fritolay

I am a 28 year old male and had my first alcoholic beverage at the age of 22. I started out only drinking at parties, and just to get drunk. I used to get drunk on 5 or 6 beers. I never liked the taste of alochol, so being a daily social drinker (like having a glass of wine with dinner) never appealed to me. Why bother drinking if you can't get a buzz?

Fast forward to today. I am a daily drinker, and I currently down a 12 pack of miller lite every single night. I've never touched hard liquor, light beer has always been my drink of choice. I do not drink before 10PM and I do not drink after 3AM. I don't hide my drinking, so I'll do this routine whether I'm with friends or alone, it doesn't make any difference. I currently weigh 225 pounds.

At my worst (a few months ago) I weighed 260 pounds and drank 15 Miller lites, every night. Since losing some weight, I've cut back to drinking to just 12 beers a night, and would like to get that down to 10 a night by next week, and keep lowering it slowly as I continue to get myself down in weight back to my normal 200 pounds.

I guess my question is, is my alcoholic intake severe, heavy, moderate, etc. compared with other drinkers? Does my weight have any buffer as to how the quantity affects my body? I don't want to quit cold turkey, but I definately do wish to ween myself off the quantity of beer. I'm really not that physically addicted to it but by the time 10PM rolls around I'm feeling shaky and unsettled until I calm myself down with a beer, which is obviously normal given my routine. I don't want any DTs, or any of that crap. I've never puked from drinking too much, but I do have alot of diareah and panic-like attacks the next day. I've blacked out 3 times in my entire life, but haven't for many months.

My problem isn't really with alcohol (this is a different story entirely), it's with gambling. I play poker, and I'll only play poker drunk (no sober person gambles their money away), and so it's a sick duo addiction, with gambling being the main culrpit. In fact, if I'm nowhere near a casino I won't drink that night (like when I'm on vacation or staying somewhere that gambling isn't possible).

Five

Chap

I think it maybe best to start seeking a better choice of lifestyle than you are already. Living like that is not really the brightest thing you can be doing - as I am sure you are aware.

It sounds to me like you have a problem. But what you do about it is up to you: there are many resources to enable you to put yourself in a more positive way of living.

Just my thoughts, hope that helps.

Kellye C

"Fast forward to today. I am a daily drinker, and I currently down a 12 pack of miller lite every single night. I've never touched hard liquor, light beer has always been my drink of choice. "

******** Alcohol is alcohol. Granted beer has less of a proof but it's still alcohol and has become a daily habit.

"At my worst (a few months ago) I weighed 260 pounds and drank 15 Miller lites, every night. Since losing some weight, I've cut back to drinking to just 12 beers a night, and would like to get that down to 10 a night by next week, and keep lowering it slowly as I continue to get myself down in weight back to my normal 200 pounds."

******** Do you feel like you have a problem with alcohol or are you just trying to lose weight? I'm a bit confused here.

"I guess my question is, is my alcoholic intake severe, heavy, moderate, etc. compared with other drinkers? "

******* Everyone is different. "Normal" drinkers certainly don't down a 12 pack a night. I've seen people in the rooms of AA who drank way more than I did but that didn't make me any less of an alcoholic. I repeat, we are all different.

"I don't want to quit cold turkey, but I definately do wish to ween myself off the quantity of beer. I'm really not that physically addicted to it but by the time 10PM rolls around I'm feeling shaky and unsettled until I calm myself down with a beer, which is obviously normal given my routine. I don't want any DTs, or any of that crap. I've never puked from drinking too much, but I do have alot of diareah and panic-like attacks the next day. I've blacked out 3 times in my entire life, but haven't for many months. "

******* Good luck. I tried to wean myself off of alcohol more times than I could count. It was miserable and invariably the day would come when I'd say screw it and drink a huge amount. The fact that you're having the shakes and anxiety until you can drink lead me to believe that you ARE physically addicted to it regardless of what you might want to believe.

"My problem isn't really with alcohol "

****** Your post above would seem to indicate otherwise.

It is not uncommon for people to engage in more than one addictive behavior. Hell we have addictive personalities.

You are young and have a long life ahead of you. If you think you can "wean" yourself off the beer then more power to you but I know I couldn't. I didn't arrive at this decision overnight though it was by proving myself wrong over and over again. I only drank for 3 1/2 years so like you, I thought I couldn't possibly be an alcoholic. Boy was I wrong! Today I know what I am and I know how much better life is not being a slave to alcohol and I pray to never go back.

Don't know if any of this has helped or if it has pissed you off but I'm just calling it like I see it. I see some denial here but I also see an awareness that there just might be a problem here. My suggestion would be to stick around here and read and see if anything jumps out at you.

Good luck!
Kellye

CarolD

Here is info from my fules...

