FLA

I use to say you only live once I might as well party all the time.. And I did for close to 6 years straight and I'm only 20. But I realized something today, your not just going to all of a sudden die from drinking you risk brain damage, liver damage, all sorts of cancers etc.. All of which can severely F-up your life to the point where you live years in complete misery and don't even have the option to drink. What fun is that? It's not, it's a waste of life. So next time you think about giving in to temptation to drink, think about s-hitting your pants the rest of your life, or damaging your brain to the point were you can't function on your own. I imagine that's not a life anyone would want to live. Anyways I read a thread that sparked this opinion I hope someone relates or learns something from it.

sugarbear1

Thanks for sharing that! Very true. Except I have too much time I don't recall since I was "out of it" in one way or another, including those horrible hangovers!

I bought myself a shoe rack...and had wally world free delivery to a local fed ex place (closer than getting it shipped to the store--I could walk to get it with no vehicle). I was able to track it's shipping status, so I was mapping it and getting excited as it got closer and closer....

I was telling a friend and found myself saying, "I had so much fun tracking this thing....blah blah blah ....and I thought I was having fun drinking! Ya know, my life, while drinking, was just as 'boring' as it is, hey! I always thought my life was better drinking, but it really wasn't, it was ALL an illusion!"

Life is better sober!

GirlFromCO

Right on, FLA - I couldn't agree more

eJoshua

I can only speak from my own experience, but I did feel this way for a while. I adopted kind of a "F- it, what difference does it make" mentality. For me, this was just delusional thinking. I wasn't happy when I was drinking. I didn't realize it until I got sober, but the truth is my drinking caused me to be more depressed and wasn't any fun anymore.

Now I kind of look at it the other way -- while some people think that life is too short so you might as well drink, I think life is too short so you may as well be sober for it.

GrowingDaily

That's sig-line material right there.

2granddaughters

I think it was George burns who said "If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself".

All the best to everyone

Bob R

Dee74

I used to think 'I have cerebral palsy...I'm likely to end up in a wheelchair, in assisted living...why not drink?'

Drinking for 20 years helped me discover there were actually worse things that being in a wheelchair etc, and worse things than dying outright.

I suffered several mini strokes in my detox - I'm ok, but I'll never be the same again. But...it might have been much worse.

On a more positive note - I've had such a great life since I quit drinking....it really has been worth every minute

D

Sapling

You sound like you are wising up FLA...Wasn't the last time you were here you were going to some party and said the hell with it?.....You seem like you've grown up a bit...And you're only 20....I got to give you credit....I wasn't that smart when I was 20....And it took me 30 more years to grow up.

gravity

Living each day to the fullest no longer includes a blackout.

InsertNameHere

I deffinetly had this mentality for a few years, and to be honest I had a lot of fun drinking. I had a lot of bad times as well. Weird thing though I have trouble picturing a complete night, I can remember events 5 maybe 10 minutes at a time, but thats about it. maybe that is one reason life appears so short when drinking, you have your hungover hours that nothing really happens in and all you want them to do is go quicker then you pick up that first one and the rest of that night is flashes when you wake up in the morning hung over again. Life is short when you are drinking everyday because you can't remember any of it. I am looking forward to getting back to the states and starting to hang out with people again sober and remembering the whole night. Maybe then life will seem just as long as it is. I am tired and rambeling though hopefully that made sense.

FLA

Well my problem is that I am smart and know what I need to do in life... BUT I'm a do as I say not as I do type of person haha. But yes last time I went through the whole withdrawal process and came out of it and felt better so I started drinking again. This time I had another withdrawal experience, this time was a bit scarier I was delusional the first day and thought I was going crazy, I think that's what scared me straight. I don't want to drink till I permenantly mess myself up. By the way I have never had withdrawals in my entire life why all of a sudden these past few months have I been experiencing them? Is my body just fed up and use to all the alcohol or what? I don't get it.

Zencat

It is amazing FLT that I, like you choose to drink when our mind/body/everything was falling apart. What a great realization it was to know that changing all of that was possible.

sugarbear1

FLA,
A body can only take so much before it begins to reject the alcohol. It's the damage we do that we can't see!

Take a look at some (yeah, some) long timers in recovery, they look very young! That is because they stopped before more damage had occurred.

Stay strong and stay stopped!

InsertNameHere

Second slightly more awake thought on this subject. I am only newly sober but an now starting to see that i might actually accomplish some of the goals/dreams that I have for my life. They aren't anything fance and are deffinetly achievable with a little effort, but while drinking I knew that they were just flights of fancy and that I would never actually do any of it. I am now starting to think you know what if I really decide I want to I could do that. it is interesting to note the slight change in perception from yeah that would be nice but its probably not going to happen, to Hmmm that would be nice, and you know what I think I could pull that off.

Who is living life to its fullest in those senarios the drunk that doesn't think any of his life goals are achievable because all he ever does is drink every free moment he has. Or the teetoadler that has goals and even after only three weeks sober is starting to see how he might go about acomplishing them. Only time will tell but my money is on the latter.

FLA

So so so true insertnamehere. I've already got several job opportunities that may pull through and I am actually thinking about my future now. When your drinking everything seems unachievable because you just don't care about anything.