notfixable

my fifths aren't lasting as long as they used to...and I was wondering how long it took for other people to build up a tolerance ?

sugarbear1

I don't remember but I know it didn't take long

Why not stop now while you are ahead? It's always progressive.

EndGameNYC

Tolerance developed quickly for me, though I didn't keep and therefore don't have precise statistics.

Among heavy drinkers (me included), many develop "reverse tolerance," a condition in which one becomes drunk after one or two drinks, following periods of heavy drinking. Reverse tolerance is typically an indicator of liver damage, wherein the liver loses its capacity to metabolize alcohol. In the early stages, the damage can be undone by abstaining from alcohol.

polaris

It doesnt take so long for some. I remember, years ago mind you, when it took very little. I remember (scary its already been around a decade ago) having a friend buy me a bottle of cheap Scotch (I was underage at the time). I only drank a SMALl fraction of it- I was puking and my world was spinning that night...I felt perfectly fine in the morning though. I also remember other instances like that.

It didnt take long for it to escalate into me being able to drink a fifth or much more in a night. Thats one of the things that can be incredibly frightening is when you see/hear other alcoholics talk about how much they drank at their peak (my dad almost died from drinking, and he said he was usually "satisfied" with a 12 pack), and you realize that many drink/drank far less than you. It is poison after all.

My drinking prowess has often been celebrated by people who dont know any better. We know its nothing to aspire towards. It still remains hard to give it all up, especially the partying and gregariousness and all that. As you all know...it all merges together though. I want to just enjoy it socially, but it almost always carries over into drinking alone...compulsively.

trent333

I binge drank for about 4 years then there was a very specific day when it all fell apart. I was at home alone because of an alcohol related injury I had. I was off work for 6 weeks. When everyone was gone and my girlfriend was at work I would drink 2 beers in the bathtub soaking my injury. Then one day doing my ritual something in my brain just clicked I literally said in my own head oh fugde! what the hell is this I think I just became completely addicted to alcohol. I knew this was true because this is when I began to drink every day. The tolerance grew quite fast and I progressed to drinking Southern Comfort straight from a mickey each day. This went on for about 2 years. In the two years a mickey went from getting me really drunk to when at the end of a mickey I had a buzz just strong enough to decide I could go to bed. Only to wake up at 4 in the morning usually like clock work feeling like hell. The thing is that you will probably be somewhat a normie for a time but one day somewhere some time you will have a drink and youll know it has you!

Justfor1

At my heaviest drinking I was guzzling a pint of Vodka and a 12 pack of beer daily. When I would try to sober up I would have seizures. Now the last few times I have relapsed I get really intoxicated after 5 or 6 drinks. I think I have the reverse tolerance now.

Sobersunshine

I don't know how long it took to build up a tolerance, but build it I did, until I always had to have alcohol in my system, or else I felt like crap. I still felt like crap, but less so with booze on board.

dotboston

Probably a few handles a week, at home, then whatever I drank, out.

When I would go to work I had terrible panic attacks and the shakes at the end. It was shear hell on earth. I even went to the ER a few times because I didn't know what was wrong. Couldn't be the booze...

Tyme2Change

My tolerance depended on the days, and generally whether I had eaten anything. I would go to work and not eat all day, so after 3-4 beers, my feel-good buzz was well on its way. On other days when I ate, it took about twice as many. There were even times after I drank 6-8 beers that the buzz would start to wear off, so my solution was I had to drink more beer and faster. Crazy how alcohol affects the body in so many ways.

Sudz No More

All I can say is that at the age of 19 I counted with a friend shot for shot until we passed 20. I kept drinking after that for several more hours. I really don't know how many I ended up drinking that night but I do know that I woke up fine and did it again the next night.

20 years later I was daily drinking 15 or so beers and some of them were double malts. If you want to drink you'll be able to drink more and more until your body gives out. How much can your body take? Do you really want to find out?

Why wait until you are getting light headed after the first drink like me? Why wake up every morning with brain fog like me?

Why not stop before it gets that bad and you can't turn back as easy as you'd like?

MrTumble

I dont think that is reverse tolerance, if you have quit drinking for some time then its likely that you have no tolerance. when i have quit for a period of time I find im tipsy after 2-3 beers, head rush, talking BS, but as time goes by im quickly back to being able to sink beer after beer followed by a couple bottles of wine.

GracieLou

I think it depends how much time you have to drink. If normal life gets in the way then this can vary a great deal.

Job, kids, husband, wife, outside family obligations etc.

I say gets in the way because for me these obligations kept me from drinking the way I always wanted to.

A fifth would have lasted me a couple weeks 26 years ago but that was only at home. That did not count the amount I drank in the bars. The bottle at home was for after I got home from the bar or when I could not go to the bar.

The more I stayed home the amount went up. In the end with kids grown, marriages over and nobody to look after but me I was drinking 4 to 5 1/2 gallons a week.

GreenEggsAndHam

I had a high tolerance for many years, then got to where my tolerance was lower. I also changed what I drink many, many times (used to drink a lot of liquor, ended up with beer being my thing).

bliss12

I can drink about a bottle of wine a day (12-13% alcohol). Before I was able to drink a half pint of voda and I believe on nights when I was out out, I was able to drink a little more than a half pint. Never gone up to a full fifth or more.

My tolerance has gone down now and I get hungry after one glass of wine and usually snack in between every glass. Still get up to a bottle but I believe my liver is getting weak.

DaveT

I drank for effect and quantity depended on strength of booze etc Normally till i blacked out or the booze ran out Remember alcoholism doesn't come in Bottles or Bags , it comes in People....

LazyBonez

I normally bought a fifth of something. I would start with 4 shots and say to myself "alright I'll take a few more in about an hour".... 10 minutes would go by and I'd take about 3 more shots. And that would go on for about 2 hours when I would finish the fifth, and be pissed that I didn't have more. But I didn't buy bigger bottles because I knew I would keep drinking till it was gone... But I probably should have bought handles, because I would drive drunk to get more alcohol if I wasn't passed out.

Tolerance builds really quickly for me to any substance. I'm a small guy, maybe 140lbs and drinking a fifth would have killed me back in the day. but I would kill them in 2-3 hours tops. That was me TRYING to make it last long. I lose all willpower after those first few shots

Bostonsportsfan

If you keep building up tolerance that fifth wont get you drunk twice.

WhiteFeathers

I was a major drunk, but kind of a lightweight booze-wise. At the end of my drinking career (like 2 weeks ago!) I would drink 3-4 beers during the course of the day and a bottle of wine a night. On weekends (and especially if I went out) all bets were off. Usually I'd do a bottle champagne during the pre-game and then hit the cocktails and wine during the pm. I never did fifths or even a lot of liquor usually. I was mostly a wino through and through.

AudreyAna

I was drinking about two bottles of wine a day near the end, I don't remember how fast my tolerance went up because I was always drunk, but I know it was fast. It's generally a bad sign when you start off the afternoon with a Long Island Ice Tea.

LiveforToday22

I remember the days when I couldnt walk after a few beers...I cant say exactly how long it took me to develop a big tolerance, fairly quickly though. At the end I was drinking a fifth a day, usually starting at 7 or 8 in the morning and blacking out by 9 am...