How old were you?
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Lynnwood WA
Posts: 424
How old were you?
My first memory of drinking was at my Grandma's house at 9 years old. She let me have a taste of Irish creme. I would sneak it after that because I craved the feeling it gave me.
I first got caught drinking and smoking pot during the first month of my freshman year of high school. I drank every weekend with older kids, blacked out after most dances and football games. A friend and I sneaked booze to school and drank in the bathroom at school. And I went to a very private, Catholic, rich high school.
For a high school graduation present my parents took my sister and I to Europe, on a booze filled-month trip and then capped it off with a keggor at their house to celebrate my sister and I graduating.
I got kicked out of Gonzaga UNiversity, during Thanksgiving break, in my freshman year of college for booze and drugs. I ended up living at home until I was 24.
I was 20 when I was put in an ambulence and taken to Harbor View after drinking a 1/5 of vodka in an hour to 'get ready' for a football game. This hospital is where mostly drug addicts and homeless people end up at. My mom made me go to AA, but didn't want to attend with me even after other family members encouraged her to because of her own drinking issues. I stole so much booze and money from my parents, it's riduculous.
I was in intensive outpatient treatment for booze and eating disorders from age 22-25. My counselor kept wanting to have a meeting with my mom and I. My mom wanted one too. I told her that she wouldn't like what the counselor was going to say. The counselor told her she was an alcoholic and was a big source of my problem. My mom stopped paying for my treatment after she forced me, kicking and screaming, to go in the first place. I couldn't pay for it on my own after my insurance ran out and had to stop at 25.
I continued drinking, getting the cops called on me, blacking out, etc. for the next 4 years. Which leads me up to now. 29 and finally sober...
When did you start?
I first got caught drinking and smoking pot during the first month of my freshman year of high school. I drank every weekend with older kids, blacked out after most dances and football games. A friend and I sneaked booze to school and drank in the bathroom at school. And I went to a very private, Catholic, rich high school.
For a high school graduation present my parents took my sister and I to Europe, on a booze filled-month trip and then capped it off with a keggor at their house to celebrate my sister and I graduating.
I got kicked out of Gonzaga UNiversity, during Thanksgiving break, in my freshman year of college for booze and drugs. I ended up living at home until I was 24.
I was 20 when I was put in an ambulence and taken to Harbor View after drinking a 1/5 of vodka in an hour to 'get ready' for a football game. This hospital is where mostly drug addicts and homeless people end up at. My mom made me go to AA, but didn't want to attend with me even after other family members encouraged her to because of her own drinking issues. I stole so much booze and money from my parents, it's riduculous.
I was in intensive outpatient treatment for booze and eating disorders from age 22-25. My counselor kept wanting to have a meeting with my mom and I. My mom wanted one too. I told her that she wouldn't like what the counselor was going to say. The counselor told her she was an alcoholic and was a big source of my problem. My mom stopped paying for my treatment after she forced me, kicking and screaming, to go in the first place. I couldn't pay for it on my own after my insurance ran out and had to stop at 25.
I continued drinking, getting the cops called on me, blacking out, etc. for the next 4 years. Which leads me up to now. 29 and finally sober...
When did you start?
Not Alone
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: South East UK
Posts: 1,513
Ooooh an interesting thread. I believe I had my first drink with my Dad at probably the age of 13/14. It was most likely a shandy made with beer. My first drink with friends was 14 and that was when I touched the first drug, marijuana. It's been 10 years of hazyness since that time. Although I was clean from the end of 2010 and relapsed for 3 days in seperate blocks I wouldn't actually say I was recovering or happy until now.
Natom.
