Suddenly 60 and a drunk
 

Been sober 12 days, feeling good. Wanna keep this going, wasted all those years without growing or really accomplishing much. Really would like to see and feel and live like normal people instead of getting drunk 5 + days a week. My health has suffered,had2 friends drink themselves to death. Quit 18 months ago for a month and my health improved dramatically but I've been bad since then. Need to be inspired.... HELP.

Scott-51 y.o. here and basically having to reinvent myself. A LOT of fences and bridges to repair if you know what I mean. So many folks here get it. Really glad to hear that you're 12 days in. Just keep going 24 hours at a time. Each day is a new day and an opportunity to live and grow in new health and clarity of mind and purpose.

You've got lots of life ahead and things will improve if you stay the course. It's not guaranteed to be easy but it isn't complicated. The great people here will support you and can help navigate through both the tough and the good times.

Glad you decided to drop in. Hope to see ya around ;)

T.

Welcome to the family. :grouphug: You'll find lots of support and wisdom here. :)

Thanks T.... am new to this, but you responding is cool.

ScottT, welcome to the realiTy.

There are so many people here like you and me. We've hit the physical limitations. We were warriors for inebriation! And it has done what it would always meant to do.

It's bitten us in the ass.

So, break out the iced tea maker, the lemonade mix, and stop the self abuse.

Welcome Scott,
It's a great thing getting sober or should I say starting living. Good for you. This place is without a doubt a major tool on my road to recovery.
Keep reading and posting.
V.

Hi and welcome Scott :)

I'm 50 quit at 40.

I was an end stage drinker- I drank from sunup to bedtime...my world shrank to my room and my daily trip to the bottle shop...

I was distraught and isponmdent and waiting for the end really.

Coming here changed all that for me. It meant so much to find support and understanding.

It helped with all the change and hard work I had to do too. I have over a decade of recovery now and my life is a million miles away from what it used to be.

I love life and and I like who I am.

If I can do it I'm sure you can too :)

D

Whoa Scott T, I used to think I was too old at 40 to bother quitting. What life did I have to look forward to? Sober or not? Pretty stupid eh?
Fast forward 15 years later and here I am. Yes, I've lost EVERYTHING to this Devil. I joined S.R. after a bad binge (more than 2 months of a 26 everyday) They've taught me I'm worth it, supported me, given me all the advice I needed to get through acute withdrawal, make a recovery plan, put up with my anger and paranoia and 3 day slip up. Somewhere along the line they taught me rid myself of the guilt and remorse. Which were the two factors that had me drinking in the first place! AA , I gave it many shots (pun intended). Therapist kept bringing my past...ugh. I have a home here. BEST of all I know I'll have a sober future. I don't think about it, or the past, only the moment. I've said it before and I'll say it again...
"Joining S.R. is like joining the Mafia, anywhere I go in the world I have the family But if I leave them I die."

63 here. I successfully quit drinking nearly seven years ago for over four years, but for whatever reason I thought I could drink responsibly again. It actually worked for a couple more years, but I think the infrequent drinking eventually led to infrequent binges which further led to kindling myself. As a result, I started going through lengthy withdrawal periods as opposed to having one-day hangovers, and I didn't even realize it.......or maybe I just didn't want to recognize it as such. Still, regardless of how we look at things, once we become an alcoholic, there's really no joy to be found in continuing to be one. It's just not worth it, especially at our age.

Welcome.

It's never too late. I was 41, but i know ladies in AA who have the move towards sobriety and recovery in their 60s.

BB

Welcome to SD!

Another old timer here at 55 yrs young. I joined AA in 2004 and remained sober for 11 wonderful years. Being so much younger and healthier then, I had found my bottom emotionally and spiritually drained and it was more a concentration on Self and Life on Life’s Terms through AA.

Relapsed ~2 years ago. With Just One Drink. This time, my bottom was not only an emotional and spiritual void, but the scary, physical toll it was taking on me hit home. I’m past menopause. I’m older . I’m physiologically different than before and alcohol was doing what it does best: harmful REAL damage to my skin, liver, pancreas, kidneys, water retention, and at a cellular level. Googled all of the possible damage of alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis and end stage liver failure, as this was the reality of my fate if I continued to drink even one drink. Even just one because, through my relapse, I learned that I couldn’t control my drinking and I was finally back to where I was last time (look up kindling effect). My youngest is only 13 years old and I was killing myself physically with alcohol...I’m not ready to die yet.

