Midton

So I’m 55 and drank for the first time at 16. Then I didn’t drink much till I was at collage where I binged. Although binging every time I drank I could give or take for the next 20 years. From about 40 I’ve tried stopping many times and have had at least a month, and up to 6 months sober every years since. Last year I was sober for 10 months in total.

I need to stop as I am getting worse. I still abstain during the week and binge on the weekends. I’m beginning to fall and hurt myself and I’m getting worried about all the abuse my body has taken. At present all my blood work is excellent but I usually get my health checks at the end of a sober period.


id like to hear from those around my age who stopped and had a similar drinking history. How are you doing? How is your health? Tell me about how things have improved for you? Anything is fine. I will look for your stories to help me look forward to a future without alcohol. As at present the future looks grey and dull.

Kaily

Hi Midton, my story isn't exactly the same as yours but I started drinking alcoholically very young and got progressively worse till I was no longer functioning, just existing. I didn't manage to stop until I was 55. By then I was drinking all day everyday and was in a bad way.

I too had lots of injury's, black eyes seemed to be a favourite from falling flat on my face. Emotional injury's too from getting involved with other damaged people. My life was chaotic.

Now my life is relatively calm. I look back to my drinking days and cringe at the stuff I did. The authentic me is reserved, helpful and honest. The drunk me was out of control, selfish with no scruples.

It was the hardest fight of my life but very much worth it.

Airy

Hi Midton

I can just say that I felt the same way about thinking that life would be dull and boring if I were to quit alcohol. As if my life of anxiety and injuries and addiction was so much fun.

I also drank from a young age - 15 for me, and I thought it was all I really knew, even though I hated it at the end.

I finally quit just over five months ago, and my life is anything but boring. I went down the AA route (although, first I went to rehab for five weeks as I just couldn’t quit by myself), and it’s working for me. I’m just back from an AA convention in Poland, where I was in a hot air balloon, was out for dinner with some really fun people both nights, and had so many laughs, and a really interesting time.

The month before, I was in Biarritz for a convention. I’m helping with organizing another one (I’m clearly the convention type), but I’m also in Zoom meetings in the mornings with a bunch of people that I would now consider friends. We meet for coffee or food every now and again. And my life is busy, busy, busy, but with fun stuff now.

When I was drinking, I wasn’t having fun to be honest. Not after it really took hold of me. I isolated, I got depressed, I worried about my health until I stopped caring. But it was easy to stop caring from the comfort of my couch. I could see my not-to-distant future in a hospital bed with no way to drink. It was bleak.

Now, everybody has their own way of quitting, and I’d never push AA or anything of the like, but I can tell you that there is a different life out there waiting, and it is in no way boring. It’s full of choices, and I wish you all of the very best in getting to it.

Hodd

Hi Midton, I quit at 49 1/2. I’m now 53 1/2 Like you, my bloods were fine, but I was obese, had high blood pressure and zero life. I did have a fatty liver which isn’t serious on its own, but this can progress to more serious stuff, and it’s not good news at all. So to cut s long story, I quit and got a life with exercise, sport, etc. The weight and other problems went within a matter of months.

Coming up to four years, I still have very occasional cravings, but I know one drink would reawaken these cravings to massive proportions, and I’d probably be drinking very heavily within a week or two. The life I have now would be taken away by a return to drinking.

What surprised me was how relatively easy it was to quit once I decided to quit forever. Having a drink every few weeks or even months makes it infinitely harder. You mentioned 10 months sobriety last year which is a start, but it needs to be 12/12 months forever. Many have tried the occasional approach, including me, and it’s never going to work.

You can still do a load of things at 55. Get rid of this pointless booze and see what you’re capable of.

DriGuy

While I'm a lot older than you, my story is similar. I had my last drink when I was 52, and it's been all uphill since. Yes, it was hard to get around to taking that last drink, and at the time I didn't know it would be my last drink, but I wanted to get sober because like you, I was getting worse, and my life was a mess.

dustyfox

I started drinking at about 14 in varying amounts and varying degrees of being able to cope. My drink of choice was everything from vodka to wine. I held down a career, and I had relationships, but I was so deeply dependent on alcohol I had no idea that I could have a life of any meaning without it. I thought I loved drinking. My body began to hurt, I could no longer hide what was happening with make-up or sunglasses.