Natom.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Keep Trying
Posts: 370
Started at 15-sadly blacked out the very first time and had what I think was a terrible experience happen to me. I continued to drink heavily again around age 21. Kept drinking till 36. Can't stand thinking about this because the span of years is too damn long that I have been drinking. I have to fight the urge every damn day.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 35
I think my first drink was about 9 years old at family party's. When they would ask me to take through their glasses and refill them. I was about 12 when I started drinking every weekend with friends, so my parents stopped giving me money, but then my friends would buy drink for us. Then it steadily got worse till I was drink everyday. I'm 27 now and I've been sober for 7 months, and will never touch another drink as long as I live.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 5,554
Well, we were allowed sips or a little juice glass of Daddy's beer at very young ages, on the occasional Saturday evening, and a tiny glass of Cold Duck sparkling wine on a holiday. My father was not a big drinker. Only a few beers on a Saturday eve, and a whiskey or 2 on Christmas Eve. My mother was an angry alcoholic, however, and that made me very opposed to drinking for many of the years when peers began to experiment. I swore I would never drink.
The first drink I recall taking, where I was sneaking, and felt a buzz, and really liked the feeling it gave me, was at my godmother's funeral "party." I was around 14 or 15, and there was a barrel full of cans of beer. Kids in the basement were sneaking them, and I had a cousin ask me to share one with her. We shared 2.
I never drank again, until my senior year of high school. Even then, it was occasional, as it was also through college. I do recall a tendency to binge. I would get too drunk, and have a hangover from time to time.
My excessive drinking was a slow crawl after I met my husband at age 29. He was a much heavier drinker than I was, and so was his crowd. I even found them immature in that respect, but grew to enjoy being wined and dined. We enjoyed brew pubs, pub food, a trip to New Orleans. We always found the bars and brew pubs! For a long time, it was mostly plain unhealthy. I gained weight.
I really became a nearly daily drinker after weaning my son, my second child. Hubby was travelling a lot, my dad was ill, stress with the kids, etc... it just escalated. I often had a bottle of wine or more, only in evenings. Always had at least 2 glasses pretty much every night. Here and there I got into martinis, margaritas, and such. But my real drink is wine. Red wine, except I like champagne and sparkling whites very much as well.
I never got to a crazy bottom, but my health has suffered before I could progress to that. Not sure I would progress to that, because of hangovers and I would sort of cut back here and there.
By 46 I found myself, obese, diabetic and with liver fibrosis. Diabetes an obesity stress the liver just as much as alcohol, so there ya go.
The food was much easier to conquer than the drink. I am close to normal weight, but relapsed a couple times on the drinking.
The first drink I recall taking, where I was sneaking, and felt a buzz, and really liked the feeling it gave me, was at my godmother's funeral "party." I was around 14 or 15, and there was a barrel full of cans of beer. Kids in the basement were sneaking them, and I had a cousin ask me to share one with her. We shared 2.
I never drank again, until my senior year of high school. Even then, it was occasional, as it was also through college. I do recall a tendency to binge. I would get too drunk, and have a hangover from time to time.
My excessive drinking was a slow crawl after I met my husband at age 29. He was a much heavier drinker than I was, and so was his crowd. I even found them immature in that respect, but grew to enjoy being wined and dined. We enjoyed brew pubs, pub food, a trip to New Orleans. We always found the bars and brew pubs! For a long time, it was mostly plain unhealthy. I gained weight.
I really became a nearly daily drinker after weaning my son, my second child. Hubby was travelling a lot, my dad was ill, stress with the kids, etc... it just escalated. I often had a bottle of wine or more, only in evenings. Always had at least 2 glasses pretty much every night. Here and there I got into martinis, margaritas, and such. But my real drink is wine. Red wine, except I like champagne and sparkling whites very much as well.
I never got to a crazy bottom, but my health has suffered before I could progress to that. Not sure I would progress to that, because of hangovers and I would sort of cut back here and there.
By 46 I found myself, obese, diabetic and with liver fibrosis. Diabetes an obesity stress the liver just as much as alcohol, so there ya go.
The food was much easier to conquer than the drink. I am close to normal weight, but relapsed a couple times on the drinking.
