Anyone else here feel "scammed" by alcohol?
 

Growing up, our corrupt culture feeds us a steady stream of BS via movies/TV/music videos that drinking is "just what grown ups do". "All the adults do it", "mature people drink", "the most interesting man in the world", and other such rubbish. It's subtle, but with enough years absorbing these subliminal messages it registers and becomes internalized. Our drinker parents (if any) and immediate family reinforce this belief at family gatherings as well as at home. Ditto for "the college culture" in this country, ditto for high school, ditto for the media.

You start drinking and at first you think "man this is some good ****"...
...it relaxes you
...it refreshes you
...it clears your head
...it gives you "courage"
...it makes the world (somewhat) bearable
...suddenly, everything doesn't seem so bad
...with just the right BAC, you feel like a new man

All is fine and dandy for a while, you drink after work and go on about your life without issue. Gradually and much to your surprise/dismay, your booze mysteriously "stops working" due to your growing resistance and the chemicals your body is now producing in response to your drinking habit. You start drinking more to achieve the same high... you start spending more too. 2 drinks becomes 4 drinks, 4 drinks becomes a six pack, a six pack becomes a six pack and a half, and so on.

One day, you decide to quit or even just "cut back a little". Then all hell breaks loose, you barely sleep for a week or more, you feel like crap, you are EXHAUSTED. You feel your heart pounding, you get the shakes. No one told you about this part, you "didn't think it would be this bad". You go to your doctor, you scour the internet, and learn that "withdrawal" may take months. This isn't even including PAWS, which you are also just now learning about. Even worse, you learn that you may NEVER be able to have another drink lest you trigger another "withdrawal" episode.

"Withdrawal? No, no, no... I thought that was only for HARD drugs like crack and meth", you think to yourself.

You go back and look at some old bank statements and begin to tally up just how much money you had been blowing on this habit... $4 here, $6 here, $9 here, $11 there, $23 over here. You think to yourself "damn..."

You go look in the mirror and notice your skin looks a little more "aged" than it should be. You notice the bags under your eyes from the lack of sleep. Maybe you put on an extra pound or two from your over-indulging on food at social gatherings while under the influence.

You notice that you don't enjoy other activities like you used to... you had become so accustomed to using alcohol as a "band-aid" for pretty much every time you felt bored or down that you've "forgotten" how to be happy on your own.

It's not all bad, I am grateful I never got a DUI or did anything stupid like that. At the same time, I really feel for those who did get into trouble with "the law" over this pee-water... must be extra painful to have to continue on with a "record" or arrest hanging over your head.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea...

Do you feel "scammed" by alcohol? And if so, in what ways?

Let's compare notes here...

Hi and welcome. Your observations are right on as far as much of my experience indicates. I'd sum up mine as getting sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. Then I got better.

BE WELL

I had a lot of the same problems with alchohol. I however think it's counterproductive to try and "blame" it on society, family life, etc. Do I feel scammed? Maybe, but then again it really doesn't matter. While we are all a product of the past, society and our environment, we cannot change what has happened to us or why it happened to us.

What matters to me is that I accept the problem and have changed my life to live without alcohol.

Oooops! Did your dog eat the homework? I chose to drink, and I chose to keep on drinking. Everyone is educated about alcohol, smoking and drug use. If I choose to ignore what I know to be true, it's on me. Question is: If alcohol is a problem for you, what are you going to do about it? Continue to complain about how you've been "scammed", which is a waste of everyone's time, or are you going to take steps to do something about the problem?:herewego

I drank just to drink which eventually turned into needing 6-8 beers every night and more on the weekends starting before noon...I chose to drink but I do agree in that I had no idea about withdrawals and how dangerous and frustrating they can be

No, I don't feel scammed. I knew it was something bad, just didn't know the extent.

I think the thing is the flip side of alcohol is never really shown, its just ppl enjoying themselves and all remaining beautiful and successful, look at things like Eastenders (if youre from the states its a regular soap on tv). They are always in the pub, every lunchtime, night, they all have jobs, they rarely show an alcoholic on the show, once or twice maybe.

So its effects are sort of hidden, in this way I do feel a bit scammed :)

I do feel scammed. Profoundly.

When I first quit, I had literally NO CLUE that my hangovers had turned into something that I mentally reserved for crack addicts -

WITHDRAWALS ? Oh God, no. Not me.

I didn't know that my fathers fatal heart attack was most likely caused from decades of abuse. I thought that health problems in the alcoholic were limited to the liver - and then, only if you drank 24/7.

I spent years trying to find the perfect recipe and formulation to get back to where I once belonged - buzzed. Why couldn't I get there anymore ? Now just weird symptoms happened when I drank. Blackouts and anxiety and depression. I drank BECAUSE I was anxious. Certainly couldn't be actually causing it...

Where did the fun and frivolity go ? You know, the stuff they advertise in the mags and on TV ? Why was I getting hives when I drank a sip of wine now ? Why was I getting violently ill the following day after just a few ? Why didn't it matter if I put a few days, weeks, months in between drinks, all they did now was make me sick ?

