hi mayson18, i drank heavily for around 10 years. A bottle of wine a day, no more that a day in between, with another 2-3 spirits at weekends. To the point where is was affecting my health. during a routine health check, doctors picked up that i had a slightly enlarged heart, high blood pressure, knackered liver with raised liver enzymes. i was also clinically obese at the time. This happened 5 years ago. gave me a huge scare, and I went cold turkey. no booze. wasnt really making a commitment to stay dry, just wanted to live. lasted 8mths. Blood pressure normalised, lost a hell of a lot of weight (did very little exercise, just tried to eat healthy, but lost 30% of my body weight), liver recovered.
Unfortunately fell off the wagon at christmas, and working my way back up to heavy drinking over the last 4 years. was drinking only spirits for a time, but for the last few weeks, in an attempt to achieve 'controlled' drinking, switched to white wine and low alcohol alternatives, no help, ended up drinking twice as much. During this time, put on a bit more weight, about 10 pounds, but nothing major as I also took up regular physical exercise, (probably to try and 'counteract' the effects from additional alcohol calories) BP crepped back up.
currently 25 days sober, want to make this last. not touched a drop. my blood pressures normalised, i have much more energy, still exercising, and feeling great (running on a treadmill hung over is not a good idea). best of all, this time, I've been allowing myself to eat occassional reward foods like ice cream and chocolate cake etc. feel great after eating them (now that I dont have to think of the calories i might get from alcohol), and i've actually lost 5 pounds!
so for me there is so much evidence that alcohol is a poison, not just in the AA sense of the word, but a physical toxin to my physical health. It damaged my heart, knackered my liver, working on my BP, making me fat, not to mention the anxiety and depression associated with a drinking lifestyle. And i've had to work really hard, and continue to, to tryand undo the damage that has been done.
There is No evidence that i should take a drink for any reason, not to celebrate, i feel anything but happy, and not to help cope with difficult situations (i wont even go there).Yet still disorganised thoughts pop in every now and then telling me how fun it might be to have a drink. The danger of slipping up is always there, but yet, I feel that with the right goals and attitude in mind, i will get through this.