ChloeB

alcoholism is a progressive disease....normal for me? no not ever..I am an alcoholic and although it may have been closer to normal in my 20's and 30's my life became completely unmanageable in my 40's...

gaffo

I grew up around and lived with alcoholics all my life so my kind of drinking was totally "normal". Kind of on the light side, actually. I thought "normal" was to enable and participate in crazy drinking. I guess I still do but I take pride in being abnormal now!

InsaneHeart

The first time I got drunk (when I was 16), it was on vodka mixed with rootbeer. I remember nothing from that night. I woke up the next morning wearing different clothes than I remember and my grandmother telling me that out of 18 kids that she raised, I was the only one who got brought home by the cops. If I would have been smart then, I would never have touched the stuff again.

No, I can't say I've ever drank normally.

jvice09

never, its all or nothing for me. put on a great front though, if i went out and knew i had to drive, then yea its one or two then head home. the problem with me is i ALWAYS had a secret stash at my house, so when i got home i could get as intoxicated as i wanted without people knowing. or, i would pregame solo before the pregame and bar night with friends and only have 2 or 3 drinks in front of people and be GONE. people just assumed i was a lightweight. nasty sneaky lifestyle.

BarbieKen

Good topic, till right now I thought I started as a normal drinker. However, I just had a few memories of sooo long ago come to my mind. At about 18 I had Don the Beachcomber Mai Tai's at a house party with my boyfriend. After him helping me throw up in the toilet I don't recall drinking for a very long time. But, I do remember the next time. Same result. So, yes, I'm recalling right now a few times that I would have alcohol. Drank way too fast, too much, got sick really bad, waited a long time and then did it again. WOW!! I started off from the get go a binge drinker! Damn, my mind is going back in time.. THANK YOU OP!
Bobbi

john44

The honest answer is: I don't know.

I know I tell myself that my problems started in my mid 40s (I'm 51) and got absolutely horrendous the last 2 years of drinking but I really think there were signs of my future alcoholism even as far back as my teens. I went through a period of drug abuse then but pretty much straightened out by 19. I was never addicted to anything but dabbled in most things. It's what we did. I drank a bit but can't honestly say I liked it very much...I do remember getting sick a couple times at parties but more often I wouldn't drink much.

I went through a period of heavy drinking from 23-26. That was my bar-scene days. I drank 3-5 days a week but only occasionally got drunk. The object was more to meet girls. I certainly didn't obsess over drinking. My later 20s, 30s and early 40s were dominated by work and family, drank some on weekends but was generally a very responsible person. We had a boat from age 37 until I was 47 and I wonder if that was really the start of it. When at the boat, I would drink quite a bit in the early years. Strangely, when I was definitely starting to have problems I didn't go to the boat very often. It was pretty much neglected the last few years.

After a health scare in 2007 at age 45, I was prescribed Xanax. I loved it. It also seemed to go well with booze. By 47, I knew I had a problem and at 49 I entered rehab. I've had many detoxes and hospitalizations.

I thoroughly identify as alcoholic. There is not a shred of a doubt in my mind anymore yet I'm almost jealous of those I hear in AA and here knowing they were alcoholic from the first drink. I've never felt that way. Am I deceiving myself? Minimizing how it really was? I don't think so but I'm honestly not sure.

I wonder if now, it's even important. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it and have pretty much come to the conclusion that the important thing is that I realize that I am indeed alcoholic, can NEVER, under ANY circumstances drink safely again and have been immeasurably blessed by being given the will to stop. I am currently sober 122 days and intend to continue this way.

GracieLou

No. I never drank normally but I did not know that until I quit. For 26 years I was in denial because I surrounded myself with others that drank like me so although I did not drink normally, I thought I was. There were people that drank and there were people that didn't. Just like there are people that smoke and there are others that don't. The smoker is found around the corner with several others having a cigarette, I was in the bar or at the liquor store with people that drank. I saw no difference.

My husbands drank like I did and my friends drank like I did or so I thought. Looking back now I can see that many of my friends, while hard drinkers at the bar or at a get together, were not craving the next drink at 10 am like I was. They were taking the Sunday to recover while I was pouring a drink. That was how I recovered.

