ScottFromWI

I would imagine drinking 3 bottles of wine a night isn't viable for you either, right?

Point being..maybe AA isn't for you ( and it's not for everyone ), but no matter what sobriety method you choose you will be required to do things that you don't want to do or thins that "aren't for you".

And quite frankly, running into people at AA, or any other type of recovery meeting is a good thing...those people are there for exactly the same reason as you are. Being there shows them that you are working to get better. One of my big fears when quitting was that people would "find out" that I was in recovery. The bottom line is that they already knew I was a drunk - and I think it's better to be known as a recovering alcoholic than an active drunk, right?

ZeldaFan

At my worst I would take down 500-750 ml of vodka per day. When I ran out, I would be at the liquor store at 7 AM when it opened to get more and immediately go home and start all over again. Terrible.

varadero

I fooled myself into thinking I could cut it down from 4-6 cans of 5% to just 2 cans of 4% per evening after work and after 9pm, but I was waiting for 9pm and drank the two cans then went to bed. This did not last long and ended up on 4 - 6 cans of 7%+ cider each evening starting as soon as I got home from work. I always thought as myself as a mild A, but now realised there is no such thing, and glad to be back at SR and doing well...

leasha24

Slowly progressed from drinking a lot on the weekends since I didn't have to work the next day it didn't matter.... Then slowly started to have a couple drinks after work..... Then it was at least 1-2 drinks every night after work... And it just got worse from there.... My body feels so much better without the alcohol now

OpenTuning

How much did I drink?

Too much.

I don't mean that as a flippant answer. I'm as curious about everyone else's drinking as the next person, but I think it's extremely important that people know this isn't a contest. One person's "too much" may not be the next person's. There is always someone who drank more, lost more, did more dangerous/illegal/humiliating things than you've done.

The risk is that someone who feels they're not in control and is thinking of stopping might read tales of "I drank 2 gallons of vodka for breakfast, before I really got started each day" and feel they don't belong here. Clearly don't have a problem yet. And their AV will leap on that to get them drinking again.

Bottom line is that you have a problem with alcohol when you, and/or your friends and family, are worried that you have a problem.

Apologies if it sounds like I'm saying people shouldn't be answering the question. It's just that I've seen too many posts from people who have been convincing themselves they don't have a problem because they don't drink as much as "real alcoholics" do.

atxjoshua

OpenTuning, I agree — too much is my answer as well.

Before I was ready to admit that I had a problem, I would use other people's drinking as a baseline, to convince myself that I wasn't drinking THAT much comparatively. Like you, I still think the question the OP asked is totally valid — I would just encourage everyone reading this thread to know that you can still have an alcohol problem whether you drink 5 drinks a day or 15.

I seldom drank before 5 p.m. I had, on average, 5 or 6 cocktails a night. It was still destroying me. We all have different temperaments and tolerances. I spent the better part of 20 years convincing myself I wasn't an alcoholic — that I could moderate, etc.

I'm finally willing to accept what I think I knew all along, or at least for the last decade. I'm a better person when I don't drink. So I won't anymore.

Day 12 here — with many more to come.

soberlife123

I totally get your point and that certainly wasn't my intention. On the reverse side though it could also serve as inspirational to certain people who may believe they are "too far gone" to see people that have achieved lasting sobriety no matter what their "bottom" was. I know a fear in early sobriety is also damage done to one's bodies (as i've seen in countless threads, fear of going to the doctor etc.) . It could also perhaps assuage the fears of certain people that many heavy drinkers recover their health and lead happy active lives once they stop with the booze. That's more where my thinking was at.


It certainly was not intent to be a contest because that's a contest we're all going to lose!

Reset

Half a fifth of liquor (usually gin, sometimes bourbon) + a couple of glasses of wine per day.

ZeldaFan

That's an understatement, haha. Worst contest ever really. And I've seen some rough eating competitions.

dcg

On your day one of sobriety you ask how much people used to drink so hardcore drinkers would get inspiration in that their situation isn't as reversible as they might seem to think? IMO, you've got much better things to think about on your day one.

ZeldaFan

I think you can take this thread either way in how you decide to interpret it. I know that for me, when I came on SR and started reading how much people were drinking before they quit it scared the crap out of me. It was one of the big pushes to sobriety for me.

I can see how people's AV could go the wrong way with this type of thing and go "okay, so I'm 'only' drinking 200 ml of vodka a day and that other guy said he did up to 750 so I can keep going for awhile". For me, my non-AV part of my brain jumped into survival mode seeing how bad some people got and that really changed me for the better.

soberlife123

I don't know if this was intended to be aggressive or If I'm misreading the tone of your post.

This isn't my first go at sobriety, I've had sober periods under my belt before and I had a relapse so I reset my clock. However I don't think the discussion is invalid rather then telling me what I should or should not be thinking about perhaps best to concentrate on your own journey.

If you don't want to participate in the discussion it's very simple just don't!

Cheers.

adelina123

For a long time it was up to one bottle of wine 2 or 3 week nights, more at weekends.
It's now progressed to 1 and half - 2 bottles 3 -4 week nights and more at weekends. I'm a good example of this progressed illness.
Can I also say about the AV ... i went to a couple of meetings and met people that had drank all day every day to the point of wetting themselves in bed and laying in it. I left those meetings feeling reassured that I was ok afterall and even went to buy wine after one of them!!

dcg

You definitely misread the "tone" of my post, but I haven't yours. Good luck this time around.

OpenTuning

As you can probably guess, I fell into that second camp. I drank about 30 years longer than I should have because I always saw people drinking more than me, so clearly I wasn't an alcoholic. The fact I surrounded myself with heavy drinkers might help explain that too.

Reading about people's rock bottoms, in context, along with their personal stories of recovery I do find very inspirational. I personally don't think it's as useful to just have a list of quantities people drank because of the risks I mentioned. Which is why I just wanted to slap a serious "health warning" onto this discussion

soberlife123

Agreed! like I said wasn't ever intended that way and I appreciate you doing so it hadn't occured to me the danger

48heath

I drank too much.

There is never a reason good enough to stop someone attending AA.

JoeCree

I think the OP was sincere in this thread. Everyone is different and needs different tools on a day to day journey. There is no harm in asking questions, and we cant censore according to selective AVs.

relena

I went through a handle of vodka every 2-3 days. People were always shocked at the amount I could drink considering i'm a very small person.

Jsbodhi

I think this thread is fine OP xoxo
At the worst I was drinking about 6 bottles of wine a week, at best 1-2 bottles of wine a week, others drank more than me, but I blacked out all the time and unleashed the gates of hell, or missed work, or had anxiety.
I just had to stop it before it got even worse!!!