pickled1

I had a fear of dying and the family discovering all of the empty gin bottles about the place. And "finding me out"
But I couldn't throw them all out together because the bin rattled too much and the neighbours might hear. Not sure what I was thinking there, because they saw me staggering up and down the street enough 😆

Hodd

^^ Scare stories aren’t pleasant, but to be honest, they don’t seem to affect drinkers.

I knew all the facts about liver disease. There are no symptoms whatsoever until it reaches an advanced and irreversible stage. There were cases of celebrities dying ridiculously young from cirrhosis, and yet I still drank. Looking back, I can’t explain why I did so knowing the risks. It’s only by luck and perhaps genetics I never permanently damaged my liver, but as I say the scare stories made little difference at the time.

pickled1

To tell the truth I'm a bit flummoxed as to why people would think these were scare stories. We all know telling people the negative that can happen is much less effective than pointing towards the positive that can happen as motivation.
I asked the question because I was curious at what point people who drank said "enough" and were not prepared to take another step down the dark path that is alcoholism

Hodd

I think you’ve nailed it, pickled. I didn’t realise there would actually be benefits to quitting, and what a pleasant surprise it’s been

pickled1

Me too Hodd. You can't see anything good happening when you are in deep. It's usually fear that drives you to get off the drink I've found, and fear of what the future looks like if you don't. And positive stuff beginning to happen and that could happen in the future to keep you off. That's my theory anyway 🙂

BackandScared

Pickled, as my nickname indicates it was also fear that stop me, fear of my next step down as you worded it.
My next step down was drinking in the morning. I woke up one day, heart pounding, hands shaking, anxiety through the roof, like every morning I guess, but worse. I knew the only way to feel better (at 6.30 am) was to drink and that scared me more than ever. Because I was feeling so poorly that I was 100% sure drinking was only going to feeli slightly better for a tiny amount of time.
My children were getting ready for school, my husband on a business trip and I felt so scared for the path ahead of me, my health, the consequences of it all. Until then I had (somehow) managed to hide my drinking through discipline. I could just keep the routines going, but I was about to lose that too.
I knew I could try to stop or keep digging a hole that felt already too deep for me to get out. So I went to the GP, texted my husband 'confessing' and the rest is history (or better said, another,much better history)

Primativo

That's good you resisted, I went past that point a few years ago. I didn't drink in the mornings often, but when I was on a binge, at times I'd wake up as you describe and be drinking in the mornings. It was horrific. Once you start drinking in the mornings there is no going back.Game over.

Scott2295

I would have ended up hospitalized for drinking related issues and probably withdrawal. Like others, 95% of my drinking was in secret so everyone would have known.

pickled1

Ah yeah the morning drinking. Well as I drank day and night in the end it was hard to tell where night ended and morning began. I do know there is no such thing as a hair of the dog. It's just you, drinking more and putting off the inevitable come down

sugarbear1

I was getting sober when my best drinking buddy was in the hospital with her organs shutting down due to alcoholism.

Pretty sure mine was death, too.