p357

Y is it so bad to be a functioning alcoholic? I can't find much else online about it. Sometimes I feel like **** when i wake up but I never ditch work and am an asset to my team.

ScottFromWI

It's really up to you to decide. If your drinking causes problems, try quitting and see if they get better.

doggonecarl

Functioning alcoholic is a stage of alcoholism, not a type of alcoholic. It progresses. Why not stop it while you are thinking about it?

birddog406

Generally speaking (not directed at you), it's probably bad from a health perspective - mind, body and spirit. It may lead to issues with family and friends. I don't think alcoholics have a good sense of what their drinking does to the spirit of their children and spouse. My mother is a functioning alcoholic and I hate being around her when she is drinking. Getting to work and being a good employee is not the only measure - it has a far broader reach.

aborkie

Your liver might not be functioning too well.

Dee74

most people don't register here and signup if everything is peachy keen, p357...so what bought you here?

D

matt4x4

Just think how much more you would be successful if you quit the sauce!

MelindaFlowers

P357,

I can relate to your post. I am also a working professional and I did very well at work. I also drank heavily every night of the week, and as you said is the case with you, felt like _______ every morning. Every single morning. How crazy is that?

How crazy is it that that we get used to feeling like _______ every morning? I guess there's really no logic to addiction but it still amazes me and your post reminds me of it. I didn't even remember what it felt like to wake up and not feel like ______.

I thought I was doing great at work, and I guess I was, but I know I could have done much better if I wasn't hungover everyday. And, just to clarify, when I say hungover I just mean splitting headache, dehydration, irritability, clamminess, slight shaking. Never nausea or sickness. That's how I managed to keep up appearances.

Anyways, I also realized that I had to put in 4X more effort than everyone else to do well because I felt so ill every day. I didn't realize this until I gave myself two months away from drinking and for the fog to lift. I felt like I was rejoining the human race and I'd been away for awhile.

You can stop. It feels wonderful to wake up every morning not feeling like ________.

NorMar

What are your usual drinking habits on the weekends, when you don't have to be to work the next day?

MIRecovery

I thought i was functional too. When i sobered up i realized the shame, guilt, lying, not being 100%, my relationships, driving drunk, physical problems, hangovers, and anxiety were not functional at all

GracieLou

Saying I was a functioning alcoholic kept me in denial for decades. I was functioning until I wasn't.

At one point I was drinking everyday, going to bars, having a good time with only a light hangover.

Then came the point that I was drinking everyday, isolated in my home with only going to work and short trips to the store. My anxiety level was through the roof and I was terrified to go anywhere. I was barely able to drive to work.

It is progressive. I could not stop. I needed alcohol. Have you tried to stop? Have you given it 30 days?

I guess the question you have to ask yourself is why are you asking. Something brought you here. Were you looking for someone to agree with you?

My advice is to stop for 30 days. Just don't drink and see how it goes. What is 30 days? If you find yourself irritable, talking yourself out it, drinking anyway because they voice inside your head tells you to then you might not be a functioning alcoholic. You may be just an alcoholic but that is for you to decide.

Gottalife

Leaving the serious matter of alcoholism to one side, just pretend for a moment that you are a heavy drinker instead. One thing that is bad about that is that alcohol is a class 1 carcenogen, just like cigarettes. 2 drinks a dau is equivalent to 5 cigarettes a week. Excess alcohol consumption brings an increased risk of cancer. Bowel, liver and pancreas if I remember correctly.
Heavy drinkers dont live as long.

Stiv

As many said, I too thought I was a functional alcoholic, I believe what Carl said hits it right on the head... "Functioning alcoholic is a stage of alcoholism, not a type of alcoholic"

Soberwolf

Functioning means your drinking doing activities but tbh is this functioning ? This is dying slowly

Really can't see how alcohol is legal and nothing else is because of addiction and health problems

Alcohol needs to be looked at so properly if no one was an addict everyone can live without it right ?

So for all those Normie's if alcohol was banned worldwide it really shouldn't be a problem if u can't have it cos u don't have a problem


Or is it that old favourite I don't have a problem I just like it


Ban alcohol worldwide and youl see a lot more alcoholics making booze happened during prohibition

Whole world is alcoholic I'm tired of the power alcohol has on ppl

Drinking poison it is actually poison

Sorry for ranting

LBrain

I was a functioning alcoholic all the way up to my last day at work. It only takes one screw up to turn your life upside down.

Nonsensical

You are afraid to stop drinking to the point you are trying to justify that it's OK to be an alcoholic because you still have a job.

You don't have to live with that fear. You can get out of that prison. People here can show you how.

Best of Luck on Your Journey!

DisplacedGRITS

All I know is that I'm not living life with the desire to simply function. I'm living life to be present in the moment. I'm living to feel an honest connection to humanity. I'm striving towards a better relationship with my HP. Physical sobriety is merely a side effect of my sober lifestyle. Function? Bah! I'm not a robot mindlessly performing a task within my functional parameters. I'm a human. Some days, I will find myself falling short but most days, I outperform what is required of me and I do so not to impress anyone but because I WANT to. If I make it through a tough day and all I can say is that I functioned properly, I'm walking down the wrong path. I'd rather have a bad day where I wholly live in the present than have a meh day in which a simply mindlessly function.

If you're a functioning alcoholic, just drop the functioning bit. Just be an alcoholic. Be a barking old self centered, egomaniac with an inferiority complex alcoholic. Just be a regular ole alcoholic. I don't know of any program that caters to the functioning or high functioning alkie. I do, however know of a program and way of life that treats alcoholism in a sad sack, exhausted, desperate and self centered alcoholic. And I'll be damned, it works.

birddog406

Very well said DisplacedGRITS.

FreeOwl

because "functioning" is a giant lie.

We don't really learn how big a lie until we choose a sober path and look back.

but like Dee's post implies, I have a really hard time believing that if being a 'functioning alcoholic' was a pretty good thing in your life you'd bother signing up and posting on a recovery website.

jdooner

Not if you don't mind wasting talent. I mean that is what you are rationalizing, right? The arument is: I can function, things are not so bad (but admittedly lower than they could be) so is that so bad. Again, as long as you are comfortable operaitngi n a range below your potential then no.