Hiding cans or bottles
Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 341
My hiding spots were pill bottles. I had a controlling ex who wouldn't let me drink at a bar YET he invited me there only to watch him play darts (and he'd get drunk) so I would empty a pill bottle with a child-proof lid that seals tight and pour the strongest vodka inside. Order a regular coke, go to the bathroom and Id have a double vodka and coke. Awful.
Id buy a case of beer and never ever bring it in for the neighbors to see me during daytime. Even when I just moved here. I never bought it with cards always cash so there was no paper trail (why??)
The midnight runs to the dumpster were all me. I quit using garbage bags and just started using grocery bags because I was throwing away too many expensive trash bags. I hid beer cans in old TV dinner boxes and could crush them to the size of a pancake to make a six pack fit in one box. Never wanted the neighbors to know. Sometimes Id lie awake filled with anxiety or wake up in the middle of the night knowing the cans were still in my apartment and couldn't sleep until they were in that dumpster. Before daylight.
Id buy a case of beer and never ever bring it in for the neighbors to see me during daytime. Even when I just moved here. I never bought it with cards always cash so there was no paper trail (why??)
The midnight runs to the dumpster were all me. I quit using garbage bags and just started using grocery bags because I was throwing away too many expensive trash bags. I hid beer cans in old TV dinner boxes and could crush them to the size of a pancake to make a six pack fit in one box. Never wanted the neighbors to know. Sometimes Id lie awake filled with anxiety or wake up in the middle of the night knowing the cans were still in my apartment and couldn't sleep until they were in that dumpster. Before daylight.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: MPLS, MN
Posts: 164
Stopped at the gas station this morning to top off. Looked down at my feet and there was a empty pint of cheap vodka. Got me thinking about this thread. Then it got me thinking about how when I worked at a gas station in my teen years, a few of them actually, and a lot of the time when I would empty the trash by the pumps there would be empty booze cans or bottles. Even the garbage in the bathroom and outside the car wash.
Then I remember when I had to do some community service for some random drunk punk kid thing I did and we were loaded into a van and shipped up the interstate stopping at rest stops and picking up the recycling and bringing it back to sort and it was amazing how many booze bottles were there. All kinds and I was kinda shocked to see how many people drove drunk.
But then I became an alcoholic and looking back I was wrong to think all these people were drinking and driving, I mean most probably were in some form but I think there was quite a bit that were just dumps. People waking up, going to work and ditching the evidence along the way. Drinking while driving, yeah, reckless drunk behavior. But hiding it, like really going out of your way to hide it then dispose of it? That to me is the real deal when it comes to alcoholism. And I always knew that was a sign but it never really occurred to me just how low it really feels to actually do it.
For me it started out as not hiding it, per se, but just not divulging just how much I bought. I had a beer fridge in the garage with the big recycling bin just outside the door so it was in and out with no one any wiser (though the recycling bin was always full of brown bottles, just throw some cardboard on top, hide it.... oops does that mean I'm hiding it now?). Then winter came and the beer fridge moved into the basement. Keep in mind this was at the start of my downfall so I really did factor in just how much beer I have been consuming lately until I started moving bottle after bottle outside (though some didn't always make it outside, some made it into the bathroom cupboard I guess this is hiding it, eh?). Next winter the fridge stayed outside, unplugged, this would help me cut down I thought, I wouldn't bring shame onto myself by filling the family fridge with beer. But I just kept it outside anyways and hope it didn't freeze (then I would either go out to get one and slam one while I was out and bring one in or stick one or two in my back pocket bring them to the basement, stash those in the cabinet and toss the evidence in the morning or not, maybe next week) This went on for a couple years while I tried repeatedly to slow down. Then when I saw the light, hung out in it for four months, I jumped back into the dark and that's when "hiding it" took on a new life.
When my drinking was under wraps (this started last October) my hiding it was very depressing. It was like my parents forbade me to see a girl and I could not bring her into the house. So I would do things like go out to simply take the kayak down the river but along the way I would pick up my girlfriend and I would take her down the river to a nice secluded spot and drink her. But this was it I said. Just a little visit and only at certain times. But when I was done drinking her I still wanted more so I would drunkingly paddle back to my truck, load stuff up, stop at the liq pick up one more big bottle of Hop Stoopid and drink it, somewhere, anywhere then gather up the empties in a bag and ditch it, at the gas station garbage. Full circle in some ways. Boy, thinking back from October to when I stopped in early February a big portion of my free time was filling it with booze or at least thinking of when I was going to get my next drink and how I was going to conceal it. Going to my inlaws, telling people I'm going to go for a walk then sprinting to the grocery store, getting a half pint of Yag, walk to gas station bathroom, drinking it in the stall, dumping it in the trash (full circle) then going straight to the cooler to get a Four Loko and walking to the woods and drinking it there. Alone, in the woods. No garbage can so I just left it by a tree.
Then I remember when I had to do some community service for some random drunk punk kid thing I did and we were loaded into a van and shipped up the interstate stopping at rest stops and picking up the recycling and bringing it back to sort and it was amazing how many booze bottles were there. All kinds and I was kinda shocked to see how many people drove drunk.
