Originally Posted by
noneever 
So I can never again have a beer on a sunny day, a cocktail while on holiday or a glass of champagne to celebrate someone's success? Ever?
I feel like crying. Is my brain really so affected that I can never enjoy alcohol in moderation again? Can't the damage be undone somehow?
Why am I grieving for something which causes me pain? Why am I thinking of the times it was fun, even if that was only as recent as a couple of years ago.
Sorry I skipped straight to the end to post but I wanted to capture the first thing that popped into my head when reading that first paragraph. I thought that way the first time I quit back in 1990 at age 29...how unfair that I can't enjoy those times. But it also means I can't drink that last beer that puts me into a blackout, that last cocktail that causes me to wake up too hungover for work, or that 3rd bottle of champagne that makes me puke my guts out at the party.
If I could only drink ONE beer on a sunny day, ONE cocktail on holiday, or ONE glass of champagne at a celebration I wouldn't be here. I think it's fairly normal (it was for me) to romanticize those "special" times to have a drink while our built in forgetter conveniently leaves out all of the drinks that led to misery. When I got sober this time in 2013 one problem I didn't have was romanticizing alcohol anymore, because I no longer drank for fun and got carried away. By the end I was just a slave to alcohol...drinking because I had to, not because I wanted to.