BackToSquareOne

Do you think that age matters in a persons ability to throw in the towel for good?

I don't know if it's easier or harder at the different age brackets but it does seem that the challenges might vary. I see myself as a completely different person than I was in my 20's. It may have been a different experience at a younger age. (I'm 50 something now). Any thoughts?

karate

ABSOLUTLY - it does ,I was drinking like they were going to stop making beer / whiskey at 36 . A friend said id quit later on , he was right .

TomSawyer

I'm 25 so I can only vouche for the difficulty of someone my age quitting. It is hard - drinking is part of young people culture (for many). And it represents the only real way I've known how to meet members of the opposite sex. I'm trying to restructure my life down to the core in order to prioritize recovery, but the real challenge is going to be finding a new social life.

That said, I imagine the more drinking years you have the harder the routine is to break.

I think it is a very difficult road for all of us.

Bostonsportsfan

I think it's harder to quit in your 20's because your still young and a lot of young people drink and party. I'd think it would be easier to quit in your 30's and up because you probably have a family, career, etc and you don't have the urge to be a dumb kid anymore.

Dee74

I don't think age matters but I think maturity might.
I was the world's oldest teenager until I quit.

D

BackToSquareOne

I guess at a younger age you have a lot more peer pressure and it's part of the culture. At an older age you are more set in your ways so that might make a difference.

Mountainmanbob

I'm 50 something now). Any thoughts?

I sobered up this last time in my fifties
longest that I have ever been sober now
thinking that in our fifties we realize
this may truly be our last chance to be and stay sober
mm

Johnston

When I was younger I recovered faster, now it's a multi day affair

Doug39

I am 50 and I think the bar life is for the young.

Over the last 5 or 10 years I only went to the bars early...rarely was I ever out past 8 or 9 pm.

Also the older I got the more brutal the hangovers.

I believe it is easier to "throw in the towel" the older you get.

Nevertheless

I certainly think it does. One of my "excuses" to keep drinking was for a social life. In reality I seldom met any new people. I kept wasting my life away getting drunk with the same people over and over.
The 10 years before I quit (40 to 50) I mostly got drunk by myself. Which had to have made it easier for me to quit.
Fred

Doug39

The whole reason I started going to the bars 25 years ago was to met women.
After I met my wife I slowed down on the bar scene. My wife liked to still go to bars but I found it boring (and expensive). Why sit there with my wife and only talk to her in a public place and blow all that money when we can drink cheaper at home?

Bostonsportsfan

I think people in there 20's have trouble staying sober because it's part of the culture and what people do socially. Your also young enough you can just drink drink drink and wake up and do it again the next day.

Threshold

I agree that age is among the many factors that influence a person's motivation and difficulty in quitting (and staying quit).

I wonder if each person has a "sweet spot"...some culmination of factors that make NOW the right time to quit and the factors available to do it successfully.

silentrun

I think some people will mature out. Supposedly we become more risk adverse as we age. I know it was a lot easier to quit when I was old enough that it wasn't a big part of my social life.

Like2Hike

This hit me like a hammer because I realized it's my story.

GracieLou

I think some tend to quit when they are in their late 30's or at least start thinking about it because they are starting to wear out. I know that is when I first started to feel it.

I used to party to the late hours and go to work on several hours sleep and still drunk from the night before. When I got older I could not do that but I blamed it on age, not that I was now consuming two or three times as much as I was when I was 20.

So instead of stopping I just started to drink at home and make the weekends the bar nights until even that got to much. Drinking responsibly meant I was at home with my half gallon instead of driving the streets bar hopping.

For many it takes being sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was 44 when I got to that point so in my case, age did make the difference.

I think it also comes down to how much knowledge you get about alcoholism. If I knew then what I know now, I may have tried much earlier, who knows, but I doubt it. I was ready when I was ready.

iloveducks86

I'm 27 and VERY new to sobriety. I stopped drinking a week ago and I must say that the late 20s are a difficult time to stop. For the last week I've gotten off of work and headed straight to the gym instead of to the bars with my co-workers. But even then, after sparring sessions are over, my gym buddies still go out a few times a week. So at this point I'm totally attempting to restructure my life, in a more positive way. But like I said before, it's pretty hard, especially being single at this age and using bars as one of the few places to find dates. However, I must say that I have LOVED waking up the past couple of days without alcohol still in my system from the night before.

Johno1967

All I know is I wanted to stop drinking within a short time of taking it up at the age of 20. I was in the Army and it was already causing me problems and getting me into all sorts of strife. I think at that stage peer pressure had little or nothing to do with it. I just needed booze to feel normal in social settings till it became a crutch and then an obsession. Over the 26 years since I tried countless times to turn my back to the bottle without success until a year ago. Age had nothing to do with it when I finally found the answer in a spiritual solution and finally admitted to myself that I'm an alcoholic and turned the problem over to a Higher Power. It was that simple. Alcoholism does not discriminate in age. I started university in my 30's and was the biggest drinker in the campus taverns. Some of us just never grow up till it catches up to us.

Doug39

25 years ago when I was in my 20's I drank to excess everyday and never thought or cared about the consequences. It was great fun.

But as I got older the fun was taken out of drinking because it was just a habit and work:

In the morning having to count how much beer I had left so I knew how much to buy that day (I had to make sure I had at least 10 beers available for myself per day).

Worrying about cutting myself off at least 10 hours before I had to go to work the next morning.

Figuring out which store to buy at because I can't go to the same store everyday and look like an alcoholic.

Worrying about getting home or getting a DUI every minute I am out at a bar - takes the fun out of it.

Constant worry about my health.

Drinking was so pathetic and not exciting at all when I was in my 40's.

ru12

I think some people mature out of destructive behaviors. I know that I did.