don't understand how this works. Like, I go for literally months between one alcoholic beverage and the next, because I have shit to do and I can't afford to be hungover at work.
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if you want the honest answer, it's the feeling. people get addicted to the feeling and crave the feeling. people don't usually drink because they enjoy the alcohol in itself. they do it because it makes them feel better.

the idea of addiction can be applied with virtually anything, i really liked being fucked up and didn't have a limit.
 
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