Why can't I stop??
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 2
Why can't I stop??
24, have everything, job, girlfriend, great friends who also like to drink but can stop. I just keep going. I get really bad when trying to sober up, heart palpatrations and it just makes me go to get another drink. girlfriend has warned me to cut back, lost my girlfriend of 5 years for similar reason. I am a happy drunk and people get a good laugh off me but then i go through a lot of pain when i am alone and trying to recover. I pretty much drink Friday-Tuesday and only recover fully on thursday and then it starts again the next day. Can feel my job is going to catch on soon and I'll lose it. Does this sound similar to anyone?????? Help needed
Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: My world
Posts: 379
Hi Crew,
it sounds very simular. It's the viscous circle you are caught up in. Drink, drink, drink then try and stop and your whole body rebells. It's called addiction and you are the only one that can stop the circle. The heart palpatations, the shakes etc. can be bad, some need medical attention, but they do pass and that is when you will start to healand enjoy your life. You don't need to be drunk to be happy or to make other people happy. In my opinion there is no 'happy drunk' only a 'drunk drunk'. Were you ever sober and watched a drunk? I don't think they look happy - just drunk. Welcome to SR. You'll find a lot of support here.
it sounds very simular. It's the viscous circle you are caught up in. Drink, drink, drink then try and stop and your whole body rebells. It's called addiction and you are the only one that can stop the circle. The heart palpatations, the shakes etc. can be bad, some need medical attention, but they do pass and that is when you will start to healand enjoy your life. You don't need to be drunk to be happy or to make other people happy. In my opinion there is no 'happy drunk' only a 'drunk drunk'. Were you ever sober and watched a drunk? I don't think they look happy - just drunk. Welcome to SR. You'll find a lot of support here.
Follow Directions!
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Fredericksburg, Va.
Posts: 9,730
Welcome to SR crewc, Oh how I can relate to where you are at right now, it can get worse, I did, I did not draw a sober breath the last 5 years I drank, I drank when I did not want to drink, I drank for years after there was any pleasure to drinking at all unless you want to speak of slipping off into that nothingness of oblivion just to wind up coming too, to the still bitter taste of reality.
I discovered the reason I could not stop and that was the very beginning of my recovery, I am an alcoholic, that is why I could not stop.
I would highly reccommend seeing your doctor and being TOTALLY honest about you drinking and then follow his suggestions.
Next I would suggest a long term recovery program and WORK it like your life depends upon it. I use AA, but there are other programs as well to check out.
I discovered the reason I could not stop and that was the very beginning of my recovery, I am an alcoholic, that is why I could not stop.
I would highly reccommend seeing your doctor and being TOTALLY honest about you drinking and then follow his suggestions.
Next I would suggest a long term recovery program and WORK it like your life depends upon it. I use AA, but there are other programs as well to check out.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: NC
Posts: 219
Welcome Crew, your senerio does sound familiar. I was missing a couple of days of work every week and when I was at work I wasn't very productive. Furtunately when I was counseled and finally admitted to my boss and other co-workers what was going on I found that they were very supportive. The best thing I did was finally talk to my doctor about it. It was hard, but finally opening up to my him along with my family, friends and co-workers was actually a relief. I wish you the best. Hang in there and keep talking.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: CA desert
Posts: 1,599
It's an obsession of the mind and a dependency created in the body, that's the best understanding of why we can't stop that I've heard. I'm an alcoholic, like Taz said, so I drink. The heart palpitations were a warning to me also, then my first heart attack at 38, a second at 45, and a third earlier this year, all requiring medical attention, triple-bypass, stents, the works. Yet, I kept drinking.
At 24, you have the warning signs, now that you've found SR, you have a tool to help you stop, so I hope you use it, and like Taz said, find more tools, like AA to help you. With me, I'm going to AA now, and my disease did progress to the point that I could not stop myself from drinking. It gets so much worse; jobs lost, relationships damaged beyond repair, physical consequences, loss of home, sanity, the works, it all can become reality if the progression is not stopped, hour-by-hour, day-by-day. We may be the life of the party, but when the party's over, we slowly die off, we lose our sanity to the obsession to drink, so that we can try to be the life of the party just one more time, to feel at ease with the world just one more time, to be liked by every one just one more time, while our pursuit of these fleeting moments slowly drives us into a state of total despair, anguish, and the heartwrenching reality that we just can't do it anymore. That is the lot of most hardcore drunks, after the fun is gone, the reality of becoming a social misfit stares us in the face and we drink again. We cannot stand to be ourselves, so we drink to become, if only for a moment, someone whom others like, even if the jokes are at our expense. It's a sad state that will kill us slowly and tragically rob us of everything we ever desired, only to find ourselves with an empty bottle, empty pockets and a huge hole in our soul. That's what happens when we alcoholics can't stop drinking.
