JohnnydJersey

Thanks for sharing, I guess the reason I posted this is because I wanted to see what everyone was up against when they decided to quit. The fact that some have beat it in spite of the crazy consumptions just motivates me and inspires me.

GreatGonzoChops

First drink i remember was Canadian Mist when i was 8 years old (typical story of kid asking dad what are you drinking, he lets you try it, you spit it out, he tells you never drink son)

"kiddie social drinking" age was 12, stealing warm Hamm's and Winstons from the barn, going to our little party house to "camp". Still wasn't like knocking back a case or anything, but when you are a kid a couple can be enuff.

really started to drink around 15. weekends out in the old Lincoln Continental, running down trashcans, smashing mailboxes, bombfires, parties. typical stuff. that was the age when i was "learning my limits" i guess. understanding that a fifth of jim beam i couldn't handle, i hated mad 20/20, that i could shotgun a heck of a lot of beer but would end up puking the majority back up at some point.

Started drinking daily around 18 when i started dating a girl who's mom would buy it for me. think it was no more than a 6 pack a day at that time. well except for parties.

by 21 till around 23-24, with college and everything else going on, i was drinking rum a lot, going threw at least a fifth every two or three days (just spiced rum)...

stopped drinking at 24 for 2 years. 5th of scotch a couple xanax and 16 separate phone calls to the police that day landed me in rehab for 10 days and i quit to make a relationship work that eventually didn't after about a month into sobriety... but i held to my guns..

26 i took my first drink again. double shot of jack daniels at a bar. started out good with beer for maybe a month. by the end of that month i was drinking at least a 18 pack on days off and at least 6 or 8 tall boys a night when i was working. (i had a cush schedule of work 3 days, off 4, so it was great for a boozer)

i flirted with the law with p.i's and dis orderlies before then, but from 26 to now, i ended up in jail probably 5 times, this last one was my first dui at age 31.

Knew it was time to change. See, i won't die, i ain't that lucky. what will happen is that i will kill someone and spend the rest of my life in jail. I don't want to do that. I may not be that smart, but i can read the writing on the wall.

what i learned from my relapse is you never get to relive those "fun" teenage years. a alcoholic will be right back to where he was that made him quit the first time, very fast.

been sober a month and some days now. feels good. not looking back.

Dee74

fair enough Johnny.

I guess I used to want to gauge myself against others too - now I realise, for me, the only consumption that matters is (was) my own.

Always good to hear stories of triumph tho - as opposed to war stories
D

AtlasMcGee

I took one of those "so you think you're an alcoholic?" questionnaires a little while back & my mean was 7 drinks and on the same site it said women should have no more than 7 drinks per week...dangit! I thought the memo read 7 per day......Whoooops

penny74

As much as l could keep inside...

AtlasMcGee

my first drink I was 10, & did not have a taste for wine, yet . Then started drinking regularly/heavily at party scenes when I was 16--my best friends mom would buy us booze & let us have parties at her house while she was out partying. I smoked a lot of weed during this time too & did a little cocaine--would have been thrown in jail but I was underage, so I just had to testify against drug dealers in court, twice.

Was 17 (one of the youngest in my class) when I started college...aka a 5 year party--huge stoner & drank pretty much everyday. When I turned 21, I was living in a house directly across from a pub, diagonal from a bar, within walking distance of 3 gas stations & 1 liquor store--& right across from the university, so u can imagine--esp. without having to worry about driving...just stumblin across the street.

One of the few from the original crew who's graduated (back in August) & decided to take at least a year off before going back (not sure what for yet) & instead of taking this time seriously in order to get moving in the right direction, I've been avoiding it by returning to the party life...I got
5 days sober though..., feels nice

AtlasMcGee

....

Atman

I partied hard during my college years. Pretty much used any excuse to get wasted.

The past 6 years though, I drank around a 12 pack almost every night.

