I drank nightly from 2006-2010 no problem. I enjoyed it, I felt social, and it still worked. I was in my mid-twenties and had the world on a string. I was satisfied with about six drinks a night. The problem was my tolerance kept going up so it was taking more and more to reach my "happy place."
Around 2010 I was drinking about 12 units a night. Blackouts were a weekly occurrence at this point. I blacked out on work nights as often as weekends. I was drinking 365 nights a year minus a few days here and there when I was simply too hungover to drink. And when I say too hung over to drink I mean psycho crazy type of hangover you only see in movies. I was good at curing my hangover with the next drink that night but there were of course those days right simply could not get it past my lips.
I started feeling a pain in my right side but I ignored it and even thought it might just be anxiety. I started to get a phobia of going to the doctor at this point and when I would go my blood pressure was getting really high. I always explained it away to the doctor that I was stressed out or had just run up the stairs to his office. He didn't seem to think too much of it. I also lied about how much I drink at this point and would put two drinks at night on the form at the doctors office.
In spring of 2013 the pain in my right side had gotten worse and to my horror I went to a new doctor for it annual physical and she said that I should get blood work done. I was mortified and put it off as long as I could. I ended up getting about three months later. I told myself that I would stop drinking three months before I got the blood drawn but I drank every single night of those three months the same quantity as I usually drink. The goalpost kept getting pushed further and further back. The daily hangovers had become nothing short of terrorism to my life at this point.
At age 31 I was diagnosed with an inflamed liver. I said well that's it my drinking days are over. Nope. I was sober for a week but then got stressed out during a move and drank again, same amount as before. I drank for one more year after that. I still can't believe I did that. Probably the biggest regret of my life.
In June 2014 I was getting so sick every day at work and going through daily withdrawals that I simply could not take it anymore. Drinking had become harder than not drinking. And I was starting to get reverse tolerance. When I say sick I don't mean that I was vomiting at work. I was just going through the daily withdrawals of sweating, slightly shaking, heart palpitations, and feeling like I might die at any minute of a panic attack. I hadn't vomited in years.
I've been sober for seven months and the pain in my right side is just starting to go away. I pray that my organs will heal.
I was shocked that it was possible to do all this damage by the age of 32 when I have been reading for years on here about people who drink for 20 or 30 years and were quitting in their 50s or 60s. I wanted to be one of those people that could continue drinking for a long long time but my luck ran out.
My hope at this point is that my body will heal and I can lead a long sober life.
If I could give you guys one lesson to learn from my story it would be that the addiction is powerful. I thought I would've been somebody who would've quit the day I was diagnosed with something. But I wasn't. I kept drinking. So if you are thinking right now that you'll stop someday when the doctor tells you to, it doesn't really make it any easier.