Tazman53

Here are some medical facts:

1. Every time a person drinks alcohol it kills brain cells.
2. Brain cells are never replaced.
3. The majority of brain cells are not used.
4. Brain cells that are not being used can take over for ones that were being used and died with time.
5. While actively drinking a person can kill brain cells quicker then living brain cells can learn how to take over for them, this is why long term drinkers do suffer from many different brain related problems.
6. If some one who is a long term drinker quits drinking with time the living brain cells will slowly take over for the brain cells that have been killed due to drinking.
7. If a person drinks enough long enough they can develop what is called "Wet Brain" which is where so many brain cells have been killed by drinking that there are not enough living brain cells left to ever return to normalcy.

I have been sober now for almost 3 months after 40 years of drinking, I continue to be amazed by how every day my thought process improves, I thank God that when I turned myself over to his will and AA that it was before I had reached the wet brain stage.

I was rather surprised to learn that some studies have shown that binge drinking causes more brain damage then long term drinking. I did binge on occasion, but my drink of choice was beer so as the years went by and my tolerance went up until the last few years when it went down, it was very hard for me to get drunk or even high any more.

This is not bragging but simply a fact to show how this disease works, when I first started drinking a 6 pack would get me pretty high, as the years went by I reached a point where I could drink a case and would not even get close to how a 6 pack used to get me. I also reached a point where I had to drink to where I could fell normal, not high, simply normal!

At about the 38-39 years of drinking point oddly my tolerance would bounce up and down like a yo-yo, one time 8 or 9 would again get me pretty toasted and the next day a 12 pack would not even return me to a normal state in my mind.

Alcoholism is a progressive disease, I wish they had better education on it when I was in school, because so many folks like me may have had enough sense to recognize the early symptoms of alcoholism and stopped drinking long before they reached and or went past the stage I went. From what I have heard the earlier one recognizes they are an alcholic and quit drinking the easier it is to quit and stay sober.

tryingtolive only you can decide whether or not you are an alcoholic, here are a few ways to check your self out:

1. Try for a week straight to only drink 2 drinks of what ever is your favorite drink.
2. Try leaving half a drink, simply push it away and not finish.
3. Don't drink for a week and then just have a single beer and not have another drink for at least a week.

If you can do all of the above then you may not be an alcoholic, if you can't then you need to decide if you are an alcoholic or not.

Be honest with your self, do not be like me, alcohol kicked my butt! I reached the point where I knew I was an alcoholic and after trying time and time again to stop drinking I decided to not fight what I felt I could not beat, I surrendered to alcohol, I decided "Well I know I am an alcoholic, I can't stop drinking, so why worry over it or fight it."

It was not to long after this that I hit my bottom and realizing I could not do it alone went into de-tox and then to AA where I learned that a Higher Power then me, in my case God, could and would if I gave myself over to him give me the power to not drink again as long as I did his will.

First I surrendered to alcohol, then I surrendered to God who took the power alcohol had over me away.

Being sober now I am happier then I have been in 30 years.
I had no fear at all of that once I surrendered to alcohol, as my disease progressed every fear I had about the damage alcohol would do to me dissappeared.

Alcohol is cunning, baffling, and powerful to an alcoholic.