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Old 02-11-2007, 12:45 PM
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Golfman
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Murfreesboro, TN
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Originally Posted by Pawprints View Post
Plus, he said I must be killing my liver.

but you know what I'm honestly considering choosing the alcohol over my car and my health.

I'm kinda scared because I simply cannot imagine a life without alcohol... Maybe it is down to the alcohol, I guess this is the first really constructive thing they have suggested!!!

So... has anyone else had this alcoholic hallucinosis thing?

Hey Paw,

Welcome back! I've not heard of alcoholic hallucinosis but I'm sure it exists if the docs are talking about it. There may be others on this board that can give you a hand with that.

No one on this board can diagnose yoou as an alcoholic. However, there are many suggestions in the Big Book of AA as to how to diagnose yourself. It might be a good idea to pick one up. Spend some time reading it to see if you identify with what's being said. There are a few key things that you've said that lead me to believe you might have a problem.

First, your doc warned you that you may be suffering liver damage. A temperate or normal drinker usually doesn't have this kind of problem. Second, ask yourself if any sane person would chose drinking over being able to drive or live a healthy life. Not many people I know would make that choice. Third, you can imagine life without alcohol. I couldn't either...it was my friend, the only thing I could turn to in order to forget the problems of my life. You said the docs were going to take away the alcohol and not replace it with anything. If you're an alcoholic, taking away the drink is going to leave one heck of a large hole in your gut...figuratively, not physically.

Years ago, a doctor said "Men and women drink essentially for the sense of ease and comfort that comes with the first drink." When I was in my first AA meeting contemplating my life without alcohol, I wondered where I would get that sense of ease and comfort. The answer, I've come to find, is that I found a replacement in AA. I won't get into detail, but suffice it to say that millions of people around the world have found a sense of ease and comfort that transcends that of any feeling they got from drinking.

I hope you will pick up a Big Book and read a little. Start with "The Doctor's Opinion." The next four chapters after that will give you a good idea in a general way of what life is like for an alcoholic. You will also read about those ways you can diagnose yourself. You may read something that doesn't exactly apply to you. Please don't dismiss it out of hand. Alcoholics come is all shapes and sizes. I may not have done what another alcoholic has done or felt the way a certain alcoholic felt, but there are enough similarities between us that to convince me that I'm one of them.

Most of all, be honest with yourself. Reading this book alone gives you an opportunity to say, "I'm not like that". So again, honesty is the key. If you find that you identify with much that is written, then alcohol may be your problem. And by the way, left untreated, alcoholism never gets better, it only gets worse. Good luck, may you be blessed with honesty
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