lesuisse

I used to drink alcohol and, like many others, stopped.

Then I relapsed, many times. Each times I would try to hide my drinking. So I would drink mouthwash, of mix perfume with water.

By the end of my last relapse, I would just drink rubbing alcohol and hand sanitizer.

I'm afraid if I drink again I might actually die.

ChloeRose63

OMG! Don't ever do that again!

hellrzr

I drank mouthwash for awhile. First to cover up the beer breath and then I tried stopping the beer and ended up blacking out from mouthwash! Because of that I will not use mouthwash with alcohol in it or even toothpaste that has Scope in it! I will say that Scope was much better than the Dollar Store brand. That stuff was terrible but I still drank it to get the job done. The Alcoholic insanity is strong and scary.

JT79

They specifically add toxins to products like rubbing alcohol so they are undrinkable. Wikipedia explains it (I can't post links yet).

Please never do that again, it really can kill you.

Grungehead

I think that's a pretty healthy and logical fear, and it wouldn't be a pleasant way to go. In addition to burning your insides it also severely thins your blood...not a good combo. Isopropyl alcohol is not metabolized the same way as ethyl alcohol and does far more damage to the body.

People sometimes refer to drinking alcohol as drinking poison, but when you drink rubbing alcohol you are literally drinking poison, just look at the label. It has a warning to contact the Poison Control Center in case of accidental ingestion.

Mountainmanbob

If I was going to relapse today I would not drink those.
Hate to say it to one who may be alcoholic?
But, booze may be better?
Get help -- stay sober -- live a good life.
M-Bob

Dee74

Hi and welcome back lesuisse
How long have you been sober now?

D

GoonSquad

Stop! If it doesn't kill you... it can and will make you go permantly blind! Where Im from a lot of people make moonshine amd if you make a bad batch it will contain the same type of alcohol that's considered rubbing alcohol. Which will blind you.

Bunny211

Yeah do NOT do that again!!!

SoberCAH

Thanks for sharing your experiences with alcohol.

I had a friend who was a haberdasher and he would drink Listerine all day.

He died drunk in his apartment a couple of years ago after being fired by the better men's' clothing stores in town.

It was quite a tragedy.

AM100

My mother died from drinking rubbing alcohol, she was my age ( 37 ).

Her alcoholism had progressed to a point it totaly controlled her. She was in another state when it happened and I was young ( 12 ). The stories I've heard from family members about the situation were quite bad, apparently it was a slow and terrible death after ingesting it.

All these years I've sort of ignored the situation and her struggles until it became apart I was following in her footsteps.

It's hard to believe the things alcohol can make a person do but I somewhat understand why she did it.

Not sure where I was going with this but...

As another poster said, I would do anything rather than drinking that stuff if at all possible.

Done4today

Wow, your post is scary to read. Glad you have found sobriety and many prayers you never go back out.

GotTheBlues

No. I don't know where you live, but you can almost certainly buy alcohol in a "safe" form. Do that.

I know the desperation. I once got so mixed up with trying to hide my drinking that I accidentally drank petrol. (Long story.)

August252015

Agree with the comments above....perhaps time to seek help?

lesuisse

Actually, I started drinking rubbing alcohol in lockdown detox. The nursing staff always used it for their hands and I just asked to do so. Except that I would turn my back and lick my palms...

Last time I relapsed I blacked out and was brought to the hospital. As I woke up, I just stole a bottle of sterilium and drank a few gulps of it. I spent the next three days in the intensive care. The staff thought I wanted to commit suicide...

Now I'm sober and I can't understand what went through my mind at those moments.. that is how strong alcohol can get a grip on me.

Stayingsassy

Glad you're sober.

NClarke2017

Congrats on staying sober, best of luck.. harrowing story.. Sending you my love.

tomsteve

it reads like the mental obsession that can occur when not drinking.
going to any lengths to get alcohol because you were mentally obsessed?

hope ya have yourself some support and a program of action workin to recover

JeffreyAK

There are many chemicals called "alcohol", which Wiki defines as "...any organic compound in which the hydroxyl functional group (–OH) is bound to a saturated carbon atom" - so, a bunch of C's and H's, attached to one or more OH. That's a lot of chemical space, but only one little corner of that space is what we usually think of as "alcohol", which is ethanol, that good stuff. The rest of the space is methanol (wood alcohol, make you blind or kill you), ethylene glycol (antifreeze, kills you), isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol, kills you but not as quickly as wood alcohol or antifreeze), menthol, and many others.

Hand sanitizer is mostly ethanol, so the perfumes and additives may be bad for you but the alcohol is the safe stuff. Same with mouthwash, may make you sick but not gonna kill you. There are many, many stories of people drinking these things when they're out of alcohol and craving more, but it's a bad idea and probably going to make you sick.

Aftershave, bad stuff, contains denatured alcohol and a bunch of other nasty stuff like witch hazel. Bad idea to drink it, stick to mouthwash or hand sanitizer if you're going to drink household chemicals. I've heard of people drinking Sterno too, that's ethanol but it's denatured and it also contains methanol, so could make you blind or kill you.

Rubbing alcohol, though, is a completely different chemical that happens to have "alcohol" in the name. It's poison, don't drink that stuff, it's not what you crave, it will send you to the hospital and it might kill you.

lesuisse

I was drinking a product called sterilium, which contains 85% ethanol. Thing is, i went to the hospital many times, and noticed those green bottles were everywhere, up to five-six in a room.

Sometimes i would just lay down and get wasted sipping that stuff, while medical stuff was thinking i was sobering up.

Crazy **** is, if i relapse, i might end up in the hospital and do exactly the same thing.. Or even worse.