I have no urges to drink sometime
 

If I'm pre-occupied with something for a long period of time, I would forget all about alcohol. I went on a roadtrip over the weekend with a friend and we stopped and ate at various places and not once did it ever crossed my mind to drink alcohol.

I am a heavy drinker and have consumed ridiculous amount in a week but if I got two weeks without alcohol, I don't feel anything at all nor do I get the urges.

Lately, it has taken me several days now to go through a bottle. It seems to me that my urge for alcohol is wearing off. I wonder about people who can't seem to sit still if they don't drink anything and how bad their addiction is. Even though I'm a heavy drinker, I'm glad I'm just not addicted to a point where I must DRINK something even if I go two days without it.

I actually just buy alcohol out of habit now and not because I have the urge to drink. I always need to have a bottle present so that I can have a piece of mind and also knowing that if I do want to drink, I can just pour a shot.

Right now, there is an unopened bottle of Jack Daniel and I have no urge to open it and it's been sitting there for 3 days.

Sorry, I'm not sure whether you're happy with whats happening or not.

I guess it's better that you're drinking less, but don't be fooled like I was many times.
I'd go through periods of not really drinking much (by my standards) and I took that as proof I was cured. It never lasted.

why not take advantage of this period and go for broke?

One really good way to test how much of a habit it is would be to dump the liquor you have and not buy anymore.

D

Interesting post Joybot, I always had a fully stocked bar in the house. In an odd kind of way I felt like I was accomplishing something because I could go for periods of time without touching it while at the same time feeling a sense of comfort in knowing that it was there if I needed it. It was always only a matter of time though before I went off the deep end again. Bender type drinkers like I was can quit for periods of time but they can also pick up where they left off in epic fashion.

It seems to me that if you need a bottle in your house so you can have peace of mind that you have something to drink if you do get the urge means that you think you'll still get those urges. Obviously that's just my opinion. A lot of counselors, doctors, etc always asked me, "What are your triggers?" Of course I have a lot of triggers but I always told them I didn't need one. Sometime the urge to drink would just pop up out of nowhere. Didn't matter if I was happy, sad, mad, sleepy, tired, hungry, whatever. Something in my brain just said, "I wanna drink". Learning not to react to that is what I'm working on.

A heavy drinker does not an alcoholic make?!!

And yet, who knows in our drinking histories when that invisible line is crossed and we moved into the great abyss of alcoholism? I don't know when I became alcoholic in my drinking, but it happened as a completely ordinary thing to me. All I knew, was I drank as I pleased and alcoholism meant nothing to me. Everything was wonderful, lol, until it wasn't.

After that day, I just knew I was gonna drink myself to death, because now I always wanted to get a drunk on even when I was honestly trying to not drink anymore. Didn't matter, you know? I drank anyways. I really had no say in it anymore, even though I lied to myself that my fighting against the drinking was proof I was my own man.

I wouldn't be so glad you're a heavy drinker, either. Even without chronic fatal alcoholism in your future, there are serious life and day to day problems with heavy drinking as well, as you must know already yes? Being honest with ourselves is a difficult challenge, and I hope that one day you can come to a better understanding of what you're doing with your drinking.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with someone who just cracks open one bottle to go with his dinner and he's done for the night.

The problem we have is self control, impulse, and the inability to know when enough is enough.

I can see myself as a collector. The more expensive the bottle is, the least likely I'll bother drinking out of it. I don't know why that is. My friend gave me Remy Cognac XO as a gift a few years ago and it sat on top of my shelf untouched for a year. I left it there as decoration. We had a big celebration later on the following year and I brought it out for everyone. It was shared experience.

However, here I am running down to pick up the cheapest liquor and drinking it like I don't care.

I can see myself having a wet bar stock full of exotic drinks I pick up during my travels. This very idea stems from when I was 18 and I saw my friend's dad collecting all these gorgeous looking bottles. Some of it were 30 years old. They don't drink out of it. The whole thing was the purpose of decoration. His dad only drinks out a Whiskey he puts to the side.

I have no clue how you can sit there sober with a full bottle of jack in the cupboard. If you have the mental fortitude then all the power to you. Myself, no way could that bottle stay there unopened.

You mentioned your lucky to not be addicted to the point of "needing" a drink, and you know what, your right, you are lucky, unless there's something your not telling us. Being at the point im at, where you NEED a drink all the time everytime is a hell I wouldnt wish on anyone.


Whatever your deal is, best of luck to you, stay active on SR, be strong, and be positive,

There's a logical disconnection there.

I used to collect exotic beers - back in the days when one would rarely see an exotic beer. I think it was my way of justifying to myself that I was not really an alcoholic - just someone with a an interest in alcohol, a true connoisseur who, rather eccentrically, chose to drink the cheap stuff.

By the end of my drinking career, I'd drunk them all - and didn't much care.

If you're a drinker like me, addiction never stands still, Joybot.

D