atticus

Hi folks. I've got a question. Today marks day three of abstaining and I'm a bit preoccupied with the withdrawl process. As I was a daily drinker I'm wondering how people could drink on the weekends but NOT during the week. It would seem that during those 3-4 days of not drinking, the unpleasant effects of withdrawl would kick in. I guess I'm jealous that my need for alcohol is on a DAILY basis and if I only drank on weekends, I feel I could lick this demon much easier. Instead of obsessing every single afternoon/night about alcohol I would only have to conquer the monster on the weekends. What happens if you weekend drinkers DON'T drink on the weekend? Does your withdrawl process kick in? These last couple of days have been HELL for me, although I feel pretty good physically and even a tad better mentally. But man, I do feel deprived, edgy, and irritable EVERY afternoon and evening until late at night, when the cravings seem to subside. I just feel that if I only had the need for drink on the weekends I could kick this much easier. If I could string 3-4 days without the effects of withdrawl, which seems to be the case of weekend warriors, I would think it easier to handle. Thanks for any input.

Jenhnidy

I've found when trying to quit being a daily drinker that giving myself an excuse to drink ONLY on the weekends makes me binge and eventually go back to drinking daily. It's hard when you deprive yourself of something you want so bad. When I allow it into my life a few days a week, I eventually make excuses and get back to every other day, then daily. There's always that special case or occasion.

I think I should quit completely. I have been sober for over 24 hours now. Tonight is the big night and I know all my friends are going to pressure me to come out and play. I think I will be strong. I have an appointment to meet with someone at the gym to get a membership.

My best guy friend and his girl want me and my new boyfriend to go out to a big club on Saturday. I am glad my best friend gets along with my new man and I would love to encourage them to be friends. It's been hard for many guys I've dated to be understanding of a male friend so close to me. I know if I go to this club I will have to drink. I will have a panic attack otherwise. I don't know if I should turn the offer down.

Also my brother wants to meet the new guy on Friday. This will most likely involve drinking as well. And there I have two days that I will drink heavily and I will be right back where I started. Maybe I'll suggest dinner instead.

Ninerfan

Atticus, unfortunately it sounds like your going to have to try some controlled drinking. Try drinking on the weekends and not during the weekday. If you can do that then your not an alcoholic and the party can 'rock on' But if you find that you cant stop once you start then you have all the information that you need. Your an alcholic. Now what? I suggest AA. There are all types of drinkers, you need some more info. Go to AA. Put your butt in a seat and listen. You too Jenhnidy!!!!!! If AA is not for you then go someplace else or continue drinking.

I didn't stop until I was 43 and I should have stopped at 23. Don't be an idiot like me. There is life after drinking. I didn't realize that most people don't drink like I did. They have real lives and now I do too.
Anyway......Ya know, if you are alcoholics, it isn't going to get any better. Only worse if you continue.

Keep posting...N

DAO50

Day seven for me. I am in no place to make a judgement on weekend drinking, moved onto daily years ago. My suggestion, if you want to stop, stop. Caseinpoint's posts on this fourm have a good supliment program that helps with the evening craves. Good luck. Try AA, I thought it couldn't be for me. It is no pressure and very supportive in a nonjudgemental way. Try a few different meetings, the meetings and membership vary. I was pleasantly suprised.

The Jay Walker

Atticus

looks like your already starting to see the cravings diminish some,

some things I did to help in the begining was to eat some sweets and drink a lot of water and gatorade, I also started eating healthy meals, when a craving got really bad I would let loose on my punching bag, after going to A.A. I met people that I could call anytime, when I was having a bad time I would call someone and instead of drinking we would go to a meeting, or out for coffee.

it does get easier, and you only have to go through this once, many of us go through it over and over, but I believe if you really want it, you can stay sober, it is a lot easier to stay sober than to get sober.

tuner

Hello Aticus. I too was mainly a weekend drinker. The problem was that I really tossed back an incridible amount of booze from friday evening to mid Sunday. It took me to Tuesday to get back to normal. Hence, Wedensdays and Thursdays were "normal" days. Come Friday the whole cycle started again. Eventually I got sick of this behaviour. It seemed that the non drinking week days were consumed with the thought of the drinking weeked.... sort of like a child counting the days before Xmas. I did go to AA, off and on for a long time, but to be honest, I simply hated it. So I got rid of the behaviors and habits that seemed to "cue in" drinking. First, I got rid of my television, and then I quit smoking. I simply would not take a drink without a cigarette. I used to use sporting events on the television as reasons to drink... and ther is an awfull lot of sports on the television. Now I go out almost every night to do sports, see plays, musicals, movies, and go to dances. The real world opened up for me. Sure beats lounging on the couch, half drunk, watching some sport that I was not really interested in. I now look at alcohol as a being a life thief!

