cha0sbydesign

HI all. I am new to these forums, and new to realizing that I likely have a very real problem with alcohol /just starting down the road to sobriety -but I do have a question that popped up today.

A little background that I mentioned in my intro thread - I really only drink one day a week, but that on that day, I drink a LOT. Without a care in the world, or (usually) any control to stop it or say no past a certain point. It totally takes over.

One thing that I've noticed is that alcohol does not even cross my mind Sunday-Thursday. I never crave a drink, or any substances of any sort, but the second 6pm rolls around on a Friday, I start feeling that craving kick in.

Is it possible that for so many years being a "weekend only" drinker, that my body chemistry/ physiology has actually clocked my cravings to be during weekends specifically?

Does anyone else suffer from this?

Any insight into this would be great

Thank you

Lance40

I suspect this to be true for a lot of people. My normal routine was to head by the liquor store for vodka when I got off work in the afternoon. When I stopped drinking I would usually be fine all day until around quitting time and then I would get mad cravings. I think our brains get conditioned to certain things that we associated with drinking and it takes a while after you quit drinking for that association to be broken. That's why changing your routine to avoid triggers is so important, especially in early sobriety.

strategery

You've probably learned to associate the weekends with drinking. I had that too, but mine were specifically at night.

sva777

I always felt weird around after work time for a few hours then it would go away. Lasted about 6 weeks after my last drink.

Serenidad

My drinking pattern has always been from 4:30-10:00ish every 4 days or so. For example, I would drink on a Friday (and drink ALOT and drink it FAST), wouldn't drink on Saturday or Sunday and then drink Monday. Wouldn't drink Tues or Wed and then drink Thurs and so on. It was like clock work. The cravings hit at the same exact time of day on day 4 too (about 4:30 p.m.)! There are a few times I drank on the 3rd day but mostly the 4th day. It's like my body just KNEW and WAITED. Weird!

cha0sbydesign

Ah. So there is something to this.

Yikes. Now to figure out a way to break it. I've often been able to battle cravings on Friday by staying in and cooking, but by saturday im always ready to blow off steam which always means drinking.

If I DO go out Friday I'll drink a lot, and then not touch alcohol the rest of the weekend/week...though mainly because I feel like death.

Serenidad

Oh, and by the way...in the beginning of my drinking career I too only drank 1 day per week. Then it started to progress to more and more days per week. If what they say is true about the disease progression, I could be drinking daily in no time...which is why I choose to remain sober. Scary! :-/

cha0sbydesign

Thank you for sharing your timeline
6 weeks feels like forever but also feels like there's some hope to shake that feeling.

Ruby2

I think many people on here would understand this and have similar experiences. We are all mostly creatures of habit. We become accustomed to doing certain things at certain times. Many of us can set clocks based on how we feel at particular times. I'd get anxious at the end of the day, knowing by how I felt, that I'd be drinking soon. Kind of like Pavlov's dogs. We have to in sobriety break that association. Derail it. If you associate six p.m. on Fridays with drinking you will have to think now, today, about how you will make it through. What actions will you and can you take to not drink? It will be uncomfortable. It was for me. But you can get through it. Hang here. Make a plan.

cha0sbydesign

Certainly a scary reason to stop drinking. For me, my drinking is getting more out of hand on that one day. I drink until I don't even recognize who I am anymore, and that isn't who I want to be.

MelindaFlowers

I drank every day of the week and when 5 pm would roll around I was like a werewolf. That sounds funny but as we all know it is anything but funny! There were even times I would salivate as I poured my first drink.

I never had the urge to drink before 5 pm, even on vacations. Come 5 pm and all bets were off. I was drunk from 5 until around 11 pm when I would pass out. Or 1 am, or 2 am, depending on the night. Always stayed up too late to fit in my drinking and felt like **** every single day.

PinotNOmore

I was going to ask how old you were... if that doesn't seem to forward. Because like Serenidad said things can progress and when I was young I drank once or twice a week but that can change rather quickly. And I'm only 30.

*Edit* Just read your intro post. I see we're similar in age. I knew a looonnnggg time ago that something needed to change. It's very Scary how quickly a "normal" college lifestyle became much more damaging for me. 5 years after college, I'm still trying to get this "habit" under control. Wish I had taken it more seriously when it was just one day a week and I drank in excess like you are describing. Not an easy fix at all though!

jerri11

Chaos, welcome to SR!

Its good that you're ready to tackle this before it escalates any further.

Every Thursday, Weasel (another member of SR) starts a Sober Weekend thread which runs thru Sunday evening. It's great "place" to hang out and check in, particularly if the weekends are a particular struggle. The thread goes up usually around mid-day on Thursday and is on the Newcomers to Recovery forum.

Gardennerd

It's like when the time changes and you still get hungry the hour you ate lunch before, or jet lag, it's 2am but you want lunch. Your body wants to keep the routine.

I too only drank Friday and Saturday night. Then sometimes Sunday afternoon, then Thursday-Sunday evenings etc. it took about 15 years before it became a problem, but the last 5 years were getting worse and worse.

Yes, Friday at 5pm I used to have bad cravings. I think the obsession lifted 6 weeks for me, some take longer. I replaced my drinking with other things I enjoy, like movies or landscape stuff, home improvement stuff. I started looking forward to that instead of beer. Of course AA really helped keep me on track.

I did relapse but more out of an attempt to "drink normally" again which does not work, and my cravings have much less power knowing they are just triggered by old routines.

MythOfSisyphus

Yeah, I think it's the norm. Like Pavlov's dogs we're conditioned to get our fix when we've always had it. I typically drank after work, seldom starting before 11:00 pm or so. I'd have about an hour window before I started to get physical symptoms (headaches, especially, if I didn't get a drink by 12:30 am or so).

Soberwolf

Have a nice day Chaos i think its better to have a plan in place to counter cravings/urges

LBrain

absolutely

PurpleKnight

Welcome to the Forum cha0sbydesign!!

Habits/routines are tough to break, but it can be done!!

AddictGuy

Chaos, it looks like you have come to the right place and for the right reason. You can see trouble and you are already experiencing some. It's good that you are turning to face this. The sooner the better.