WantToNeedTo

I know this is no competition, I dont mean it like that. I know that I was drinking way too much when drunk, but I am just curious here. How much, how often, and what exactly were each of you drinking in your worst times. Honestly, I think I am just really worried about the damage I may have done to my body, so I am looking at all of you who seem to be well now to help me feel better. I cant help but sometimes get this feeling of "well you probly have done the damage, so you may as well go on and have a few drinks". I mean my reasons for quitting were more so bc I felt like I was killing myself. I own my own business so I actually have been able to hide it well, and I have been able to hide it from my girlfriend. But I started thinking that I just dont want to die any time soon, that is my main reason for quitting. So as I said, I just was wondering what was each of your poisons of choice and how much a day. I have seen some of these people say "40 beers a day" but did that really mean 40 beers a night? I dont drink until nights, but I sometimes stay up til early morning and down 18 beers or so.

barb dwyer

Wanto -

I really don't know how to answer this question.

In my own personal experience.....
I'm one of those who wasn't SUPPOSED to 'recover'.
Bla bla 'damage' bla bla ... whatever

I have seen others who didn't consume as much as me ...
pass away.
Others who drink/drank MORE and for more years than me ...
are still 'out there' using and having lives.

I don't think 'it' works that way, is all.

I've witnessed quite a few miracles in recovery, my own being one of them.

I think it's more a commitment thing.

ps -
I don't know a way to figure exactly how much I was drinking.
I worked at the bar where I also drank.
Safe guesstimate - a bottle a day.
At least.
That doesn't count shots.

WantToNeedTo

Well I just know that my "biological" fathers dad died around age 50 from drinking. I have been told that they told him a year before he died that if he quit he may survive but he didnt quit. Thus he didnt survive. My concern is that I am so scared to go see a doc bc I am scared what they will find. I know I have to go and be honest about my past, I was just wondering how others drinking pasts related to mine.

I have said this before, but I was drinking between 10-20 beers a night for about 5 years. I am sure that I have damaged my liver in some way, not to mention my kidneys. Just curious to what others have been through.....that is all.

nandm

Interesting question. I know that the amount of alcohol one drinks is not what determines if they are an alcoholic or not but rather the unmanageability around the alcohol.

But to answer your question. In the last 5 years of my drinking I drank copious amounts of alcohol. Anheiser Bush's stocks dropped when I got sober...... :rof On a typical day I would buy 2-thirty packs of beer, 1-2 six packs of a higher quality beer, and a pint to a fifth of "100 proof Hot Damn." I wanted to make sure that I would not run out until I passed out. As I worked shifts that were 48 hours on and 48 hours off, I would normally pick up this alcohol in the morning on my way home from work. I would start drinking by around 11 am and keep going until I passed out usually around 3 am. The next day I would be back at the liquor store as out of what I had purchased there would maybe be a 12 pack left that morning.

Because of this type of drinking for the length of time I did it my liver did see some significant damage. But fortunately, the liver can be a resiliant organ and mine healed quite well once the alcohol was removed.

I hope this has answered your question.

barb dwyer

wanto-

ok. I see.

well, I can't stress enough the importance of seeing a doctor.
hate to do the broken record thing, but ... there it is.

detox from alcohol without medical supervision is dangerous.
deadly, even.

it's worth the trip, hon.

f911

Drank 1 pint vodka/day for ten years. Stopped 4 years ago. All damage now undone. Labs finally back to normal and brain working it's way back to normal too--friends would question that last comment.

Please see a doctor. I finally admitted my alcoholism to my doctor (no special reason except sick of the whole thing) and he told me my life is now going to be so much better for it. How right he was.

Please, please do something. It's hard but the rewards are fantastic--may take awhile. Don't be embarassed. I think your doctor will be impressed by your candor and jump to help (if he/she is any good).

jane

Tazman53

My quanities varied a lot, I was mainly a beer drinker, I drank from the age of about 12 until I was 52. There was a time during my very late teens thru my ealry 20's I drank at a minimum a case of beer a day every day for years, then I quit for 1 1/2 years and started drinking again, for about 10 years after that I would drink about 12-18 a day minimum. I would drink anything the last 10 years of my drinking, but mainly beer, a 5th and a 12 pack were no big deal. Probably I would drink close to a case a day for many years with any type of hard stuff that came my way towards the end my tolerance had gone haywire, one day I would be blottoed (still continued to drink though) after only 6-8 beers, then the next day I could drink more then a case and not even get a buzz.

I have been sober for over 1 1/2 years now and my liver is fully recovered, my bowels function normally and I sleep through the night most of the time..... oh yea and the fog in my brain has been recovered now for about 6 months.

We have a guy in the rooms in my area that has cirrosis of the liver that has been sober for 25 years and considering his age is doing very well.

