AWald88

Hi All

I was wondering how often and how much you all used to drink.

For me it followed a 3 week pattern around my work (I work Fly in Fly out in Australia) usally 10-12 drinks on fly in day. Then 8 standard drinks (a bottle of wine equivalent) 3-4 times during the 7 days when I was on day shift. About 14-16 (2 bottles of wine equivalent) on shift change. Maybe one 8 drink session on the 7 night shifts. Then for the 10-11 days I had at home off it varied from 1 or 2 drinks in a week to an occasional complete bottle of wine.

What about you all?

Lpg

Hey

I try not to think about this so much, I simply drank Too much too often and when I did I couldn't stop, no amount was ever enough.. I feel like if I think too much about how much I drank I end up talking like maybe it wasn't so much for me to be alcoholic.

Lpg

Andante

I don't drink anymore, so Like Lpg, I don't devote much time or energy to this topic. It isn't one that interests me.

Recovering from alcohol addiction meant freeing myself from its emotional hold over me. The only reason I can think of to dwell on how much I used to drink would be if I were thinking of drinking again.

ScottFromWI

Too much, too often. And I also agree that while it can be interesting to hear others' stories on the subject, it can also lead to comparing your drinking to others. And the AV can then creep in and make you think it wasn't so bad...

But for the record, I drank all day, every day, 365 days a year. Literally if I was not asleep or the handful of hours I was at work mon-fri, I was drinking all day long until I passed out for the night.

Ladysadie

I binged. Tolerance builds, everyone's tolerance is different. You can actually consume a lethal toxic amount, again it varies by each person. I developed a tolerance that was scary. I don't think the quantity is as important as when one starts to develop reactions to the ethanol (google its side effects). It affects many organs in the body, including the heart. Damage is not always reversible so many people push their limits only to discover they can never recapture their health. Hopefully you are young and can recover, and hopefully you are smart enough to realize the amount you are reporting is not recommended for a healthy life.

Glad you are here, it tells me your consumption is a concern for you. Wake up to the damage you may be causing yourself. Sending you supportive best wishes.

SpankedbyLife

I drank between 12-20 units a night for almost 3 years before withdrawal finally started kicking in during the day even though I was a nightly drinker.

VigilanceNow

I've spoken with so many people about their drinking habits, and it amazes me how wide the spectrum of alcoholic behavior is. Some people need a little every day to maintain themselves. Some people simply need their drink every single night to fall asleep. Others are just wasted all the time.

Me? I was a binge drinker. I would go weeks without drinking, think I was fine, and then pick up a drink determined to be "ok" and drink in moderation. It almost never worked out that way; I would drink myself until I blacked out and wake up in confusion and horror the next morning. After a while of this, next day's hangover turned into withdrawal. I did not recognize this for what it was at first. Once I realized that taking a shot or two would ease the shakes and sweating, off I was again to get wasted that day. This would go on usually for 3 days, at which point I was so scared that I would have have to stop. Sometimes, unfortunately (or fortunately?) this required being at a hospital to balance out my fluids and vitamins. Ah, I do NOT miss those days!!

Now i have recognized that one drink truly is too many, and if I take that one drink, 1,000 are never enough.

eyes99

300ml of 80 proof bourbon a night

least

Too much, too often. Glad I don't drink anymore.

allno

This is very similar to the way I drink but I don't blackout. I do feel the need to drink the next day to feel better or handle the withdrawals. I actually don't like drinking much these days and can't figure out why I still take that first drink anymore at all. I think it is just something that I've done so long, it's a habit. Of course once I've had the first one, then I must drink more.

My husband and I are both alcoholics. Today I'm not drinking but feeling pretty hopeless about our situation and getting nothing at all done.

Obladi

Allno,

Welcome. I'll advise you as other advised me to try to take it easy on yourself in the beginning. If all you accomplish today is not drinking, that's good enough! Repeat tomorrow and the day after as long as it takes. I learned to take it slowly with the reminders of good folks here and am now at 28 days "coming out of it." It's worth it. Good for you for taking action.

