Mainza

I've been around for awhile but not deeply engaged on this site. The courageous community here helped me go about 6 months sober and a few shorter stints of weeks and months. But nothing ever lasted. Sometimes I would go a few days drinking 6 beers a night. Other times I would go two weeks without and then drink 12-15 beers in a sitting (alone). I would drink these beers so fast that I would black out. Last weekend I had a very frightening experience where I blacked out. I woke up in the morning terrified and spent the next few days in deep depression and anxiety. I am lucky to be alive and not in jail.

I have always been a binge drinking but I am so terrified of alcohol now. It has taken me so long to fight this idea that "I can moderate." I think I have reached a point where it is simply not an option. Do you think it is healthy to be afraid of alcohol?

My thoughts are scattered and I just want to end by saying that I am thankful for this community.

longbeachone

Heck yeah I think it's good to be scared of alcohol! To those of us who are unable to control our intake, this innocent liquid, the one that people around us seem to be able to sip and taste and walk away from, turns OUR lives into living horror stories! We lose our friends, our jobs, our children, our spouses, our freedom and our lives, and all because we are not nearly as afraid of this stuff as we should be.

I've heard the analogy that, for an alcoholic, taking a drink is like getting in the ring with Muhammad Ali. It will beat the living sh*t out of us every single time.

Give it the respect it deserves. Be absolutely terrified of it. I know I am.

el9292

Definitely a good thing to be scared of it - it will keep you on the straight and narrow

Ghostlight1

With me, it's a fear of alcohol. I learned the hard way what it can do. Lost relationships, all my possesions and nearly my life more than once. It's not even a healthy respect, it's terror because I know what will happen should I take that first drink.
I lived in fear from drinking, the days after cowering alone and in anxiety and fear.
And it scares me to death now if should I ever drink again.

So, yes, I think it's healthy to be afraid of alcohol. After all, it wants to kill you. And the horrors you go through before it does would strike a healthy fear into any sane person. Ecspicialy the alocholic.
Moderation never worked for me, either. I was a drunk hopeless and helpless. But now I've been given a daily repreive from alcohol. Just the memories of what active drinking was like scare me into sobriety.

Great post and best to you.

hopeful4

Definitely! I WANT my husband (who is a binge drinker) to see that alcohol is like a witch that is coming in to suck the life out of our family. He is going to lose EVERYTHING because of it. I want him to fear it like I fear what it will do to us.

No binge drinker can drink in moderation, it never works.

Use that (healthy) fear to stay clean and keep your life on tract.

You can do this...it is just making the choice to do so.

Good Luck!

freshstart57

I went from disgust to a 'so what' attitude. I was disgusted with my behaviour until I quit drinking. And now I can't be terrified of returning to alcohol because that has a lower chance of happening than being struck by a giant asteroid, even though the result of drinking would be more horrific.

Other people drink, I don't.

Acheleus

Ditto on the terror here. I started drinking at 15 and was a blackout drinker. Now at 28 I have tried for almost a year to quit, and I can get thirty or forty days, but then I binge one night and forget what I do, I wake up and live in hell for two days. Nothing good comes out of a bottle for me anymore, and I just hope I can work the treatment I have set up now. If I have to isolate I just have to give myself time to get through the fear. I am glad I am not alone in the way I feel about alcohol now.

MrGhost

Hey look I'm not trying to slaughter your hope or anything, it's great that you want to quit but just in my opinion people who try and stop due to being scared of the drink wind up giving themselves a new reason to drink again in dues time. People don't stop drinking because they're scared of the drink, they stop it when they are ready to face there fears. You can go through the horrible things and be very scared of the drink, but in fact that's going to easily draw you right back to it.

It's one of the reasons you're we drink in the first place, some bad things have happened to us and we drink because of that so we think. It turns into a vicious cycle. The drink puts so much fear into us from making matters worse, that we wind up losing some sanity and still wanting to drink due to that fear alone. I remember when I first got busted in my early 20s and had to go to jail for a couple days only luckily but I came out on bail pounding down drinks. I was scared sh*tless of the drink.

You got to stand up to the drink and see it as nothing special and some thing where you build this whole brand new lifestyle and change yourself.

Twinings

I think it helps to be scared, but agree it shouldn't be the reason to stop.
I've stopped because of the problems it was causing, my health, because it wasn't fun any more AND because the damage it does started scaring me.
I've been chronicling news stories and such of alcohol related deaths to remind myself how toxic it is and how lucky I am. For some people that doesn't work, but being a bit of a worrier, it works for me!

Brian316

Recently I discovered alcohol was fueling and creating a dark side to me. A dark and destructive person I would not want in my life from an outsider's point of view, let alone knowing that person and I were one in the same. That it is terrifying to me.

PhaseTwo

I think it is a totally healthy fear but within reason. You can't allow it to keep you cooped up at home afraid of any social gatherings. Except for going to bars and house parties centered around drinking, those should be eliminated from your life. Just my opinion

pinkdog

Yes I do. Alcohol is the enemy in my book.

wolfpackfan45

A healthy fear of alcohol is a good thing. I don't think people really realize how dangerous a drug it is.

JLC82

Yes! One worded answer. Jail, death, isolation, physical and mental breakdowns, loss of self, family, finances and even your soul are all possibilities attributed to alcohol. Its cunning and baffling and will trick you to thinking you can moderate it. The truth is, once addicted, you CANT.

TomSawyer

I used to look at alcohol as a tame, legal substance. Now it has the same effect on me as heroin would on an addict. I will end up sick and withdrawing. So there is a fear factor.

john44

Let's put it this way; if I had a peanut allergy, would it be healthy to have a fear of eating peanuts? Of course it would. I have an allergy to alcohol. If I put it in my body now, I cannot control how much I consume, I do irresponsible, dangerous things and I sicken myself. When I stop drinking, I suffer from withdrawals so severe that I require hospitalization. You can bet that I have a very healthy fear now of putting alcohol in my body. In fact, if I didn't, you could most probably accurately call me insane.

Yankee73

I don't fear it, fearing it never helped me to stop- not long-term, anyway. Now, it's more of a healthy respect for what it is capable of doing in great quantities and over time. I never respected it when I drank; I abused it. It's an inanimate object, anyway. What scares me is who I turn into when I drink it.

Renarde

70 days sober and I am just now starting to fear it.

MattyBoy

Yeah, I'm absolutely terrified of alcohol now in a way I wasn't when I first attempted to get sober 6 months ago. After my relapse 2 weeks ago and my first taste of the real, nasty withdrawal symptoms alcohol can produce , I have never been so afraid of something in my life. I don't think I will be putting any food or beverage into my system that even contains as little as 0.1% of that vile poison.

karate

I and others know where it can take us ,and has taken many of us to bad places .