But then I became an alcoholic and looking back I was wrong to think all these people were drinking and driving, I mean most probably were in some form but I think there was quite a bit that were just dumps. People waking up, going to work and ditching the evidence along the way. Drinking while driving, yeah, reckless drunk behavior. But hiding it, like really going out of your way to hide it then dispose of it? That to me is the real deal when it comes to alcoholism. And I always knew that was a sign but it never really occurred to me just how low it really feels to actually do it.
For me it started out as not hiding it, per se, but just not divulging just how much I bought. I had a beer fridge in the garage with the big recycling bin just outside the door so it was in and out with no one any wiser (though the recycling bin was always full of brown bottles, just throw some cardboard on top, hide it.... oops does that mean I'm hiding it now?). Then winter came and the beer fridge moved into the basement. Keep in mind this was at the start of my downfall so I really did factor in just how much beer I have been consuming lately until I started moving bottle after bottle outside (though some didn't always make it outside, some made it into the bathroom cupboard I guess this is hiding it, eh?). Next winter the fridge stayed outside, unplugged, this would help me cut down I thought, I wouldn't bring shame onto myself by filling the family fridge with beer. But I just kept it outside anyways and hope it didn't freeze (then I would either go out to get one and slam one while I was out and bring one in or stick one or two in my back pocket bring them to the basement, stash those in the cabinet and toss the evidence in the morning or not, maybe next week) This went on for a couple years while I tried repeatedly to slow down. Then when I saw the light, hung out in it for four months, I jumped back into the dark and that's when "hiding it" took on a new life.
When my drinking was under wraps (this started last October) my hiding it was very depressing. It was like my parents forbade me to see a girl and I could not bring her into the house. So I would do things like go out to simply take the kayak down the river but along the way I would pick up my girlfriend and I would take her down the river to a nice secluded spot and drink her. But this was it I said. Just a little visit and only at certain times. But when I was done drinking her I still wanted more so I would drunkingly paddle back to my truck, load stuff up, stop at the liq pick up one more big bottle of Hop Stoopid and drink it, somewhere, anywhere then gather up the empties in a bag and ditch it, at the gas station garbage. Full circle in some ways. Boy, thinking back from October to when I stopped in early February a big portion of my free time was filling it with booze or at least thinking of when I was going to get my next drink and how I was going to conceal it. Going to my inlaws, telling people I'm going to go for a walk then sprinting to the grocery store, getting a half pint of Yag, walk to gas station bathroom, drinking it in the stall, dumping it in the trash (full circle) then going straight to the cooler to get a Four Loko and walking to the woods and drinking it there. Alone, in the woods. No garbage can so I just left it by a tree.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Southern Spain
Posts: 355
For a while I lived in a caravan. In those 2 or so years a grand total of 2 people knocked on that caravans door. The nearest shop was 1 mile away. It was surrounded by muddy fields... the caravan, not the shop! There was 0.00001% chance of anyone finding anything. And yet I still hid the evidence.
On reflection I think I was so disgusted with what I had become, I was hiding the evidence of my alcoholism from myself.
I also used to do a lot of drinking in public toilets. I had long since stopped going to the pub a) too expensive b) too dangerous. When I first quit I had a problem walking past public toilets, not pubs!
On reflection I think I was so disgusted with what I had become, I was hiding the evidence of my alcoholism from myself.
I also used to do a lot of drinking in public toilets. I had long since stopped going to the pub a) too expensive b) too dangerous. When I first quit I had a problem walking past public toilets, not pubs!
Member
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 14,921
If you hid alcohol, like most of us did, you will find bottles and cans every once in awhile for months.
Be prepared to find a bottle that's half full, or some beers that aren't open. What are you going to do when that happens?
Be prepared to find a bottle that's half full, or some beers that aren't open. What are you going to do when that happens?
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: west bend wis
Posts: 57
Funny you should ask Zebra1275...This morning I found a EJ bottle and blueberry vodka in my basement.Wasnt mine...was my stepsons.But 3 weeks ago I would of tried to get the very last drop out of the bottle!Today I threw them in the garbage bag that was going to the trash and just shook my head.
Proud of myself for having the strength and desire to just get rid of them,quickly.
Proud of myself for having the strength and desire to just get rid of them,quickly.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Scotland
Posts: 379
There are currently four empty wine bottles in my house: one hidden in my pyjama drawer, the other three in an old travel bag under a coffee table.
I'm five days sober. But I still want to throw them out by stealth, because I don't want to own up to having stashed, it's too shameful. Where I used to live, I'd dump them in a public bin near my house at night, like other people on here have said. Now I live in the country surrounded by fields, there is nowhere obvious to put them (I don't drive). I've even considered burying them!! It's just amazing, I don't recognise myself in this behaviour.
It's been so weird reading this thread and feeling like each post might as well be me talking. When I hid bottles I thought it was a practical and original solution to a growing problem. Now I realise it is predictable, unoriginal, and damaged behaviour.
I'm five days sober. But I still want to throw them out by stealth, because I don't want to own up to having stashed, it's too shameful. Where I used to live, I'd dump them in a public bin near my house at night, like other people on here have said. Now I live in the country surrounded by fields, there is nowhere obvious to put them (I don't drive). I've even considered burying them!! It's just amazing, I don't recognise myself in this behaviour.
It's been so weird reading this thread and feeling like each post might as well be me talking. When I hid bottles I thought it was a practical and original solution to a growing problem. Now I realise it is predictable, unoriginal, and damaged behaviour.
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