adee

I got drunk for the first time at 10 and was regularly drinking at 12. I can't really answer the "why" of it because I was too young to evaluate much of anything - I guess the "why" was that it was available and I liked how it made me feel. No, scratch that, LOVED how it made me feel.

Bad things happened to me as a result of drinking, particularly as a kid. No, it wasn't worth it. Now at 42, I am very grateful for where I find myself in my life right now, baggage and all. But when I look at my own children, my deepest wish for them is to not follow the path of their mother. There's nothing I can do for my own young self except to make her story "worth it" by how I live now.

songthread

Got drunk out of curiosity at 14. I attended a friend's bar mitzvah and there were tons of glasses of wine afterwards free for the taking. I wanted to know what it would feel like to have some wine. I drank a bunch of them. Kinda remember some adults looking at me with disdain. I went to the bathroom to look at my face in the mirror and I patted my face with my hands because it felt weird, kind of tingling and numb at the same time. I remember thinking, "so this is what being drunk feels like" and "wow this feels great."

Not worth it in terms of year's wasted, people I hurt, money wasted etc….

Worth it in terms of hard lessons learned, hope in the future, amends made and growing personally in the here and now.

LovesToTravel

I always drank socially and didn't have a problem. I think that my problems started the day my son turned 16 and started driving. I would drink to stop the anxiety about him. Here we are 11 years later and I still have major anxiety about him but I don't grab the bottle to help me. At this point there isn't anything that is going to help me I just need to live one day at a time. I currently am not drinking. Was it worth it? It helped me cope at the time but really didn't make the situation better.