I thought two bottles of wine a night was borderline "moderation". That's not being facetious. That cant be considered drinking "alcoholically" for goodness sake. That's just any given Tuesday night after an awful day at work.

Duped ? You bet your sweet pertoosie I was duped.
But then again, I was the poster child for gullibility and naivete'.
I just wanted out of the pain and was buying whatever they were selling. At every turn.

When you know better, you do better.

And everything I now know, which is the truth behind the poison, I've learned right here.

I don't feel duped by alcohol but I do feel duped by society. It is socially acceptable to drink and drink to excess, no matter what anyone wants to argue about on this site. Go to any Country Club with many of our business and social elites and I will show you a bunch of active drunks. As leaders, many drunks profess a work hard play hard mentality. You won a million dollar deal, good job celebrate and get Fu%ked up. Did well on your finals, get F#$ked up. Oh, drank a little too much last night? No prob we have all been there.

Society encourages alcoholism, yet when you cross that line your are ostracized. I used to think AA was a cult, I am thinking society is the cult and when you abstain you are an outcast - yes we are all outcasts that are sober. But perhaps we are the enlightened ones and with a sober and clear head we can do what all the drunks can't - move forward.

Despite some of the comments on this thread I do not think that you are blaming anything, just commenting on the messages that we commonly hear about alcohol. The dog must have ate some of my homework. I was never exposed to information about the delirium tremens until after I had them, despite the fact that alcohol withdrawal can kill you. I don't think this information is standard fare in the public education system.

I find it interesting that “everyone is educated about alcohol, smoking and drug use” music. I didn’t know that.

I do not feel duped by alcohol solely.

I was a very heavy drinker for a long time. I worked hard at being an alcoholic. I should have been happy to have 2-3 drinks and I would never have become alcoholic.

My alcoholism was caused by my gluttony for alcohol. I am partly responsible.

I don't feel duped. I did what I wanted to do. JDooner - I don't feel duped by society either. Anymore than I blame weight gain on Big Mac advertising. I would love to blame someone or something else on this disease. But sadly, it is all me and my doing. prffffft.....

Sums things up for me. And the only education I ever got was about pregnancy and safe sex and a little about drugs.

I don't feel scammed. I knew alcohol was bad for me, but I chose to use it anyway.

Granted, I also did not know about withdrawals or that they can be fatal. However, I do know that when I was educated, I was told not to drink more than 2 a day on average, and have 2 free days a week. Considering that I knew this, had I drank this way it is very unlikely I would ever get to a point of having withdrawals. My problem is that I ignored this "just for the college experience," and after college was too stupid to slow down to those levels.

I know what you mean, exactly... duped I think... everyone is drinking, having fun and enjoying themselves, (supposedly) alcohol is everywhere, just look down that aisle in the supermarket - more choice than anywhere else... pubs are everywhere, beer advertised on TV all the time, and how cheap it is... combine that with the time promoting the destruction, negative, detrimental health effects...

It does not balance. It is a bad thing, and I don't think any of use really chose it... it was all around us all the time so we fell into it. Ignoring it ill effects coz everyone knows someone worse who is still alive.... still pouring it in....

I meant compare, doh....

Can't say that I really feel duped. I drank with my eyes wide open. Now, do I feel disgusted with myself - oh yes.

It was believing the lies I told myself that did the most damage.

This, THIS!

I thought the same thing... being witness to my dad's drunken outbursts and borderline-violent arguments with my mom growing up, I was under the impression that what an alcoholic IS is someone who "has no control over himself".

I thought to myself, "yea I've been drinking a little much lately, but I'm not really an alcoholic... I'm not getting into fights and starting **** like my dad or drinking til I pass out, nothing like that... I am in control".

...apparently dependence is much more subtle then that and much more insidious. Again, no one ever tells us about any of this, quite the opposite in this "work hard/play hard" American culture as other posters have pointed out.

- the guy who gets into a fist-fight after a few drinks
- the guy who is so drunk he is stumbling around and can barely walk
- the guy who gets all belligerent and starts yelling at everyone around him

I'm sure when most people think of an "alcoholic" they picture one of the above examples. I know I did.

The awareness surrounding this disease seems to be sorely lacking with the exception of places like this site. The extent of our "education" regarding the dangers of alcohol seems to be limited to the occasional "Don't drive drunk, the heat is on! Cops are cracking down!" commercial on TV. It's a joke

That's some deep stuff there man.

Sorry folks but I just don't buy into the idea that anyone can grow up now days with absolutely no idea that smoking, alcohol and drugs are a bad idea. I was brought up in the 50s and 60s when smoking was banned from advertising on TV. My folks taught me drinking alcohol wasn't a good idea and the drugs sold on the street now weren't in existence to the extent they are now but I certainly knew about marijuana.

Some of you seem like you're intelligent enough to know what's going on around you but to not know these things and feel somehow like the wool was pulled over your eyes makes me wonder. Don't know about the rest of you but I wasn't born in a cave and raised by hermits. If blame is to be placed here, suck it up and take responsibility for not paying attention. Then, do something about the problem besides whining.:herewego