zoomi

Has anyone here been able to control their drinking? im 23 years old and have had a problem with alcohol for about 4 years where i drank almost every single night. For the last two months i have been able to drink only on Saturday nights and not have a problem rest of the week. It is very hard but i seem to be getting used to it, i love going to work not hungover and that's what keeps me sober during the week. Has anyone manage to do this? is this something to try or is this just playing with fire?

Dee74

I think most of us have tried this.

I managed it...for a while - I'd usually drink the amount I used to drink in a week on the Friday and Saturday tho...

But...don't you have a liver problem where you were told to stop drinking right away?

This doesn't sound a great step forward to me Zoomi.

D

Anna

I don't think any of us would be here if we could control our drinking.

And, yes, I believe it's playing with fire.

I was exhausted when I tried to control my drinking. I thought about it constantly. It was a relief to stop.

Carlotta

Look it up on SR, there are plenty of threads about controlled drinking.
There are also quite a few former week end warriors who are in recovery (we have one in my home group). Just because you drink only over two days does not mean you are not an alcoholic and that bad things (like DUI, falling and hurting yourself, ruining relationships, blackouts etc.) won't happen.
Also for a lot of alcoholics, what starts as controlled week end binges tend to extend into Mondays then Tuesdays etc.
I think that for alcoholics, moderation is ultimately not possible and trying to "control" one's drinking is a bad idea. If you are an alcoholic, only abstinence will work.

pattyj

I tried drinking only on Friday and Saturday nights. I then went to drinking once a month. The days that I wasn't drinking were great, not hungover or anything. But when I did drink, either on the weekends or once a month, I was making up for lost time. That's just how alcoholics do it. My alcoholism actually got worse when I was trying to control my drinking. For me, not ever drinking is what works best for me. I miss the drunk times and silly things that I did and the way that I could just let go of anything and my worries went out the window. But I wouldn't trade being sober for one night of fun because I know where it's eventually going to lead.

ScottFromWI

You posted just a couple weeks ago that you've been advised to stop drinking entirely because of a liver problem. If you got that advice from your doctor, i'd pose the question about "weekend only" drinking to him or her and see what they say. We can't give medical advice, but if you were advised to quit drinking entirely I don't think that meant just quit drinking monday to friday.

ReadyAtLast

I tried weekends only.They soon started on Thursday lunchtimes and I was rough till the following Tuesday morning

Total abstinence is the only way for me. Stopping drinking is freedom-freedom from the prison of alcohol,the planning,counting drinks,days, hours, planning, obsessing, crazy behaviour,attemptng to moderate,fighting it all the time, the sheer furstration of it. All that stops when you stop drinking. You have peace of mind

zoomi

after getting my blood work i talked to my doctor about it and he said if i can control it to a few standard drinks a few times a month i should be ok. But no doubt that is very hard! riding out the whole week just to get to Saturday is not that fun. I will give it a try and if i cant keep up ill just have to face the facts but at least i will know that there is no way for me to control it.

ScottFromWI

You also posted this on the same post on Sep 23

"I have accepted that i have a problem and no longer wish to drink. I hate what it has done to me."

What has changed between then and now to make you think that you don't have a problem anymore?

jt1234

Like Scott said. What has changed. The answer is nothing. I first got on this site 2 years ago and thought I could drink on the weekends. Well, didn't work out. Drank straight out of a captain Morgan bottle every day since until a couple of weeks ago. We have a problem. Have to face the fact that alcohol can't be a part of our lives. Simple as that.

Joe Nerv

I feel fortunate that I had no success whatsoever as a weekend drinker. It made it clear that I had a problem, and needed help. My best drinking buddy (who I'm still friends with) was able to manage doing that. For a while. 29 years later he still believes he only drinks on weekends. 3 or 4 beers a night during the week, but he doesn't consider that drinking at all. His life is owned and run by alcohol. Mine isn't. All he looks forward to is drinking. I look forward to countless things.

If someone is an alcoholic, drinking once or twice a week does nothing more than keep the disease well nourished. Life become enduring everything so you can finally have those drinks. Once the drink is done with completely, we're free.

deeker

Hey if you can do that easily with no consequences, you feel good the next morning, no guilt shame and remorse, My hat is off to you. I know I cannot and I know it is just a matter of time till I am up to my neck in guilt, shame and remorse and dire consequences cuz I am back to drinking every single day of the week. Easier to just abstain altogether, then wonder when to much is to much which is when it will probably be to late.

phoebe64

So, on this weekend drinking thing, are you only having 3 standard drinks a few times a month? Just curious.

Whenever I tried limited drinking, those Saturday nights crept back into Thursday nights and into Sunday as well, as others have mentioned. It is s slippery slope.

Tamerua

I was a weekend warrior and honestly. I would try to fit in more and more booze because that was my time to drink. When I stopped, I was either so hungover it would take a couple of days to recover or I would start on Thursday or make an exception for Monday. I wish I had figured this out at 23 but that wasn't in the cards for me.

Serenity1972

Hi Zoomi and welcome. I was a "weekend warrior" and I drank heavily from the time I got off of work until Sunday evening. We are talking wake up drink, pass out and repeat the whole entire weekend. I did this for 8 years and I consider myself an alcoholic. Sure, I didn't drink throughout the week, but I sure as heck made up for it on the weekends. I was always hungover on Mondays and I always suffered from withdrawlals during the week. After reading and researching I found that what I was suffering from was kindling as my hangovers and withdrawlals got worse and worse. I finally decided to throw in the towel as alcohol was not serving its purpose anymore. I wish you the best in whatever you decide.

TomSawyer

I never actually thought about this, but my alcoholism actually got worse when I was trying to control my drinking too.

I can also say I was a weekend binge drinker. Things gradually starting turning into drinking on Mondays, Tuesdays... Things just got worse and worse.

anyistoomuch

This quote describes my attempt to "moderate" my drinking perfectly. Every morning I would wake up and the first thing I would think is - will I drink tonight? i would start thinking about drinking at 3pm every day - so I started putting rules on it: only when I as with my friends, only on this night and that night. In the end, I realized it was hopeless and a useless waste of energy and started the effort to stop completely.

Zoomi - If you want to drink only on weekends, you are clearly free to do so, but this forum is filled with people who have been in the vicious cycle of drinking and then trying not to drink. Not sure you will find too many people who gives you the thumbs up, and if you found this site, perhaps you are also thinking you have a problem with drinking too.

Sorensen

If you are trying to control your drinking at this stage 20 years from now and you have a history of liver problems then you might not make it to 40. Controlled drinking can last for a while but it almost always resorts back to where it used to be especially if you have a history of drinking every day.

I know its so hard to do at 23 when everyone is getting absolutely pissed on the weekends, but your health comes first. I was a raging blackout weekend warrior and by the time I was 25, my brain chemistry was so fried from booze that I began to have panic attacks and severe anxiety randomly throughout the day. You never want to feel this way as panic attacks especially when hungover are worse then the fires of hell.

Leshar

Hello Zoomi,

I'm sorry, I hope I'm not out of line here, but I don't think this is very good advice from your doctor.
If you have any sort of liver problem, I do think you will be so much better to accept and embrace sobriety, and thus, not put your health and well-being at risk.
Good luck!

Johnston

Been there, done that, failed.