brighterday1234

I never drank just a pint of beer, why drink one if you could drink more? Never saw the point and do not relate in the slightest to the majority of people who actually drink a drink or two and are content with that. What’s the point? Might as well just drink something else.

It’s important to get honest when you may think to yourself it would be nice to have a couple of drinks. Did you seriously only ever drink or indeed want just a couple? In my experience I drank to get wasted and this would never ever change, never drank any other way or desired to drink any other way.

Grateful to be sober, grateful to be an alcoholic.

joshlyman

I too never drank one. One drink doesn’t work the same for me as it does for other people. I never understood the concept of having “a” drink to relax or let off steam. All one drink did for me was the opposite of that. It made me anxious, nervous, and left me craving another one. It’s much more relaxing to cut that first drink out all together.

I will not drink with you today.

hpdw

My brother in law has 1 beer with his dinner every night and maybe another 1 if there's football on , truth is I wish I could do that but never could . drinking and eating in my alcoholic mind are two separate things .

I am grateful to be sober but not grateful to be an alcoholic which to me is a curse .

badgerden

"grateful to be an alcoholic"-- I am not sure I understand what you are meaning or trying to say.

Badge

tekink

There was once a time I could have a beer with lunch and not worry about it until I had one with dinner. Later that wasn't the case and for a while there it was as if I wasn't getting increasingly buzzed I was becoming sober.

Andante

I was once the kind of drinker who could stop at one or two, but ended up the kind who drank only to get drunk. Even after nearly 5 years sober, I can tell that this hasn't changed. If I were to drink again, it would be full-bore, pedal to the metal.

I'm a "grateful alcoholic" because recovery has been a game-changing, life-enhancing experience in so many ways that I would never have dreamed even existed. Without the alcoholism, there would have been no need for recovery, and thus I would have led an ignorant, diminished existence compared to the one I've experienced.

August252015

I'll explain what I mean when I say I am grateful to be an alcoholic.

I heard somewhere that alcoholism is "a peculiar gift." I completely agree and wrote about it on my blog in detail. What I mean is that I "get" what the Big Book (I am an AA er) says on p 417-418:
"For years I was sure that the worst thing that could happen to a nice guy like me is that I would turn out to be an alcoholic. Today I find it's the best thing that ever happened to me. This proves that I don't know what's good for me and if I don't know what's good for me, then I don't know what's good or bad for you or for anyone.
So I'm better off if I don't give advice, don't figure I know what's best, and just accept life on life's terms, as it is today- especially my own life, as it actually is.
Before AA I judged myself on my intentions while the world was judging me by my actions. "

What does all that mean, to me? It means that I would never have understood acceptance if I hadn't had to accept the hardest FACT of my life- my disease. If I hadn't become an alcoholic, I would not be a recovering alcoholic - who has learned what real gratitude is, what joy (not necessarily happiness) is, what empathy, compassion and wisdom can be like to have some of in my head and heart. What real suffering, then real health are. I could go on. This is all MY path - others come to these same conclusions, life choices, whatever you want to call them- so my choice is to embrace and grow, or....drink and die.

Perhaps a way to explain this is that having to square myself with the reality of my alcoholism - and choose whether to live angry, resentful, or to keep drinking, or to stop and see clearly what was what in my life, and find out what I could do about it.

If anyone is truly interested in this concept you can see the piece I wrote on [a life filled with pink (dot) wordpress (dot) com and the blog is "A Peculiar Gift"]

brighterday1234

Gratitude is an essential component of contented sobriety. There’s a saying that a grateful alcoholic is a sober alcoholic. For as long as I viewed anything as a curse then I would be unable to accept the cards that I’m dealt and would not be at peace with my reality. This would mean I wouldn’t be in a place of healthy recovery.

Being an alcoholic is only a curse if one still wishes to drink alcohol without all the negative crap that goes along with it. This simply cannot happen for an alcoholic and there are no positives to drinking.

Once I was sober and experiencing proper recovery the compulsion to wish to drink alcohol was simply removed. I was and still am in a place of neutrality as I was when I was a small child. I haven’t sworn it off it just means nothing to me and doesn’t concern me in my life anymore. This would all change however if I didn’t work my recovery program on a daily basis. However this too becomes just a way of life and a genuine enjoyment.

Basically being an alcoholic led me to recovery which led to everything that is promised in the BB of AA. I think only by experiencing what I experienced because I’m an alcoholic enabled me to appreciate the other side of recovery and for that I’m truly grateful.

This is a process over years btw and it’s best not to overthink it. Just know that recovery can be so rewarding that something which is seemingly a terrible tragic affliction can be a platform to enable a much more contented and peaceful life.

AshleyB

I never drank just one... More like 10.. Yep..definitely 10 lol

brighterday1234

Me too. I’d always drink until there was none left. That would never change as it’s the way I always drank right from the start. I liked it way too much to ever wish to stop once I started. Drinking for me can only ever end in tears not to mention all the pain and sorrow it caused to those who witnessed me destroying myself.

02022018

Rarely have I ever drank because it tasted good. I would sometimes get sweet drinks or mixed in pop drinks that actually were good (which I STILL drank to fast because, yeah, I eat dessert fast as well) But 98% of the time, I drank stuff I really didn't even like because I wanted to get intoxicated. This is how I knew that I was an alcoholic.

Hevyn

Right from the beginning, never one. People who could sip a nice, civilized glass of wine amazed me. Should've known I was headed for big trouble.

daredevil

I'm grateful to be an alcoholic. One can only be grateful to be sober if one was (is) an alcoholic. A good percentage of people simply don't drink. But these people don't consider themselves 'sober.' They simply never, for whatever reason, developed an affinity for alcohol. Moreover, there are plenty of people who drink -- and drink 'moderately' -- who are doing irreparable damage to their bodies and brains (alcohol is a known carcinogen, even in small amounts, and raises significantly the chances of developing more than seven forms of cancer). Plenty of 'normal' drinkers develop health problems resulting, at least in part, from the consumption of 'moderate' intake of alcohol. All that said, on even, I'd prefer not to be an alcoholic, but the decision not to imbibe resulted from excessive and sustained consumption, and having removed drinking from the e

daredevil

equation, my health won't suffer, at least not from the deleterious effects of even moderate and 'safe' alcohol consumption.

JustTony

I never drank just one either.

I also never saw the point.

I'll NEVER be grateful to be an alcoholic. EVER.

soberandseeking

Sometimes when I was with a "normal" drinking friend I would keep pace with them. ("Okay, one drink with dinner...sure.") But I'd be sure to make up for it after we parted ways for the evening.

Hell, I enjoyed buying drinks for people because I wanted them to be as drunk as I was. Really sick.

So, no. One was never enough.

August252015

https://www.elephantjournal.com/2018...term=Read+More

Boxer1

Yep, pretty much the same story here.

J50

Thanks for posting the link! I can definitely relate to a lot of it.

J50

I followed many of your posts when I joined, but hadn't seen you post in awhile. Glad to see you back.