AWOL

I am an alcoholic taking my recovery one day at time. In the 40 or so years I have been a slave to alcohol I drank about 30,000 litres of beer (2 litres per day vs the US per capita average of .23 litres per day) and, running my drinking hours concurrently, that would equate to four-and-a-half years of continuous drinking. Adding the time I lost on hangovers feeling dreadful, I could probably add another five years. So, that’s about a decade of my life lost to the demon drink. It's been useful to me to know how much I drank and how much time I wasted, because this only strengthens my resolve to remain alcohol-free for the rest of my life and to be productive in serving as an example to others of someone who was a lost cause, who somehow managed with the help of his HP and others on this forum, to become sober.

yeahgr8

Binge drank for ages, by the end was drinking couple of bottles a wine and several beers most nights...had the amount down to a tee to get me where i needed to go...then started drinking to blackout and then got sober...

I always used to ask this so i could compare myself to others and say at least im not that bad, as stated all you will do is keep lowering the bar until you come to the point where the only people that are worse off than you are dead...

Enjoy the journey or do something about it now:-)

Almath

I've been binge drinking for the last 20 years - when younger that was mainly when I was going out which was 3-4 times a week (and maybe a couple with friends before going out as I didn't have much money) and then in the last 5-10 years drinking a bottle of wine every couple of evenings and maybe more at the weekends - if I could try to have a dinner out in between that was even better: sharing a litre of wine with my other half, glass of champagne, amarettos, etc., (or a lunch with friends with a nice glass of rosé..) Though I never liked sharing my bottle of wine as half a bottle was never enough and inside I begrudged him having a glass of 'my' bottle - ridiculous!! When out I could drink a lot of bottles of beer like miller/heineken but when drinking wine/mixing it put me over the edge and very drunk..and I've had many many blackouts and bad experiences from drinking wine... Though the beer put me over when going over the 8th bottle I think..and I've had blackouts with it too...and like so many others here I could never say no or stop after the 1st couple...

AmericanGirl

Too much. On the "restrained" nights, a bottle of wine or 4-5 beers or 3-4 mixed drinks. I repress how much the worst times were (and it's harder to remember being that the worst times were a couple of years ago) but there have been times when I finished a handle in two days. The night before I quit, probably 20 oz? So: more than some here, less than others. Either way, I'm just glad I'm not drinking today.

Bamboozle

Too much. That's why I'm here.

Cornczech

Just a quick hello..."Hello!"

Your drinking "career" sounded VERY familiar....drinking beer right now.....I won't bore you with my details...but just a shout out to say I could relate.....

D d(-_-)b

Cornczech

oops! The above was supposed to be a personal message. Um..(so I can at least be a part of the discussion), I drink 4 to 6 beers on my days off during the week...Monday and Wednesday...then 2 to 3 on the other days of the week....WEEKENDS OFF......

before I was forced into rehab in Feb. of 2009....I drank 8 beers a day and weekends...well...who the heck knows....until I blacked out? Until I was SO drunk I would start fights...lose things...get lost...get violent....pass out...vomit....shall I go on?

mimi54321

I tend to binge; it would be around 8 cans of 5% lager a day and/or wine. Then I'd drink like that for 3-4 days. Gross.

Ceres

12 Pack a dayer. Avoided the harder stuff because that's what my mother drank.

Needless to say I'm much thinner now!

gman111

Hey, first day on this thread, 20 years old, been a mix between maintenance and binge alcoholic for the last 5 years.... from the UK (LONDON), currently drinking 12 guinness cans and a half handle of Old Thompson whiskey a day and am seriously concerned for my health; even my GP has told me I have fatty liver.... At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much anyone drinks, I go to a very good uni in the US (MIT) and I can assure you that people suffer with this issue everywhere. Have been in AA time and time again and it doesn't work for us atheists. Please try SMART RECOVERY, there is hope outside of 12 stepping. Best of luck to all.

Dee74

Welcome gman

I'm glad you've found something that works for you.

You'll find people in AA, SMART, Rational Recovery, and a host of other methods here.

We're all on the same side, and we try to reflect that in this forum
D