laurie6781

You know, fairly early in recovery, I was invited out to dinner with sober friends, we would go to nice places as in the San Fernando Valley there are some really great restaurants.

I would watch others at other tables, see them order a glass of wine with dinner and leave it. Now WTF was that? And what a waste of booze, lol If that is social drinking and I know understand that it is, my question for me has always been WHY EVEN BOTHER? roflmao

Nope, no social drinking for this alkie. I wanted it ALL. I got it ALL at least ALL that my body could handle before the alcohol and drugs KILLED me.

Yep, I was given that SECOND CHANCE, and I had enough brain matter left, not much but enough to TAKE IT. That was many ODAATs ago now, and I will be forever grateful that I got that SECOND CHANCE.

J M H O

Love and hugs,

nandm

Just the thought of it makes me because I tried to drink socially for 20 years and couldn't so what would make me think that after 7 years of not drinking I anything would change?

cookconfay

Nope....I liked drinking but hated being DRUNK! I crossed that invisible line everytime....and....then I'd want to sober up quick so I'd get some coke or speed....THEN, I wanted to come down so I'd get some whiskey and some valiums....geez, I get tired just typing all that!! Occasionally a beer sounds good, BUT....do I really want to have to end up chasing down some heroin before the days over??? Nah, not today.

BTW, celebrated 11 yrs last Saturday...CLEAN & SOBER...and too bad if there are some that don't like me saying both...CLEAN & SOBER but that's what I am.....

TryingSoHard

Read the very first post in this thread:
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...orth-sigh.html

CarolD

.....alsohol is a poison for me.

laurie6781

Congrats on that 11 years clean and sober I know how hard it was to get to where you are now. I however, say SOBER AND CLEAN, roflmao

Doesn't matter, I suffer from an affliction that when I take toxic possibly addictive poisons into my body I turn into a RAVING LUNATIC that wants to destroy ALL and I do mean ALL around me, people, families, buildings, companies, etc.

After being killed by all the alcohol and drugs, I was given a SECOND CHANCE and had just enough brain matter left to realize it and took it.

Clean and sober, sober and clean, doesn't matter how it's said or not said, WE ARE IN RECOVERY!!!!!!

Love and hugs,

gravity

"In all my own years of working with alcoholics, I have never known of even one person who was able to accomplish the feat of returning to normal social drinking successfully. The ones whom I know who tried it, returned to the same dysfunctional lifestyle and began exhibiting the same kinds of destructive behaviors that they had shown when they drank previously. Alcoholics do not drink for social reasons in the first place, they drink to escape the pains of reality. That is why the majority of alcoholics, once solidly established in recovery, find that they would not want to drink again at all even if some technique were developed which would allow them to do so without returning to their old compulsive excess -- they simply do not desire even a small amount of that kind of sensation or mental state any more." William E. Swegan, VICTORY OVER ALCOHOL, Psychological Healing and the Twelve Steps William E. Swegan, 2. The Psychology of Alcoholism

This link to this article was recently posted by bballdad and provides great insight into alcoholism.

Every article I read, every questionnaire, all advice that I get, my drinking history - it all leads to the same conclusion: I am an alcoholic. If I keep drinking, it will get progressively worse. I will never be able to moderate.

I can’t keep trying to dispute the experts by claiming that I am somehow unique and that all of the evidence does not apply to me. I have to accept reality and get on with life.

jjaaam

I have to think about why I want to drink in the first place.

Is it because of the taste? Well, I used to think so. I used try all different kinds of beer claiming that I liked the different tastes.

Folks, lets call it for what it is. Beer tastes like crap.

What about mixed drinks? The fruity ones? Well...you can get the same tastes (pretty much) by having virgin drinks.

So...what does that leave?

I drank for one reason only - FOR THE EFFECTS OF THE ALCOHOL.

So...

...what's the point of being a social drinker?

I know for a FACT that just one or two would just rev the engines up. I would be hell bent to get more...

...to get drunk.

That's why I know I could not ever be a social drinker.

Laciemae

This is a great post. I had wondered the same thing. Even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

HopeTo180

I will not take the chance of going back into the depths of Hell. I have found so many other ways to enjoy my time with friends and life. I will forever remember that alcohol is an accumulative poison. Prayers

beingjenagain

No!! I can't!!

Dee74

I agree with Laurie

I realise now - even before I discovered I had a 'drinking problem', and years before I thought of the word 'alcoholic', I *always* drank the glass dry, and while in the early days I might not have always acted upon it, I *always* wanted more....

I can't go back to something I never was.

D

vegibean

no

ftumsh

thank you very, very much for this.

ftumsh

this thread is/has been particularly useful for me. thank you everyone.

Kellye C

I have no problem at all with it! Happy birthday!!!

To answer the OP's question, my answer is no. I was snatched back from the brink of death and what felt like the depths of hell. No way would I willingly risk going back in the name of being a social drinker. I am too thankful to have been pulled out of where "social drinking" got me which was so physically addicted that I couldn't go more than a couple of hours without a drink or the shakes and vomiting would start. I worked, drove and parented under these conditions for which I will spend the rest of my life making amends.

Social drinking???? Make mine a coke please and hold the whiskey. Thank you.

Big hugs,
Kellye

LosingmyMisery

Simply...no.

FightingIrish

I have spent a good deal of time with friends this summer while they were drinking. Last weekend we were having a picnic up in the Berkshires (sounds like a nice occasion for some wine, no?), and they were drinking while we ate. There were three bottles of wine, three of them, and me. There was a bottle left over. (?????) I know in my innermost soul that I am bodily and mentally different from them. It's so obvious that it makes me chuckle. I would have drunk most of the wine and stumbled off in a blackout to buy more. Or I would have finished each glass ten minutes before they did and would have been miserable sitting there waiting for everyone else to catch up. Not pleasant.

fu7pink

Thank you for all the responses i have obviously hit a soft spot with this question and I ask it not because I know that answer but because i was looking for your thoughts on the matter... yes I had hoped that at least one of you guy had of come back to me and said yeah sure it happens you can clean your act up and have one or two over dinner and not want to drink the whole bottle and the one on the next table... But in my heart of hearts I know that this must be it and once you stop you stop! So thanks for reiterating what I already thought was the case.

TheMaster

I see a lot of the same responses. I have never, ever, cared about "social drinking".

I drank to get plastered. I never woke up to a drink, nor did I binge for days on end.

When I was younger, though, I drank every night.

So I guess the short answer is NO. Because I never even tried social drinking.