bunchie

I agree, I think or rather I know if I stop for one or two, it ends up being at least 6 beers before I leave and sometimes more. The old joke at the bar is is ok this is the final final.Then on occasion it will be way worse , I will leave house to get something at hardware store stop in at bar next to store , say I will have 2 or 3 , but it turns out 6 or 7 and then I am too buzzed to do what I set out to do. Normal drinkers do not have this problem they stop have 2 and go out their business. So I think wether you drink everyday or just binge on weekends if you can not stop at 2 and leave bar in peace your brain is wired alcoholically , some binge drinkers I know are in denial on this. They think because they have a job they are functional alcoholics, I do not believe there is such a thing because the alcohol is still affecting your life between binges .

DontRemember

When I was trying to get sober, if I left the bar after 2 I thought I was really onto something. Of course I always knew I had a few more at home if I 'needed'.

Wholesome

It is most definitely a choice about whether or not to drink. But I'm not so sure about if it's a choice to be an alcoholic. Whatever "it" is, I've got it, and I can tell when others have it. A lot of people in my family have it, and some don't. For me, I think it started as a sugar addiction as a child. I was talking about this recently with my mother and she was saying how she thinks she can tell which of the grandchildren has "it" based on their sugar consumption. Not sure if there's any science to back up this sugar theory, but it does seem to be a common theme with us alkies.

Right from the beginning I never drank right. I could always drink more than most people, and I did.

Good thing is, there's a cure! The cure is never pouring that mind/body/soul destroying poison down my throat ever again.

ScottFromWI

I would agree 100 percent. Something is different about me that I did not choose when it comes to consumption of alcohol. Whether it's a disease or addiction or cosmic martian rays really doesn't matter to me so much. But there is no question that if I choose to drink, I will never be able to do it in a moderate or safe manner.

bunchie

Sugar consumption, that's a great theory , I think she is on to something, all the alcoholic's I know love sugar, they had sweet tooths when they were younger also, but who did not really , but I still believe there is a connection.

Snowydelrico

It’s so nice to have a choice again.
To choose life.
To choose joy over misery.
To choose contentment over turmoil.

I could make a bigger list but I think you get the picture.

Something in me says we’re sometimes conditioned to drink but i’ll never know because I’m an alcoholic not a normie.
Don’t suppose it matters.

Forward12

Just like not drinking, it's a choice.

tekink

The drug has caused a chemical imbalance in your brain at that point.

It is a relearning process but it’s also a matter of waiting for your brains chemistry to adjust back to not accounting for alcohol.

I think this is where the disease part comes in. We’ve made our brain sick because it’s adjusted it chemistry to deal with a new normal.

brighterday1234

Live in the solution not in the problem. I don’t care, I care about being gratefully sober. Has zero rekevance to that.

daredevil

After 10-20 days abstaining it's definitely a choice. At least that's my experience.

Gerard52

According to Dr Marc Lewis drugs and alcohol do not change the brain chemistry. What changes are neural pathways reinforcing the addictive behaviour. These can be changed by forming a different habit. It takes about a year.

tekink

That doesn’t make sense to me. Neurotransmitters are chemical in nature.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurotransmitter

MindfulMan

I think alcoholism is, by definition, an addiction. Not sure how many people who have problems with alcohol are not addicted. If they weren't addicts, if there were consequences to their drinking, they'd just stop. Also physical dependency doesn't necessarily imply addiction. For example, a college student might binge drink a great deal and suffer withdrawals (usually relatively minor) upon stopping, yet they don't have much difficulty not drinking if they don't like the consequences of doing so.

But...just because we are addicts doesn't mean that we have no choice in the matter. It may be difficult and involve a lot of help and commitment, but people stop drinking when they make the choice to do so. Whether its rehab or outpatient or rational recovery or AA or just not drinking, we made that choice. I think it's a matter of accepting that we can't control our drinking and our lives have become unmanageable...and then making the CHOICE not to ever drink again.

Gerard52

Neural pathways are being formed and destroyed all the time. They are formed as part of the learning experience. Apparently when we don't reinforce a pathway after a period of time it is eliminated.

tekink

While this is true it doesn't change the chemical nature of the process.

I've also seen the effects of changing my own habits. I had to learn to be sober, my brain didn't understand any other way.

Our brain is an amazing organ and it can adapt to things.
When we put chemicals into our brain it can cause receptors to become excited or relaxed and absorb more or less of a certain neurotransmitter.

Over time our brain adjusts to this external stimulation and then adjusts it's chemistry to produce less or more of the neurotransmitter so it can balance itself out. This happens slowly over time, it's a balancing act.

Take the drug away and it puts the brain into an imbalanced state and it again need to re-regulate it's chemistry.

At this point we're describing basically the same thing! Personally for myself understanding that it is chemical in nature and I have to let my brain correct what I screwed up made it easier for me to deal with all the brain fog, emotional instability, and apathy that plagued me for the first 12 months of my sobriety.

I hope I'm not rambling, i'm a bit dyslexic and sometimes my point gets lost.

Gerard52

Tekink I think we are and that given time the brain readjust and not be giving us urges to drink but first we need to develop a new thinking pattern to take over. What I take from this is optimism that being AF will not just be about denial and fighting urges.

rich27

For 20+ years, I simply drank to get hammered or I just didn't bother drinking because it didn't make sense to me to drink one or two.

I made a personal choice to walk into all the bars or liquor stores and then chose to take my first drinks each and every time. So to me, drinking had always been a choice as much as quitting was a choice I made.

I chose to quit because, when I was drinking, I was causing problems for myself. Not a thing but my own free will was making me walk into the pubs and ordering my first beer. That's my theory anyways

Best wishes.

Snowydelrico

Isn’t that pathway quickly reopened once we drink again? Maybe it lays dormant.
Hence we are lifetime addicts/alcoholics?
So we have to choose not to drink.

( no choice but to choose. That’s a head fu*k)

Gerard52

Good question and relapse by longterm non-drinkers would indicate we will relearn it pretty quickly. But if we get to a place where it isn't part of our thought process and we know why, there is no logical reason to go back and try.

For same reason not in a million years would I try cocaine. I know for a fact I would develop a problem, just don't go there.

Snowydelrico

The brain learns an addiction but cannot unlearn it.
What it can do like you said is learn a new way not involving the addictive substance.