eJoshua

I thought it might be interesting to see how people's work life was affected by their drinking, and for those who are now sober how it has changed. Were you so-called "high functioning" or did your drinking cause you to miss out on opportunities?

I'll share first. I had several jobs during my drinking days. When I first started drinking heavily I was working in restaurants as a host, then server, and then lastly as a manager. Nearly everyone at that job would hang out after work and get drunk and smoke weed, so I don't think I was any better or worse off than anyone else.

After I decided to leave the restaurant world behind in favor of the corporate life I found that my drinking affected my work quite a bit. I had a really hard time typing because I would be shaky at work. Although I never drank at work there were several times where I showed up to work drunk or hung over. There were a number of times where I had stayed up literally all night drinking, either alone or with others, and then gone straight to work. In the last year or so of my drinking "career" I found it increasingly hard to focus at work. I also began having a hard time communicating verbally. I've always been a decent communicator, both verbally and with the written word, but I started tripping over my tongue and having a hard time remembering the right words or the points I was trying to make in everyday conversations.

I went to rehab last year, almost one year ago exactly. I told some of my coworkers that I was in rehab (I got short term disability leave at work). To my surprise, the coworkers I told about my drinking were shocked to learn of my drinking problem.

Since I quit I have gotten a promotion and changed departments at the same company. I find that I am still trying to gain back some of the communication skills I lost and the brain fogginess -- although that is much better than it was at first. I think being sober has made me a much more reliable employee -- I no longer have to come up with excuses for missing deadlines, I don't call in sick because I'm too drunk to drive to work and I can complete my work much more efficiently than before.

OK, well that ended up a bit longer than I intended. Does anyone else have experience to share?