First drink at 7 y.o. second at 9. First "drunk" at 13. Full time drinker by the time I was 16 and had my first job.The older I got the more I drank. The more I drank the worse my hangovers became.
Age increased my tolerance levels so that I needed ever increasing amounts to obtain and maintain the "high."
At 20 I could drink all night and be up at 5am to catch the bus to work.
"Hangovers" were nothing more than feeling a little tired the next day which was nothing a strong cup of coffee couldn't fix.
At 26 the hangovers were so bad I could not even tie my shoelaces in the morning........the usual coffee "picker-upper" was useless without a splash of rum in it.
By the time I was 34 the "high" which I craved had become elusive.I spent countless nights "chasing the high" but all I got was numb and more numb.
In effect I was drinking more to experience a shorter "high" and suffering debilitating hangovers. My morning "coffee" had become more rum than coffee and I had stopped wearing shoes with laces.
By the time I found AA at 35 I was a full blown alcoholic.
The days when I could party all night and be up at the crack of dawn without suffering the effects were gone forever.I had literally devoted the better part of my last 20 years in worship of king alcohol and had nothing but pain to show for it.
I still suffer the effects of those wasted years even to this day and age of 43
Although I have few regrets nowadays I sometimes wish I had paid more close attention to the warning signs before I was rocketed into that third dimension of alcoholism, where my life became unmanagable.
I wish you luck on your quest for knowledge and understanding.