Originally Posted by rider
My ex-Abf has been drinking the same amount of beer for the past 20 years (he switched from Jack Daniels to beer that long ago, he has been drinking for about 35 years altogether). The worrisome thing is the waking up during the night and having a beer or two... and he's not sipping lately. I saw him kill a beer (his first beer of the day) in about 2 minutes one day. The second went somewhat slower, but not much. Then he slows down to about one every half hour. But lately those first two bring on the nasty personality change. It used to be number 4 or 5 where he started changing into someone else.
Before AH moved out (he also used to drink JD, about 10 beers a night for 20y or so and about 35y all told) he got to where he would walk in the door and slam down 2-3 immediately before walking upstairs to change is clothes. (He always had a 5 o'clock start rule). Yes, the personality change happened then, instead of later during the night in front of the TV as it had in the past. Mealtime with 2 kids (teenagerS) started getting brutal.
He also started having withdrawal during the night, I am convinced. Sweating, twitching that progressed to kicking,flailing,"seizzure-like" movements, yelling......all kinds of chaos. (oh, and his "equipment" wan't working too well on the rare occassion he wasn't koncked-out). Our son was having heart problems then and I had to be up with him many nights.......ended up I got so little sleep I had to move to the spare room. He got so a few times he punced me or "karate" kicked me in a dead "sleep"....that was enough. A few times in the past, I saw him go downstairs in deep of night an down a beer so he could get to sleep.
Your guy sounds very similar.
I do not know what is going on with him now, but the mental changes and nasty personality are getting worse! We can barely talk on the phone to him some days without an outburst of some kind. I do know that he has now added wine to the mix....who knows if that is all.
Thanks for posting this......I really needed to remember all this tonight. It's been a bad night, and I had kinda forgotten what had gotten me here. Now, I remember.....how could I ever forget?!