Is it too late?
 

I get this idea a lot as I try to stay sober. Is it too late? I'm 56 myself. I've had a good run at life in many ways. Was married for 20 years, lots of good married times. Had adventures when I was younger, awesome adventures. Learned a lot along the way. Still enjoy life in my own way. Still want to see how things turn out.

Alcohol will kill me though. It's eager to kill me way sooner than I want to go. The best play is clearly to fight it. But then I start doubting how much I got left in the tank. Changing my life profoundly was almost impossible for me even back when I was in my prime. I don't doubt I can live sober now, but is that enough? Am I shooting for a soft landing here, and what good is that anyway?

Too late for what? I don't understand?

I understand, it's not to late though, I've made better accomplishments in the last 3 years without drink than I did in the previous 25 while drunk. And with less opportunitys, but I sure have a lot of regrets that for me is the toughest part of being sober.

It's never too late to find sobriety. There are many that have quit at your age and even older.

IF the Booze is Killing you... and you Want to Live...
then, i Guess you better quit... (right?):huh?:

Snazzy, I recognized that I had an alcohol problem in my late fifties. I stopped drinking entirely when I was 62. This summer I will be sober 4 years.
I feel so much better now that I don't drink.
It is never too late to reclaim your life. It's hard at first, but to be beyond alcohol's control is a wonderful thing. Peace.

Hi Snazzy,

I think it just ensures that 56 and on can bring you some of the greatest times of your life.

Snazzy
Ill be 56 also in May...... I don't feel that it's too late I have so much more life to live. Get out there and find something or someone to live for ��

dont get me started. the one thing i hate to hear most is "i'm to old for ____" never too old theres people running marathons in there 90's

now when i got sober well prior to it i felt half dead. I felt liek crap i smoked 2 packs a day i was 275lbs and struggled to climb the stairs. i drank like a friggen fish day in and day out. I quit drinking quit smoking went tdown to 140lbs at my lightest adn I run 50 miles or more a week and eat a vegan diet.

I'm fitter now at 39 then i was at 15. Im in such rediculously good shape. I would have never EVER EVER have dreamed i could get so dang healthy after all the HELL i put myself through.

Now i'm younger then you etc.. But again your never too old. You would probably be surprised your best days migth still be ahead of you.

Delilah, I'd love to believe that's true. And I try to be optimistic, that's my thing. But man, I'm really doubting this idea right now, that the best is still ahead for me. My brain is telling me that seems absurdly naive, pollyannaish.

You have a family and children already!

Well, you will die sooner if you contnue to drink. If you are diagnosed with fatal liver cancer, and you are still drinking up to that point, would you hate yourself more? Would you secretly believe you threw away your life even more? Wouldn't it be better to face such a diagnosis with your head held high, knowing you stopped as soon as you could? I know I would not punish myself so much knowing I didn't push myself so quickly into that cancer or heart disease.

I understand your question, is it too late. Is your life over. Is this all there is? Did you waste so much already that it is unredeemable? What is the point in redefining yourself as your time is almost up? It is hard work after all rebuilding ourselves, becomming something new and sober.

You are at middle age, the crisis that is joked about. You are questioning your life and your use of time as you see that time is no longer limitless.

I would tell you to look outside yourself, pray for guidance in your actions, try to help others, and realize you have been given a second chance. You realized you need to change and embraced sobriety before it was too late.

It is never too late to start living. Really living. To me that means sober living. I was not living getting drunk each night. I was not living being ashamed of myself every day. At least I don't beat myself up anymore. At least I will die trying to live, not sppeding toward it with a bottle in my hand.

Good luck to you.

Thanks for those heartfelt sentiments, HTown. Good luck to you too.

Hiya, whippersnapper...I'm 58 and have been sober since three months before that birthday, over a year total.

You get that age is a big old whopper of an excuse, right? You have only so many days on this planet, fewer if you keep drinking. Do you want to get the most out of them, good or bad, or crawl in a bottle, pull the covers over your head and wait to die, never knowing if you could have had a better life?

Absolutely not! It's the quality of life that's important, not the length.

Age is an excuse but with some grounding in reality, Aries. The best of me at 56 seems like a pretty low ceiling. It's better than being dead, yes. Or being sick. Maybe I need to say I'm in pretty good health overall at this point. Obviously I won't be soon if I start up drinking again.

What does this mean, exactly?

That quitting drinking is a bargain, and that you want a big payoff in exchange for the loss of that precious stuff that is killing you?

That if there is no big payoff, then back to the stuff you go?

The fact that you cannot imagine a satisfactory life without alcohol in it should give you some pause as to the nature of your relationship with alcohol, but drinking is still a liberty.

Having been drinking for the last, what, 20 years? 30 years? I will suggest you have no idea what you can achieve, who you can be, if and only if, you decide to quit drinking for good. A sober life has an amazing quality of authenticity to it that you must experience to believe. You have the opportunity now to grow in ways you can't even imagine. Alcohol has nothing left for you, nothing good, only shame, disappointment, depression, anxiety and sickness.

Do you think it is time? Or will it be another bottle? Another blackout? Another bender? Then what?

You can do this. Don't think of it as saying no to alcohol. Think of it as saying yes to the rest of your life. It's there, waiting for you.

Whatever time I have left I choose to be present and sober in

Good post. Drinking for the last 15 years. Probably why I don't yet have the crazy physical consequences from it people talk about here, started late. Yes, less than optimal.