would sensible drinking have saved you from alcoholism?
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 132
would sensible drinking have saved you from alcoholism?
20 years ago i developed a mental illness. i actually felt something change in my head. I became an alcoholic that very day. The day before I was a moderate sensible drinker. I stayed that way for 20 years until Abilfy maintena injections reset my brain chemistry. Why am I asking? Well young people are bombarded with this advice ..................drink sensibly drink responsibly etc etc. My question is this. Drink sensibly and what?? Can anyone here relate to that type of flash attack alcoholism or did u all just slide into it after years of heavy drinking.
Member
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Where I’ve longed to be all my life…..here, now.
Posts: 7,335
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...-drinking.html (Great advice for moderating your drinking)
This is a really good post on drinking in moderation
I hope you find it a good read like I did.
This is a really good post on drinking in moderation
I hope you find it a good read like I did.
Guest
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 1,271
Yes, it would have.
But I think I am in a minority here.
And I think it's pointless to even consider this question.
But since you asked--many times I was fine just having 1 drink, sometimes 2. But when I started using alcohol as a coping mechanism, that's where things turned sour for me. That being said, I still don't know if it was normal or not that with my first drink ever at age 12, I felt something absolutely magical. I was calm and relaxed, confident, happy. Do normies experience that?
I do not believe real alcoholics can ever drink moderately safely. And why even take the chance? It's not worth it. Just my opinion.
I don't know, sometimes I wonder if I am a real alcoholic or just someone who was having a nervous breakdown or something and turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism and I got obsessive-compulsive with it. I don't know. I've got more soul searching to do.
But I think I am in a minority here.
And I think it's pointless to even consider this question.
But since you asked--many times I was fine just having 1 drink, sometimes 2. But when I started using alcohol as a coping mechanism, that's where things turned sour for me. That being said, I still don't know if it was normal or not that with my first drink ever at age 12, I felt something absolutely magical. I was calm and relaxed, confident, happy. Do normies experience that?
I do not believe real alcoholics can ever drink moderately safely. And why even take the chance? It's not worth it. Just my opinion.
I don't know, sometimes I wonder if I am a real alcoholic or just someone who was having a nervous breakdown or something and turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism and I got obsessive-compulsive with it. I don't know. I've got more soul searching to do.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,384
I never drank sensibly - all those years of wishing I could be a normal drinker and I had no idea of what that really meant.
My life is so much improved by not drinking or drugging I wouldn't do it again even if I could sammy
D
My life is so much improved by not drinking or drugging I wouldn't do it again even if I could sammy
D
Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: West Tn
Posts: 3,043
I don't think alcohol has any beneficial therapeutic effect whatsoever.
I think that it has some social benefit for people who don't drink much of it (I was never one of them, of course).
I don't think that any competent mental health professionals actually recommend or prescribe it for any conditions.
I think that it has some social benefit for people who don't drink much of it (I was never one of them, of course).
I don't think that any competent mental health professionals actually recommend or prescribe it for any conditions.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 557
I guess I don't really understand the question. I never wanted to drink sensibly. I don't actually like the taste of alcohol. I drank intentionally to get drunk from my very first drink. When I smell alcohol, I don't crave the taste, I remember the feeling it gave me and crave that. Other people I know drank socially for years and slowly slipped into alcoholism. I suppose it is different for everyone, but the bottom line is that I can't drink sensibly. It doesn't really matter why or how I got to that place.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2018
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 1,339
I know now that I was drinking like an alcoholic from the beginning of my first time getting drunk. Whether or not that was from my living with depression and anxiety for years up to it (at age 14), I had found my solution, and moderation was not possible for me from then forward as a possibility. The aim was to drink to get drunk if I could. The switch was "on" regardless of whether or not it was psychological or physical or both. Today, forty years later, I'm still mentally wired to drink unlike others can, despite medications that help me navigate my anxiety and depression quite well.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Right here, right now
Posts: 3,964
It’s very difficult for me to answer that question. I’m in my early 50’s. I had my first drink at 17. I was like other teenagers and binge drank on weekends. I worked hard and partied hard in college - like others. I didn’t see myself as any different from anyone else. There were the “normal” binge drinkers and there were the “total alcoholic” drop outs. Then there were those who didn’t drink at all and that was just weird and uncool.
I thought I took a break from heavy drinking around the time I met my husband at 24. But, no I actually didn’t. I was drinking in secret. I’d stop by a liquor store on the way home from the bus and buy a large beer or a bottle of wine. I always thought it was ok since it was only wine and beer.
