Hi all.
Well I'm here again out of concern. I am one of those guys who keeps flirting with sobriety but never quite commits since he's not sure he really has a problem but probably does.
In a nutshell I have averaged about a bottle and a half of wine a day for over five years now. Progressively it turned into drinking in the morning on top of the regular day. I didnt drink much on the job but I wasn't at work much either, so I'd have more or less a four hour break, max, before getting back to it. When I think about it, I'd drink most all of the day if I could.
Honestly I've never been one to get drunk. I've never had even a moving violation, much less a DUI (knock wood). There aren't many times I can count that I've felt out of control.
And yet with all that I've managed to knock back bottle after bottle every day. Well over the last couple years health issues have begun to spring up. The first one being digestion. Lot of acid reflux and heart burn. It kinda gave me a scare so I went to the doc maybe 10 months ago and they did some tests and everything turned out ok. Liver, heart, urine all looked great she said.
But I gradually began to cut back over the last few months. I'd say lately I have been drinking about half as much as I had been, in fact maybe less than that on the average...like two a day instead of uh...8 or 9?
Here's the thing. Lately I've noticed my blood pressure is 135/88 on average. For me this is very high since I average below 120/80. What's more I've had moments of tension in the chest and feeling a bit spacey with some mild pressure in the head and there is a lump in my throat that comes and goes
Then again I've had a lot of financial stress and external pressure lately...so I don't know.
I'm making an appointment with the doc but I also wanted to run this by you all as well. What's confusing to me is that if anything I'm drinking less, not more. I have heard that withdrawal symptoms can really f*** you up but at the same time it's not like I have quit and gone cold turkey or anything. I'm still having at least a couple drinks per day.
On the other hand, I'm not drinking all day either. My body hasn't had time to saturate itself like it used to. So i guess I'm confused if these complications are a result of long term alcohol consumption or if it's a shortage of alcohol consumption, a type of semi withdrawal rearing it's ugly head....or maybe both??
I'm actually a little concerned and feel pretty overwhelmed about it. I'm taking slow steps in the right direction but don't know what to think about all this. Any insightful experience would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading if you got this far and happy valentines day.
Ben