has anyone ever needed to drink when they wake up
Matt M
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 490
Yep, I self medicated with alcohol for at least 3 years.
Drank consistently morning, noon and night. But there comes a point where it all catches up with you and your body and your mind say enough is enough.
To this day I don't know how I got away with it for so long as I was pretty much constantly under the influence of alcohol. But back then I could deal with it fine, it really didn't affect my day to day life, then all of a sudden it did.
Drank consistently morning, noon and night. But there comes a point where it all catches up with you and your body and your mind say enough is enough.
To this day I don't know how I got away with it for so long as I was pretty much constantly under the influence of alcohol. But back then I could deal with it fine, it really didn't affect my day to day life, then all of a sudden it did.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 21
This was me for the last year and a half before I got sober. It started with cravings in the morning to get rid of the hangover but it quickly progressed to waking up in the middle of the night needing alcohol just to get back to sleep to get through the night.
Doing Business Since 11/3/2012
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Colorado
Posts: 1,143
Originally Posted by vinny1657 
Thanks, at least I am not the only one. How did u stop drinking?
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: NE Wisconsin USA
Posts: 6,223
Originally Posted by vinny1657
Thanks, at least I am not the only one. How did u stop drinking?
full commitment to sobriety...never drink no matter what happens....no matter what it takes.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 135
I don't know if anyone can relate to this kind of thinking, but this is what I do, or did in the past tense as of yesterday.
If I wake up and there's no alcohol in the house, I'm pretty ok for hours. BUT if I wake up and there's wine or liquor left over, I feel...obligated...to drink it, like a squirrel hoarding nuts. Like if it's here, I just can't resist it. I'll keep thinking about it, and eventually just do it.
No more I hope.
If I wake up and there's no alcohol in the house, I'm pretty ok for hours. BUT if I wake up and there's wine or liquor left over, I feel...obligated...to drink it, like a squirrel hoarding nuts. Like if it's here, I just can't resist it. I'll keep thinking about it, and eventually just do it.
No more I hope.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,372
To stop drinking, I had to make sure I had no more alcohol in the house...
commit to not buying any more - and then find the support I needed, and make the changes to my lifestyle I needed to make to make that sobriety happen.
I used SR for support - others use AA or an other group, or counselling, some people try rehab.
theres a lot of support here Vinny - and ideas too
D
commit to not buying any more - and then find the support I needed, and make the changes to my lifestyle I needed to make to make that sobriety happen.
I used SR for support - others use AA or an other group, or counselling, some people try rehab.
theres a lot of support here Vinny - and ideas too
D
Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Boston, MA.
Posts: 1,756
Yea for years; I always made sure I bought enough beers so I would have a few in the AM to steady my hands to walk in the store and get my next "fix" .. Made sense to me at the time :p But looking at it now, was rather pathetic. As for getting sober; I got tired of it all and came here .. Relapsed; and it got ugly this time and came back .. 30+ days sober and plan to make it a life time now 
Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Out in the Sticks
Posts: 1,788
Originally Posted by legna
Yes. I could no longer sleep through the night because my physical need for alcohol would wake me up. In other words, I would wake up detoxing after three to four hours and have to have a couple of drinks to steady my nerves so that I could sleep again.
Been there ,And it sucks .
Matt M
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 490
Originally Posted by DoloresHaze
I don't know if anyone can relate to this kind of thinking, but this is what I do, or did in the past tense as of yesterday.
If I wake up and there's no alcohol in the house, I'm pretty ok for hours. BUT if I wake up and there's wine or liquor left over, I feel...obligated...to drink it, like a squirrel hoarding nuts. Like if it's here, I just can't resist it. I'll keep thinking about it, and eventually just do it.
No more I hope.
If I wake up and there's no alcohol in the house, I'm pretty ok for hours. BUT if I wake up and there's wine or liquor left over, I feel...obligated...to drink it, like a squirrel hoarding nuts. Like if it's here, I just can't resist it. I'll keep thinking about it, and eventually just do it.
No more I hope.
