So much to be happy about yet I still drink
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Skyrim, Tamriel
Posts: 27
So much to be happy about yet I still drink
Good grades in college A's and B's a loving family and good friends. Yet I still drink for some reason. I just feel this compulsion to drink and I have no idea why. Does anyone else here feel the same? Ive begun to start drinking just to get rid of my hand tremors and use that as an excuse to justify my problem to myself.
dude in recovery
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Gulf Coast, TX
Posts: 1,504
Hello
For many of us the good times are just another excuse\reason to drink. If you've started to get shakes then you're gonna have to work hard to break out of the cycle, it won't be easy, but worth it in the long run. If you continue to drink (daily?) The shakes and intensities of withdraw will ebb and flow for years until they are ten times what they are now.
See a doctor if you can, write down how you feel, then try to get some real sober time and see how you feel then.
For many of us the good times are just another excuse\reason to drink. If you've started to get shakes then you're gonna have to work hard to break out of the cycle, it won't be easy, but worth it in the long run. If you continue to drink (daily?) The shakes and intensities of withdraw will ebb and flow for years until they are ten times what they are now.
See a doctor if you can, write down how you feel, then try to get some real sober time and see how you feel then.
L'il fighter
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Posts: 297
If you feel like you have a compulsion to drink and experience very real withdrawal symptoms when you don't, I feel pretty safe in suggesting that you're addicted to alcohol. You may have all the reasons in the world to be a happy person, but the addiction doesn't care about that.
This past year of drinking I said more than once to myself: why do I keep doing this? I just landed my dream job, I have a loving fiancee, a supportive family, and some spare $$ to have some nice toys. I should be the happiest person in the world. So why am I still boozing so much?? I had to see my addiction as independent of my life and surroundings, and see it as a *barrier* to the life I want to live rather than a result of my life thus far.
Have you thought about seeing a doctor? If you do plan on stopping drinking, please do so that you can be medically safe while detoxing.
This past year of drinking I said more than once to myself: why do I keep doing this? I just landed my dream job, I have a loving fiancee, a supportive family, and some spare $$ to have some nice toys. I should be the happiest person in the world. So why am I still boozing so much?? I had to see my addiction as independent of my life and surroundings, and see it as a *barrier* to the life I want to live rather than a result of my life thus far.
Have you thought about seeing a doctor? If you do plan on stopping drinking, please do so that you can be medically safe while detoxing.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 1,130
I really like what Midget Cop said. For me too, the circumstances of my life didn't really have all that much impact on my booze intake until I chose to address the drinking problem as alcoholism. When I maintained the drinking was a result of something else, I failed to deal with it.
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 482
Alcohol doesn't discriminate - it'll take you no-matter what you do and how your life is. I managed to get on the Dean's merit list (x4), the chancellor's letter of commendation (x3), an invitation to join an honour society (extended to the top 10% of students in the entire university, not just the campus or major), during my uni career and still managed to drink to black out, occasionally wet myself, hurl abuse at loved ones, and much more.
I too struggled with the notion that I had a problem despite my "good life". It used to make me feel guilty for being an alcoholic because I didn't 'need' to be, I was happy. I came from a good family, with no childhood trauma. No family history of mental illness, middle income family and we all speak to each other and love each other. Nothing at all that would "drive me to drink". Eventually I looked for things to justify my drinking, which I believe is why I found myself in an abusive relationship... then I got clear of that and was still drinking! It took time, but I realised that my brain is always going to react the same way to alcohol... it doesn't matter what's happening to me externally - drinking because I'm happy, sad, bored, lonely, feeling friendly, being social, avoiding uniwork, doing the housework, etc, etc - internally my body/brain just reacts a certain way to alcohol.
Alcohol is the great equaliser...
I too struggled with the notion that I had a problem despite my "good life". It used to make me feel guilty for being an alcoholic because I didn't 'need' to be, I was happy. I came from a good family, with no childhood trauma. No family history of mental illness, middle income family and we all speak to each other and love each other. Nothing at all that would "drive me to drink". Eventually I looked for things to justify my drinking, which I believe is why I found myself in an abusive relationship... then I got clear of that and was still drinking! It took time, but I realised that my brain is always going to react the same way to alcohol... it doesn't matter what's happening to me externally - drinking because I'm happy, sad, bored, lonely, feeling friendly, being social, avoiding uniwork, doing the housework, etc, etc - internally my body/brain just reacts a certain way to alcohol.
Alcohol is the great equaliser...
Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 64
Good times can be a good reason to drink for an alcoholic. Being happy, depressed, frustrated, bored, there's always a good reason to get drunk. Hand tremors are a sign of withdrawal. I had them for quite awhile before I started questioning if I was an alcoholic or just a young, heavy drinker. Physical withdrawal symptoms are a sign that you need to cut back. And if you can't cut back, well, that should tell you something.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Texas, a state of mind
Posts: 380
I just finished jack London's alcohol autobiography John Barleycorn, which was recommended by someone on this board (thank you!).
He has a wonderful description of riding out in afternoon sunlight on his beautiful ranch in California, beautiful horse, surveying the eucalyptus trees he has planted, thinking about his wonderful wife and children and his material and artistic success. And the "White Logic" of John Barleycorn (= alcohol) turns it all into emptiness and devastation and says, "Go on back to your study and have a drink".
Just like that. And so he does, and another and another.
He has a wonderful description of riding out in afternoon sunlight on his beautiful ranch in California, beautiful horse, surveying the eucalyptus trees he has planted, thinking about his wonderful wife and children and his material and artistic success. And the "White Logic" of John Barleycorn (= alcohol) turns it all into emptiness and devastation and says, "Go on back to your study and have a drink".
Just like that. And so he does, and another and another.
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