The US based NADAA (National Assocation of Drug and Alcohol Abuse) defines moderate consumption of alcohol as one drink daily for women and two for men.
12 ounces of beer....4 of wine....1 1/2 of liquor

So,,,,you are way past moderate!

And yes...you are physically addicted.

Check out the sticky near the top of this page,,,
'Quitting...what to expect' for tips on stopping.

Glad you are seeking answers to your drinking...we do understand as we have all had to face the reality of our addiction.

fritolay

Thank you for your responses. While I am technically "physically addicted", as in I've been drinking enough booze to go through some withdrawls the next day, what I meant to say was I am not emotionally addicted. I do not have a relationship with alcohol whereby I would crave it, or couldn't stop using it. My body might be craving it, but to be honest I never really made the connection to hand shaking and alcohol until reading about the relationship online. The diareah I blamed on eating nachos with tons of jalapenos, as this is what I eat everytime I get loaded and go gambling. So yeah, it's probably the booze or a combo that causes me the digestive trouble the next day. That is what I want to stop. I want to wake up each day without feeling any withdrawl.

My addiction is with gambling, and I've now made an unhealthy cohabitation of alcohol and gambling. I won't do one without the other. I need both to do either one. But, the source of all this is the casino, so once I make up my mind to stop going there, I can stop drinking pretty easily, as I have in the past when gambling was unavailable to me.

What I fear is that my consumption might be so high that quitting cold turkey will have negative health consequences and that is what I wish to avoid. So, tonight I will have only 8 Miller lites, instead of my usual 12 (and 12 is down from 15). I'm actually drinking less, which is good, with no desire to drink more. I figure a month or so drinking 8 a night, and I'll reduce it to 4, and go from there until my body recovers from needing it.

So, my end goal is to live a better, more productive life. I want to wake up each day feeling good rather than the withdrawl/hangover I feel each day now. I want to limit or eliminate the casinos altogether, and completely squash the relationship between gambling and drinking so that I can do either by itself like a normal person. My smoking habit will be reduced when I lower the alcohol intake as well. 2 packs a day I wish to become 1 pack a day in the near future.

Wish me luck, even though it's rather odd to do so... tonight, JUST 8 beers, not 12.

In memory of miracle

Hello Frito!
Welcome. Inreading your post, I would say see a doctor and have an honest talk with him.I am sorry you have a double wammy.Have you looked into GA? AA? You dont haveto do this by yourself,we have all been there.Stick around, glad your here.
Bless, Trish

Kellye C

I do wish you luck. You seem to feel like you have a plan worked out and I hope it works for you.

When and if you find that your plan is not working, remember that we are here and help other than self will is available and will be freely given as it was given to us when we realized that we could not control our drinking.

A man in my group has a quote that I just love. "It's always better when you do it together."

Pick-a-name

Wow; if I didn't know better, I'd say you are my husband. He doesn't think he has a problem.either. He drinks just like you,too except he starts about 7pm and quits about 11pm each night. He has a million explainations...........but guess what?; he never just didn't drink;at all. period. That is only an option for a truly social drinker. "Cutting back" is his answer,too...well, one of them.
Good luck to you; that is great you got at least as far as here to think about it. A/H hasn't, at least that I know of. In fact, he moved out of our home and is divorcing me after 27 yrs because he is insulted that the kids and I have a problem with his drinking-related problems.

IMHomerSimpson

As Ive heard from music and NoMoBeer here,"nothing changes if nothing changes",or,"I will read your obituary if you dont stop,you darn fool".Im in the same position you are in,you are not alone,trust me.Just dont drink,only for today,it seems to work for most.

Chy

Hi fritolay and welcome!

I wish you well on your method and hope you'll get to your goal. I was in SanteFe a couple of months ago and was amazed at all the casino's there it had been a good 10 years since I was last there. If you know it to be your trigger, then try changing your routine. It's probably one of the hardest things we have to learn how to do especially when we have a tendency towards compulsive behavior of more then one thing. I know there is plenty else you can learn to do there so give it a go.



.......and Patrick, am I reading that right? SOBER member? Congrats to you! You've managed to do it once and I know you can do it again and pray for you it sticks this time. Keep up the good fight!

Irish Virus

Frito:

Stop before you go down the drain anymore. The cutting back idea on drinking is about as good of an idea as saying you will cut back on on the black jack tables to control your gambling. It will not work.

Gambling may foster an environment for drinking, but it's just an excuse to ignore the fact that you are most likely an alocoholic. 15 beers a night ain't normal pal. That's pretty much a full blown drunk. I can say this because that was business as usual for me in my day. You're only kidding yourself thinking that cutting back to 12 a night is progress.

The only question you need to ask yourself is do you want sobriety and do you want to quit gambling. If you seriously want it, there is AA and GA for your problems. You can do it, but half a$$ed efforts will lead nowhere.