The good news is there is a better way, it's here at SR, and at your local AA meetings, among other programs. Try one, try them all, try anything that works for you, because you don't want to end up at 50 being like me.
At 24, you have the warning signs, now that you've found SR, you have a tool to help you stop, so I hope you use it, and like Taz said, find more tools, like AA to help you. With me, I'm going to AA now, and my disease did progress to the point that I could not stop myself from drinking. It gets so much worse; jobs lost, relationships damaged beyond repair, physical consequences, loss of home, sanity, the works, it all can become reality if the progression is not stopped, hour-by-hour, day-by-day. We may be the life of the party, but when the party's over, we slowly die off, we lose our sanity to the obsession to drink, so that we can try to be the life of the party just one more time, to feel at ease with the world just one more time, to be liked by every one just one more time, while our pursuit of these fleeting moments slowly drives us into a state of total despair, anguish, and the heartwrenching reality that we just can't do it anymore. That is the lot of most hardcore drunks, after the fun is gone, the reality of becoming a social misfit stares us in the face and we drink again. We cannot stand to be ourselves, so we drink to become, if only for a moment, someone whom others like, even if the jokes are at our expense. It's a sad state that will kill us slowly and tragically rob us of everything we ever desired, only to find ourselves with an empty bottle, empty pockets and a huge hole in our soul. That's what happens when we alcoholics can't stop drinking.
The good news is there is a better way, it's here at SR, and at your local AA meetings, among other programs. Try one, try them all, try anything that works for you, because you don't want to end up at 50 being like me.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Virginia
Posts: 818
Heart palpatations are not good, and may be a condition called atrial fibrillation. Alcohol consumption is a primary cause. Get to a doctor and tell him what's going on. This is not a good thing to have.
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Dancing in the Light
Posts: 61,512
Hi and Welcome,
Addiction will take everything from you if you let it.
I'm glad you are here and seeking support.
Please talk to your dr about your heart palpitations. That sounds very scary.
Addiction will take everything from you if you let it.
I'm glad you are here and seeking support.
Please talk to your dr about your heart palpitations. That sounds very scary.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Baghdad
Posts: 2,822
Originally Posted by crewc 
My whole life is revolving around me being in fear of the heart palpatrations.
Yeah, I have that problem from time to time, had a cardiac 'episode', ended up in the hospital for 5 days, two cardiac catheters, very unpleasant, in fact I don't ever recall being as scared as I was for the second catheter, not knowing if they were going to let me out of the hospital or what they might find.
But I still kept on drinking. My life wasn't revolving around fear of heart palpitations, it was revolving around drinking.
Owner of a strange glitch.
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: midsouth
Posts: 2,331
Welcome. 
Had my first seizure at 28... paramedics came and told me I could have/could die from quitting drinking like I did. Soon as they left, I decided quitting wasn't for me--that it was safer to keep on drinking.
A year later, I'm here. I now realize that my reaction was stupid--to say the least--and have detoxed at home with medical supervision. I highly recommend it--if nothing else, it eases some of my fears of semi-instant death.
It doesn't get any better--the drinking that is. Whatever pleasure there might have been, it's gone now.
Stay around some, keep posting & onward to sober days...
-TB
Had my first seizure at 28... paramedics came and told me I could have/could die from quitting drinking like I did. Soon as they left, I decided quitting wasn't for me--that it was safer to keep on drinking.
A year later, I'm here. I now realize that my reaction was stupid--to say the least--and have detoxed at home with medical supervision. I highly recommend it--if nothing else, it eases some of my fears of semi-instant death.
It doesn't get any better--the drinking that is. Whatever pleasure there might have been, it's gone now.
Stay around some, keep posting & onward to sober days...
-TB
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
