Mentium

We see lots of apparent explanations and reasons for developing drinking problems here. I'm guilty of it too - I'm not criticizing individuals. In my case I often used to blame anxiety and shyness as the root causes of developing a likeness for the effects of alcohol. We read of other examples here often, from combating depression, filling a spiritual hole, forgetting emotional pain, replacing love...you name it.

I wonder though if any of these reasons are much more than hollow justifications. After all most people have pain and suffering in their lives - pretty much everyone in fact, but most don't become addicted to alcohol.

So I'm sort of outing myself here and declaring, rightly or wrongly, that I am an alcoholic for the simple reason that I drank too much for too long and it got me in the end.

Currently doing pretty well with the help of AA!

ScottFromWI

I would agree, and I was guilty of it too. If you are an alcoholic, there is no justifiable reason to drink, period.

Glad to hear AA is working well for you!

DisplacedGRITS

I think a lot of my alcoholic behavior stemmed from fear. Often, it was fear of a situation that i had manufactured. Drinking eased my fears for a short while but when i sobered up, the situation was still there, often worse due to neglect, and so i drank and continued to run. I think i learned to hid from things as a child. I didn't really learn to own up to my mistakes or to face difficult situations and see them as challenges to be dealt with. I ran and ran and ran and that, much like alcohol, worked until it didn't.

There are many components to alcoholism. Physical, mental, emotional...i can't say that being a more confident person as a child and young adult could have prevented anything. All i know is that i know a better way of handling situations what once caused me fear and i no longer feel the need to drink and flee. F*ck Everything And Run had become Face Everything And Recover.

MrBen

I drank because of many complex psychological and sociological reasons I'm not even sure I can properly wrap my head around. We could talk about these reasons all day. But deep down, I drank because at that time I wanted to. Now I don't.

Nonsensical

I drank because it was fun until I drank because nothing was fun without it until I drank because I believed it helped my insomnia and anxiety until I couldn't feel OK unless I drank until I couldn't feel less bad anymore.

MandalayVA

I drank because I was bored.

lunar

Because of anything and everything.
Happy, sad, wedding, wake, baptism, funeral, hot, cold, work, vacation, breakfast, lunch, dinner, angry, confused, secure, scared, &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

tomsteve

at one time it was fun.
then the giggles were gone.
that's when i crossed the line and drank because im an alcoholic.

MIRecovery

For whatever reasons alcohol filled a hole in me. I discover later that the hole could with other much more positive activities

methodman1019

I drank in the beginning because it was instilled in me that it was cool and very adult. My Father (an alcoholic) pretty much instilled that in my brother and I. Unfortunately for us, we already had the disease laying in wait. Thinking back now, it was a horrible confluence of events and circumstances. Hindsight is 20/20

Chilledice

Trauma and heartbreak but I'm working on it the more sober I get :-)

UnixBer

because..
at first it was fun. And without noticing it we became addicted to a dangerous drug, which poisoned our thinking and rational choice.

ForgetfulKevin

I drank to get high. And I drank out of habit: the habit of drinking and the habit of getting high.

patricia68

I self medicated with alcohol to deal with fear and anxiety.

Aellyce

I drank because I liked the effect. Simple as that. For a long time, I thought I liked how alcohol made me feel. I wanted it after tasting it for the first time in my teens, on and off later, and compulsively over and over again for ~a decade. I just wanted my stupid brain on booze fuel. It had transported me into a weird fantasy land that I could easily expand drunk. Yes over time I also got into the anxiety cycle, but I think for me, in the first place, I drank because I liked it, period.

Archelon

I drank because it tastes good, and I am fat and it made me feel light.

that is not justification, it's the truth, that is why I drank.

then it became a problem so I stopped.

That is not justification either, it's the truth.

Cowgirlie

Because I emigrated to a country where the alcohol costs are very low and the party lifestyle is very high! Quite literally an intoxicating combination!

Then a traumatic introduction to motherhood with a non-text book birth experience and unplanned second pregnancy soon after... cope, cope, cope!!

Finally feeling so much more in control and grown-up lol

Good post, btw! x

Pipefish

Because of the hole in my soul.Not an excuse, but a reason, and ironically, it turns out to be the very same thing, once recognised, that got me sober.

There's a saying here in AA that it's an act of cruelty to remove alcohol from an alcoholic & fail to replace it with something of substance, that can change my life so radically, the need to drink is removed. I believe that to be true. Trying to stay sober any other way has never worked for me.

grubby

I drank because it felt good, pure and simple.

There's simply nothing quite like a few ice-cold ones after work to soothe your mind and relieve your stress, it also helped with my general aches and pains........ at my last job i was on my feet for much of the day, and by the time i got home my knees were shot and all the pain and discomfort caught up to me. Even when i wasn't working, it helped ease the boredom of being home all day with nothing to do. Alcohol is "liquid entertainment", i found it made whatever i was doing slightly more enjoyable with it's "brain shut-off" feature.

Also, i was under the (false) impression that alcohol was a "safe" drug and "everybody does it" and "its no big deal".

But yeah, thats pretty much it.......... i drank because it made me feel good/better. No particular reason other than that.

silentrun

I have no logical reason either. I drank because it was fun. Then it wasn't fun anymore and I drank because that's what I thought I had to do. Kind of that's just how it is. Can't say I used it to self medicate because I was actually a happy person before alcohol sucked me in.