MythOfSisyphus

Great story here that sums up addiction very well. Worth a read!

Dee74

Great article MOS - thanks for sharing

Tang

Very nice article. It's definitely not fun being a high functioning addict.

SnoozyQ

Thanks for the good read Myth :-) xx

FreeOwl

that was a good read. Thank you

Zebra1275

Thanks for the post.

miamifella

I spent years in that middle ground. People in meetings told me I could not stop until I accelerated my use so that I could hit a bottom. They said it was impossible to stop as long as I was "high-functioning."

I eventually left the program and I did stop. But it was hard.

There is a lot of support for addicts who cannot function....but it is hard to know exactly what to do for the "middle-way" folk who want to quit.

totfit

I don't know what it is like to be a high functioning alcoholic "that is using". I know what it is like to be a bright individual that is a manic non-functioning mess while using. I have lived for brief periods of time in my life without total disaster while using, but this is not functioning. I think even for those that can for some period of time moderate just a bit, it has got to be a heck of a lot more trouble than it is work. That is my experience anyway.

AuntieSoso

Before I quit drinking, I had a friend pose the question of how to drink in moderation - I think because she was worried about her alcohol consumption but (of course) didn't want to give it up altogether. For some reason that prompted me to buy the book "Drink" which I read and liked and I suppose was one of the precursors of my quitting.

In the meantime, my friend who tries to moderate comes to my house and gets so wasted mixing beer, wine, beer, martinis, wine, beer, tries to bully and pressure me into drinking, and is so hungover the next day that she ends up on the couch and the only thing she's able to get up for is getting to the bathroom to puke.

Watching her being unable to stop her drinking that night was sort of like watching what I must have been like when I was drinking. Of course I'd have SOME rules I'd follow, like not mixing alcohols, but I would also have a hard time quitting in the evening and I'd continue past when I should have stopped.

It was a good example to me of why moderation doesn't work - at least for me. It is too easy to slip up, to slip into that mode of going too far, making an ass of yourself, feeling like ****, suffering physically and mentally, and embarrassing yourself. Best, for me, to just not even go there in the first place because I can't seem to control myself once I take that first sip.

Nonsensical

BOOM!

FindTheAnswer

I lived a long time "fearful" of what happens if I stop. There were years that every January I would stop for a month. It was my way of giving my body a rest...and my check on myself that I could stop. I don't remember the last January that I did this, but I know of a few that passed where it didn't seem as important anymore to try it.

MsJax

That was good. It is interesting to read the comments

Leshar

Thanks for this article! I think it is a very well written piece. Sobering, indeed.

I'm at 8 months, and am just beginning to feel better after a very difficult time with a depressive episode. I had read an essay by Christopher Hitchens, not very long ago, where he espoused the need some individuals have to drink, almost as a protective measure, to banish the demons of depression, to keep them alive, as it were.

I remember feeling, at the time, that for me, to drink was inevitable, given a lengthy, painful struggle with a major depressive illness.

But the fog has lifted, thankfully. Hitchens' notion is really bs. Yes, for me and for so many of us, the idea of sobriety, of an abstinent life is frightening, terrifying indeed, but the difference between Hitchens and the people quoted in the article and us, is that we are addressing that fear, we are willing to work bloody hard, and take strength and comfort in the knowledge that we are doing the right thing for our own health and well being, and out of respect for ourselves and for those who care about us.
And yes, we can have fun too!

Mel12

A standard battery of tests would easily falsify fantasies about high functioning. Just because someone can still "function" at 50% capacity, who wants to go around hobbled.