Drunk at work
 

Ok first of all, sorry to post this as I realise most people are in recovery whereas I have barely begun. Well failed today. I have a work night out and on day 2 of sobriety and anxiousness I snapped and told myself I need booze just to get through the evening. Despite yesterday posting the opposite having been on site I just got home and downed 2 bottles of wine. I am embarassed to admit it but noone else to tell. This sounds weazily and pathetic on this inspirational site but any tips on hiding the smell as I have to go back to work then work nite out. I feel awful.

I look back and my drinking was kind of like an elastic band that I stretched and stretched until ...it broke.

I'm not going to give you any tips on disguising your breath - thats not what this site is for, man.

But I will give you some advice.

Draw up a recovery plan before the elastic band snaps and your private drinking becomes very very public.

Here's a good start:
https://store.samhsa.gov/shin/conten...0/SMA-3720.pdf

D

I wouldn't be going back to work at all.

I would miss work especially if your doing something that could people in harms way, even driving.

I would then agree with Dee and make a plan now.

Don't go. I tried to do it one last time and got caught. Last day I worked that job. They may get upset if you call in but trust me they get more upset if you are there under the influence.

Thank you very much for the responses all. Dee yes I will look at your link later. It's the weekend soon so the ideal time to get my crap together. I would never drive drunk but in a way being hungover affects the community in other ways in my job

Can you call off work and use your day to come up with a plan to stay sober? Maybe treatment, counseling, AA, another program.....

Maybe stay home from the work function tonite too? This day could be one of the best days of your life if you use it to build a foundation for sobriety. :-)

Hang in there. Hangovers suck! The last time I was hungover and feeling like I was gonna die, a friend of mine in recovery said, "you never have to feel this bad again!" And she was right, since I stopped drinking, I haven't had a hangover. Imagine that! It truly is better waking up feeling good.

Hang in there. :-)

You drank during the last work nite out. Skip this one.

Hi Feren,
I could have written your post a couple of years ago. Two bottles of wine was pretty much the norm and I would frequently turn up for work hungover. I was never confronted about it but looking back people would have known. I has a very responsible job in terms of public safety and could have easily harmed someone. I must have been over the limit every morning and that fills me with shame. If you shouldn't drive or work then don't. People might be annoyed but you can't arrested for calling in sick. Good luck, you are in the right place here, this site saved my life .

Is the smell of drinking that bad? I have to go back to work. I know all about sweating out of pores etc but I have no choice. Too much pressure. Will shower and chew gum. Duck's sake.

Thankyou pipping that struck a chord.

I agree with the other comments. Stay home, get yourself together today and make a plan for recovery.

Thank you for this link Dee. It's actually great OP, try it.

feren I can smell the alcohol on someones breath and don't have to be close to them. Stay home.

I wouldn't go back to work either........there are only two things everyone has to do and 1 is negotiable .........die and pay taxes.......I hope you stayed home.

There is no way to mask the smell...I always thought I was being so sneaky by drinking only vodka but no matter what you do people know.
I agree with others, you should take this day as an opportunity to kick start a plan to get sober. I don't know about you but I was just as much of a disaster waiting to happen when I was withdrawing and hungover as I was drunk. Be safe. People get food poisoning or the stomach flu all the time ;)

We think we are slick but don't realize how easy it is for "normies" to sniff it out. Like GettingSmarter said, now I can smell it without being too close to someone. You should " come down with a virus" and work out a plan if sobriety is what you want.

i had some golden rules about my drinking. no drinking on the job. no showing up to work drunk and no matter how much i drank the night before i could not simply call in sick over a hangover I felt I should tough it out as it was my fault i felt that way. no drinking till 5pm etc.. no randomly drinking through out the day there was drinking time and then there was ordinary time. You dont just wake up and crack a beer at 3am or 7am or have one with lunch that sorta thing.

in the end one by one i started to break all those rules. I new there might be an issue at that point.

I gues you gotta ask yourself how bad do you want to allow this go get? how far are you willing to go for your drink?

Hi Feren,

I used to drink strong heavy beer and the fierce hangovers just became a part of my daily routine. I'm still unpacking what a drain on life they were, just a criminal waste of time and energy. After almost four years sober I still wake up every morning and give thanks that I feel good. It is one of my strongest tools for staying sober. I know that wine is the same way.

I'm still not sure who noticed the smell of beer, besides my wife when I came to bed. Maybe no one. I took a shower and brushed my teeth every morning. If I had to guess I bet it's recovering alcoholics and cops who notice that sort of thing. I can smell it for sure. There are ways to tell approximately how much alcohol is still in your system--XXX pound man drinks XX drinks in XX hours=XXBAC. It's frightening math. The same is true with those personal breathalyzers. If you're hungover, you're probably still drunk.

One of the scariest things to me about my drinking was that it seemed to have an evil personality, not me drunk, the drinking itself. It would get mad when I tried to cut back or moderate and that's when I would get the worst hangovers and the black outs. It was so powerful, I thought I would never beat it but I did, and you can too. It's hard but it is so worth it. Remember, it does get better. The cravings pass. Put that monster in a box and throw away the key!

Thanks for replies guys..but not turning up is worse

I just reread your post gaffo thanks.

Let us know how you are after work. I will be anxious to hear how everything went. I hope your day goes smoothly.

Feren, when I read all this, my first line concern wasn't only about being potentially caught today, but that if you go to work intoxicated again and especially if you get away with it, you are conditioning yourself for more similar incidents in the future. I think it's irresponsible and depending on your work, also dangerous to do it under the influence. And believe me, you won't get away with it all the time. I would also vote for staying home and doing some serious soul searching regarding how you want to proceed with your life.

I went to work intoxicated I think twice years ago, both times on weekends when most people were not around, but I still did stuff in that condition. For me personally, it scared the crap out of me and I never repeated it again. Instead, I did things that were not any better: not showing up at work many many times due to deciding to drink or hangovers. I'm still grateful to whatever fears held me back from drinking before or on the job though, since it's a job that I love and value very highly. I would have been devastated losing it. Just some food for thought.

Thanks all for your helpful, personal and inciteful comments. I went back to work then left and made up an excuse re the meal. I reckon they guessed I was drunk before re smell but at least damage limitation. Thing is I didn't even feel drunk in fact was better at my job.. * Alcoholic thinking

Time to turn a corner, alcohol it seems is doing you no favours.

I really needed to draw a line and stop letting it affect all aspects of my life, the stress of worrying ate away at me for years, would someone smell it at work, would I get pulled over driving etc

Life since I parted ways with alcohol has been looking up ever since!! :)

I would call in sick as well, you don't want to chance it.

Well thank goodness, it looks like a disaster averted so moving on and moving forward: what is your plan?

Fired = worse than not going

I'm surprised I never got caught, or confronted because I knew I reeked of alcohol. I got to the point where I'd go home at lunch and have a couple of glasses of wine. I do NOT miss those days.

The reason you felt normal is because your addicted, your body needs the booze to feel okay. Same thing happens to abusers of other drugs. You only feel worse while not using, this is a giant red flag to stop now.

Once your through the withdrawals it will all start to feel better but that is no easy task.

Ok you made it through this....I made it through plenty of times till I didn't. Hopefully you have the weekend off and can focus on what you need to do to ensure it doesn't happen again. I am only pushing you because I remember all too well what it's like to live that way and know how wonderful it is to not have to live that way anymore.