At the end there was no more bars or friends. I was sitting alone in my living room on a Saturday morning having my first drink at 6 am and drinking all day long. I was chasing a drunk I could no longer achieve.

Someone posted this several weeks ago.....

"Most of the time, normal people don't drink. So, for me to become 'normal' in terms of alcohol consumption, I don't drink at all. That's as close as I can get."

Now I agree for the person that wants to be "normal" this works. It makes sense.

For myself, I no longer try to be normal. I am different and today I am okay with that. It stretches more than just alcohol. I think different which is why I can relate to the next alcoholic. I think it is a matter of acceptance. Once I accepted that I was an alcoholic and accepted I needed help to get and remain sober, the puzzle was no longer puzzling. Al the pieces fell into place.

seahorse661

no, and I never intended to either. The purpose of drinking was to get drunk as I could as fast as I could.

I have never tried to moderate either; if I was at a function where I couldn't drink the way I liked to I would rather have no alcohol at all. (Of course I made up for it when I got home, because I 'deserved' it for behaving so well!)

DarkDays

Normal drinkers ? Really do not think much of these words. All drinkers are druggies trapped and deluded. All at different levels .

lorelei

Had my first drink when I was 19/20 drank just now and again, glass of wine with dinner etc for about a year, then didn't stop

silentrun

I didn't start drinking until my 20's. I could not physically handle much alcohol. 3 drinks was my limit or I would get sick and the room would start spinning. That's not fun so I didn't go over the 3. Back then I would drink when out with friends only and usually was the babysitter. I would get irritated when my friends always wanted to stop for drinks after work. It interfered with my plans.
In my early 30's I started the abuse that lead adaptation that lead me to my 1st blackout at age 35. At that point I knew something had just changed but I still didn't stop. It has been on ever since. It may have started later than most but it's like when you get to the bar late and your friends are already half drunk. You "catch up to them."
About a year before I quit my BFF and I had a drunken discussion about how we broke our off switches. So I had one at one point but in the end it didn't do me any good.

SoberDan

You just explained exactly how it was for me joshlyman definitely not normal.

wilsonM

Drinking is a type of addiction and once started it needs long time to get rid off. At times, you may have feeling that it’s impossible but I believe that if you are self-determined on controlling your drinking capacity then you can recover from alcoholism and alcohol abuse. Don’t give up and have confidence that you will be able to reach your goal.

Amajorityofone

Normal drinking never appealed to me. I drank to get drunk. After embracing, my friends or I would always say..."wanna shot?" That's why I stopped. Moderation was never an option, or a choice I would enjoy.

john44

Absolutely, positively not true for me.

Ruturn

No, I never, ever drank "normally". I know some heavy drinkers who definately abused alcohol on occasion but that weren't alcoholics. I heard a story once about a guy who had been sober for many years and was asked if he couldn't just go out and have a drink with his co-workers? They said you've been sober a long time so maybe you could just have one drink. He said he didn't want just one drink. They asked him how much he wanted. His answer - all of it. Lol, that's me exactly. I never had any control when I drank. I drank to get drunk and didn't stop until either it was all gone or I was passed out, from the very beginning.

Bostonsportsfan

I always tried to get drunk, but there was a time I'd only drink once or twice a month, so I guess I could drink normal. Soon as I started buying handles of cheap vodka at a time it got out of control.

0percentABV

I started out a crazy drinker in my teens and then around age 23 my intake dropped dramatically. Granted I had many weekend warrior moments but for the next 10 years it was nothing too crazy. Then I started to get dependent. When I was once was able to get a six pack on Tuesday and nurse them till Friday I would then feel compulsed to drink them all and though I was able at times to hold back the desire was still there and then eventually the control was gone and that's when normal drinking, at least what I thought normal was, was over. And I tried for the next 5 years to go back to "normal" then I learned about the progressiveness of alcoholism and found that all the signs were there and there was only one answer. Sobriety.

Zencat

No, like others on this thread,
drinking soon became my daily normal.

yoohoo

Yes. I did drink normally for many years. I had a normal relationship with alcohol.nit was somewhat in the background.then as life does, bad things stated to happen in my life and I took to drinking to comfort myself. Before I could say nano second, I was obsessed with booze and it became my great love.