Spacegoat

The phenomena of craving. I found that this was interesting.

MelindaFlowers

Oh boy I had about 15 reasons I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I was an alcoholic. The biggest reason was drinking after a health diagnosis. I continued in spite of any and all consequences.

Spacegoat

I think drinking in spite of all and any circumstances is probably another good indicator, although I'm not an expert.

I drank through a lot of things myself. Namely the last two decades in an exponential fashion. I never considered myself to be potentially alcoholic.

It's just a short clip but I never thought about it in that way myself. Or very much at all until I joined here actually. I imagined all people who drank experienced cravings for it.

Grungehead

I was pretty sure I was an alcoholic when I kept drinking despite the consequences. When it reached the point that I wanted to quit but couldn't there was no doubt about it in my mind.

MelindaFlowers

I definitely had the phenomenon of craving.

The second tasted better than the first......up to like the sixth. There was a sense of urgency for each consecutive drink. The need for the 12th was as urgent as the second.

Another interesting phenomenon I'd be curious to hear about from you guys is how I felt more agitated stopping after three beers (and could NOT get anymore) than if I had zero.

Even six left me craving more, more so than if I had drank zero. If it wasn't 12 it left me more angry than I guess none would have made me, although I have very few examples of not having any, up until I stopped. Thoughts?

Gottalife

When I saw the title of the thread I was thinking phenomenon of craving. It's the one thing about a real alcoholic that never occurs in temperate drinkers. If, once you have taken that first drink, you cannot, every time, guarantee or control how much you will drink and when you will stop. Every time, not just sometimes.

I might have a limited amount in a controlled situation and stop ok after, but I could not guarantee that everytime I drank. Mostly I lost control after the first drink.

MelindaFlowers

When I posted this I misread the initial post. Forget the 15 reasons, I do agree the number one indicator is the phenomenon of craving.

zjw

yeah if you drink so much you puke and then you think to yourself "cool now i can drink more" you might be an alcoholic ::facepalm::

I could go on but the signs where all over yet i was so stinking blind.

Craving it is an understatement. I needed alcohol like one needs water or air or something.

Spacegoat

This! This, and very much so this. I did kinda notice not everyone was like that, either that or they just hid it very well. (whereas I really did not probably)

That reminds me of the second last time I drank. I had 4 nice beers and was absolutely lewing for more, I was wracking my mind to try and think where I could get more but there was nowhere.

I ended up taking some sleeping pills to calm me down, and I remember thinking the next day how it was horrible actually. Wheareas the previous time I had 4 and went to bed content. Strange.

zjw

each day i'd check my fridge and do a role call to make sure I had enough beer for the coming evening. anything less then 20 beers and i was getting kinda nervous I might not have enough. Sure I might not drink 20 but what if i did and ran out? oh the horror! i'd also just get more beer anyhow if i had more then that at times figureing oh well i'll /need/ these anyhow.

going through the horror of only having a few and runing out then too drunk to go drive and get more? oh god no i learned my lesson there a long long time ago. Its like a smoker checking to see if he's got enough cigarettes to get him through.

I didnt have a drinking problem or anything *sigh*

Jimuk

That's me, all of the above and more. The more I drink the faster I drink, just can't get it in fast enough until I'm passed out.
I'm reckoning on being an alcoholic.

zjw

Yep i'd power house the first couple in as fast as possible and as i could feel that alcohol hitting my blood stream as i chugged that first drink i'd moan and thank god for the releif.

no i wasnt addicted or anything ::facepalm::

dwtbd

Of the words I have a visceral understanding, insatiable is one.
I can't tell you how many times in the past my wife asked "isn't that enough?" or "why do you need more?". I didn't understand the questions, the drunker I got the more I wanted. It's definitely a progression drinking with the cravings(keeping up to or trying to out run the 'itch') to developing a dependence and then to addiction. But it need not be inevitable.

Turtle82

When I realized that "I need a drink" actually meant "I want to feel that click" I knew. Reflecting on the past, I also knew that I would continue to chase another "click" after drinking past it or the next time. I don't think social drinkers, even when they get drunk, ever feel that at least not the ones I've talked to about it.

SarahB60

This thread...oh wow.

I was obsessed with alcohol. My whole day surrounded drinking, and God forbid if I deviated from my daily "schedule". Deviating from my schedule meant consuming more alcohol. I had a window in the early evening to gulp down as much wine as possible to obtain that sweet spot buzz which would ultimately knock me out for the evening. If I went to social event, I HAD to keep the buzz going for several hours. I would continue the alcohol consumption until I went to bed. Sometimes I would get so agitated (withdrawals) that I would consume another bottle before going to sleep - only to wake up and pop xanax, then start over with wine a few hours later. Rinse, lather, repeat....

I'm so glad to be off that crazy train!

AdHominid

It's insidious, how the craving works. First, it cajoles you with the promise of reward, supplying whatever excuse you need ("I had a hard day"; "I had a good day"; "It's sunny!" "It's raining!"etc). Whatever it takes to get you to take that first drink.

Then, after the hook is in, the high and fun you are having at some point transforms into a "maintenance"--staying ahead of an irritation that can only be salved by another drink, then another...until that full fridge starts to look like a "challenge" that must be conquered--tonight!

I am not sober yet, but I am trying, really recognizing this craving for what it is, rather than what I want it to be. I want it to be a temporary setback after which I return to normal. Because it can't possibly be a ten-year pattern, repeated over and over!

Thank you all.

Aellyce

Oh the craving... yes that was how I also first recognized, without doubt, that I was an alcoholic. Several years before I quit, and the cravings were what kept me from being able to quit, despite my also wanting to stop desperately because of how it was affecting my life. But no success for a long time, because I did nothing to counter the power of the cravings. It was incredibly hard for me in early sobriety, for a few months.

The cravings are also how I know that I have a generally obsessive, addiction-prone background makeup (physiology, we can say). I can crave intensely almost anything I'm strongly interested in, even when they do not involve any directly physical alteration, e.g. information and learning about stuff I'm intensely interested in, going to places I want to see or like, wanting to have experiences that I imagine might be interesting to me, interaction, specific people... lots of things. It's never been easy or trivial to keep anything in balance for me, so my activities often fluctuate between excess and restricting. And the experience of the actual craving for all kinds of things is quite similar, I've paid keen attention to this, observed this, and introspected on it a zillion times. But without doubt, nothing has ever given me such powerful dependence as alcohol. So grateful it's gone from my life forever and no need to experience it again!

I will add that "normal" people (and animals) also experience cravings for rewarding things -- that's how we are wired biologically, a phenomenon that ensures survival of the species (eg. feeding, sex, etc). The difference is quantitative, and also how addicts tend to use drugs (or excess of drugs) as substitutes vs. natural experiences or normal doses. And that we disregard negative consequences or exhaustion.

gaffo

I remember going to the doctor once, for something un related to drinking and he asked me how much I drank. I told him a six pack or so, half of my daily consumption at the time and he told me that I needed to cut way back. That was years before I quit. Planning for drinking that much was a lot of work, looking back on it.

Iconoclastic

That’s from “The Doctor’s Opinion” in the Alcoholics Anonymous textbook. What Silkworth claims is an allergy is scientifically incorrect. There has to be an antigen for and allergy and there isn’t. But, don’t believe me, look it up.

Re: Craving ONLY occurring with alcoholics, not true. My wife craved alcohol and was diagnosed as alcoholic, but after being abstinent for a while, she returned to drinking moderately. Over the years I’ve know many like her.

Soberintexas007

One becomes an alcoholic when he or she needs to drink to feel human and feels naked sober.