Mirage of a highly functioning alkie
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Join Date: Apr 2014
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Mirage of a highly functioning alkie
Well for several years I thought that I was doing fine. I could drink a couple to 10 or 12 beers a night and been fine. I have come to realize its not normal to visit the liquor store 5 nights a week. Your spouse shouldn't have to worry about you going to a party and have 10 beers and numerous shots. Only to go home be a mean drunk, throw up and blame it on her. Spending the next day feeling like death on the couch. Not wanting to move and knowing the only way I will feel better is that 5 o clock beer just for the hair of the dog that bit me. I didn't drink during the day. Still went to work and was able to function. I was able to take online course and studies. However, being hung-over and over tired for work everyday I noticed I became a slave to something I was letting control me. So there is no high functioning alcoholic. There are people that can get through the day to day as an alcoholic but deep down are ashamed they must poison themselves to make it through the next day. Its not highly functioning when your kid wants to play with you and you cant because your hung over or would rather have a few beers and zone out on the internet.
Day 6 I have many moments of clarity. Time is much slower when you do not drink. You can really achieve so much more. Life is filled with so
many other things to explore.
Also I do not need to worry about not having enough booze at night to survive the night or make it too the next day. Any functioning part of my life was sub par due to alcohol and poor decisions from it. Sure I will never be perfect but I do not think being a functioning alcoholic could help me get closer then I feel now. I am enjoying this journaling. I wish you all the best. I hope all of our new addictions will be to sobriety and happiness. Take care and be well.
Day 6 I have many moments of clarity. Time is much slower when you do not drink. You can really achieve so much more. Life is filled with so
many other things to explore. Also I do not need to worry about not having enough booze at night to survive the night or make it too the next day. Any functioning part of my life was sub par due to alcohol and poor decisions from it. Sure I will never be perfect but I do not think being a functioning alcoholic could help me get closer then I feel now. I am enjoying this journaling. I wish you all the best. I hope all of our new addictions will be to sobriety and happiness. Take care and be well.
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: canada
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Great post and congrats on Day 6. I still can't believe how much free time I have. I would have never guessed how much of my time was tied up with either being drunk or hung over. I was quite bored during the early weeks, but already now I'm learning to fill the time with other rewarding things.
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Join Date: Apr 2012
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Good for you. Do it while your kids are still young. Don't wait like I did. I drank my kids childhood away. Wasted more sunny days drunk or hungover than I would care to remember. I would give anything to go back to when they were younger. Crap!
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 437
Agreed!
No matter how "high functioning" one is (or thinks one is....), if one needs a bottle to get through, then you're a true-blue alcoholic.
If you are a high achiever, just imagine how much more could be accomplished if the booze didn't get in the way?
No matter how "high functioning" one is (or thinks one is....), if one needs a bottle to get through, then you're a true-blue alcoholic.
If you are a high achiever, just imagine how much more could be accomplished if the booze didn't get in the way?
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Upper Midwest
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Interesting thread, letitgo. I have read a lot of posts from those who call themselves "high functioning". The suggestion seems to be that anyone who is "high functioning" isn't as much in need of sobriety as someone who spends all of their days bellied up to the bar.
To me, that's like saying that your house is on fire but your lawn looks really nice. If you are an alcoholic, you are an alcoholic. How productive you think you are is either a delusion or irrelevant to the underlying problem. This "high functioning" delusion that I had probably delayed my sobriety by 10 years.
To me, that's like saying that your house is on fire but your lawn looks really nice. If you are an alcoholic, you are an alcoholic. How productive you think you are is either a delusion or irrelevant to the underlying problem. This "high functioning" delusion that I had probably delayed my sobriety by 10 years.
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Originally Posted by letitgo 
So there is no high functioning alcoholic. There are people that can get through the day to day as an alcoholic but deep down are ashamed they must poison themselves to make it through the next day. Its not highly functioning when your kid wants to play with you and you cant because your hung over or would rather have a few beers and zone out on the internet.
I think we are talking about replacing living with being dead alive. May sound dramatic but how I felt and still feel about being an active alcoholic.
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