Clear Eyes Full Heart
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 1,272
I remember being given sips from a young age at family parties. First real drinks were at a family wedding at 14. Didn't touch it again until 18 and then I was off and running. A lot of good times and memories, a lot of missed opportunities and bad decision making. I feel like sobriety is giving me a kind of a do over later in life.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 654
I was never a big drinker but at 15 I started using shrooms, acid, E, xanex weed and pain killers. Eventually I started just taking pain killers which ended up to snorting then injecting heroin. I'm 22 now and have a little over two months clean 
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: California
Posts: 13,036
Originally Posted by Cwbugycody 
When I was 15 but ended 19 years later on10-25-12 , I would much rather remember that date.
Groovy Dancer
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: The States
Posts: 4,751
I was later to it than most of you...
31 when drinking became a problem. In one week I went from drinking about twice a year, to drinking everyday. That lasted for just under four years and then I quit.
31 when drinking became a problem. In one week I went from drinking about twice a year, to drinking everyday. That lasted for just under four years and then I quit.
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: here, now.
Posts: 1,236
As I started answering this thread I realized how MUCH I drank at an early age. If you'd asked me, without providing details, I would have said not at all. But the truth is...
I had no desire to do anything "wrong" as a kid... or what I'd have called "stupid wrong". Getting sent through Juvy for going to a redneck party and drinking some lite beer and smoking cheap stale pot didn't appeal to me, so I didn't do the things that could get me there. But. When I was 12 my friend's mother bought us something called "Mad Dog" and cheap champagne... I don't remember the night much past 9 PM but I do remember puking the next morning in public. My own mother thought I'd make a good drinking buddy at 13 or so and used to cut cheap wine with raspberry soda and sit up talking to me on Fridays and Saturdays... then she turned me on to beer. That same year a friend and I stole her parents' hard liquor- we chose their Kaluah, and poured it in a mouthwash bottle to keep us entertained at school. At about 14 or 15 I started going to parties where kids would be drinking and smoking. All this time, my mother still gave me beer and wine at home in limited amounts, while I watched her get *********. I remember being uncomfortable watching that. My father, who hadn't had a drink in 15 years at that point (He's looking at 35 years soon now) worked nights and did not know about this. My mother told me not to tell him. They kicked me out when I was 17.
I didn't start drinking a lot- in quantity, and frequency, until I was in my mid twenties or so. It got worse in my late 20s and has looked like a problem.... for at least a few years now. To me. It's looked like a problem to me.
I haven't had a drink in 5 days now. I'd like to take this road.
I had no desire to do anything "wrong" as a kid... or what I'd have called "stupid wrong". Getting sent through Juvy for going to a redneck party and drinking some lite beer and smoking cheap stale pot didn't appeal to me, so I didn't do the things that could get me there. But. When I was 12 my friend's mother bought us something called "Mad Dog" and cheap champagne... I don't remember the night much past 9 PM but I do remember puking the next morning in public. My own mother thought I'd make a good drinking buddy at 13 or so and used to cut cheap wine with raspberry soda and sit up talking to me on Fridays and Saturdays... then she turned me on to beer. That same year a friend and I stole her parents' hard liquor- we chose their Kaluah, and poured it in a mouthwash bottle to keep us entertained at school. At about 14 or 15 I started going to parties where kids would be drinking and smoking. All this time, my mother still gave me beer and wine at home in limited amounts, while I watched her get *********. I remember being uncomfortable watching that. My father, who hadn't had a drink in 15 years at that point (He's looking at 35 years soon now) worked nights and did not know about this. My mother told me not to tell him. They kicked me out when I was 17.
I didn't start drinking a lot- in quantity, and frequency, until I was in my mid twenties or so. It got worse in my late 20s and has looked like a problem.... for at least a few years now. To me. It's looked like a problem to me.
I haven't had a drink in 5 days now. I'd like to take this road.
Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,410
Try alcohol when I was young in my teens but it was a sip. Start drinking at 21 and drink heavy until around 26 or 27. Never try try to quit until the beginning of 2011. Over 8 days so now and can't pass 11 weeks for some reason but I will be happy if I can stay sober for over a year.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 5,937
My dad let me sip his beer when I was maybe ten but I hated it! I never actually drank enough of anything to get drunk til after high school graduation. I was a very serious kid and felt drinking was inappropriate for people under 18 (back then you could drink 3.2 beer at 18 but not hard liquor til 21). At the time I thought I would wait to even consider drinking until I was 18. Also, the thought of losing control of myself wasn't appealing.
But the summer after I graduated I was given some wine coolers, and 2 was enough to get me drunk. They say most alcoholics remember the first time they got drunk; well, the first time I got drunk it was on 3 Bartles & James peach wine coolers. It felt amazing! I didn't get drunk very often at first but my freshman year of college was a blur, just an all-year bender. My drinking got to be pretty heavy pretty quickly and progressively got worse. There were times here and there where I didn't drink very often but the dry periods got shorter and shorter. By the end I was drinking very day.
But the summer after I graduated I was given some wine coolers, and 2 was enough to get me drunk. They say most alcoholics remember the first time they got drunk; well, the first time I got drunk it was on 3 Bartles & James peach wine coolers. It felt amazing! I didn't get drunk very often at first but my freshman year of college was a blur, just an all-year bender. My drinking got to be pretty heavy pretty quickly and progressively got worse. There were times here and there where I didn't drink very often but the dry periods got shorter and shorter. By the end I was drinking very day.
Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,122
I found everyone's post quite interesting because statistically, if you consume alcohol before the age of 12 you are 50% more likely to develop a substance abuse disorder. And it appears as though most of us have/had.
Which brings me to myself:
My first "drink" was when I was four years old. My father was chastising my mother for being an alcoholic (even though I've never known the man sober my whole life) and said, "I bet you have booze in that cup right now." She denied it and he said, "Ok, then let newhope01 have a sip." Loving orange juice I quickly obliged the request yet only to find it was a screwdriver. I remember not liking it and didn't drink again until I was 12. My dad's girlfriend at the time asked me if I was interested in trying some wine coolers and thinking she was cool, I took her up on her offer to try a fuzzy navel.
The first time I got drunk however, I was at my girlfriend's house after school and she asked me if I wanted to take some, "shots" with her. Again, I thought why not? Don't remember how many I had but I know it was gross and I ended up falling down on my way to my boyfriend's football practice to break up with him because my friend wanted me too.
After that, I didn't really lose control again until I was 23 and got involved in that abusive relationship. It was all down hill from there.
Now, Im 28 and trying to find myself again through maintaining sobriety; Two days so far.
Which brings me to myself:
My first "drink" was when I was four years old. My father was chastising my mother for being an alcoholic (even though I've never known the man sober my whole life) and said, "I bet you have booze in that cup right now." She denied it and he said, "Ok, then let newhope01 have a sip." Loving orange juice I quickly obliged the request yet only to find it was a screwdriver. I remember not liking it and didn't drink again until I was 12. My dad's girlfriend at the time asked me if I was interested in trying some wine coolers and thinking she was cool, I took her up on her offer to try a fuzzy navel.
The first time I got drunk however, I was at my girlfriend's house after school and she asked me if I wanted to take some, "shots" with her. Again, I thought why not? Don't remember how many I had but I know it was gross and I ended up falling down on my way to my boyfriend's football practice to break up with him because my friend wanted me too.
After that, I didn't really lose control again until I was 23 and got involved in that abusive relationship. It was all down hill from there.
Now, Im 28 and trying to find myself again through maintaining sobriety; Two days so far.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Albuquerque NM
Posts: 147
Whats funny is my buddies were heavy advocates against alcohol (we were high school potheads) then suddenly! A guy over 21 offered to buy us bacardi razz. "Ok" we yelled together.
Now me and these friends had an understanding that weed was #1
End of story
Now me and these friends had an understanding that weed was #1
End of story
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