Keep coming back, work hard on yourself and the ‘whys’. Reach out for support and find a program that works for you. You got this, 24 hours at a time. For me, I look at it as I have 20 total 24 hour periods of time. Keep coming back, there’s a wealth of knowledge, common sense and love at SD!

Welcome to SR Yad2LohoclaOn :)

D

60 is not old, ScottT, after 6 months you will realize that you are capable of things that seemed like moonshot pipe dreams when alcohol was stunting your motivation. Compared to some of these folks, I don't feel like some kind of ubermensch recovery overachiever, but I have managed to recover that mental and physical strength I once had and maybe it's a little bit stronger now because I have experienced hell and not much can scare me now. Bring it on! ;-)

I Think I Like It Here
 

Just joined and posted last night. Inspired and teary eyed by the response . Gonna drink a lot of water and get some exercise with my 4 legged friend. New to this fabulous site , so much great info--- a lot of exploring to do.

Welcome, keep posting, lots of lovely people in here. :)

Welcome.

Me
 

I'm 61 and have been sober since March 2016. Life has thrown some horrible things my way in that time. A severe back injury, death of my mum, husband seriously ill, followed by daughter also seriously ill, and now I've been told that I possibly have cancer in my spine. Add to that , my brain has shrunk far more than it should have for a woman of my age, purely due to booze. But ........ still sober! How???? I ask myself. We'll, I've got an amazing daughter and grandson, go to AA regularly and just don't feel like killing myself!! Not to say I haven't been tempted, I have, I even took a mouthful of my husband's whiskey after I'd been told about the possible cancer. Stupid thing to do, it tasted awful, didn't calm my churning stomach and gave me a headache. But I still feel dreadful for having done it. A bit of temptation since, as I'm waiting for a radioisotope scan, which I hoping will be negative, but I haven't given in, YET. Being sober has changed my life so much. I'm ME again, silly, fun loving and able to join in conversations and make sense. Doesn't matter what age you are, it's still a game changing thing to do. There was a lady in my detox who was 79, it's never too late to stop. Even if the scan shows positive, I hope that I remain sober, we can never say can we? One day at a time and all that.

50 here and trying to beat the demon again. I have drank daily for probably 25 years. Never a binge drinker, but always a 12 pack a day, sometimes with some hard stuff mixed in. I posted here back in October when I tried then, worked for a very short period of time, including several hospital visits over the period of 2 months. Was good until I got a possible bad diagnosis of a lung disease at end of December, still not sure on that result yet. Anyway, was never a binge kind of drinker until that point. When I got that possible diagnosis (not confirmed yet), I went off the deep end for a week or two and pretty much drank all day. This was not fair to my girlfriend or her kids I live with. Anyway, now working on 2 weeks and want to make this the last time I put myself through this hell.

One thing you never hear is "60 and suddenly a drunk". It took many years for most of us - being a drunk wasn't a sudden event. However, many of us have come to realize that we spent 20 years or more being a drunk, and time flies when you miss a lot of it.

Like Dee and some others, I was a two beers for breakfast guy followed by one after another all day. No need to count them up but 3 or 4 an hour was not uncommon. In the later years it was a beer and a shot for breakfast followed by another and another until I "got right", then it was just beer after beer. And it wasn't sudden for sure. But all of a sudden, where did the time go...

I think of Morgan Freeman in "Shawshank Redemption" giving his reply to the parole board. "I wish I could go back in time and talk some sense into him... But I can't, this old man is all that's left..."

How many of us wish we could back in time and know what we know now? We just have to suck it up, realize the err of our ways and start anew. It's never too late to get your life back. 10 good years beats 20 bad years any way you look at it. Fortunately, I'm confident that I have 30 good years left.

My mother has been sober 6 months and she is in her mid 70’s. It is NEVER too late.