sleepie

When I think about how much alcohol I have consumed over many, many years- I think, "No way am I getting out of this alive". Even after quitting. It just seems like it's my due for being so ridiculous for so long to become ill. I'd like to believe I have a chance by adopting a healthy lifestyle... but really. All the risks one accrues after years of heavy, regular alcohol intake. Are there any women here who drank heavily and daily for over a decade that lived to tell the tale, into anything resembling a ripe old age?

I have quit, again... and am adopting rather drastic changes. But I just feel I may be fooling myself.

Soberwolf

Your only fooling yourself if your telling yourself you cant do it

You can do it Sleepie surround yourself with sober positivity do everything & anything for your sobriety

here for you bud

Dee74

I'm obviously not a female but I drank hard for 20 years and all day everyday for 5...

I'm closing in on 50 now which is maybe not that old, but it's a lot older than I would have been if I'd kept drinking.

When I got sober and didn't collapse down dead, I felt as if there must have been some mistake - some many other people - good people - were dead, and I wasn't.

But there are so many things I'll never understand..I just have to accept it and move on...

I've done my best to do good since then and make every day count - it's a good thing to aim for, sleepie

D

anattaboy

Hey Sleep, that's pure AV BS! It is totally worth it. I felt exactly the same way--that I had nearly driven the last nail in my coffin but time sober has healed the body and the mind is not far behind. One of my grown sons called 2 weeks ago and we are talking-never saw that happening since I turned my back on him for a 14 yr. binge. Just the shift from THAT mindset (self pity, pushing all of humanity out) and giving myself a bit of care has made all the difference. It will for you too

FLCamper

Sleepie, My Mom is a recovering alcoholic - 25+ years now. She is 76, very healthy, goes to the gym a few times per week. I think she might be the example you are looking for.

aasharon90

I entered recovery back on August 11, 1990
some 24 yrs ago at the age of 30. Im now
in my mid 50's and still living my life in recovery
enjoying it to the upmost each and every
single day.

I listened, learned, absorbed then applied
all that was taught to me about my addiction
and a recovery program that gave me my
life back to enjoy each day I don't pick up
poison to kill myself.

Knowledge is a wonderful thing. Learn all
you can about addiction and its affects on
your mind, body and soul and those around
you. Then find a program of recovery that
will work for you to incorporate in your every
day affairs.

AA - Alcoholics Anonymous was the program
introduced to me 24 yrs ago when I entered
rehab and thus have followed it in my own
life because it works for me.

Find what will work for you so that u can
begin to heal and become healthy, happy
and honest for yrs to come.

Hawkeye13

I'd estimate three decades of booze, two of those me drinking hard, before I stopped.
I'm 50.

I joined a crossfit when I quit three years ago.
To say I was out of shape at the beginning would be an understatement.

I haven't been consistant with the workouts, but I can still deadlift nearly twice my weight, hike for miles, and climb six flights of stairs fairly easily on a frequent basis.

I added a yoga practice and that was even more transformative in many ways.
The body stores a great deal of pain, and yoga helped me release that as well as
losing chronic neck and back tension.

You can recover physically, mentally, and emotionally and live an amazing life.
Saying it's too late is the AV talking.

Make a plan and start.
How about getting a Yoga DVD and taking frequent walks in Nature?

doggonecarl

Quitting, and staying quit is the priority. Otherwise, concerns about your health are moot. If you want to live long and healthy in sobriety, you have to be sober first.

Good luck.

zjw

i smoked 2 packs a day and then some. Smoked dope for years. Drank 15+ beers a night and weight in at 275lbs on my 5 foot 7 body.

to say i was worried about my health is an understatement. i struggled to get upt he steps i'd be out of breath all the time. I felt horrible. Oddly test results always came out fine.

I'm worried i'll get lung cancer one day anyhow. It'll be my luck. But who knows maybe not each day i make good choices 'm increasing my chances of long term good health.

I'm now 150lbs I run 40-60 miles per week with ease and assuming my kids are not keeping me up all hours of the night if i get good sleep I have plenty of energy for whatever comes my way.

So i dunno maybe one day i'll just drop dead of cancer anyhow so be it. The qaulity of life i have no is far better then before. If the quantity of life i'm given is still cut short so be it at least i've had very good quality of life the last few years since I sobered up.

sleepie

Thanks everyone. I was asking about women because I know that we get sicker faster.

zjw

maybe but women live longer then men on average i do believe and i think theres more of you! you got us beat in many categories lol

Hawkeye13

I'm female and I was tough as nails, but my alcoholic mother with way
tougher than me in terms of staying together physically while drinking like a fish.

That woman could bring it at 65 with her chain-smoking COPD and a liver that must have been truly pickled but you'd have never known cause she kept working.

yinzer

I'm female and drank every day, heavily, for over 30 years. Now I hike for miles, take no medications, and live life to the fullest. I used to think like you did, but somebody told me that next year was coming whether I was healthier, a drunk or dead, and it was my choice to pick which way I wanted next year to be.

Healthy people get knocked down by illness and death. I figure I should have checked out years ago with the way I was going, so every sober, healthy day is a bonus. I keep knocking more and more experiences off my bucket list, and I don't wake up in the middle of the night anymore FEELING like I might die, like I used to.

Bmac

Now I'm not condoning smoking and would like to quit myself. But having wicked OCD often lends to hours of online research in anxiethy ridden panic that I will soon die of lung cancer. Anyhow, what I did find was that for 50 year olds who have smoked a pack a day for 29 years, appx. 4.1 out of 1000 will die of lung cancer, or .4%. I would say the odds are in your favor for a long and healthy life my friend!

EndGameNYC

My eighty-four-year-old mother recently celebrated thirty five years of sobriety.

sleepie

Thanks everyone. Food for thought. I appreciate the responses.