hypochondriac

Thanks for this post Groundhogday, I think it is something which some of us might seem to think negates the alcoholic theory but I don't think it does, it just depends how much money we have and what our perceptions are.

There were some drinks I just couldn't drink a lot off or they'd make me feel ill, red wine was one of them (it's what I used to taper off with), as was things like Baileys or other sweet liqueurs.

Some stuff I just couldn't stop drinking... white wine, vodka, gin, beer. So much so I had to give up the vodka and the white wine. I always drank gin with tonic so it was weaker than beer really so beer and gin were often all I could drink in the end safely.

Some drinks like tequila I would only need to drink a small amount before going into blackout.

I was often criticised for the size of my gin and tonics though so I started drinking campari, white wine and a splash of soda. It was a cheap version of a bicicletta which I used to drink in Italy, and therefore classy and not alcoholic like at all.

By necessity though I drank cheap beer in cans. This helped because it was cheap but also because recycling so many glass bottles was impractical and embarrassing.

There was one point though that I always thought of to dismiss the alcoholism theory though... many years ago I gave up smoking for 6 months and I felt like I needed to give up beer at the same time, so I did. I drank Jack Daniels and Gin and tonics and that was basically it. I didn't get drunk in the evenings and I would only have maybe 4 drinks. This lasted about six months til I went to the pub after work and drank a few pints which turned into 10 and then nicked a fag of someone at the end of the night. The next day I bought a six pack and a bottle of white wine and some tobacco and things were back to normal.

So yeah, I think I probably was picky. Beer was my poison. Maybe if beer never existed maybe I wouldn't have become an alcoholic (If I am one? Does it matter?)...

MattM316

I'd pretty much drink anything, it really depended on how much money I had at the time.
If I had recently been paid then it could be Smirnoff vodka or Jagermeister, if not it'd be any old cheap rubbish.

I never quite understood wine tho, to this day I don't know why people would pay over £10 for wine as it all tastes exactly the same to me.

Db1105

If it was liquid and had alcohol in it, it was good enough for me.

IWLSAST

yep, started the evening with snobby drinks of choice...by the 10th or so I would drink any and everything I could get my drunkin, swollen hands and lips on. Just writing this this congers such an ugly vision of the past!
Thanks for the reminder!

Coolmel

I have a six pack of heiniken that's been in my fridge for six months...can't stand heinikin.

Coolmel

Reminds me of when I used to smoke...i couldn't stand menthols.

Pete55

Early years.
It did not matter, but I do remember the lady's drinks at partys and functions were mine if I could get away with it.
That was early days in my teens and early 20's. I seldom got invited anywhere ever again and if there was a invitation it was because of my ex.
But that also ended eventually.

somewhere in between.
I would buy kahlua instead of fresh cream to mix with vanilla ice-cream and strawberrys for desert, and still add icing sugar to the kahlua, mix it all up, thought it would thicken it a bit.

desperation.
Wines in those square boxes ( wino's breifcase ) were last resort as long as I did not have to pay for it.

later years-mature drinking
Choosing a bottle of wine was a combination of price and if the bottle label had a "class of it's own" look about it.
I would definitely choose it if it seemed "hidden away" from the more expensive wines cos I thought they were hiding something.

The end days
spirits and home made grappa

last black out session before recovery
wino's breif case ( red), and beer.

slips ( twice )
1. someone else's "prized" wine, all 3 bottles.

6 months later
2. someone else's bottle of Jim Beam Black, straight no ice.
------------------,

sober since 2008.

GroundhogDay

I used to buy a case of wine at a time at a fancy wine shop. The wine expert at the store was of the opinion that wine was for drinking at dinner. He couldn't understand why anyone would choose it to get drunk. Looking back, I can't understand how I got to the point that I was willing to get drunk off of it either. I mean, yuck! The whole thought of getting drunk at this point disgusts me.

