Purpose of The Poll
 

I am very curious about your reasons for taking the poll. Are you doing a school assignment? Doing research? Writing a book?

It doesn't matter how much/little, how often/seldom we drank...the end result was alcoholism. I was told early on not to compare my drinking habits to anyone else's. By comparing, it's too easy to find a way to say, "Oh, I wasn't as bad as that...maybe I'm not really an alcoholic." It was strongly suggested that I listen to the stories and to identify with the similarities in our feelings and what drinking did to us.

I'm more curious about how people manage to stay sober once they've made the commitment to do so.

I've also been kind of sporadic too, a lot depended on what was going on in my life at the time. I used to be a fairly regular but not heavy drinker, at least a few tallboys or a 6 pack after work most weekdays to relax. Weekends were always worse though. These days I can't just have a few so it's always binging, which for me has been much worse.

With the exception of 6 months last year...i drank 360 days a year for the last 10 years. The previous 20 years tleast 180 days a year.

Why the 6 month sabaticle last year? I hurt my back and was taking perscription levels of alieve, and didnt want the naproxen to kill my liver. Lost 30 pounds felt great with the back exception. Lethergy was gone, could think well. Need to get back.....put half the weight on, tired, think not as well..all beer.

http://www.mazeguy.net/happy/wave.gif Welcome to the Forums of SoberRecovery.com parkec100.

Alcohol can cause such a strong physical tissue dependance rather quickly, its no wonder why the daily drinking stats are so high.

I've fluctuated between being alcohol dependent (alcoholic) and as an alcohol abuser (heavy drinker/binge drinker) many times during my drinking career. Drugs were always in that toxic mix-up.

Ehm, in the end I had a very weird drinking pattern. I would go sober from a few days to a few weeks and then go on a 3-7 day binge, where I would drink the whole day and night. Basically the longer I quit the bigger the binge after.

Typically 5-6 days a week, 10-12 beers, every night, heavier on Fri, Sat and Sun. I'm 30 now. Have drank like this for almost a year. Before that was 3-4 nights a week of heavy drinking since I was 22, once a weekend from 20-21. NONE before that lol. Still trying to quit :( Tomorrow is day 1...again, but I have a good feeling this time it will stick.

I only binge drink at weekends and I think it's why it's taken me so long to admit I have a problem, because I always told myself that people who have drinking problems drink everyday. I've realised my binge drinking is a problem because I'm not capable of having one drink, I'm not capable of having a few drinks and then going home. No, I drink until I'm physically unable to, when I've passed out. I never have memories of a drinking session, I did so many things I regret, made an idiot out of myself, put myself in very vulnerable positions where anybody could have taken advantage of me. Once I start, it becomes a compulsion to carry on, and have another drink, and another, and another...

Started off once a weekend, then turned into every weekend and then everyday for 2 and a half years. I was drinking approximately 24-30 beers a day for the last year. Today I'm over 2 months sober, how I didn't die during my detox is a miracle.

Holy smoke, 24-30 a day? That's about 7 grand for the year. Good job on 2 months. You've already saved a grand. What do you do with all of that extra scratch? I dwell on the $ thing quite a bit, but I'm excited to save the 3-4000 I was flushing down the toilet.

Yup that's about right. I did the math and I was blowing 400-450 a month on just booze for my house, not including going out every weekend, it was easily 600 a month. So far im just putting the money into my savings, my plan is to pay down the amount towards my mortgage at the end of the year. It's amazing how much money I spent on that poison.

It's nice to read everyone's experiences. Even though I was not an everyday drinker, I will be one if I continue to drink. I just have to remember that one drink leads to a slow painful death. It stopped being fun a long time ago. But sometimes that's hard to remember.

The last 2 years every day ..I work eve shifts ( mostly because I am too hungover to get there in the morning so switch with people) I get home from work about 10 pm and always make sure I have at least 6 tall cans ...interspersed with pot almost daily for the last year....then I drink until I there isnt any left or I cant hold my head up anymore, It is truly disgusting...I joined this group today and I hope to at least control the drinking or stop completely.....

I was drinking everyday. I didn't get blackout drunk everyday... although I would whenever possible (Holidays... days off... THURSDAYS etc etc). The really scary thing was that I couldn't go without alcohol for more than 2-3 hours at a time except for sleeping. I would carry .50ml bottles with me to work and time them every 90 minutes or so. Insanity. Breakfast was a large can of beer and two .50ml. EVERYDAY I was drunk... ALL day. As I said not fall down drunk but drunk nonetheless. It had complete control over my actions. Screw that noise!!!! So much happier without it!

I was not a daily drinker. I was an every other to every 3ed day drinker, but alcohol affected my life daily. On the days I didn't drink I was either hungover and unproductive or fighting off the tempation to "make it one more day". I always had trouble sleeping the days I didn't drink. My hangover days were chalked full of anxiety, "racing heart", extreeme fatigue (but I couldn't sleep). Honestly it was misery at it's finest... And, ALL self imposed.

Just not good stuff at all... Glad I'm not living like that anymore.

At least a fifth a day
 

I am on day 4 of sobriety. I was drinking between 750ml and a liter day on weekends and about 450ml on the week days.

Every day, starting when my partner was on the way home, and continuing until bed. Weekends the same, maybe more. Aside from exercise, I didn't know how to do anything enjoyable without it. I didn't think I could enjoy anything without it.

Ditto!

400 ml whisky every evening. For only few days, I could rememer what I had for dinner.Wrote nasty mails while on the last drink and next day morning realization , how stupid that was ...

I have the same problem, Sunandrain.... after so many blackouts and can't say enough when I'm having fun... or at least THINK I'm having fun, because in actual fact, I party till the sun comes up and can't remember a thing... all of this with my boyfriend. We sit in the lounge and listen to music and the wine keeps flowing till we literally pass out, or have an violent argument. The last was this past weekend. One of us could have been dead or paralysed of the violence. That's when I realised... I guess I have a problem.

For a long time, I restricted myself to 'events', and then I'd drink for as long as I had time to drink. Or until I felt too full. I'd make sure I had plenty to eat first, but that just meant it took longer to feel the effect, and probably meant I drank more than I would have done.

And then, after... a number of things, reading stuff in casualty (I was in there for a bacterial lung infection. I would say pneumonia, but they say it wasn't, so...) arguments with a guy on line. Not having an 'event' for a month or two... Being with friends and only having one (ignoring the fact that there wasn't time for more)...
One day I was coming back from the shops and I just wanted a drink. I tried to ignore it at first, but by the time I'd got home, I'd called in the corner shop and bought myself a beer. There was an offer on a different brand that meant for 30p more I could have had two. ('You'll only drink both' I told myself)
And I figured, hey, maybe if I let myself drink when I feel like it, I won't lose it so much. Won't end up waking up in bed wondering how i got home, [I knew I'd had to get a taxi. It was a journey of about 14 miles at a time when there weren't any buses] which had happened before Christmas.
I think you can guess how that ended, right? One in the morning, one in the afternoon, one in the evening. Just to take the edge off things and keep it taken off. And more at weekends. And from 5% to 6% to 9%...
And that's when I decided to quit. I'd had a wholebuncha rules that meant I'd put my drinking 'over there, in a box'. And I'd broken all of them. Doing so, I found out *why* I'd made them in the first place (not saying) years before.
So yes. I was lucky. I had friends around me who cared, and I was engaged. And I'm not the kind to argue with my fiance, so... I quit. I've struggled with my weight enough in the past - which was, perhaps another reason why I limited my drinking to 'events' - to never want to be fat again. [I've been 16 stone before.] And I'd piled on the pounds.

I'll shut up now.