When my husband and I moved in together, we drank wine a few nights a week and binged on the weekends. I was successful in my job, though, and after all the Europeans drink every night, so I thought I wasn’t any different.
When my son was born, my life turned upside down. I though I was still drinking to unwind at the end of a long day. But it was never enough. My friends would say, you are stressed, so have a glass of wine. So I would, then the buzz would wear off and I was still stressed, so I needed another glass, and another, etc. I was stressed 100% of the time for years.
I can’t be absolutely sure of my answer since I don’t know if I would have continued drinking sensibly had my son not been born with special challenges. But I don’t think I would have because I never really did in the first place (even though I thought back then that I was fine). I also have anxiety and this as well as alcoholism runs in my family. I think I’ve answered the question now. Nope.
I thought I took a break from heavy drinking around the time I met my husband at 24. But, no I actually didn’t. I was drinking in secret. I’d stop by a liquor store on the way home from the bus and buy a large beer or a bottle of wine. I always thought it was ok since it was only wine and beer.
When my husband and I moved in together, we drank wine a few nights a week and binged on the weekends. I was successful in my job, though, and after all the Europeans drink every night, so I thought I wasn’t any different.
When my son was born, my life turned upside down. I though I was still drinking to unwind at the end of a long day. But it was never enough. My friends would say, you are stressed, so have a glass of wine. So I would, then the buzz would wear off and I was still stressed, so I needed another glass, and another, etc. I was stressed 100% of the time for years.
I can’t be absolutely sure of my answer since I don’t know if I would have continued drinking sensibly had my son not been born with special challenges. But I don’t think I would have because I never really did in the first place (even though I thought back then that I was fine). I also have anxiety and this as well as alcoholism runs in my family. I think I’ve answered the question now. Nope.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 293
I had the exact same experience and this is the first time I have heard of someone else experiencing the same. I was a conservative drinker until due to circumstances in my life I fell into and inky, black depression. I suddenly began drinking insanely to try and get my feelings back. Just like you I almost new the exact moment I became a full blown alcoholic. I was lying in bed full of whiskey and I felt this strange "brain swell". After that I never once again experienced the easy, delightful relief that alcohol brought me although I continued to drink out of control for years after, at the horrible costs that that type of drinking brings.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5,164
Originally Posted by sammymaguire 
Can anyone here relate to that type of flash attack alcoholism or did u all just slide into it after years of heavy drinking.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 334
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thefix.com/content/remembering-audrey-kishline%3famp
This artlice is about the woman who founded Moderation Management, to cut back on drinking as opposed to stopping altogether. She later killed someone (maybe more than one person) in a DUI and entirely changed her stance. It's an interesting read.
This artlice is about the woman who founded Moderation Management, to cut back on drinking as opposed to stopping altogether. She later killed someone (maybe more than one person) in a DUI and entirely changed her stance. It's an interesting read.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5,164
Originally Posted by LaceyDallas
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.the...kishline%3famp
This artlice is about the woman who founded Moderation Management, to cut back on drinking as opposed to stopping altogether. She later killed someone (maybe more than one person) in a DUI and entirely changed her stance. It's an interesting read.
This artlice is about the woman who founded Moderation Management, to cut back on drinking as opposed to stopping altogether. She later killed someone (maybe more than one person) in a DUI and entirely changed her stance. It's an interesting read.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,384
I fight a losing battle with this but I'll say it again...
I wish people would using that poor woman as an exemplar. There but for fortune, goes any of us.
As Lacey said, she was back in AA and and committed to the idea of abstinence, while also battling it, when she died.
If her life must be reduced a cautionary tale, it's to illustrate the relentlessness of alcoholism, not the folly of moderation.
We each have our own stories about the latter, surely?
D
I wish people would using that poor woman as an exemplar. There but for fortune, goes any of us.
As Lacey said, she was back in AA and and committed to the idea of abstinence, while also battling it, when she died.
If her life must be reduced a cautionary tale, it's to illustrate the relentlessness of alcoholism, not the folly of moderation.
We each have our own stories about the latter, surely?
D
Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: NC
Posts: 1,737
I drank to get hammered from the very start. The change from when I was 14 till I quit at 42 was how much alcohol it took to get the effect I wanted.
If I drank sensibly from the start perhaps I wouldn't have become an alcoholic, but I was never interested in "sensible" - I wanted senseless. And senseless is exactly what I got.
If I drank sensibly from the start perhaps I wouldn't have become an alcoholic, but I was never interested in "sensible" - I wanted senseless. And senseless is exactly what I got.
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
