LaFemme

Gross and scary. I knew that it could be addicitve and I didn't want people around me to drink on a regular basis. I asked my parents to give it up for 6 months because I heard if you could do that you weren't an addict.

I did, however think the foam on a glass of beer was kind of neat.

I was not aware of people behaving in a drunk fashion around me.

I also hated smoking...grew up to do both:-p

LaFemme

Oh...my parents did not quit for 6 months...they said that was silly.

doggonecarl

Growing up, we always heard stories about my Dad's alcoholic father, who split when they were kids. Remember my grandmother saying, "You shouldn't eat spicy food, Carl. Your grandfather, Harry loved hot food and you know what kind of drunk he was."

Explains why I'm in recovery now, huh?

HFA

Guess my dad drank quite a bit till I was around 6ish. Then I heard my mom knocked him out one nite with a skillet when he was raging. Guess he stopped after that. I dont remember any of it, so I doubt thats why I am here.


Day 102

Che

When you're a kid, the advertising isn't aimed at you. When you're older, there is a need to at least try alcohol so that you will be part of a group. After that, you start romanticising alcohol. Then obsessing over it. Then it simply becomes a part of your routine. That's the path I think I followed.

I don't like to blame others for what I did with alcohol. I really believe people have to take responsibility for themselves, regardless of disadvantages. It is funny how something can go from a merely peripheral presence in our lives to being the centre of our lives, however.

I want to continue this, but I've written it out 3 different ways and it isn't satisfying... delete delete delete

CarolD

As a child.....with a non drinking religious small town family
I always wanted to explore the exciteing glamorous life
I saw in the movies......

I rushed willingly into cigarettes...boys and alcohol.
Teen freedom made it easy to find all 3.

Do I hold the movies responsible? Heck no.

What began as a rebellion....remained as a lifestyle
of choice....for decades.
Then .un-noticed I slid into alcoholism

Kmber2010

I couldn't have said it better. By the time I looked up.....I was hooked...I couldn't just turn it off or slow it down. Scary stuff.

LaFemme

I was just thinking of being a little kid (under 10) and how I instinctively knew it was bad. Just like smoking (I used to get into trouble for throwing out my grandmothers cigarettes.) I think kids Have better instincts.

BellaTeal

Well, my parents really didn't drink much-glass of wine or 2 with dinner and that's it. So that's what I thought when I was a kid-that alcohol was just something adults like to drink with dinner every once in a while. But then that all changed, of course.

What happened was I had been severely depressed for quite some time and one day I just got the idea that maybe alcohol could help me feel better...and well, we all know what happened next. It seemed so random but the idea of taking a drink and the knowledge that people use alcohol in an attempt to feel better must've stemmed from somewhere. When and where I learned/saw that, I have no idea. I'm pretty sure most of my peers weren't drinking yet and my friends at the time were the type of people who wouldn't drink anyway.

As for smoking...my parents quit smoking when I was real little. I remember I absolutely hated cigarette smoke and whenever we'd go out to dinner (back when you could smoke inside) and someone near our table would light up, I'd cover my face for like, 15 minutes so I didn't breathe it in. I thought cigarettes were horrible and disgusting and I was certain I'd never be a smoker...well here I am now smoking a pack a day, lol.

SSIL75

I thought it was gross. I hated the smell and the taste and I thought it was stupid.

Now that I've quit I'm amazed at the 'nice' drinks I can taste. I had a green tea with honey and lemon the other day at a farmer's market. I couldn't believe how pleasant it was. I never saw the point in drinking anything other than alcohol and the occasional coke to help with a hangover.

It depresses me to think of all I've missed.

tjp613

The only time my father ever showed any affection to me was when he was drunk. And there were the occasional rages as well. But these are things I realize now, as an adult. At the time I didn't associate alcohol with all the tears my mother shed...or my parents' friends doing the limbo in our living room...or was probably the primary reason my dad died when I was 8 in a private plane crash. Now I realize all this stuff and it just makes me sad. I often wonder what kind of hell our lives would have been if he had lived....

leo21

My parents drank here and there, and extended family as well but it was never a thought. I only tried a drink occasionally after I graduated high school but I was a martial art nut and worked out all the time so I maybe had a drink every three months or so. Heck, when I turned 21 it didn't even occur to me that I was old enough to legally buy!! LOL!!

