The main obstacle to sobriety
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Join Date: Apr 2016
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The main obstacle to sobriety
Drinking? Well the thing is, I just like it. Why not? It's a wonderful, magical thing. It transforms the base metal of my life into gold. I'm an alchemoholic.
Alcohol, I like it, love it, it's nice, beyond nice multiplied a million times by nice to the factor of nice. I love the effect that drinking gives me. If it's illusory then give me illusion.
Despite all the reasons why I shouldn't and how everything about it is negative, I just want to do it. It gives me something that nothing else does. I'm stepping into a world where I shouldn't be from a world where I don't belong.
I've abandoned another attempt at abstinence - I notched up a ridiculous 3 days. I've been looking at it from the wrong side of the telescope.
I know I'm sure that drinking is the main feature in my life. If you knew me and were you describe me I bet you'd say, "that's Brian, he's the one, you know the one who's usually drunk."
Why shouldn't I just accept that I like it. There's not much else going on. That's it I think.
But the thing is, I know that's not true.
Alcohol, I like it, love it, it's nice, beyond nice multiplied a million times by nice to the factor of nice. I love the effect that drinking gives me. If it's illusory then give me illusion.
Despite all the reasons why I shouldn't and how everything about it is negative, I just want to do it. It gives me something that nothing else does. I'm stepping into a world where I shouldn't be from a world where I don't belong.
I've abandoned another attempt at abstinence - I notched up a ridiculous 3 days. I've been looking at it from the wrong side of the telescope.
I know I'm sure that drinking is the main feature in my life. If you knew me and were you describe me I bet you'd say, "that's Brian, he's the one, you know the one who's usually drunk."
Why shouldn't I just accept that I like it. There's not much else going on. That's it I think.
But the thing is, I know that's not true.
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Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Queensland
Posts: 568
Do you really like it or is that your AV fooling you? I have a strong suspicion it's your AV otherwise you wouldn't be here yeah?
Do you feel helpless to stop maybe? So you are rationalising to yourself that you should just accept this disease and try to live with it?
Some deep soul searching required and some hard truths to accept but when you do, WOW, life can change radically and for the better!
I'm a newbie here, 4 months sober but last year I couldn't go 2 days without getting drunk. It was only when I realised I was helpless and couldn't stop just on sheer willpower that I sought help. And 2017 is shaping up to be flipping great
If you want to stop drinking you can. Tons of caring people who would love to help you along the way are ready when and if you decide to reach out.
Do you feel helpless to stop maybe? So you are rationalising to yourself that you should just accept this disease and try to live with it?
Some deep soul searching required and some hard truths to accept but when you do, WOW, life can change radically and for the better!
I'm a newbie here, 4 months sober but last year I couldn't go 2 days without getting drunk. It was only when I realised I was helpless and couldn't stop just on sheer willpower that I sought help. And 2017 is shaping up to be flipping great
If you want to stop drinking you can. Tons of caring people who would love to help you along the way are ready when and if you decide to reach out.
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: The Great Outdoors
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I agree. Drinking enables us to blank out and not worry about anything.
Don't worry about family and what we put them thru. If you are lucky enough to have sober friends they worry as well. I think if we keep this mentality up we will find ourselves alone with our bottle. That soothing bottle.
It is destroying me. I am determined I WILL WIN !!!
Don't worry about family and what we put them thru. If you are lucky enough to have sober friends they worry as well. I think if we keep this mentality up we will find ourselves alone with our bottle. That soothing bottle.
It is destroying me. I am determined I WILL WIN !!!
All is Change
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,282
Ignorance is bliss . . . for a while.
The booze suppresses something you don't like. It keeps you ignorant of a fundamental reality. It doesn't make you feel good, it makes you not feel. A fleeting rest from the truth while bit by bit destroying you.
The booze suppresses something you don't like. It keeps you ignorant of a fundamental reality. It doesn't make you feel good, it makes you not feel. A fleeting rest from the truth while bit by bit destroying you.
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Join Date: Apr 2016
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Hi Poppy, I just don't think I'm going to get anywhere if I just see it as this terrible thing that gives me nothing. I know I should stop. That's the intellect against the fact that I just love it. Why not give in? I don't envy those who hang on to the window ledges by their fingers.
Some crossed posts there. What I mean is that I'm arguing against what I know I should do against the actual facts as my alcoholic mind perceives them. I'm a person that may as well carry on drinking.
Some crossed posts there. What I mean is that I'm arguing against what I know I should do against the actual facts as my alcoholic mind perceives them. I'm a person that may as well carry on drinking.