shax

I'm only working on day 2...so, no real authority here. But, your message struck a chord in me. I started out as a weekend and special event drinker, but I was not able to keep it that way. Slowly the "weekends" got longer. Thursday night is ALMOST Friday, right? All of the justifications I gave myself to eventually drink each and every day of the week made perfect sense when I made them up.

tuner

To Shax: I too was concerned about seing my drinking days increase beyond weekends. This was evident with many of my friends over a period of time. I debated with myself to just drink Friday evenings only, so that I would really be fresh for work on Mondays. Although I had pondered drinking only one day a week, I realised that a lot of planning and effort was going into the idea of drinking and not drinking. As mentioned in my previous post, i got rid of the T.V. and cigarettes, which were the most obvious cues to my drinking, and simply quit outright. It wasn't difficult once I had made the decison. It has been a breeze since!

gavin

I guess I drink so much on the weekends that I don't feel like drinking anything during the week. Plus I'll have a hangover for like 2-3 days sometimes. I'm hungover today and don't feel like doing anything.

I just joined SC and want to quit drinking all together before it kills me.

Peter

Welcome Gavin,glad to have you.This forum is a great place to find support and encouragement if you are trying to stop drinking,but I would also like to suggest AA meetings.

AA was what finally helped me to quit after nearly twenty years of alcohol abuse and they might be able to help you too.

I wish you the best of luck and hope to hear from you again.

Peter.

bunchie

I believe you do not have to drink daily to be an alcoholic, I actually know people who drink daily but do not get hammered, I on the other hand killed myself every weekend and told the lie, " I'm only drinking on weekends" therefore o am in control. This is not true it is your behaviour and the aftereffects of alcoholic weekends that brought me to the realization that I need to stop. My question to everyone do I need rehab?to ensure a full or a better chance of staying sober?

bunchie

Atticus , I am a weekend drinker or was this is my first attempt at stopping, I only drank on weekends but it was extremely heavy and the aftereffects and the embarrassing behaviour had brought me to the point of attempting sobriety. I don't know if I need rehab or not I can go 3-5 days sober then I get completely bombed all weekend. The anxiety kills me and the depression sets in too. I think I do need rehab? What about yourself?

zjw

this is an old thread but I find with any substance how it works for me is for example say caffine if i have cafffine every other day then i stop i'll have issues on that second day. If i smoked a cigarette every other day the same would happen. If i drank a beer every other day the same would happen.

the time usually is a pattern for me every 2 days or every 3 hours or only on weekends etc.. it usually has some kind of a pattern to it and once the pattern is broken the withdrawell kicks in for me.

But the one thing that is always happening with the pattern is the time between the one event and the next is usually always shrinking. So eventually i'm a daily smoker or hourly smoker or a daily drinker or an all day drinker or taking caffine daily or all day long etc..

MrTumble

Same. Tried this loads of times, eventually end up drinking every night.

Wholesome

I went from daily drinking to two months total sobriety and then sadly back to drinking. I did my best to limit it to just weekends during which times I would binge drink. Sometimes I would drink during the week too but mostly just one day a week.... usually Friday. The obsession to want to drink all the time was always there.

I think it's a slippery slope and long term hard to maintain if you have already drank alcoholically

Dee74

Welcome to SR Bunchie

just to let you and other folks know this is a 2003 thread, so don't expect replies from the original participants

D

daz135

Hey mate I did exactly this. Quit for 4 months then decided to drink a few beers Saturday night. Had like 4 an I was congratulating myself as this was down from 12 a night every night. Move 8 or 9 months and have not gone a weekend free from booze. Now it's Thursday to Sunday binge every night. Going without for the week days is exhausting continual negotiations in my own head to keep it at bay. Frankly it's worse than daily drinking. My advice don't go there you'll regret it.

MelindaFlowers

I was a daily heavy drinker but I think that with weekend drinkers, they drink so much over the 48-72 hours that they probably go through the withdrawals/feeling like crap for most of the five days during the week. Rinse and repeat. From what I've read, serious weekend alcoholics often drink all day into the night on weekends.

The last time I drank I was hungover for five days.

My cycle was drink to pass out at night, withdrawals until 5 pm and drink again to pass out, seven days a week.

SDH73

Old thread, but I'll chime in anyway. I was an every day drinker for years. Usually to the point of passing out. Don't know how, but at some point I shifted into a binge drinker. I would drink for 2/3/4 days straight, like MelindaFlowers said, starting when I woke up until I went to bed, often with little "pass outs" throughout the day. Then I would detox for a few days when I went back to work. Typically my hangovers/detoxes would last right up until my next days off when I would start drinking again.