Riversong

Wow! To those of you who say it doesn’t matter yes it does to me and some of your stories really opened up my eyes and helped me!! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to be rushed to hospital! I know I’m living on borrowed time! What didn’t help is I got full blood works last October layed off the booze for a week came back kidneys and liver normal!!??? Slightly raised cholesterol but nothing to worry about!! I thought well I can’t be doing that much damage then!!! And it got worse! Since then no not had a week sober and had THAT night with the bottle of vodka!!! But I’m here! I’m trying! And I plan to stay here! x

Khorhey

Don’t let normal blood work lull you into a false sense of wellness. I’ve had normal bloodwork recently and it doesn’t mean you don’t have liver damage or fatty liver disease.

You might want to ask your doctor about getting a fibroscan.

Dee74

that was almost a year ago now - there's no guarantee it's still good - I mean it might be, but it might not be too...

The smart money for your continued good health is on quitting drinking for good, yeah?

Hodd

I agree about the blood test results. Mine were always excellent, but an ultrasound showed a fatty liver. A fibroscan after 8 months sobriety scored 7KPa which is normal stiffness but it’s at the high end, and I’d have expected lower.

So, fatty liver and highish fibroscan score, another couple of years drinking and I reckon I’d have started developing scarring and then cirrhosis, but as I say my blood tests were all excellent.

Philemon

The problem with me was not how much I drank (in the end on a day after day bender could be a full bottle gin a day) but that I wanted to be in a state that would horrify "normal" drinkers. In the beginning of the problem drinking, it started out a bottle and a half of wine could get me in that state.
Then, it took more and more. Then I wanted to be in that state more and more. Then basically once I started drinking I couldn't stop. Things like running out of money or constant vomiting so I sobered up whether I wanted to or not made me stop a bender.

Reid82

Probably 80-100 units a week ( I was bingeing 3-4 days every week for years) at the height of my addiction. So I was literally drunk half the time
for several years.

Others have drank more than me while others have drank less. It was what it did to me and me alone that I knew I was in trouble personally and needed help.

Vino88

At my worst - 4 litres of wine per day for about 8 months. That was the point when I wasn't been able to function without alcohol in my sistem. In the end I got to about 2 litres a day. I wasn't physically dependand anymore but still a shaky mess.

Reid82

That's interesting as I could get physically dependent after being only on a 6,7 day binge. I didn't drink everyday but if the binge went way out of control, I could be bang in trouble with withdrawls.
The thing is alcohol affects people differently.

Vino88

Well technically I was probably still dependent, because I had some shakes for a day or two after I drank, but it was nothing like when I was consuming 4 litres/day and simply could not function without alcohol.

Also I consider myself lucky with quitting. I somehow tappered from 4 to 2 because my body could not stomach that much alcohol anymore. I went from all day drinking to only drinking in the afternoons, then I started to get one or two off-days and then I somehow managed to quit everything. On 4 litres per day to 0 - without medical help - impossible.