vincho

Hey all. I've posted here before about my drinking past. I am a 24 year old male who has battled with alcohol for a few years. I've never been a daily drinker, however I used to binge drink every single weekend out of the year. Just in the last couple of years my hangovers began to get really bad. Even if I have one sip of alcohol, my next 3-4 days are completely ruined as I feel empty, depressed and lethargic. I look pale in the face and experience anxiety during this period. My hangovers only used to last 1 day, then 2 days, now they last up to 3 days, with no correlation to the amount of alcohol that I drink. My body is obviously trying to tell me something. I have yet to meet someone that experiences these types of hangovers after just a sip of alcohol. I've searched the internet and found a discussion that a small group of people were having similar hangovers and had liver tests etc and nothing was found to be wrong with them.

I have cut down my drinking to about 1 day out of the month (used to be every weekend) and am slowly making my way to kicking it out of my life completely. The hangovers are kind of a blessing, because without them I would be drinking most days out of the week. But since I know that 3-4 days of my life will be down the drain I usually just decide not to drink. I was sober for 3 months at one point, and felt pretty good but thought I'd just have a beer one day and boom, the intense hangover took over again.

Logically I know that alcohol has to go. My friends are very supportive about it and I usually have no problem being around others that drink. Although I feel urges, I feel proud denying the urge and people tend to respect more for it.

I am really worried as to any damage that could've been done to my body by binge drinking in the past though. I can go without drinking but I feel like something is missing from my life on the weekends. I'm not as fun when I am out with friends. Last night I was having trouble being as social as everyone else at the bar (was at a social for my school) so I slipped up and had 1 beer. It felt great at the time and I built rapport with a lot of people who typically see me as quiet and reserved. However today I feel horrible, and I know that tomorrow I will feel worse (its always worse on the second day) and monday I will still not feel right. I am mad at myself.

Really this was more of a rant I guess. But it just doesn't seem fair. I want to be normal like everyone else and be able to have a beer. I guess I've been bouncing back and forth between denial and acceptance of my problem.

Thanks for listening. Out of curiosity, does anyone else experience the symptoms I am talking about after very little alcohol consumption?