I rarely drank or thought about drinking until I started hitting it when I was about 34. I just turned 40 a few months ago and have over a month sober - getting back to the old me now.

My wife and I have been married 11 years and we never have kept alcohol in the house. She doesn't drink and our kids have never seen anyone drinking in or out of the house - they are 12 and 17. I was the 'closet' drinker.

AmericanGirl

As a young child I thought drinking was a normal part of every evening, at least in "sophisticated" families such as ours (snobbery being a big part of my childhood, too, ugh). I also thought it was a big treat to have my watered down wine on holidays, etc. My parents used to have wild parties and my sister and I would sleep in the downstairs den, hearing them dance upstairs & occasionally dropping/shattering glasses. It wasn't until adolescence that I realized my situation was at all abnormal or made real connections between the booze and other things. I swore I'd never be like that, but within a few years, I was.

jamdls

I started drinking the foam off my dad's beer before I even started elementary school. My mom didn't drink and we never discussed/acknowledged that my father was a drunk. I don't remember liking or disliking the idea or smell of alcohol. The first time I got drunk (around 15 I think) I realized that I could escape, I believe I was a black out drunk from the first sip, and escape is what I wanted.

lildawg

"Drinking was forbidden in my Christian country home . . ." ~ Alabama

When I was a child, I thought drinking alcohol meant you'd go to hell when you died.

Both my mother and my father grew up in homes where no alcohol was consumed because drinking was considered a sin. My father's parents were Pentecostal and Southern Baptist. My mother's parents were Congregational Methodists.

My parents were not hard-core tee-totallers, but I can count the number of times I saw them drink on one hand. I have never in my life seen them drunk or even tipsy.

I am not sure how I became an alcoholic, but here I am.

Stang

I thought it was great! How do ya think I ended up an alcoholic?

LaFemme

Stang...I'm curious...how old were you when you thought it was great?

Sudz No More

I thought fondly of the idea of using before the age of 10. Sick I know, but true. Once I tried it, I enjoyed it and thought even more of it. I don't think I ever didn't like it, sure there were some types. I still think wine tastes nasty and Cheap Gin (shudders)

Stang

Unlike a lot of alcoholics I don't remember my first drink. I was around 11 when I started drinking beer. My father would give me one on occasion. I didn't drink heavily until my teenage years.
What's strange to me is although I always drank more than average people it really didn't seem to be an addiction till my mid thirties.

Cottonwoodchris

I can remember when I was 10 years old, dad left when I was 8, so I was the oldest and therefore the "Man of the Family" which meant keeping my 2 brothers in line while mom was at work or bowling with her league. Bowling nights meant mom was sheet faced when she got home. I got the belt on my butt if everything wasn't perfect at home. I mean, perfect.

Then there were the parties mom had at home, or we went to. Every one drank. Some beer, most hard stuff. I remember the brand new Mercedes driven thru a fence into a pool. Nice. So, at that time, I was really down on alcohol. It was disgusting, what it did to people. It smelled bad, they all smelled bad, the house stunk, cleanup was awful. Usually they barfed outside so I could use the garden hose.

Ha ha ha ha! At 16, lo and behold, a school mate had a bottle of vodka and some Pepsi. He called it a "Black Russian" We drank all of it and I was sick as a dog for days. Next weekend, it was Jack Daniels. Next, Southern Comfort. By 18 years old, I had prolly drank every thing on the list.

Hated cigarettes. Would smash or hide my mom's packs. But, at 23, I started a pack a day. Camel non-filters no less. Now, I can't stand booze, beer, cigarettes. I can't be near anyone that reeks of any of that and be comfortable.