Sad12

Why drink? Why get drunk? Please explain this to me. I've had only one drink in my entire life (as an experiment, last summer, and I'm 27), and did not enjoy it. It tasted bad, made my eyes feel funny, and was in no way pleasant. I didn't even feel normal again until the middle of the next day.

I believe my boyfriend is an alcoholic, and I want to understand the motivation to drink.

Do people actually enjoy feeling a lack of control over their bodies? Does it taste good? Please help me understand.

choublak

You sound exactly like me.

In my own boyfriend's words, "it's a chemical thing".

Sad12

I understand the need of an alcoholic to keep drinking, but why drink in the first place? The first time? Most people did not become alcoholics from tasting a beer at 16, did they?

choublak

Well if it's gradual, they don't know until it has crept up on them long enough for them to notice.

Hevyn

Hi sad. Well, for me, I didn't like the taste, but loved the relaxed feeling it gave me. I was always shy & self-conscious, so it seemed to help me with those problems. Instead, it sent me on a terrible journey of chaos and self-destruction - but I had no idea where it would lead way back then.

Boleo

This may not make any sense to a non-alcoholic.

It is an emotional release (liberation) from some underlying disturbance such as restlessness, irritability and discontentedness.

Terminally Unique

Alcoholics start drinking for the same reasons as anyone else. Speaking only for myself here, I always suspected that I enjoyed the effects of alcohol far more than most people. I certainly seemed to be able to handle much more of it than others could without feeling any side effects. For a very long time, I didn't even get hangovers. Eventually, as my ability to process it diminished, it lost its charm, however, and I was only drinking to combat withdrawal.

YouAndTequila

Sad, you brought back a strange, distant memory for me. I was still a kid when I had an alcoholic drink for the first time. Alcohol was all around me growing up, and I'm not even sure who served me then. Anyway, I Hated it! Yuck! Apparently I did drink enough for it to make me deathly ill though, and I was very sick for hours....
I couldn't understood WHY people enjoy that stuff! I never touched it again until my 40's, and after a few nights of it I guess I finally understood. It relaxed me and enabled me to socialize better, I was always shy and hated social situations.
Other than that, it's good for nothing and it was foolish to ever start.

Hevyn

Me too - how different my life would have been.

sugarbear1

Mental obsession & physical allergy.

Sugar/enzyme/hormone disturbance, possibly thyroid involvement. Like the autism spectrum, I think there's an alcohol spectrum...

babycat

I remember the first time I got drunk in high school. I had smoked weed already on occasion for a couple years at that point. I just remember thinking "This is the BEST feeling in the world! So much better than weed!"
Everything was funnier and more entertaining. I felt relaxed and uninhibited. Sex was even more fun. I too, can be black out drunk and still feel like a million bucks the next day.Anxiety disappeared (temporarily). I just LOVE LOVE LOVED the feeling. I wish I did not but I did.
Thats why.

sugarbear1

It's all a delusion...

babycat

I'm not saying it isn't, just answering the question.

aussieblue

I was only about 14 when I started to drink I was doing it to rebell I guese I didn't really like the way it tasted but I loved the way it made me feel .

micealc

Same...............It relaxed Me,Helped me to cope,Gave me Confidence,Got rid of Shyness,Gave me back my Memory,...................It took me over eventually.....So in order to Live like I wanted to I needed the Drug/Chemical.I eventually Progressed To Benzos.................They too Worked for awhile.
Im now,for a good few years trying to be who I was always ment to be.....Me.
I needed Someone to show me the way......I found the Map in AA and ACA.
I come here to share with those that understand me......only someone that has been like me will understand.
Only another Blind Person can fully understand what its like to be blind.Peace.

sugarbear1

Giggling...

My post was out of order...originally tried to add to my post...


The real question is why date an alcoholic? Don't need an answer

eJoshua

Because it was fun, and the only way I knew how to have fun was to drink or have sex.

AprilMay1895

When I was 14 and tried alcohol, I thought it was straight up nasty and everyone who drank it was completely insane. When I was 18 in my first semester of college that I drank it, it became my magical anti-dote to all of the physical and personality flaws I thought I had. When I was drunk and guys were drunk, I got attention from them, that was a first for me. It also helped sink me into the deepest depression I've ever known and I got to know the psych ward closest to my dorm the very next semester...fun stuff!!!

shaun00

Much as the same as boleo shared .

It did something to me that i dont believe it does to the normal temperate drinker
It was a perfect solution to an underlying feeling of being disconnected....or a constant feeling of discontent....not sure i was aware of it really till i took the first drink......almost immediately things came into focus.....ease and comfort is two great words to try and explain something i find difficult to articulate.
It plugged a hole in me....rid me of that feeling of desperation and utter aloneness.
A hole in my soul if you like.......

Then some years ago i put the bottle down.....and back came all those feelings of disconnectedness of despair.......and at time suicidal......so was the booze the problem or the solution?
Well for me it became both......catch 22........a deadly dilemma....
i returned to drink plenty......i had no other solution....

Until picking up a book.....Alcoholics anonymous......With the help of another recovered drunk .....almost immediately it tells me what the problem is.
Then in a clear and precise fashion it tells me how to treat the problem in the form of 12 steps.......

Im an alcoholic that doesn't drink......thats the icing.
The cake is ...i live happy and free....much of the time.....the underlying problem vanished and i recovered .....

SixStringZen

Yes