joey112

I was born to an actively alcoholic mother, so had alcohol withdrawals soon after I was born. Was anyone else here "born addicted"

D122y

Joey,

Now that you mention it...yes I was.

Both my parents drank and did drugs.

Probably why I took to drinking as soon as I could get my hands on it....5 years old.

Possibly why i am addicted today.

I will always be an addict, although no longer physically addicted.

Mentally, the crave lurks.

Embracing sobriety 95% of the time. Fighting addiction 5%.

It worked for me.

Thanks.

joey112

Interesting D1,
Five is very young! I didn't start drinking until quite late compared to some (I was 30). But I was very hyperactive as a kid and it being the 70s when I grew up they gave me drugs for it from being 3 (some kind of amphetamine). I was 10 when they took me off it, and now had what I know to be withdrawal from that too.

I don't think it "made" me an addict, as it was me poured the drink down my throat. But I do think this sort of thing interferes with the physiological workings and development of the brain.
All the more reason to stay away from these chemical highs.

"Embracing sobriety 95% of the time. Fighting addiction 5%."
I like that.

ljc267

Unfortunately we don't get to decide how we come into this world, but we do get to decide how we leave it.

WizingUp

Interesting you say that. I was on Impromin from 3 to 12 with ADHD, I have always wondered if that was a factor. My mom says she didn't drink when she was pregnant but years ago I saw a picture of her with her glass of champagne resting on her baby hump (me).

joey112

What amazed me Wizing is why they gave an amphetamine based product to hyper kids! My mother reckoned it slowed me down, apparently Ritalin which came out later was also amphetamine based.
My mother drank so much when she was pregnant with me, I would think I was on a bottle of vodka a day before I was born. Lucky I was born in the hospital , I think if she knew how much alcohol was in my blood, who knows what would have happened, she would drink anything!

soberlicious

It absolutely effects the development of the brain. The hyperactivity you describe is very, very common in children who have been exposed to alcohol in the womb. I can tell by your posts that you are well spoken and intelligent. So many whose mothers drank the amounts your mother did not end up so lucky and have FAS. In it's most severe form, FAS causes lifelong and severe impairments. Prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading cause of preventable birth defects and developmental disabilities in the US.

I was not born addicted. My mom has never been much of a drinker. She did smoke while pregnant, but that wasn't really frowned upon in the 60s. My mom says even the doctors smoked in their offices back then.

joey112

I think, I got off lucky too, when I read about it! I may have exaggerated that I was on a bottle of vodka a day in the womb, I think my dad told me she was on about 1/2 bottle a day then, but that's still an extreme amount.
I still have trouble concentrating though, and sometimes I will have to re-read the same thing a few times before it makes sense, usually when I'm tired.
And sometimes when I write my sentence structure comes out a bit wonky and I'll have to go back and rearrange the words.
Another strange thing is that if I look at straight lines, they appear to move, a doctor told me this was because of tiny movements in the eye muscle. I had to use a stroller until I was 3 if I walked any distance, because I had abnormally weak leg muscles. And I have been diagnosed with chronic anxiety since I developed OCD when I was 2. I have been accused of being autistic (which I am not) but I do have trouble processing too much information coming at me at once (for instance if I'm in a crowd or even a room full of people). An I've been told I do come out with inappropriate things at inappropriate times, but I think that's just me haha
These are minor things which I have managed to get over or get around.
Even before I started drinking, and times I wasn't drinking that much a week, and now, something will click sometimes if people are talking to me and I have trouble processing what they were saying to me for a minute, just a minute. People who know me well just say, I can see by your eyes you went blank there, I'll tell you again in a minute.
Smoking was still not frowned upon until the 90s I think. I remember when I was pregnant the first time in the 80s pregnant women sitting in the hospital smoking room puffing away.

soberlicious

It's likely that prenatal exposure to alcohol is related to many of the things you experience, but there's no way of knowing and it sounds like you are dealing with everything really well. The sensory issues you describe are often found in individuals with autism, but so many issues like atypical sensory processing, attention, focus, emotional responses, etc are seen across myriad "disorders", so it doesn't really matter what the Dx is per se. One of my sons has autism, and my other son has ADHD and dyslexia and they have some overlapping behaviors. I did not drink at all during pregnancy, and was a teetotaler for 8 years prior, so I think it was just the gene pool. Some of us are introverts by nature and when lots of information and stimulation is coming at us at once, we need time to process that within ourselves. Not a good thing, not a bad thing. Everyone is different and there are strengths in those differences.

joey112

I am so not an introvert haha. But you are spot on, it doesn't really matter what caused what ,things just are that way. This is the way I've always been and it is just me. There are a lot of things you just get on with.
I like you put disorders in italics. It annoys me that if you in anyway process things differently, it is called a "disorder" Who are the medical profession to sit and judge what is "normal" and what is not? Things just are
I personally don't think autism and ADHD are genetic, I think they put too many chemicals in the stuff that passes for "food" these days. But it must be tough on you sometimes coping with the behaviour issues. You must be very strong