I was the opposite to that.
If my fridge was loaded up with all kind of booze then I probably wouldn't drink that much, but if it was empty then i'd feel panicked and spend all my time fretting over when and how i'm going to get my next drink.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 449
Originally Posted by legna
Yes. I could no longer sleep through the night because my physical need for alcohol would wake me up. In other words, I would wake up detoxing after three to four hours and have to have a couple of drinks to steady my nerves so that I could sleep again.
I'd drink all day and night. Couldn't leave the house without a few drinks to steady my body and nerves.
Thank God that is not my life now!
Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Melbourne, Victoria Australia
Posts: 1,202
I hope Vinny the OP is going OK....? And at the very least, even if not up to posting back, still reading all the replies.
My experience was at its worst (in regard to drinking first thing in the morning ) during the 2 year relapse before I went to my first month residential rehab. So, roughly early 2010-late 2012. At that time, I was aged 55-56 y.o. I don't know how old you are Vinny, but I can indeed tell you that increasing years of drinking as we get into your late 40s and 50s creates an even more potentially deadly situation, for body and mind.
I'm now 57.5 y.o., and have had just 6 months of continuous sobriety, then 6 more months of single 'slips', one bottle or so of wine almost every month - to the day. Then, around New Year this year, I dropped the ball completely on trying again for proper recovery and have since enjoyed ONLY 2 separate months sober, and last week's one week residential detox.
Because I now know the perils of drinking in the morning (whether going to buy it, or - as someone pointed out above - when there's booze waiting from the previous night in the fridge), I am doing my utmost to not do it.
I'm in a kind of not-sober / not-fully-drunk pattern these past 5 days since arriving home from detox. Most of these days, I've managed to get through my day sober - and half-enjoying it (being sober) whilst also plagued by thoughts of picking up. Which I've done, most days, at about 5 pm. Including today.
When people advise you or any of us to do our best to simply quit: that truly is the best course. I can tell you from my recent experience this year, quitting for a bit, the relapsing, quitting, relapsing, quitting, ad nauseum means that our brains never get the chance to fully recover - i.e. to literally re-constitute that part of the mid brain where the addictive neuro-pathways get laid down.
I've often heard the stories of those at SR and at AA and rehab, about getting to the point where you're picking up in the middle of the night, just as posters above have described. That's where we can end up. I feel only slightly fortunate that I only drank once or twice upon waking in the early hours, so it didn't get 'quite so bad' for me. But all day / evening drinking was bl*(u*^y well BAD ENOUGH for me to seek residential detox for the very first time in late 2009, and then again in early 2012.
It's a major, major illness. I do hope that you're making some kind of positive progress.
My experience was at its worst (in regard to drinking first thing in the morning ) during the 2 year relapse before I went to my first month residential rehab. So, roughly early 2010-late 2012. At that time, I was aged 55-56 y.o. I don't know how old you are Vinny, but I can indeed tell you that increasing years of drinking as we get into your late 40s and 50s creates an even more potentially deadly situation, for body and mind.
I'm now 57.5 y.o., and have had just 6 months of continuous sobriety, then 6 more months of single 'slips', one bottle or so of wine almost every month - to the day. Then, around New Year this year, I dropped the ball completely on trying again for proper recovery and have since enjoyed ONLY 2 separate months sober, and last week's one week residential detox.
Because I now know the perils of drinking in the morning (whether going to buy it, or - as someone pointed out above - when there's booze waiting from the previous night in the fridge), I am doing my utmost to not do it.
I'm in a kind of not-sober / not-fully-drunk pattern these past 5 days since arriving home from detox. Most of these days, I've managed to get through my day sober - and half-enjoying it (being sober) whilst also plagued by thoughts of picking up. Which I've done, most days, at about 5 pm. Including today.
When people advise you or any of us to do our best to simply quit: that truly is the best course. I can tell you from my recent experience this year, quitting for a bit, the relapsing, quitting, relapsing, quitting, ad nauseum means that our brains never get the chance to fully recover - i.e. to literally re-constitute that part of the mid brain where the addictive neuro-pathways get laid down.