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Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
They say alcoholism is progressive. In the early stages alcohol is a giver. It gives us relief, it gives us a euphoric feeling, it gives us relaxation, it gives us the ability to be social in what would normally be uncomfortable situations. For many of us, that eventually takes a dark turn somewhere along the alcoholism spectrum. Alcohol quits being a giver and starts taking things. It takes our health, sanity, calm euphoric feeling, our finances, careers, relationships, marriages, and the list goes on it an. It giveth and it taketh away. I hope you don't have to reach bottom to realize this is true. I wish you the best.
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: The Great Outdoors
Posts: 1,992
There is a point of no return and I quit trying to figure out when it happened. Alcohol stops being soothing and becomes your daily maintenance. Addiction suddenly sets in....and when I look back...it happened at a very early age for me. I shudder to think about what I put my brain thru....Time to stop. Now or never time...don't let it fool you...You may like it because you are already addicted.
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Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Queensland
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Essentially alcohol is ethanol which is poison. You don't like it! You may think you like the feeling it gives you, hey it does dull the senses, makes introverts into extroverts, gives liquid confidence blah blah blah.... but it is also really bad for you.
Maybe you can think of it like losing a great mate who is a really bad influence on you? I had one of these friends whom I had so much fun with, laughed so hard with, loved her but I knew deep down this was temporary because we were toxic together. Got into trouble together. I had to cut that friendship for my own well being.... alcohol is that friend who you love but can't stay friends forever unless you want your forever to be sooner rather than later.
Maybe you can think of it like losing a great mate who is a really bad influence on you? I had one of these friends whom I had so much fun with, laughed so hard with, loved her but I knew deep down this was temporary because we were toxic together. Got into trouble together. I had to cut that friendship for my own well being.... alcohol is that friend who you love but can't stay friends forever unless you want your forever to be sooner rather than later.
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We make our decisions don't we? I've never known a happy alcoholic I admit. but I don't think the abstainers are that joyous either. Anyway, I don't want to dissuade anyone. I'm drunk anyway so I'll probably realise in the morning that I shoudn't have spoken the truth on an anti alcohol forum.
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 25,373
The euphoria is real. It highjacks your dopamine receptors.
There is a line that gets crossed. Your body won't send you a postcard saying, "Hey, psst, today? Today you are going to become hopelessly addicted. Soon you will be drinking in the mornings. Then it will become all day every day. Sometime around or before then I am going to start having problems. Maybe it will be malnutrition, cuz why eat when alcohol is around. It may be heart problems, because the rate of my heart beating cannot continue. Maybe bones will start breaking easily from being robbed of nutrition. How about a friendly little bout with esophageal cancer or pancreatic cancer? Maybe it will be mental illness that is insidious and becomes dangerous. Maybe it will show up as digestive issues, that's common. Maybe a little yellow, a little smelly. Maybe liver failure."
It will happen. You are not immune to the ravages. Many people I've known have died from this with very little warning, but extreme suffering at the end.
There is a line that gets crossed. Your body won't send you a postcard saying, "Hey, psst, today? Today you are going to become hopelessly addicted. Soon you will be drinking in the mornings. Then it will become all day every day. Sometime around or before then I am going to start having problems. Maybe it will be malnutrition, cuz why eat when alcohol is around. It may be heart problems, because the rate of my heart beating cannot continue. Maybe bones will start breaking easily from being robbed of nutrition. How about a friendly little bout with esophageal cancer or pancreatic cancer? Maybe it will be mental illness that is insidious and becomes dangerous. Maybe it will show up as digestive issues, that's common. Maybe a little yellow, a little smelly. Maybe liver failure."
It will happen. You are not immune to the ravages. Many people I've known have died from this with very little warning, but extreme suffering at the end.
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Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 928
When I was in my 20's, I remember being consciously aware I likely had a problem and not caring - I just wanted to drink. I remember telling one of my drinking buddies, "I don't care if I die young, I'm gonna drink." At the time I was a successful, fully functioning heavy drinker.
Fast forward 15 years, and I see how naive I was to the destruction alcohol causes. I wish someone had hit me upside the head and said "Quit drinking!" But no one else cared, so neither did I. So I kept drinking.
What I'm saying is we care. And I hope you find your bottom soon.
Fast forward 15 years, and I see how naive I was to the destruction alcohol causes. I wish someone had hit me upside the head and said "Quit drinking!" But no one else cared, so neither did I. So I kept drinking.
What I'm saying is we care. And I hope you find your bottom soon.
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Atlanta
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Originally Posted by taplow 
We make our decisions don't we? I've never known a happy alcoholic I admit. but I don't think the abstainers are that joyous either. Anyway, I don't want to dissuade anyone. I'm drunk anyway so I'll probably realise in the morning that I shoudn't have spoken the truth on an anti alcohol forum.
