Tazman53

I drank until I was full, once I was full which only took 40 years, I quit, I had had enough!

It is not the amount we have drank or how long we have drank that determines whether or not we are alcoholics, it is what happens to us when we drink that determines that.

zoomer

Back in my younger days I could out drink men,then I cut back to like a 6 pack maybe a night. At the end of my drinking it was down to 2-4. I was trying to control my drinking because I knew I was wrong to drink and two I did not like the hangovers. When I first got into AA, I was told by other drinkers that I may have a problem with alcohol and someone took me to my first meeting. I stayed sober for a number of years and went back out because I was told I was not an alcoholic by a therapist because I never blacked out. AA stuck in my head and maybe I'm not a "pure alcoholic" because I never blacked out,but I did abuse alcohol. I drank when I should not have and was a daily drinker. I know for a fact that I'd still be drinking if it was not for AA. BTU, a 6 pack would get me drunk and I'd have a hangover the next day usally with an important fuction that day. It's not how much you drink,but what it does to you when you do drink. I also drank on medication which is a no no. Also I did not like wine because it would give me the worst hangovers. So it's also not what you drink either that makes you an alcoholic or a problem drinker. I'm lucky that I stopped when I did. I could go back to drinking like I did when I was younger and have all kinds of problems. I never had any health problems due to drinking like you,but again I drank when I should not have. It's been almost 4 years that I took my last drink,but I still get cravings and I still tell myself that it was not really that bad. But then I remember the bad times and play the tape all the way through. I try not to compare my drinking to others,but know that I have a lot of not yets if I continue to drink.

fallingdown

I can understand why people ask though...I think we get this question in most cases because they are comparing their consumption to ours (as is the case with this poster) but in my opinion, the thing to remember is that alcoholism is inevitably progressive. Even if you can go a couple years drinking the same amount every night, if you are an alcoholic you will almost always need to start drinking more to achieve the same effect. When I first began my voyage into hell, 4 beers seemed like a lot and by the time I was done I couldn't even get a buzz off of that amount. It's nasty, seriously if you even suspect you have a problem you would serve yourself well to get some help now before it tightens its grip on your mental and physical health.

Ananda

And I think at some point the amount can go down as you progress. my father was drinking a bottle of scotch a night in his 40s, but got drunk on one or two beers at the end.

I stopped at a high consumption level....other than making it more obvious that there is a problem, I don't see it as important, just part of who I was.

Bard

I use to drink bourbon all the time. Every night after work I would pick up a fifth and drink that all down. Then I switched over to beer and usually could polish off a 30 pk and then depending if I had company over and was "partying" if not then I would drink about 20 before passing out.

Signal30

Yeeeeeeah that used to be me...lol. After a case of beer I have done many things I'm not proud of (most of them involving standing sometimes even shooting) and it was that case of beer I used to drink every morning after work.

Consumption aside, my behavior and problems had symptoms of alcoholism way before I ever started drinking regularly. Yes consumption is a factor in evaluating problem drinking, but most of us had all kinds of emotional problems that usually fed the alcoholism and was the root of the consumption of alcohol and/or drugs.

That is what I love about AA. Step work finds the root of my problems with not just my drinking but with me and my character defects.

I have found answers to problems I have been wanting to solve my entire life. All I had to do was something about my drinking problem.




Tom

353

My short lead....

I used to drink alot and life sucked, now I don't drink and life's alot better.

My entire life (30 year drinking career) had peaks and valleys in the amount of alcohol I consumed, but over time always got worse.

What always bothered me is how I felt when I wasn't drinking. Someone summed it up this way..."If you think about drinking or think about not drinking, you may have a problem with alcohol". I understood that.

From what I've gathered "normal" people don't think about drinking or not drinking or how much. I don't understand how people could view alcohol in those terms, just seems odd to me...because I'm an alcoholic...duhhh

Welcome to the forum miser, I hope you find what you're searching for..

God's Peace

Pinkcuda

I had a keg on tap at the house at all times. You can save a fortune by buying it by the keg. The more I drank, the more I saved. I just can't figure out why I never got rich.

Tazman53

Ananda I can attest to that, the last 2 years of my drinking my tolerance went haywire, one day 6-8 beers would have me slurring my speech and stumbling and then the next day I could slam one after another all day long and not even get a buzz!!!

After I got sober I learned that I was in the early part of the final stage of alcoholism, my liver and a lot of others things were revolting against my drinking.

RufusACanal

Thank you for your response miser. Your health is already deteroiating and you probably know this to be true if you are having your liver checked for issues. The games we play with ourselves concerning booze is amazing. Do you ever wonder if regular people take the time to become so involved with their drinking and it's consequences that they check their liver enzymes? Of course you don't want to stop drinking..and ? I am an Alcoholic without a drink for five years and until the desire was removed by something greater than me,I was never ready to stop. NEVER. At the end which stretched out for years it seemed, I drank vodka and I purchased it in the plastic half gallon variety. Of course, Drunks can drink anything alcoholic, but I needed the ability to get my blood alcohol to a certain place quickly more of less so I would not go into DT's or seizures of which I have survived on several occasions.

Alcoholics slowly change their circumstances to accomdate their Alcoholism; this is one of the points mentioned concerning personal unmanageability in the First Step of AA.

Stormy1119

Back in my 'bar days' I would always drink at least 2-3 before going out then the amount I drank while out would depend on how much money I had taken with me (in an attempt to control my drinking), how drinks I could get guys to buy for me, or how many unattended drinks were left at my table.

When I started drink alone at home because i was constantly embarrasssing myself when I was going out, I would drink as much as I could until it either ran out or I passed out.. that would usually be 14-16 beers, or at least 1/2 of a fifth of high proof liquor. I tried not keep more than a case of beers or one bottle of liquor in the house at one time, because I was terrified of killing myself.. albeit I was killing myself slowly anyway.


I wasn't a nightly drinker.. usually just the wknds.. although towards the end it was becoming almost nightly. But even though I wasn't drinking nightly, I know i'm still an alcoholic because once I started drinking, I didn't stop til it was gone or I was passed out. My life revolved around my drinking and trying to 'maintain' it. I remember the night that I didn't want to get insanely drunk, just a nice buzz going on.. so i bought a bottle of fruitzia and was going to buy a 6 pk of budlight, but there was no 6 pack, so I tried to figure out if the the 16oz aluminum bottles of bud sold in a 4 pk came out to the same amount as a 12 oz 6pk. When I got home and was trying to do the math again I broke out in a cold sweat and started crying when I thought I had done the math wrong, and the 4pk plus the bottle of fruitzia wasn't going to get the job done.