intermittent alcoholic - I am

[Tea4me]

Hi Everyone
This is my first post. I have discovered that I am an intermittent alcoholic. After many years of trying to moderate the miracle happened this week. For 3 nights in a row I was able to stick to 3-4 drinks. It was so amazing to be normal again.
I am 29 years old and I have lost so much to alcohol and drugs.
I wonder if through all my prayer that God has removed my alcoholism. I continued with the experiment todasy however, and the old insanity returned -e.g. I went to take out a video with this lovely girl who is sober and I had to dash off to down a beer. Is that normal? I also had 2 double bloody mary's and 12 beers and 3 tequila's I'm still drinking but quite slowly.
I am so desperate to believe that I am cured. I love AA and would continue to go even if I was cured. I want to be a writer but in the past I have had lacked the energy to finish anything. I also let down family and friends constantly. It is now almost 2am and I see I am going to have a hangover so I am wondering if I am indeed cured.
doesn't everyone drink once in a while? even if it is a bender? me = 6 days sobriety then a HUGE bender (last time last week I drank for 2 days solid - but then this week there were those 3 nights of normal drinking??!?
I am confused. Am I normal, can you be an intermittent alcoholic??
Thanks
Tea4Me
(or not)

[CarolD]

Welcome to SR...

From your post...it appears to me you are
drinking way too much and too often.
Added to that you did mention drug use.

I strongly suggest you have an honest talk
with a doctor....an addictionologist would be ideal.

Good to see you are seeking answers

[nandm]

Welcome to SR!

[FreeinMilwaukee]

We will never be able to drink normally again. That is a rule I have tried very hard to disprove. I wasn't able to do it.

[tommyk]

Originally Posted by FreeinMilwaukee

We will never be able to drink normally again. That is a rule I have tried very hard to disprove. I wasn't able to do it.

Me neither, but unfortunately many more will try.

Tea - learn from our mistakes, please?

[Freedom1990]

For me, an intermittent alcoholic is like being a little bit pregnant

[sugErspun]

Originally Posted by Tea4me

doesn't everyone drink once in a while?

AA does not have a 'moderation' approach to alcohol.

Complete abstinence is what it's about. That way - you never have to go on a bender.

I had to find out if I was a real alcoholic - one who could not use alcohol safely in any form whatsoever, in any amount. Maybe you are not alcoholic, I don't know and can't answer it for you. But there is the heavy drinker who can stop or moderate - if that is you, I don't know anything about how to go about getting to a moderation level of drinking.

It might be helpful to work with someone in AA to find out if you are alcoholic or not, seeing as you are already attending...it's step one. That is the only suggestion I have.

[NoelleR]

Hmmmm....where to start....well, I know there are folks out there (non-alcoholics) who intermittently drink alcoholically due to some 'issues' going on in their lives at the time, but when the 'issues' pass/are taken care of, well, these folks go back to their normal selves.....either not drinking at all or drinking normally, on occasion.....BUT

"...can you be an intermittent alcoholic??...intermittent alcoholic - I am..." Well.....no ya ain't, cause there ain't no such animal. A person is either an alcoholic or they're not.....and binge drinking (intermittent...?) is a stage of alcoholism.....you might want to look into that (or better yet, re-read the BB, at least where it defines and describes alcoholism.

You posted a few other questions in your OP that I may take a stab at..... (o:

First....MODERATION.....hmmmmm real alcoholics can't do this (maybe for a while, but not for long).....folks who drink moderately are not even trying to drink moderately; they just do - when they start to feel the effects of the alcohol, they push the drink away; they don't like the feeling (as opposed to the alcoholic who would quickly down that drink and order another one FAST. If one has to 'control' oneself to be a moderate drinker.....then they're NOT really drinking in moderation; they're just trying to control their drinking.....something that normies just don't do.....they don't NEED to.

Now, about God removing a person's alcoholism.....do I think God can remove alcoholism from a person? Absolutely, I do. I believe God can remove the alcoholism and the person will have no desire to drink. Has God removed my alcoholism from me? I believe He has. Would I be willing to go back to drinking, but have my drinking show that I no longer have alcoholism, but that I'm a normie? Well, how silly is that. Like I stated above, besides removing the alcoholism, I have no desire to drink.....and to do so just to prove a point?.....puhleeze.....ain't gonna happen..... (o:

"...doesn't everyone drink once in a while?..." NO

"...doesn't everyone drink once in a while? even if it is a bender?..." again, NO. There are many folks who may drink on occasion, but have NEVER had a 'bender.'

"...me = 6 days sobriety then a HUGE bender (last time last week I drank for 2days solid - but then this week there were those 3 nights of normal drinking??!?
I am confused. Am I normal, can you be an intermittent alcoholic??..."

Are you normal....? I don't think so.....not normal by any of the definitions I subscribe to as 'normal' when it comes to drinking aocohol......and as I stated before.....there ain't no such thing as an intermittent alcoholic.....

