Justfor1

Determining the amount one drinks is very important when detoxing. My doctor suggested that anyone who is drinking over a pint of hard stuff a day for weeks should be medically detoxed. I also learned that drinking rubbing alcohol and vanilla extract (bought with food stamps) is very dangerous on the physical body. The amount of drinking is also a big indicator of how far along the disease has progressed. This is a very good thread and is not necessarily all about "I drank more than you so I'm more of an alcoholic." Looking back towards the end I was a stereotype alcoholic. I was living under a bridge, dirty, panhandling & drinking rot gut wine outta a paper bag. I was even hit by a truck while panhandling on the street and won a lawsuit that enabled me to get into an apartment and good quality rehab. I've never looked back. By the grace of God.

artsoul

I drank anywhere from 5-10 beers ( or about a bottle of wine) most days and had really bad hangovers too, even started getting an ache in my side (liver? pancreas?). That was plenty enough to make my life miserable.

I know I'm an alcoholic - maybe just in the mid-stages, but but out of control nonetheless. I have friends who can have 1 small glass of wine each day with dinner (an acceptable amount for women) and never be tempted to have another. I was very rarely content with that.

I think no matter how much people drink, if they can't walk away from it, it's trouble. ANY drunk could end up tragic.

tooling

I don't think we are gloating her at all. There are no smiley faces about this.

I drank cases of beer for years, about 12 pack a night and skipped some nights and then repeated. The weekends i would need at least 18 beers in house before I felt comfortable for one drinking session. I could wake up at any time and usually get some water and start drinking again.

Then I gutted out my fridge and put a keg in it. I drank many kegs over a few years time frame. Having blackouts was normal. if I didn't get very close or into them i wouldn't have got to where I wanted to be which was not on earth conscious.

I ain't proud of this. It makes me sick but that's what I did, and it's all over...

Soberween

I drank a regular size bottle wine plus maybe one additional glass about 5 nights a week. Lots of people tell me that that isn't that much, but for me it was too much. It would leave me feeling extremely depressed and unmotivated the next morning.

least

It's no wonder I couldn't pay my bills... I was buying one to three bottles of wine a day.

MsCooterBrown

When I was out and about..mass amounts of whiskey enhanced with beer chaser. I did some time with Rum. When I was done with that I would carry on at home with a half gallon of wine. It was bad. I still freak out about what I have done to my organs..I also did some time with Tequila. I had to quit because it made me out of my mind worse than anything. I am not sure..but I think Tequila was behind my first ever black out. What really disturbs me is I NEVER got sick..like head in the toilet all night sick. I suffered massive hangovers. So much better on the sober side..can't tell you how much better I feel. I truly did just get sick of it.

Soph

I am a high bottom alkie with extremely good discipline when I want to; meaning, I can drink a glass or two...or half bottle of wine and the next night finish it...or let it sit in the fridge a few more days... Thing is, I have to keep nerves of steel the whole time.

And I will think about it and think about it. I can also go days, weeks without touching a drop. But it's so unpleasant! It's abstinence instead of recovery.

Am ready for recovery.

Hugs,

Soph

MsCooterBrown

You are lucky Soph. I have never had the buzz detector ..it was never enough or fall down drunk.

Soph

Well don't get me wrong, I have certainly had my share of fall down drunk episodes! I was a raging alkie in college. OMG when I remember the drinking, the shots, the idiocy...believe me...it has taken decades of winding down.

And I have wound down, in my way, but still...even last month I drank too much and got the hiccups, which was so embarrassing, just awful, and I was holding my breath (didn't work) and drinking water from the wrong side of the glass (didn't work plus I dribbled like a moron) and also ate a spoon full of sugar (didn't work and I was, hello, eating SUGAR) - oh yes very refined. Very mature Soph! Not.

So, honeys, I'm home.

Redhead84

Well when I first started in this hell, around 14, it was beer, I guess wine, wine cooler....I only remember the last 5 years-I'm 26 now. I've been doing this for so long I can't even remember......
all of this is not at once, but it's just in general-So the last 5 years it has been recently I can finish a red wine bottle in 2 days, 1 large long island iced tea does nothing to me. I remember having half a bottle of champagne within the last 2 months. and....i remember one night was disgusting-Halloween night this year, I just kept gulping the champagne and throwing up,drinking, throwing up---sick.
Anyway um-recently it's been cooking alcohol-vanilla extract, some cooking burbon,=not always all at once b/c I don't want people to see that the liquid has gone down.
If I buy it myself-like wine-I don't care how much I drink. But if it's something the parents bought, I don't drink it as much.

Cobalt

I may be an exception, but I simply can't just drink anything. I am a beer drinker because I love the taste of beer and I love the buzz that accompanies it. No other alcohol gives me that "click". Hard liquor hurts my stomach and makes me nauseous, and wine gives me heartburn. If there is no beer in the house I won't drink, even if there are other types of alcohol. This strikes me as a very strange, selective alcoholism.

I may not be a fall down drunk who drinks anything at all costs, but I am still an alcoholic. When there is beer available and I am in the mood, I will get drunk.

I capped out at 4 beers an evening when my addiction was first coming to fruition, but when things got really bad it was at least 6 beers a night. There were some crazy instances when I stayed up all night drinking beers and could have finished off 8 to 12 entire bottles.

Overall, it doesn't matter how much you drink. I have seen other posters here profess to drinking amounts that I am very sure would have killed me if I had attempted them. Many say that "alcohol is alcohol" but I am not completely convinced this is true. That really is an entirely different topic, which I won't get into at this moment.