I've often heard the stories of those at SR and at AA and rehab, about getting to the point where you're picking up in the middle of the night, just as posters above have described. That's where we can end up. I feel only slightly fortunate that I only drank once or twice upon waking in the early hours, so it didn't get 'quite so bad' for me. But all day / evening drinking was bl*(u*^y well BAD ENOUGH for me to seek residential detox for the very first time in late 2009, and then again in early 2012.
It's a major, major illness. I do hope that you're making some kind of positive progress.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Melbourne, Victoria Australia
Posts: 1,202
PS to my previous post: I must stress that neither I, nor SR mods and members, ENCOURAGE or advise people to try to moderate / limit intake if they're not feeling really 'ready' to quit.
The only thing I'm doing right now - again, which is far from ideal! - is trying to, at the very least, to drastically cut my intake (white wine) so that I can (again, at the very least) be sober enough the next morning to go to AA meetings, or outpatient groups at my rehab. And to re-experience, if you like, how a full day sober feels like again, walking the dog, driving sober to nice places, going shopping, doing stuff around the house that you simply can't or be bothered to do when you're drunk ALL DAY. It's an approach which some use called 'harm minimisation' - i.e. doing your best to limit your intake so you have at least some sober time (preferably days) to experience, which slightly reduces the terrible impacts on the body and general functioning, and so, be actually ABLE to get to stuff like meetings or outpatient groups, doctor's appointments, counselling, or whatever.
Not advising this, but just noting it.
The only thing I'm doing right now - again, which is far from ideal! - is trying to, at the very least, to drastically cut my intake (white wine) so that I can (again, at the very least) be sober enough the next morning to go to AA meetings, or outpatient groups at my rehab. And to re-experience, if you like, how a full day sober feels like again, walking the dog, driving sober to nice places, going shopping, doing stuff around the house that you simply can't or be bothered to do when you're drunk ALL DAY. It's an approach which some use called 'harm minimisation' - i.e. doing your best to limit your intake so you have at least some sober time (preferably days) to experience, which slightly reduces the terrible impacts on the body and general functioning, and so, be actually ABLE to get to stuff like meetings or outpatient groups, doctor's appointments, counselling, or whatever.
Not advising this, but just noting it.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Birmingham UK
Posts: 3
Yes,it would frequently come before coffee, I would manage to get my two children to school in the morning with wine hiding in a juice bottle, I could get up but would drink the leftovers from the night before. If I had drank all of the alcohol I would go buy more by 9am, maybe whisky, get drunk when doing the housework, be mildly smashed but functioning to collect the kids..wearing shades, drink hiding in juice bottle. then come home do the tea etc...crash out with the kids by 7pm. I would put whisky in a mug so the kids would'nt notice. last week my eldest (6 years) commented for the first time 'why were you so wobbly mummy?' then I knew it was time to stop
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: saginaw,mi
Posts: 7
Originally Posted by sobergirl77
Yeah this was me too. I'd wake up in the middle of the night in agony after only 3 hours sleep. I'd sit rocking and moaning in pain and slowly sipping juice and vodka, or wine so that the DT's and agony would stop. And eventually be able to go back to bed.
I'd drink all day and night. Couldn't leave the house without a few drinks to steady my body and nerves.
Thank God that is not my life now!
I'd drink all day and night. Couldn't leave the house without a few drinks to steady my body and nerves.
Thank God that is not my life now!
Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: NY
Posts: 190
Originally Posted by friday13
It's great you are going for outpatient treatment. My only advice would be to be honest. Lying, omitting things or playing things down will only hurt you in the long run but honesty will get you on the right path much quicker.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 21
Originally Posted by vinny1657
Thanks, at least I am not the only one. How did u stop drinking?
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
Originally Posted by lookingforher
But honestly I think it was the hot water with lemon. I loved the burn of straight vodka and whiskey and the hot hot water with 3 lemons squeezed seemed to bite my urge.
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