Could the answer be some people are a lot more addicted than others, i mean drinking a bottle of vodka every night for years and drinking once every couple of weeks are too totally differant things... Also physical addiction comes much later in alcoholism.....

I'm not sure I was addicted to alcohol. On my normal days I would still have a few lagers after work. With me every now and again I would start drinking them wouldn't stop till the money ran out or my family staged an intervention. Three in the last year if anyone's interested! But still I thought I could control it. I subscribe to this switch idea. It's very interesting. You can't stop for anyone but yourself.

Yes, that could be true I suppose in some cases, but I was a horrible daily drinker. Drank to blackout several times a week for about 7 years. I also became dependent on benzos as well and the combo landed me in the psych ward. But I haven't looked back in over 6 years. When I was done, I was done, and there hasn't been much struggle at all. Life has defintiely brought me hardships and challenges, but the not drinking part has not been hard at all. The difficulty in quitting is not necessarily proportionate to the amount or frequency of drinking. Some people drink for a short period or what I consider to be a small amount, and have an extremely difficult time with cravings and staying quit. I think it's more about mindset personally, a paradigm shift, but that's just me.

It could be, but speaking only for myself, when I'm not drinking, I'm thinking about drinking. In other words, as a binge drinker I drink on average every 10 days or so. But even on my sober days, my thoughts are consumed with either thinking about drinking or thinking about why I shouldn't drink. In addition, while not suffering from a hangover, I'm usually not at my best physically, mentally or emotionally. Essentially, my thoughts are all but consumed with alcohol. I have little peace or serenity.

In that regard, the addiction still has me in it's grips even though I'm not intoxicated.

I have missed your Soberliciousness!
Regards returned.

Banquo,
I was getting Librium and all kinds of stuff in the medical detox. No way I could have detoxed from both alone.

As to more addicted lionhearted, I was drinking 30+units of alcohol a day. Sometimes 40. A unit for noobs = one beer, 6oz. of wine, or one shot of hard liquor (86 proof plus,)= 1 unit.

I had one or two shots in my coffee first thing, then two more cups of coffee with shots, until the hand shaking stopped. Then I switched to beer at 9am! When my mouth felt too yeasty, about 5pm, I switched to wine to cut the yeast. Then some scotch rocks lime. Until bed. To keep from killing/banging up myself and/or our truck and cars, I became grounded to my property. This was every day, seven days a week for several years.

Then I flipped the switch and checked into detox. No looking back or obsessing about alcohol. Maybe my constant joy when I'd stop at least once an hour and marvel at how good I felt from the first day out of detox was my obsession of being joyously without it!

Yes, I have had the thought cross my mind once or twice that I could likely handle it again for a short while. Then think nope, not worth the risk.

For you folks just getting started back to the living, don't hear me as it was easy and I quit once and for good. Most misunderstand that all of us tried to quit thousands of times and failed in thought and deed before we learned where that dang off switch was from self disgust.

None of us just put it down the first time either.

Never looked back once I finally detoxed. No thoughts of it even being with people drinking. I do have to leave when they get loud and dumb. Only because it is booooring to see them, let alone be one of them again.

That is awesome if its going easy. For me, setting the bottle down wasnt that hard and either was not drinking. It was learning to live and be confident without the booze that was the real learning process. Im still going strong, but I have had some off days, weeks, whatever. Im thrilled to be where I am today though and to be feeling how I do.

Thanks for this great insight. I LOVE the idea that quitting is like outgrowing the binky! I may even use this if someone questions me about not drinking:

Nosy casual acquaintance/stranger: But WHY aren't you drinking???
Me: [shrugging] Outgrew it.

<3 it!

Be glad it's coming easy but be wary of the slipup. It's when everything seems like it's going great that we're most susceptible to the "I don't even crave it anymore, I bet I can drink in moderation now" trap.

Glad to hear it is going well though! :) good for you

PS I am also doing well with sobriety this time around, working hard on making it a good life as that makes returning to my awful drinking life less attractive.

AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!! :a108:

I know my body was not physically dependent on alcohol as when I ceased I had little to no physical effects. Emotionally dependent? Oh ya. I think the "trickier" of the dependency is the emotional one...cuz that can reach out an grab ya in a "moment"..one bad crappy anxious moment. My sobriety to date has been pretty wonderful...but I had one bad "moment" just last week..where I almost lost it. Emotions unfortunately are not "static". Getting a handle on how to handle emotions/situations takes time and experience. I know that getting through that one bad moments I had...gives me something to refer to..when and if it happens again.