Bottom line, it doesn't matter how much you drink: if you are unhappy with the fact that you are drinking, then you have a problem.

Alcohol isn't the only thing that can cause addiction. Many of our problems stem from a poor outlook and a misunderstanding of the situations we are in. We can't blame anyone but ourselves, and when we're done doing that and ready to move on, then the real work can be done.

Stay strong, believe, keep fighting.

I'm still here. So are you.

tallcactus

For me it wasn't how much I drank, because it varied.
I was a binge drunk, I would drink for 2-3 nights, then not drink again for a few weeks.
All that I know is that with time I drank more and more to achieve that high and drank more often.
Hangovers were deadly and becoming more frequent.
Then I noticed that almost every time that I drank something happen. Examples: arguements, strange bruising, something broken in the house, new dents/dings on car, then the DUI arrest.
No thanks, drinking causes way to many problems for me.

sable1

It has varied over the years. There was a period with wine and beer, then vodka, then on to gin, tequila and I finally settled with whiskey, my main drink of choice.
When I drank the most, it was probably around 4 bottles a week, sometimes wine and beer to, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

Not that I counted but I was always shocked to see how the empty bottles and beer cans filled up my room so quickly.
I couldn't even myself believe that I had actually been drinking all that. It looked so much more than it felt when I drank it.
Damn, how I hated taking all that stuff out to the trash.
Oh, and I lived in a small town at the time, that had just one liquer store. It became soo awkward to buy new bottles all the time, it felt humiliating!

coop1

During the week it was a 12 pack a night... that is what people saw me drink. On the way home from work I would purchase six mini bottles of whiskey and drink four on the 20 minute ride and sprinkle the other two in with the twelve beers. Those little mini bottles were my comfort zone. I always had two or three with me wherever I went. If we were going to a party or out somewhere I'd always have three or four to get a head start and feel "normal". Then drink the others throughout the night on top of what looked like I was drinking along with everyone else. It was a complete joke... man I'm glad it is over.

Chloe03

flavinho: Thanks for starting this thread! Most of my friends and family are heavy drinkers so I've never had a clear idea of how much was too much. Often wondered what other heavy drinkers drank. Plus, I was always curious about the progression of alcoholism.

For me my drinking progressed from not drinking Mon-Thurs and binge drinking on the weekend with friends. To drinking a bottle of wine at home alone Mon-Thurs. Maybe a couple shots of vodka too. And then binge drinking on the weekends. Blackouts and major hangovers!

The wino depression was taking me for a ride! I just couldn't pull myself out of it. So it was time to quit drinking!

doggonecarl

What was my alcohol consumption?

Knowing me, I'd probably lie about how much I drank. What I can't lie about is the progression of my alcoholism. In container size: I progressed from 12 oz cans to pints, from to 22 and 24 oz cans to 40s. In strength: I progressed from "regular" beer to ice beers, from malt liquors to high gravity lagers (9 to 11% alcohol). In secret: I progressed from social drinker to drinking alone, from keeping the beer in my frig, to hiding it in the garage and the camper shell of my truck so my wife wouldn't find out how much my "consumption" was.

Finally I progressed from loving beer to needing it.

ImReadyToQuit

A liter of whiskey a day..

Sometimes more.. or a little less..

ArtDeco454

A quart of Vodka & a pint of Schnapps every two days at home, plus whatever I had every night when I went out....Then I discovered I liked Scotch. Three or four packs of smokes a day. The damage....I lost my teeth to malnutrition because I forgot to eat...three heart attacks & two heart surgeries. Now almost 4 years without a cigarette and 9 years without a 'lost weekend', I still wonder what normal is.

TheBatman

Well honestly id rather not think of major drinking days i once had, but i would say at least a smirnoff vodka a day back when i first started drinking in early 2008, then i went back to beer in october of 2008 because hard liqour makes my kidneys and stomach hurt extremely bad to the point to wehre i can not sit back onto a chair propery as my kidneys hurt, been to the doctor, nothings wrong, its how my body is. When i was a kid and drunk alot of milk or soda, it was the same deal idk. Ive only drunk hard liqour maybe 5 times sicne 2008 and i get that same kidney and stomach pains).

But as stated in my other thread i did not drink everyday in 2008, it wasn't until 2009 when i drunk the most (honestly from january-august i did not take a day off drinking) and this was beer. But im glad to say that i know in my heart and through my actions this year that i have cut back tremendously. The last time i consistently drunk everyday was honestly february. from then in july i went on vacation from work and drunk for 1 week straight then another in late july, that was the lst time i drunk 7 days in a row. Then i drink maybe 4 days in 1 week once in august and 4 days in 1 week once in november (holidays) thats about it, the rest of the time its been 3 days max. And tehres been some tiems wehre ive taken more then 7 days off drinking (when i was sick) so it adds up. last week was only 3 days drinking in a week. This week idk (I havent drunk since saturday). But i think really a process. There arent many people who can simply put it down altogether after becoming a heavy alcoholic but i think im making progress. I can even get through my weekend sometims and not drink at all to make it 7 days in a row (ive done this on a few occasions) so it really just a process for me imo.

But also ill have to admit to you alot of the reason why i dont drink daily is also because i get kidney and stomach pains if i drink more then 3 days a week to the point to wehre its just like it was when i drink liqour, then once i stop for 3 or 4 days the pain is gone. So i doubt i coudl ever drink 7 days in a week as i could not sit properly back in a chair and my pee burns and all other hell (But maybe i should stop altogether?) yes i know this

ZZworldontheweb

Batman, How do you feel after one of those seven day gaps in drinking? Good, or ready to crawl out of your skin for a drink? Be honest brother...