Auchieshuggle

You're very welcome. Also note that 11% (43 souls) on here drank heavily for more than thirty years. Thank your luck stars you're still here to tell the tale, see each day as a gift and go and live life as a free man.

God bless.

Evoo

About the same, but I started later. I was 19 when I had my first drink. I fell in love instantly. I was a naturally high-energy and anxious person, alcohol had a calming and meditative effect that I became almost instantly addicted to. The first time I had liquor, I blacked out.

for the next 5-10 years I got away with being the “fun” alcoholic — which inevitably turned into a private addiction and drinking myself to sleep every night of the week for years.

by 30 I also started to realize how bad it was getting and made several attempts to “moderate.” I married my high school sweetheart (now a therapist) and suddenly had someone who could see right through the depth of my addiction.

It’s been a long haul, but as I turn 37 I am finally sober and 100 percent committed to it. February 2019 was the turning point.

Introvrtd1

For me it started around 1997 during my years in the Navy. I was 33 years old and didn’t like beer much but had an affinity for milky sweet drinks like baileys or mudslides.

The beer came a couple years later. Started out with occasional drinking. Progressed 10 years later into weekends and daily drinking off n on. Since then, I’ve quit many many times…Sometimes as long as a few months. Up till now, 7 months was my longest sober stretch.

Sometimes I wish I’d never got started.

AthensDawgs

I have no clue if Ive posted in this thread or not, probably so, but it was several years. I'm 38 right now so I'll go with 10+

I didn't start until after high school. I was a complete nerd(still am) in high school and never went to any parties, nor did I drink at my parents house. I would say it started right around when I got into UGA(this was circa 2004) and I was downtown so much, pretty much every night. I basically just chalked that up to living the college life, etc, and doing what every guy my age does during that time period. Parties, downtown, keg stands, etc.

Fast forward to living out in Denver, the drinking got worse and my roomate actually came to me concerned. Lets just say tons of Vodka and making excuses to leave work to go have a drink. I made up the worse lies humanly possible to get out of work, it was crazy and embarrassing.

My mom passed away in 2015, and that just sent me into a dark hole that led me to treatment #1. Fast forward to last year and my best friend passed away. He was 40 and also a hardcore alcoholic. We were basically the same person. That one just got me spiraling out of control. The drinking got out of hand and I literally couldn't function. I actually got a job working for a UPS store in Atlanta and never made it in, called out "sick" for work and that led to treatment #3(in patient and then straight into outpatient over the holidays). Its pretty obvious when death occurs I turn straight to the bottle hardcore and its one of the reasons I'm currently seeing a therapist twice a week.

I've definitely had a drinking issue for a long, long time. I went from whiskey hardcore>tons of vodka>whiskey thinking that I could change something. I also ditched the liquor and tried just champagne and those seltzer drinks, same result. Looking back, I was drinking 1.5 handles of whiskey during my 3-4 day benders and then more beer, etc on top of that. During this past month, I was drinking 3 bottles of champagne plus like 10-11 seltzers a day.

The amount of total destruction, both mentally and physically, was out of control and my body told me to stop. It sent a clear message a week ago that if you don't stop, you'll be dead in a year. I am also a huge music fan, and some of the artists I've adored have passed away due to alcohol. So, its why I'm here and contributing and attending meetings.

I'm lucky to be alive and just grateful. Every single second and morning is a gift.

Buckley3

Yikes - 21+ years for me.

Also interesting to see that the 21-30 years group is at the tip of the bell curve. That's a lot of time.

-B

SouthernSober

Over 30 now. I knew at age 36 I had crossed the line into addiction...that was after 18 years heavy drinking.

Just thought I'd mention: at my AA meeting tonight someone referenced an "archive" Big Book that was owned by a lady who got sober at 81 and died at 100.

Someone else mentioned that "the only AA meeting you're late for is your first one."

So room for lots of perspective...but never giving up would seem the key one.

Thrillhou

I'm stunned at how many people could survive "over 30 years" of that. You'd think the liver and pancreas would have both exploded long before.

FreddyGeorge

As soon as alcohol touched my lips I suspect so circa 22ish years

Outonthetiles

About ten years, reaching a peak in 2012 to 2015. I've posted this story before, but I'll tell it again: I had absolutely no recollection the football team I followed at the time won the Superbowl in 2014. I'm sure I watched the game, but I didn't know they'd won until Mrs. Tiles told me in 2016.

