ROFL

My story is so different from everyone else's. I am on day 8 now. I was drinking a LOT every day beginning mid morning until sleep. But I kept functioning and nobody seemed to know! I finally just got tired of standing far away from people so they couldn't smell it on my breath...tired of missing work deadlines and consequently having no money...tired of pretending to be just fine, when really really my mind was dulled by the massive amounts of beer or wine (or vodka or gin or tequila ...) that I drank.

dave47

I think i ignored so many wake up calls over the years. Blackouts, stomach pump, a few other trips to hospital and a few nights in the cells. In the end it just ground me down. I was too tired to function properly and i knew that i was letting my family down.

Mr. Patch

I've had many wake up calls too... Like the times standing over the toilet taking a drink of vodka, just to throw it up... then repeating the cycle until I could hold a drink down so I could feel "better" :wtf2

But, now I've seen the divorce papers and they are true. This is truly my last chance. I've never been more determined even after 30 years of hard core drinking. I just keep praying that God doesn't abandon me now.

discoveringme

I too have had several wake up calls..but the last one was after a two day binge, blacked out an entire day. Then a couple days later when I went into the car I found a brown liq store bag and there was a big dent in the garage refrigerator. Evidently I had gone to a liquor store while blacked out. I could have hurt someone or myself on the road. It scared me sooooo bad. I pray it was my LAST wake up call!

Missymae737

I laid in my bed for two days...I drank only to pass out...I did not want to feel anymore, the hoplessness was truly unbearable...This was my bottom.

Through the halls of AA and coming here, sobriety has been my way of life for over sixth months...I no longer have to live in that dark place of addiction and hoplessness.
:ghug

C2H5OH_Free

I think my first wake up call was when I was about 16, and got into my brothers liquor cabinet around Christmas time while visiting him. I was sick and couldn't keep down food for 2 days, and the headache lasted nearly a week. I think I was probably just a few ounces from death.

There have been myriads of warnings since then, including a DUI in 1999.

The latest things (nearly 30 years later) that have woke me up are health issues, night sweats, loss of energy, loss of enthusiasm. It's really a life or death thing for me now, I'm afraid.

Missymae737

I did have many wake up calls...The last drunk, I had two options...Live in that bed and drink myself to death, or live with hope, recovery...The thought that I was near death was a huge wake up call...

Blake'sTyger

I'm with the majority-- I had a number of things that SHOULD have been clearer wake up calls. I wish blackouts had been at the top of the list for me.

When two friends drop by your apartment one night to find you drunk, sitting alone in the dark watching a documentary about Mormons, WAKE UP.

When EVERY stay at a hotel involves ongoing and increasingly lame attempts to pick up women on business trips over cigarettes and glasses of scotch, WAKE UP.

When you wake up on the fifth of July and are shocked to hear that you drove...and drove...and drove...while laughing hysterically, WAKE UP.

When you're alternating between different supermarkets to buy nightly booze because you don't want the people working there to realize that you're THAT big a drunk, WAKE UP.

Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. WAKE UP.

All these things happened, and it only stopped because I woke up one morning in tears, screaming into my pillow because I could NOT stop drinking.

Best to all,

B'sT

madscientist

nandm, thanks for saying the words I was looking for.

I think I might be having my wake up call currently... I know I can't drink, but being dry for a while feels like it has driven me to the edge of madness. There were lots of little pebbles like the blackouts when I had no intention of getting drunk toward the end that solidified that I can't drink normally.

gravity

The drinking was getting worse.

The consequences were getting worse.

I was playing with the lives of my family.

The self-hatred was getting so intense that I thought I was going to break down.

I just couldn't live like this anymore in return for some myth that alcohol could make me happy.

Enough!