Stop before you lose everything. Stop before some slimeball loan shark gives you money when you're down. Stop before you wake up in alley with the shakes from drinking owing the mob 50K because you thought you were on a roll at the tables.

It's all or nothing and there's no inbetween. God Bless and good luck.

NoMoBeer

Hey frito -- Ken here, alcoholic.

You are singing my song, man. I used to be where you are -- 12, 15 whatever beers a night, Light beer of course, because I was health conscious -- oops, hard to be health conscious when I weighed 250 lbs....

It's not how much you drink, or what you drink, it's HOW you drink. I drank to get drunk. I am an alcoholic. I cannot drink at all. I have a disease which tells me it's OK to drink, and a body which ensures it's not (because once I start, I cannot stop)...

Not sure if you are to the point where you want some help, or just at the "it's not that bad" stage. Gambling, drinking, drugging -- addiction is addiction man.... no matter what the drug of choice.

Hope you find your way, and hope you get some good info on this site.

Ken

fritolay

Yes, addiction is addiction. But the thing is, with alcohol, I can stop. I can have one beer and be done with it, but the thing is I wouldn't just want one beer, so if there's only one beer to be had I won't bother touching it. I drink to get drunk, and I get drunk to go gamble.

I understand this concern, however I am very well off financially. What I lose when I gamble is a very tiny portion of what I have, and I do not gamble high stakes. It's probably like the senior citizen who buys one powerball ticket each week in terms of how much I lose compared to my income. Gambling is like the one activity my depression will allow me to do. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Well, in my case, I gamble and drink because I am depressed, rather than being depressed because I gamble and drink. Yes, it's likely a cycle by now, feeding off each other, but I was depressed first. I used to play pool, go bowling, and play baseball. Now I take whatever I'd spend on those activities and gamble it. So, it's not an additional hit on my income, it's just a shift from a healthy activity to an unhealthy one.

Update: Tonight I've had one beer (so far). I bought two pumpkins and want to carve one this evening, but if not, I'll carve them tomorrow.

Pick-a-name

fritolay: Hi,again. Yes, A/H is financially very,very successful,too (work is another one of his addictions,too). But guess what......his judgement is getting a bit off from this disease and I see where that will lead, if "something" doesn't change; this is all progressive I've been told and everything I have seen causes me to agree. I guess it comes down to deciding how much you are willing to loose. And thinking with a brain altered by chemicals is pretty much like playing Russian Roulette to me; eventually something really bad is going to happen.

p.s. Are you a golf-nut,too? haha

Peter

Fritolay, you just spent four paragraphs of your thread describing your drinking pattern and asking some concerned questions then you finish up by saying "alcohol isn't really your problem"

I do believe you when you say you have a "gambling problem" (and oh by the way, sober men do gamble their life away) but getting the "jitters, diarrhoea, panic attacks and black outs" are usually sure indicators that you have a drinking problem.

You might want to take a serious look at your lifestyle.

fritolay

Not me. I would never gamble sober.

I've already established that I consume too much beer, and it was those very symptoms which have made me decide to lower my intake drastically.

I thought that is what I was doing.

fritolay

Okay, UPDATE: 2 days in, and I've had 10 beers each night since first posting here. I gambled one of those two nights. Tonight isn't the night I gambled, as I'm waiting to eat a lasanga frozen dinner before heading to bed. I am nursing the 10th beer (my last) as I type this. I didn't have any ill effects today either, and no diareah, so that's good. Seems either beer 11 or 12 is responsible for that (so I'm below the threshold). As I continue to lose weight and get into shape, and ween myself off this beer, I'll lower it accordingly. I didn't even get much of the shakes today, either. The only real thing was this evening at the grocery store I was so hungry I felt like my blood sugar was bottoming and wanted to get sick or eat, so I had a subway tuna.

Pick-a-name

Hi fritolay: Well; whatever you do or don't do; I hope it works for you.....it takes what it takes, I guess. Hope you stick around and keep us posted!

Pick-a-name

Fritolay: What causes problems IS a problem. I guess basically what you are saying is that you don't really consider the drinking or gambling a problem.

dukeflora

My friend --

Just get out of the hole!

It's not going to get any shallower!

I'm not a preacher, but I've been in the rut long enough to know that what you're saying sound like "trouble signs" to me.

I've been battling booze for over 10 years. I go on the wagon for five years...five months...five days...

It's not going to get prettier until you clean up.

I don't mean to pontificate 'cause I'm FAR from perfect.

Somebody with 20+ years of sobriety put it to me in a blunt but cool way: quit thinking about "drinking" and think about it in terms of "thinking". This helped me a lot.

Helped me dig my ass out of a premature grave...

Best of luck,

PPS in NYC