LovesToTravel

While walking into the othe room I threw up in my water glass.... and then went back into the kitchen to get more liquor! Crazy! All I could think was "what a waste of liquor."

Supercrew

After 27 years I never really thought I had a problem. I liked drinking so what's the problem. Then I realized I was going through withdrawals and I tried to quit...and I couldn't. That was when I realized I might have a problem. Until then I liked being the cool macho guy who drank in the AM and could drink anyone under the table every night of the week. It was my persona for so long that I never saw it as a real problem until the physical stuff and the obsession started. Don't get me wrong, I had problems, a DUI a couple of accidents, got kicked out of school, numerous fights, almost lost my marriage, almost lost a couple of jobs, lost a boatload of friends, could have been killed 1000's of times, lost my hearing in one ear.....the list goes on much longer, but I never thought I had a drinking problem. I just liked to drink.

Looking back it was a problem as soon as I escalated from a 6 pack to a 12 pack when I was about 16 years old.

ForwardMotion

Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone, I wondered if people, like me, knew it was a problem long before they decided/had the strength/want to do something about it. I feel like I wasted 10 years...but, at least I want to do something about it, some people never get the urge, or may have...but never put it into action. I'm glad I got a 2nd....or rather dozenth chance. Thanks again for the share.

Nevertheless

I remember well. I was around 20 years old. I played in a band. We were hauling band equipment to the evening gig,when I realized I needed to slow down. But kept slamming beers. I couldn't stop. I knew then I had a problem.

One time we were playing at a huge biker party. I was probably around 30 at the time. I played drums,and we were on a stage,made from a semi flat bed trailer. I was close to the edge and kept falling off the back. (this was a good 5 feet in the air). 2 big guys were dispatched to keep me from falling off the back. They kept me from falling several times. I guess it got to be quite entertaining. I wonder if Kieth Moon ever had to have any one to help keep his balance LOL. I do have some stories...But man I am so freakin glad I got free from booze,and all that crap.
Fred

Soberpotamus

Yeah... I knew I had a problem. I never really thought otherwise. I always wanted and hoped and sometimes believed I could moderate. But mostly I just knew it was a big problem that I'd eventually have to deal with. Everyone close to me probably knew it also.

And don't waste too much time feeling like you wasted those 10 years I feel similar... but, I'm of the opinion and have a gut feeling I've learned a whole lot despite my drinking problem... even during the times I was heavily drinking... I don't agree with the idea that we're stalled emotionally from the time we first started. I think that's nonsense... I worked amazingly hard in all other areas of my life to try and compensate and even allow for the drinking... I have read and learned so much. It's nothing to do with my ego, and everything to do with my instinct for survival.

Congratulate yourself you are here... at this moment in time. We've come a long way, baby

Tosh

At 13 years old I woke up in hospital; not being able to remember how I got there; feeling like death.

I think I thought alcohol might be a problem then, I just had to master it so I could drink without consequences. Twenty-six-years later, I threw in the towel and went to A.A..

I'm a slow learner!

auxilio

When I woke up in my bed with a broken arm and didn't remember how it happened. The insanity is that nothing would stop me because I kept saying that I went too far that night but would be able to manage it the next time....the last time was when I crashed a car and didn't remember how it happened but I was in jail

eJoshua

When everyone who worked at four different liquor stores near me knew me by name...

No, actually it was shortly after I started drinking heavily around 16 or 17. I knew it would be a problem eventually... 90% of my extended family are/were alcoholics (recovering, active or dead)

DayTrader

Ha...... that's hilarious and sad at the same time. lol.

I'm the same way though, I never met a "problem" that I wasn't totally convinced I could overcome, sidestep, or beat.......somehow.

I don't remember my first "alcohol might be a problem" thought.....there were hundreds of them, I'm sure.

I do remember the first time I figured it was a problem AND I was willing to make some changes to do something about it though....... I still went and drank for another couple months.

Like you Tosh, I finally had to admit I had a problem, admit I could NOT fix it, and join up with those dorks in AA...... That's when things fiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally started getting better - a lot better.

liquid

yes i remember.. it was only last year.

i woke up in a cell, after be caught drink driving. suddenly realizing that loosing my licence was going to cost me my job, my relationship, my house... everything gone which actually made me drink more for a while.

Mariano

Yes, I think that is nonsense too.

Once I woke up and had bruises in my elbow and my hip. Obviously, I had fallen, but I didn't remember ...