As far as how much I drank, I find that I'm quite competitive in many aspects of my life, some of which are really meaningless. I drank enough that I worried about shocking my loved ones should I die in the night without discarding the empties. Glad that's in the past.

AWald88

This is what I was thinking about last night. From reading through the threads it struck me that we alcoholics are a pretty diverse bunch who don't seem to have much in common with even our drinking. This strikes me as something which is not often communicated well.

You can be an alcoholic even if you are not drinking every day or even every week. And to me at least getting to the point of admitting that you are one is half the battle.

MindfulMan

Interesting that you drank more when at work (mines)? I knew a sea captain that was drug tested before he got on ship and randomly when he was at sea. So he'd be sober for a few weeks while working. He'd start drinking as soon as he hit the dock on his off time, and get obliterated on his off weeks. He'd stop just soon enough that he would be functional by the time he got back to the boat. Truly a drunken sailor on shore leave.

My drinking and drugging ebbed and flowed over the years. The longest pattern was probably start drinking on Thursday night (about 5-6), get through Friday a bit hung over, then Friday night about 10-12, and another 20 through Sunday afternoon. Wake up near death on Monday and get through the week with only a few to take the edge off.

There was also round the clock coke binging with probably 3 bottles of wine a night at one point.

I smoked a ton of weed in high school and early college. Some binge drinking through college. In my 20s I barely partied. Just didn't want it. Would buy a bottle of wine and it would go bad before I finished it. Had the same bottle of vodka for months, mostly for guests and I might have one as well.

Grad school starting at 30 involved bad bingeing, then nothing. In my late 30s I was pretty heavily involved in bodybuilding so I was living very cleanly. Well, except for a GHB phase, and that was for sleep and growth hormone secretion (yeah, right).

40s was the coke and booze where things really heated up.

Stayingsassy

I tried to quit drinking ten years ago when I thought drinking 6-9 craft beers four days a week would kill me.

It got much, much, much worse. At the end I had a liver that could take a handle of gin in 24 hours. Much props to the liver, but being insane and sick all the time wasn't worth it.

I read a passage from "Food junkies" last night that went like this:

"You are on an elevator that only goes down. You have the power to get off on any floor you wish."

choose your floor carefully, because you can't go back up.

Gottalife

I drank when I had to and nearly always drank more than I intended.

tomsteve

I was wondering how often and how much you all used to drink.
over 23 years,i drank the exact amount necessary for me to receive the gift of desperation.

AWald88

A big part of that is that I have kids which I try and be a good example for. Also my wife would not stand for me drinking too much at home (due to my drinking like a fool when we were first together).

Also as I've pretty much always worked away (navy and mining) in pretty heavy drinking cultural environments it was just normal for me to drink away. It's only recently I started to see it as a problem.

Anyway 6 months in -2 binges (day 83)

SnazzyDresser

I would drink 18 to 24 beers every single day. Over time that progressed to 24-33 beers every single day. But only Miller Lite, true story. I couldn't decide if it was because it tastes great or was less filling.

Done4Ever

I drank 2-4 bottles of wine every night. Just the past 3-4 years every night blackout, but this level of drinking for 15+. It was awful. I’m in AA now and working in my recovery.

MissPerfumado

I have a real issue with this question of how much I drank. A few people very close to me have asked me and I always refuse to respond, even if I'm being quite open and frank about other aspects of my drinking.

Why?

Once I put a number on it, the other person will start to think either: wow, that's a lot; or really, that's not so bad. And them having either thought is repellant to me. Because either way, it will be them filtering through their own opinions and prejudices what was my lived experience, a deeply personal story, and a challenge that I had to overcome by facing a lot of tough truths and hacking my way through a mountain of lies I had told myself.

How could I possibly reduce what was one of the epic struggles of my life to a meaningless number?!

I hope you don't take offence, AWald, but I think that's why I dislike the question so much.