Happy, joyous and free- among other words like healthy, confident, engaged, fun, thoughtful, creative and more- all describe me.
I was very, very sick when I quit drink 2/21/16. I couldn't have imagined the life I have now but I knew I was DONE drinking.
I believe this is possible for anyone who chooses to stop drinking, and create a new life.
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 1,422
Hey Taplow
I hear you, I really do. I'm still drinking too, and the most I've had recently is three days.
Plus, I'm in the UK - did you have crazy amounts of fog today?
Plus ******* love drinking.
But I've been sober - eight months was my longest. And it is awesome. So much that I'm still trying to get back there five years later.
Carry on drinking if you want to - like you said, you're old enough to decide for yourself. But I wouldn't do it because you think sobriety is rubbish. It isn't, I promise.
Good luck either way
I hear you, I really do. I'm still drinking too, and the most I've had recently is three days.
Plus, I'm in the UK - did you have crazy amounts of fog today?
Plus ******* love drinking.
But I've been sober - eight months was my longest. And it is awesome. So much that I'm still trying to get back there five years later.
Carry on drinking if you want to - like you said, you're old enough to decide for yourself. But I wouldn't do it because you think sobriety is rubbish. It isn't, I promise.
Good luck either way
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Northwest
Posts: 274
Two things.
1) Ambivalence is one of the defining features of addiction. People love it and hate it at the same time. It feels good to be drunk, so I have a hard time accepting when people say it was awful getting drunk.
2) It is pleasurable in the short-term but has negative long-term consequences. You have to ask yourself is the short-term pleasurable feelings worth the long-term mental, social, and physical damage that you will get.
1) Ambivalence is one of the defining features of addiction. People love it and hate it at the same time. It feels good to be drunk, so I have a hard time accepting when people say it was awful getting drunk.
2) It is pleasurable in the short-term but has negative long-term consequences. You have to ask yourself is the short-term pleasurable feelings worth the long-term mental, social, and physical damage that you will get.
Now what?
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Oregon Coast
Posts: 100
Originally Posted by taplow
Drinking? Well the thing is, I just like it.
Despite all the reasons why I shouldn't and how everything about it is negative, I just want to do it. I'm stepping into a world where I shouldn't be from a world where I don't belong.
But the thing is, I know that's not true.
Despite all the reasons why I shouldn't and how everything about it is negative, I just want to do it. I'm stepping into a world where I shouldn't be from a world where I don't belong.
But the thing is, I know that's not true.
The words should and shouldn't are useless and if you didn't belong in this world, you wouldn't have been born into it.
Nice try.
It doesn't matter what you know. It matters what you do.
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: The Great Outdoors
Posts: 1,992
We make our decisions don't we? I've never known a happy alcoholic I admit. but I don't think the abstainers are that joyous either. Anyway, I don't want to dissuade anyone. I'm drunk anyway so I'll probably realise in the morning that I shoudn't have spoken the truth on an anti alcohol forum.
__________________
Taplow...you remind me of me! However....by posting EVEN IN A DRUNKEN STATE....we are reaching out. I did it. I got encouragement ...and after being dragged behind the wagon I pulled myself up and climbed back on.
Not an easy task. Today is day six AGAIN...and I feel a bit lost. Drinking tons of water. Posting and reading. I hope you reconsider. Your choice...I just hope you do. <3
__________________
Taplow...you remind me of me! However....by posting EVEN IN A DRUNKEN STATE....we are reaching out. I did it. I got encouragement ...and after being dragged behind the wagon I pulled myself up and climbed back on.
Not an easy task. Today is day six AGAIN...and I feel a bit lost. Drinking tons of water. Posting and reading. I hope you reconsider. Your choice...I just hope you do. <3
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Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 928
Originally Posted by JamesfrmEngland
Two things.
1) Ambivalence is one of the defining features of addiction. People love it and hate it at the same time. It feels good to be drunk, so I have a hard time accepting when people say it was awful getting drunk.
2) It is pleasurable in the short-term but has negative long-term consequences. You have to ask yourself is the short-term pleasurable feelings worth the long-term mental, social, and physical damage that you will get.
1) Ambivalence is one of the defining features of addiction. People love it and hate it at the same time. It feels good to be drunk, so I have a hard time accepting when people say it was awful getting drunk.
2) It is pleasurable in the short-term but has negative long-term consequences. You have to ask yourself is the short-term pleasurable feelings worth the long-term mental, social, and physical damage that you will get.
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