Elisabeth888

I was watching the new Bill W. movie last night and it showed a bunch of people in the loony bin for alcoholism, and it struck me: You WILL either go insane or die if you continue to drink.

My cousin drank herself into to cirrhosis and then kept drinking until she died. She could not stop. Her organs all shut down.

I think about this when that INSANE thought of a drink pops into my head. Think about how NUTS that is.

We have to be vigilant about our recovery, no matter what method we choose, or we will die. I really didn't believe that at first, but it is true.

MIRecovery

Alchohol splits us off from the herd and then it kills us. I have seen far too much death caused by alcohol to ever under estimate my foe.

Garen

Here is a list of notables who dies from alcohol:

List of deaths through alcohol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I didn't know Alan Watts died from alcohol poisoning, what a shame. Another I know of is Scott Fitzgerald, author, who died from organ failure at age 44.

SDSurfn

My best drinking buddy died of cirrhosis.

My 2nd best drinking buddy just got diagnosed with cirrhosis.

I am grateful for 146 days of sobriety.

As long as I keep doing what I'm doing, I know I never have to drink again.

blackhearts

I watch intervention every monday on A&E quite ironic huh>? Anyways this past monday I started wondering about past guest and how they were doing in their recovery, so I googled. On one of the A&E sites they actually have a full updated page and death page..95% of the deaths from those guests were from alcohol. Not the heroin, not the crack..I mean they all kill eventually. But almost all the deceased guests on that page died from alcoholism.It just really shocked me.

escapist

Drinking poison every day. After 4 years I was swollen to the point I could hardly put on my shoes. Still managed to get to the store and buy more. It was like being posessed by a death wish

Halzuzu

After drinking heavily/daily for many years I was recently diagnosed with liver disease. The doctor said "It's not a matter of IF..it's a matter of WHEN..if you do not stop drinking you WILL die". I was already 36 days sober when he diagnosed me, now 108 days sober. I keep that in the back of my mind in case my lil devil alcoholic self tries to justify just one drink..."You WILL die!"...and it's not worth it.

pinkyreturns

My mum died at the same age I am now (34) from liver damage and head injuries when she banged her head on the kitchen cabinet when drunk.

bigsombrero

Thank you for the post. And thanks for bringing that movie to my attention, I did not know about it. I saw it available to rent online or purchase a download, I think I will do that.

When I lived in Central America there was a man in my small town who was literally LEAKING due to alcohol disease. His feet would squish with excess fluid when he walked in his sandals and he would leave a trail behind him. I left for a few months and when I returned he had died. It did not surprise me, but only confirmed the severity of what alcohol can do to the human body. Pure poison. Thank you again for the post.

jennikate

Thanks for the post. Sometimes you have to hear the real truth. When I was drinking, I thought my only out was death. I didn't realize at the time that death by alcohol is usually slow and painful. Thank God that I am sober. I never take a day for granted.

tehmazzyland

Of the friends I had in rehab, there's only me and 1 other guy left. Suicides, heart attacks, liver disease, one person fell down the stairs on his son's birthday and broke his neck. I've been to too many funerals and seen the devastation in the families - parents, siblings, children.

Alcohol kills. It kills good people.

mecanix

I had a blood pressure of 180/120 caused by drinking . That kind of blood pressure can be instantly fatal or so the nurse said .. i kept on drinking . It was utter madness i am so lucky to be here ..

130/80 these days when up and about

Bestwishes, M

Dave42001

Alchohol splits us off from the herd and then it kills us!

Powerful statement!!

Great thread!! I'm so thankful I changed my ways.. I was going down a dead end street doing 100 mph!!

Fallow

If I die an alcoholic death it will be ruled a suicide.

Huglets

I watched alcohol and drugs destroy my uncle until they finally took him at the age of 35. Because he was only 5 years older than I was he was more of a brother than uncle. I used to take him to and from his AA meetings back in the day. He was always on the sober-not sober train. For whatever reason, he just couldn't stay clean for long periods of time.

There's currently a woman in my home group that went back out late last week. She was near death last summer and told by doctors that her body was so ravaged with non-reversable damage that her body cannot withstand any more alcohol consumption. She was hospitalized for this last binge but they released her only after 2 days because there is simply nothing more they can do for her. I'm afraid we may be burying her in the near future.

Coldfusion

Wife's sister died of cirrhosis, a little over a year ago. And just yesterday, I was looking at family history of the great uncle after whom I'm named... I knew he was alcoholic and commit suicide, but didn't know he shot himself in the head with a .38 caliber automatic.

And I know a fellow who had a cardiac arrest due to detoxing. Fortunately, he was in medical rehab.

ReadyAndAble

Great thread. It's so clear once outside the bubble of addiction, yet so hard to see when still inside it.

Thank goodness in time the insanity of drinking becomes plain. The thought rarely enters my head now, and when it does, the absurdity of it registers in about 10 to 20 milliseconds. My SR friend Itchy recently compared it to standing on the edge of some great height, and thinking, "What if I jumped?" It's a crazy thought—and a healthy, rational instantly recoils from it. It's as if addiction overcomes our most primitive survival instincts, but then recovery restores them.

Of course, the benefits of recovery go beyond simply surviving. Alcohol kills, but before that, it takes away freedom, hope, and self-respect. I could get hit by a bus walking down the street today. But at least I'd spend my last hours at peace with myself.

paul99

That makes two of us.

AcceptingChange

Me too!

Alcohol doesn't kill us the first times we take it. And it doesn't kill everyone.
But it's still a deadly foe, that cannot be underestimated.

Here's a parable:
On a farm, there was a flock of chickens. One chicken started talking with another, remarking "How good our farmer has been to us. I think he is an awfully nice man, because he comes every morning to feed us." The other chicken nodded in agreement, adding "and he has been feeding each and everyone of us here every day like clockwork, every day without fail since we were all just little baby chicks." Indeed, when queried, most of the other chickens clucked in agreement about how benevolent their farmer was.

But there was one chicken, intelligent but eccentric, who countered saying "How do you know he is all that good? I remember, not too long ago, that there were some older chickens who were taken away, and I haven't seen them since. What ever happened to them?"
Some of the chickens may have slept a little uneasy that night, but in the morning the farmer came as usual, this time scattering even more corn around. The chickens ate this with gusto, and this dispelled any remaining doubts about the benevolence of the farmer. "You see, there is nothing to worry about. Our farmer had a little extra food, so he gave it to us because he likes us! He is a good man," remarked one chicken to the others, and they all nodded in agreement, all of them, that is, except one.

The intelligent but eccentric chicken became even more agitated. "He is just fattening us up! We are going to be slaughtered in a weeks time!" he squawked in alarm. But nobody listened. All the other chickens just thought he was a troublemaker.

A week later, all the chickens were placed into cages, loaded onto a truck, and driven to the slaughterhouse.
The End

Moral of the story: You cannot always induce the truth from past experience!

Or, my moral: Just because alcohol used to work doesn't mean it will continue to work.
Stop now!!

Just substitute "chicken" for "people", and "farmer" for "alcohol", and you can see that just because something was good in the past does not mean it isn't planning to end you, and end you soon.

tazzle

Sobering thread, no pun intended. I am so scared of death that I frequently have horrible anxiety attacks at the thought. When the fact that I was doing to myself the one thing I was most terrified of is when I came here to help me stop drinking. I will read this thread when if and when I get that urge to have a bottle.