SimplySue

Twelve in total. It started with the end of a marriage to a narcissistic sociopath. The last six years it was really out of control though 😢

fishkiller

I am amazed I am still alive and utterly stumped at how I am still healthy after 30 plus years of torture.
I used to think I was super human. Now I know I am just a very lucky man.

It's never too late

Triggered

others looking in might say I was problem drinking for 10-15 years and until I got sober I would have said the same

looking back from a new perspective, I was in trouble from the first minute I put a drink to my lips

Evoo

My drinking was problematic from the beginning. Particularly psychologically. At 19 I became obsessed with alcohol - not in a dangerous way at first, but in the way I romanticized it; I wore Guinness t-shirts and hats every day. Craft beer become a huge part of my identity. I was the "Irish guy," the drinker, the life of the party, the one rallying the troops to the next bar. I associated drinking with honesty, good times, friendship, family, Irish history, Italian history (my family backgrounds), everything. I distrusted people who couldn't (or wouldn't) drink alcohol. I trusted and found kinship only with other heavy drinkers. I was buying into a mythology around alcohol early believing with my heart and soul that having alcohol in your life was really living.

It took a long, long time to deprogram that. But it was only six years later that I first posted on SoberRecovery, realizing that my drinking/binge/hangover routine was "getting out of hand." It would take me another 10 years to start the long process of quitting/relapses, 3 months sober here, six months sober there... before finally getting the upper hand over my AV.

So it took about 16-17 years?

I've come to realize I don't need to regret all those years, I just needed to outgrow them and shift my perspective. I enjoy life, friendship, community and family more than I ever have. I'm a very fit and sober dad. I love my life. And it's so very much better without alcohol sapping the life out of me.

kaneda80

For me, around 25 years. It started in the late 90s and was obvious enough to some people that I’d a problem. A doctor told me at 19 that I shouldn’t drink at all and that it would aggravate underlying depression and anxiety. One of the things I see now look back on it was how my social circle changed. By the mid 00s it was other people with similar problems and eventually they left too, I took drugs then, mostly MDMA but oddly enough didn’t develop a dependency on them. Alcohol was always the problem.

kes

I always loved a drink and for years was a 2 bottles of wine on an evening guy. Never drank at work, never drunk and drive the car. I had standards.

It was a creeper and before I knew it , it had hold of me. The last 3 years of my drinking were crazy amounts - a total blur. 50 units per day (as an average_), 7.5 litres of 8% white cider per day, every day. Hell on earth folks! hell on earth.
Today is day 99 of my sobriety so big day tomorrow. if I can kick, anyone can, believe me.

Midton

Don’t know how to answer this

I first drank at 16 but didn’t really drink much till I was 19 and started to binge on a Saturday. From 19 to my mid 30s I could easily not drink and it hadn’t gotten it’s claws into my yet.

I first joined here around 42 and since then I’ve gradually but slowly gotten worse but I’m still a binge drinker and only on a Saturday. I don’t drink during the week but when I drink I can’t stop.

now I’m 55 and recently find that I’m falling when I drink and this has scared me.

over the last two years I’ve hardly drink due to medication and trying to be healthy but I restarted in August.

luckily the medication I’m on requires liver function tests every so often and my liver seems to be in great shape.

as I sit here with a black eye after falling I know I’m finished.

SIB

It became a problem when I was around 22, I had a night shift job and I'd drink myself to sleep when I'd get home in the mornings, rinse repeat all week and then even more on the weekends. It was a full blown problem by 24 and got even worse from there, then working a normal hours job and being hung over / still drunk when going in each morning. First time I quit was when I was 31 for two years, then again at 38 for 13 months. Here again, day 16.

RunnerF

Started drinking at 15 or so. Binge drank from the start. Quit for 10 years 33-43. Started again and has gotten progressively worse. Now 62 and have been noticing long term affects of alcohol, discoloration around eyes, dry lips, ED, high blood pressure and so forth. Recently had abnormal blood liver levels even after not drinking for 26 days. Hope liver is repairing itself. Sad it took this to wake me up.

FiveTries

Took my first drink at 12 or 13. Didn't start drinking more until around 15 or 16. There were a few dry spells in there that add up to maybe a cumulative two years. I'm 45 now so I'd say I drank just under 30 years. Ugh. Some of the time periods were much worse than others. I'm glad it's over!

PS - I'm not sure why this thread jumped up to the top but I figured why not post lol.