You may not have liked some of what I've said here, but I believe I have answered all questions from my own ES&H, and that's all I've got to give. I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for.


NoelleR

[CarolD]

Hmmm....
What is moderation?

According to the Center for Disease Control

Moderate drinking is no more than
2 drinks a day for men..1 for women

They consider a drink to be
12 oz. of beer..5 oz. of wine...1 1/2 oz liquor.

Your body and mind processes all 3 toxins equally
so drinking only wine or only liquor or only beer
or mixing them is of no importance.
They all do the same damage.

I heard this at my noon AA meeting

The trouble with trying to drink normally
is that for me....normal is always too much too often

[LosingmyMisery]

IMO, the only cure for alcoholism is abstinence.

[353]

Good news Tea4me,

Being an alcoholic isn't so bad....if I don't drink.

Welcome to the forum and don't give up!! Honestly, I never would have believed it myself but there is life after addiction and for me it's better then anything I could have ever imagined.

You can get sober and stay sober and be happy, it's promised and it's true, just don't give up and keep moving forward with your program.

Peace

[MCH]

I loved alcohol. I didn't want to be an alcoholic. Alcohol was never my problem, it was my only answer. I never had to drink, I wanted to, always. Once I landed in AA, after everything else in my life was gone, I felt desperate not to be an alcoholic, but somehow cornered. I'm grateful now that I had several factors working in my favor that compelled me to give this thing a shot. I was ashamed, hateful and full of self pity, but I didn't drink. The people in the AA meetings I attended told me that even if my ass falls off, don't drink. I listened to them. I had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. I hated AA, the people, coffee and God, but I didn't drink. I noticed that the people that weren't sitting on their hands, the ones that were making sense and displaying peace were the ones who were talking about God and I knew that I'd have to somehow get to know Him. I didn't drink and made a feeble attemp at the steps. It took awhile but the real miracle happened about a year into the program, when I finally realized I'm an alcoholic. I'd been introducing myself at meetings as an alcoholic but when I was able to actually accept the fact and it admit to my innermost self I was set free. I met God and my whole life changed. The steps became something that were doable by me and I wanted sopriety. I was no longer cornered - I was free at last, for the first time. No amount of booze or drugs could ever come close to the feeling I now know. It was a free gift and all I had to do was get honest with myself. I'm and alcoholic. And I'm grateful. Alcoholism is the best thing that has ever happened to me because I'd never know what I know now, or feel the way I do if it hadn't been for my alcoholism.

[fraankie]

"I am confused.
(big problem, man)
Am I normal,
(why are you asking a group of strangers who don't know anything about you, biger problem)
can you be an intermittent alcoholic??"
(i kinda of go with "functional alcoholic"
but
i don't like labels)

best
frankie

[sugErspun]

Originally Posted by MCH

I loved alcohol. I didn't want to be an alcoholic. Alcohol was never my problem, it was my only answer. I never had to drink, I wanted to, always. Once I landed in AA, after everything else in my life was gone, I felt desperate not to be an alcoholic, but somehow cornered. I'm grateful now that I had several factors working in my favor that compelled me to give this thing a shot. I was ashamed, hateful and full of self pity, but I didn't drink. The people in the AA meetings I attended told me that even if my ass falls off, don't drink. I listened to them. I had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. I hated AA, the people, coffee and God, but I didn't drink. I noticed that the people that weren't sitting on their hands, the ones that were making sense and displaying peace were the ones who were talking about God and I knew that I'd have to somehow get to know Him. I didn't drink and made a feeble attemp at the steps. It took awhile but the real miracle happened about a year into the program, when I finally realized I'm an alcoholic. I'd been introducing myself at meetings as an alcoholic but when I was able to actually accept the fact and it admit to my innermost self I was set free. I met God and my whole life changed. The steps became something that were doable by me and I wanted sopriety. I was no longer cornered - I was free at last, for the first time. No amount of booze or drugs could ever come close to the feeling I now know. It was a free gift and all I had to do was get honest with myself. I'm and alcoholic. And I'm grateful. Alcoholism is the best thing that has ever happened to me because I'd never know what I know now, or feel the way I do if it hadn't been for my alcoholism.

Very well said MCH. I have the same experience - in fact, I often used the word 'cornered' as descriptive of the state I was in, until 'that thing' happened..

Welcome.

[Tea4me]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Had a weekend filled with drinking and now am filled with remorse. I know that there is no such thing as an intermittent alcoholic. I am an alcoholic and I feel sad that I can't drink anymore but I am going to go to a meeting tonight and just for today I am not going to drink.

Spilled drinks everywhere and burnt the meat on a barbecue. Really tired and all I want is to sleep but have to work. I dont want to feel like this anymore. So today is day one. Its a good day to be sober

[Signal30]

If we could actually moderate, we wouldn't be alcoholics.

or better yet...

If we didn't even need to think of the word moderate when we drank and just did it naturally we wouldn't be alcoholics.

In my alcoholic thinking, just 2 beers is just enough to pi$$ me off.

I don't miss that thinking.


Tom