Ampsmarie

I drank to get drunk... hated red wine, miller, rum, etc... But put it in front of me or tell me that is all you have, I am drinking it. I bought the $1.99 wine from Walmart to get drunk...

GroundhogDay

Oh gee, you just reminded me of the time my friend served that one night. Her husband was unemployed, so she had to cut back on expenses. Yuck!

I gave her grief about it when she kept buying it after he found a new job.

pinkgurl87

wow... I would drink anything to get drunk, whatever was available, didn't matter what it was. Though I like the hard stuff like mixed drinks, rum and coke and stuff like that.

alphaomega

Wine. Wine so much wine. Bottle of red, bottle of white. Took a few wine classes at Northwestern University with the intention that my knowledge of fine wine would somehow minimize the fact that I was slowly requiring it to function.

Whiskey in college. Northern Discomfort and Jack Daniels manhattans. Cuz we were too cool for school. And beer.

Never cottoned to vodka.
Always preferred gin.
Rum was an instant stomach ache.
Tequila required boxing gloves and it became too damn hard to hold the shot glass so I'd just chug it out of the bottle.

MD 20/20 and rock and rye.

Never mescal or absinthe.

And lemme tell you, there wasn't a single one that didn't get me violently ill.

When the smell of hand sanitizer started to make me crave, that when I knew it was time.

Danae

Started out very picky. Liked my white wine. And only chardonnay.

As some others have noted, once you have a buzz and want to keep it, you'll expand your range.

I don't drink anymore, but the fact that there were certain things I wouldn't ever drink (gin, whiskey, beer most of the time) let me tell myself for a long time I wasn't an alcoholic. My friends would have argued this as well.

Maybe this thread will help some people see the fallacy of that sort of thinking.

Serenity1972

I did start out pretty picky on what I would throw down my throat. It was nothing but good Patron and Grey Goose in the early days. If it was beer it had to be a specialty brew.

After drinking for so many years and becoming desperate and broke, I choose to experiment with cheaper versions of the above. I ended up drinking Svedka instead of Grey Goose and Bud Light instead of the imports.

But to be brutally honest as the drinking escalated it had gotten to the point that any cheap vodka would do. Go figure.

So yes in the beginning of my drinking career, I was picky. Towards the end...not so much!

Overmarz87

I would prefer a nice beer or liquor, but like everybody else, anything would do depending on my financial situation. For a while I was a complete wine-o drinking 5 dollar bottles of wine from the grocery store. Never that sweet thunderbolt **** or malt liquor though. I can't stand malt liquor.

GroundhogDay

LOL.

On a different subject, the only liquor I absolutely could not stand was rum. First thing I got sick from as a teenager. Never again!

NorCaliGal

Oh yes only mid-priced or better red wine or beer (preferably Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) for me. Never shots or straight hard alcohol. Rarely a mixed drink and then only if I couldn't taste the alcohol, and never a sweet drink.

It's sad how so many people think that in order to be an alcoholic you have to drink rot-gut from a brown paper bag. So not true! Picky me drank my poison from a fancy wine glass most of the time. Or a red solo cup if the brand of beer in the keg was good enough.

Boleo

I started off drinking only "the the best of the best" of every kind of alcohol. Then I went through a phase where I conducted thousands of experiments with different brands and different qualities of alcohol.

I even tried mixing quality beer with NA beer 50/50. Sometimes it slowed me down, but once I got drunk, all rules went out the window.

GroundhogDay

I thought about the beer approach. I am a small woman who has never managed to get too drunk off of beer. I just can't get enough in me fast enough. But I think my vanity saved me. I didn't want to try it because I thought it would make me fat!

And you are right. After a few beers, I would probably be willing to gulp vodka to get the high I was looking for.

Boleo

After a few gulps of vodka, I was willing to soak up the vodka I had spilled on the floor with a dirty rag and ring it out back into my glass. By that point, I thought disposing of it was "alcohol abuse".