It is never to late to quit, we had a man at 84 years young got sober in our area, he improved a lot over the last 6 months of his life sober...... sadly he passed due to a stroke I beleive.

lostmdboy

Vadka, and there was never enough!!

least

A bottle or more of wine, all day, every day.

Tazman53

To all who are reading this thread please keep in mind that the amount you drink, how often you drink, and how long you have drank is not an indicator of alcoholism, it is what happens to you when you drink that determines alcoholism.

Thier is no reason to drink your self into oblivion before you decide it is time to quit, the earlier you quit the easier it is and the less chance of any long term or permanent damage.

Zoobear

How much and how often we drank is not the important thing. When and how we quit is the big question. Are we happy now? Have are bodies healed? Can we close our eyes and not hear the community of voices in our heads?
Its not too late for you. Many of us have drank more and longer, we are now as before.
Join us!

FightingIrish

Ditto what everyone else said. I think any answer to this question has the potential to spark denial. That said, red wine was my poison...usually two of those double bottles a night, and maybe a forty or two to finish off the deal. On weekends it was more cyclical...two bottles, pass out, two bottles, pass out, 14 beers, pass out...I love that story in the BB where she says she didn't know whether it was 5pm or 5am. Can definitely relate to that.

Dean62

To answer your question I drank progressively more for 32 years and have reached the point now when I drink I completely stop functioning in society. I have met people who have drank more then me and people who have drank less then me it really doesn't matter the important thing is we are sober today.

I went to my Dr. a couple years ago when I was still drinking daily and the blood test showed a higher then normal enzyme level in my liver. I'm sober now and the blood tests were in the "normal" range so who knows.

Go see your Dr. If your worried about the damage stop drinking and give your body a chance to heal.

fallingdown

7-9 beers a night, sometimes more with shots thrown in from time to time. This doesn't sound like as much as some other people but I am petite and female, which means that kind of drinking over a 12 year period has been very hard on my body. I'm very new to sobriety but in my humble opinion, I don't think a non-alcoholic ever thinks "....my reasons for quitting were more so bc I felt like I was killing myself". I know the sooner you quit the better quality of life you will have regardless of any long term effects. My husband worked with a 38 year old man who just died from drinking himself to death. 38 years old. He drank all the way to the end. People die from drinking, if you know you have a problem it's nothing to mess around with. Good luck to you.

ImJulie

I didnt drink copious amounts of alcohol.
I didnt drink everyday, or even every weekend.

I drank vodka usually, a cosmopolitan was my favorite. I never drank beer...yuck!

On a drinking night, I might drink 7 or 8 cosmos.....Im not a very big girl, so I'd be smashed from that amount.
And I'd drink them in maybe an hour and a half.

Geez Im happy Im not that girl today. She was a mess!

warrens

The damage to our body can be far less than the damage done to our soul.

Quantity was my downfall. I didn't "drink enough" to be a "real" alcoholic.

2-3 beers/night, 6-10 on weekends. How could that bring me to my knees? It did. I sometimes think that I'd have quit far sooner if I'd just drank myself silly every day. I dunno. Doesn't matter now.

The damage done to me by drinking was considerable. It might not have shown up in a liver scan, I don't know. But it sure showed up in an untreatable organ. My soul. Only I can heal that.

warren

tay-lyn

I could easily drink a 26er of vodka and a 1.5 litre of wine a night. That was on a work night! Weekends I could drink a 40 of vodka in one night. But other times 2 glasses of wine was enough to do me in. I could never fortell what kinda night it would be. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself, but I did come close on several occasions.
Now I drink probably 3 litres of water a day. Love the stuff! Love how it makes me feel!
Tay.

justanothrdrunk

The flaw in this logic is that everyone is different.

The liver is relatively resilliant so long as there hasn't been any permanent damage. There are so many unknown factors that would determine how much one's liver could take before you're beyond the point of no return.

I was one of those people who was only concerned about my liver. The problem with me thinking that way is that alcohol is so toxic, my liver wasn't the only thing I needed to worry about.

Alcohol can effect every major system in the body.

I took steps to try to save my liver somewhat. I avoided all OTC pain killers (tylenol). I tried to flush out my system the next day, etc.

It wasn't until I found out that I was causing damage to my nervous system that really woke me up. I was hospitalized in the ICU for 4 days because of nervous system damage directly related to my alcohol abuse.

Yes, the liver is a concern. But it's not the only concern.

tiburon88

I usually drank about 1 pint of vodka and a 12 pack. It's not the amount you drink but what it does to you that determines alcoholism. However, if your drinking 40-60 beers a day, you got a problem.

msh58

past eight years i was a 12 pack a day, sometimes an 18 pack, sometimes less. Before that i binged on weekends for the most part.