ML2007

I noticed I had a problem last year when I blacked out for the first time and found myself in a hotel room. I drinked on and off for about 10 years for special occasions or long weekends. I started drinking heavily during my divorce 5years ago and I had a sibling to die during that year. Driving drunk with open containers. I was caught once and the officers let me go. I just knew I was going to jail but he told me to go home. I was right in the middle of custody battle, if I would have gotten a DUI it would have been over. You would think that would have scared me straight but nope it didn't. Now my divorce is over and I'm still drinking and drunk dialing, texting, posting stupid facebook statuses. I come home and I order my kids dinner instead of giving them a healthy meal or I grab McDonalds. They can do whatever they want when I'm drunk, they play the playstation instead of doing homework or going to bed on time. I've been sober for two days straight and I'm finding out my triggers....I notice when I think back on the past and how my ex hurt me I want to drink to get rid of the thoughts or sometimes wanting to drinking to think them through.

Mary

Drexo

The day I woke up, immediately thinking about having just one drink..

chicagoJ

I realized it about 3-4 weeks after I turned 21. It was the first time I could get alcohol anytime I needed and I noticed I was getting it 6 days a week even though I knew it was wrong and really didn't want to be going down that path. I guess it was the first time I realized I had no control over it.

The strange thing is a few years earlier, when I was around 16-17 I would mix 151 Bacardi with pepsi in a pepsi can and take that to the bus stop on my way to school. I never thought I had a drinking problem at that age.

Image101

I relate to this 100%. Prior to turning 21 I still drank on a consistent basis, but even though I lived right next to a liquor store I couldn't buy it. Looking back, I was definitely a problem drinker before 21, but once I hit 21 it went downhill very, very fast. It wasn't too long (thankfully) after that when I realized that I am indeed an alcoholic and have no business drinking.

indakut

I could have written this one. I know it is very hard to confront triggers like an ex husband who always has something negative to say. You have to remain calm and just think your way through. If you lose it and start arguing then the chances of you drinking again are great! My ex husband can't get anything else from me!!!

I noticed last year on my birthday that I had a problem. My ex husband came over and found me passed out on the garage floor with the garage door open in the middle of the afternoon. I was very embarrassed and tried to control my drinking from that point on.....that didn't work. After my ex husband called my parents and told them of the incident, it was rumored (by family)that my mother was going to call child services on me. Did that stop me? NOPE!

It was almost a year later that I finally cried drunk and asked God for help. Thank you Lord

Songtx

Knew for a while. What put me over the edge was when a friend of mine slept over and in the morning I vaguely remembered yelling at her in the middle of the night. I couldn't recall what I had said because I had been in another black out. I felt horrible about what I might have said to her. Turns out it was nothing bad, I just woke up and yelled "Everyone loves me", and went back to sleep...still wondering what that was all about. I stopped drinking 2 days later.

Cindi74

When I kept 2 bottles of Vodka in the house-one hidden in my closet and the other one for show so my Boyfriend would not think I was drinking too much. The hidden bottle had to be replaced about every other day. Still, even though I knew that was certainly not normal behavior and I knew I was an alcoholic, any time I'd get some sober time put together I would tell myself I was Okay to have a few drinks now and then, guess how that always turned out.

What really, truely woke me up this time was I spent the first 2 weeks of July in a walking. talking blackout. I couldn't even distinguish my dreams from reality. Very, very scary.

wheresthefun

Like others on this thread, there's too many incidents to pick just one. I will say, in hindsight, I now know I had a problem back as far as being five or six years old. My parents would let me take a "sip" from their beers, and I LOVED it. While they watched TV, I would sit on the floor behind their chairs and when they'd get up and leave the room to do something I'd grab their beer and start drinking. I don't ever recall getting even dizzy, but the beer in my mouth and going down my throat was dizzying - I was hooked.

Mad4Chaos

I realized it after I started planning out my drinking. If I had the day off, I would set my alarm to go off at 5:40 a.m. (10 minutes after my wife left for work). Then I would get up & start getting my DTB (day time buzz) before daybreak. Then I would take a nap at Noon & set my alarm to get up an hour before she got home later that afternoon. She could tell I had been drinking, but had no idea how smashed I had gotten that morning. I did that for years. All my 3 weeks of vacation meant to me were 3 weeks I could stay drunk. I knew I had a problem, but I didn't care. It took increasing chest pains & a family crisis to make me care that I had a problem.