gaffo

I was fifteen or sixteen, I guess. I was just in the town where I grew up, driving around with my brother. We were reminiscing about buying malt liquor in funky town, two skinny white boys with the balls to go into the black neighborhood and stand in line at the beer store. I drank cheap malt liquor for fifteen or twenty years. It never made me sick and I loved the buzz. I just wanted to get loaded. I've never appreciated drinking in moderation.

Db1105

I started at 11 with booze and pot, full blown alcoholic at 15, shooting up meth and drinking at 16, cleaned up one month shy of my 18th birthday. I never would of made it out of my teens like a few of my friends the way I was going.

Rio97

I started when I was 15. I wanted to fit in and obviously liked the effect, as all of us do. If only I could have foreseen the road alcohol would take me down back then.

QuietToday

Twelve years old.

I'm nocturnal. I know that sounds weird, but I can remember being as young as ten and consistently being up until at least four in the morning. Just can't sleep during the night, not then, not now.

My parents stopped worrying about it around when I was eleven, I guess. They'd try to get me to sleep, and hope I was, before going off themselves. But I wasn't, and so I'd roam the house at night and they just came to accept that.

So at twelve, for whatever reason, I went in to the liquor cabinet. I had already tasted beer once when I was younger, so I tried everything and eventually came to like gin, which there was plenty of and very easy for me to hide.

And that's really that. My parents don't drink, but they had a stacked liquor cabinet because it was fashionable, I suppose. I drank from that cabinet until I exhausted it at 16, at which point I had already established friends who could get me booze anyway. My parents didn't know at all I was drunk; there were at least three times that one of them would hear me puking in the bathroom, but they just never learned it was from drinking alcohol until much later.

JeffreyAK

2/3 started as teenagers, 80% teen or pre-teen. I'm not surprised. So much for drinking ages. I was 13 when I first snuck liquor from my parents' cabinet, and 15 when I got drunk the first time. My first drug of choice was weed, not alcohol, and I started that at 15 too. It was easier to get, and I enjoyed the buzz more. Moved on to acid before my 16th birthday, coke at 17-18. But what bowled me over with chemical dependency and nearly wrecked my life was alcohol, and I was 40 before it started to become a significant problem, a couple decades after I stopped using illegal drugs.

CAPTAINZING2000

There was a road side package liquor store on the hwy outside of town I was able to get served when I was 15.

I might have gotten asked more for an ID to buy alcohol after I was legal then before.

MrPoutine

I started drinking heavily (actually very heavily) when I was 60, because of stress that was more than I could cope with. I stopped at the age of 65, when I got rid of the sources of the stress. During that time I had 2 seizures from trying to quit drinking, was hospitalized 4 (or perhaps 5) times, and went to detox 4 times, and had 2 MRI scans to check for brain damage.
Before the age of 60, I was a light drinker. When I was in my early 20's I used to go out at the weekends, and have a few drinks. I didn't understand why people used to overdo it - I had a couple of hangovers and that was enough to convince me to know my limit. Most of my life, we usually did not normally have much alcohol in the house - if we were having visitors I would buy a bottle of wine or a 12-pack of beer. Who would have thought that I would one day end up an alcoholic.

jessie65

I grew up in an alcoholic household and my parents got me completely wasted at 14. I don't remember any good feelings from it, in fact I was sicker than I'd ever been just hours later..
Never touched it again until I was 40 years old, and wow, I finally understood why everybody drank.

Bird615

I was told that I first got drunk at 3. My parents had a party and the next morning, I apparently got up and proceeded to drain the glasses that had been left out. I woke them up, telling them I felt funny and then I threw up.

At 12, I remember sneaking shots from my dad's gin and adding water back to replace it. That's when I realized the magic of alcohol. It make me feel wonderful.

The first time I got really drunk, I was 14 and babysitting my baby cousin. I sampled all of my uncle's liquor collection, got sick and had my first hangover the next day. No one ever knew.

Fly N Buy

I was 13 on a junior high graduation trip visiting Washington DC with two bus loads of classmates from the Midwest. One night at a hotel the teacher/chaperons where having a party in their room.

I brazenly knocked on the door which was answered by the principal of my school. I said - hey, could ya spare a few beers?!? The teachers were laughing and obviously in their cups........

About 15 minutes later, the old gent knocked on the door of my room I was sharing with 3 other classmates and handed me a six pack of black label. Incredible.

I still remember the distribution of the booty - one roomate drank zero, one drank one beer, another roomie drank 2 and I drank 3........

Should have known right then.

The principal passed away within a year of this incident -perhaps he knew he was dying.

Started drinking on a regular basis weekend in high school and moved into semi pro league around 19 ........sad

ilham

At 23. My brother visited and he had a bottle of Pisang Ambon.
Was the first time I drank and I was very sick.
Later I drank occasionally. I only got into heavy drinking after 40

rahrah

My first time drinking I got drunk...I was 15 and in the 30 yrs that followed I can count on one hand the times I drank less than 3 or 4 drinks (and those few times were begrudgingly)...when I drank, I was drank hard.

Yukyuk

First time I ever drank I was age 2. That was an accident though. I got into a bottle that shouldn't have been in my reach.

First time I got drunk on purpose was age 14 with a friend in the daytime. Skipped school and got hammered. Passed out in my bedroom and awoke to my floor covered in Burger King Whopper and booze puke. Cleaned up and covered my tracks well enough that Mom never found out.

Basically drank pretty steadily from that age 14 up til age 37. Almost only beer. Last drink was Nov. 5th

ubntubnt

I started around 14 or 15. At that time, from the beginning i drank to get drunk. We all did. But I would get completely passed out drunk but I was not alone. Over the years I often drank socially and could stop after a couple if I wanted and often did. But I would always have at least one bender a week regardless of what else was happening in my life. Over the years the non drinking days were replaced with a bottle of wine days and the drinking days became 2-3 bottles of wine days and the benders lasted 2 days. Drinking to get drunk was there from the very first time i drank. In fact when I got my first real job aged 17 I remember skipping meals and not drinking mid week to save up enough cash to get absolutely hammered on fri and sat nights. Drinking normally or for social occasions has been possible but only if I also had my own benders and blackouts to go with it also.

SarahBear

Thinking around 26years old I had my first drink, beer. Yeah, 26.....After my younger sister passed away unexpectedly, I started hanging out with some old friends where drinking was the main highlight of getting together. Within a few years, I started getting drunk after work almost everyday and doing stupid stuff

I can't recall a time before turning 26 drinking any booze. Even on my 21st b-day, I stayed sober. According to what my mom has told me, 2 of her brothers are alcoholics and so was her mom. My Grandpa has been a RA for 29+ years.

That put some fear in me as a reason not to drink. That and my mom lecturing me not wanting to become an alcoholic. After my sister died, I just didn't care and wanted that "forbidden fruit".

Stang

That's me right there.

imaginebetterau

My Dad's girlfriend (at the time) got me drunk when I was 11 on New Years Eve. I was drunk to the point of vomitting but my Dad told me that "if you want to keep that good feeling buzz you need to keep drinking". That stuck with me a long time. Needless to say, I passed out.

From the ages of 13-18 I drank excessively every Friday and or Saturday night with our group of friends. We'd always have someone who could buy (legal age to buy here is 18) or we'd steal. A weekend without getting drunk seemed pointless.

By the time I went to college/university at 20 we were drinking heavily multiple nights per week. Now at the age of 28 I'm a fully fledged alcoholic.

courage2

I got drunk the first time when I was 11 -- I used to think it was earlier but I've gotten a little better at math in sobriety. But that doesn't change my poll answer.

UnfoldingWings

13 years young

paddyjnr1

I was 7 years old and a very nervous Child, full of anxiety.
I remember the day vividly, I was on holidays and the adults were talking about a large meteorite heading toward Earth and supposedly heading toward the southern coast of Cork where we were.
I became hysterical , My mum gave me a pint of larger to calm me down,
It was in 2 bottles and was called carling Black label.
It done the trick, after them I was looking up to the sky without a care in the world awaiting the meteorite.
After that I was 13 and this went on until I was 35 progressively getting worse and worse.
Initially it took all my anxieties away but it stopped working at some point and the anxieties were back x100