So at 54 I gave up, that was over a year ago. It took a while, it was not easy for me, and I really thought initially I would be doomed to a life of boredom. I was wrong. Life is not boring. I am not boring. I am as creative as I ever was, almost certainly more so. I look better. I feel better. My health is so much better.
I could NOT have done it without the people here on this forum. I urge you to post here as often as possible. It can be done!

kes

[QUOTE=Kaily;7871433]Hi Midton, my story isn't exactly the same as yours but I started drinking alcoholically very young and got progressively worse till I was no longer functioning, just existing. I didn't manage to stop until I was 55. By then I was drinking all day everyday and was in a bad way.

I too had lots of injury's, black eyes seemed to be a favourite from falling flat on my face. Emotional injury's too from getting involved with other damaged people. My life was chaotic.

Now my life is relatively calm. I look back to my drinking days and cringe at the stuff I did. The authentic me is reserved, helpful and honest. The drunk me was out of control, selfish with no scruples.

My strory is the same as Kailey's. I started at age 15 and stopped, earlier this year, aged 51. I drank all day every day. Towards the end of my drinking, all I could afford was 8% white cider, and drank 7.5 litres per day.. If I was drinking wine (when I had the money) it was 5/6 bottles a day.

Nip it in the bud pal before it develops and you end up like us guys. There was nothing positive about it anymore for me, all it has brought was unhappiness, misery, emotional and financial ruin.

Take heed and good luck.

It too was the hardest fight of my life but very much worth it.

nez

My story is very similar to yours. I finally sobered up for good at 50. I am about to turn 70 in a few months and I feel younger than I have in years. I still work 3 days a week in professional kitchens, which supposedly is young people's work, except they can't keep up. I don't do it because I need to, I do it because I can and moving parts don't rust.

I ride motorcycles, I ski, I surf. I cut and split about 3 cords of firewood a year. I am the most peaceful I have ever been. As I type this, I am watching snow fall outside my window. The snow is beautiful and the quiet is breathtaking.

I am getting ready to eat breakfast, then my puppy dog and I are going to split some wood. This is the life, I was meant to live!

Hodd

Quote of the day 👍

I like the part-time work idea, Nez. Too many people retire, do absolutely nothing except procrastinate and decline rapidly. My dad lived to a ripe old age, but he never wanted to retire early and spent much of his long retirement bored and unsettled.

nez

It keeps me engaged with life and around young people, which reminds how glad I am that I survived my youth and that you couldn't pay enough money to be young again!

Hevyn

Welcome Midton - very glad to have you here. SR helped me to not feel alone anymore. No one else in my life understood what I was going through.

I'm older, but I remember very clearly being in the phase where I drank only on weekends. You are wise to be concerned about where this may take you. I swore I'd never drink during the week, but over time - the weekend drinking lasted well into Sunday night. So I'd wake up Monday morning, still with plenty of alcohol in my system - shaky & miserable. By the end of the day on Monday I'd be dying for something to make me feel better - and of course I began to have 'a few' on Mondays. Eventually, I was drinkng every single day - then all day. Alcohol took over my life - chaos & reckless behavior began. It took me years to get free. This never has to happen to you.

Nez - Reminds me of the Dylan song, My Back Pages ("Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm young then that now.")

Tailai

The biggest difference for me is the energy. The natural, consistent, positive energy. There aren't any wild swings that come with the off to the races drinking and the subsequent crash. And I surely don't miss the poor impulse control and all the damage that caused. Drinking is progressive, as you say, and it only gets worse the longer we drink. At 55, I seriously tried to quit for good but then tried to moderate which was disastrous and delayed my recovery 2 years. Now at 62, I have been sober for over 4 years and I can play sports and exercise and feel like a kid again.

Midton

All of these stories are of great encouragement.

thanks

Free2bme888

I had my last drink at age 58. Did really scary drinking, hiding, dangerous things I NEVER dreamed I’d do.

I was killing myself.

Nicotine free since 10/31/87

The pain of remaining the same became more than the fear of changing and saving my own life. No one, no program by itself was going to come into my life without a plan, a strategy, a deep belief that I could do it.

You CAN do it.

We believe……..do YOU?

Glad to see you back

Zebra1275

After trying many, many times I was finally able to quit for good a few months before my 54th birthday. Drinking had ceased being any fun several years earlier, and in fact, the last years of my drinking career I never drank with anyone else, just myself. The effects of alcohol abuse on your body are progressive and cumulative. A night of drinking that I could easily shake off at 23, was an agonizing experience at 53.

I will be coming up on 13 years sober in the spring, and feel great. I managed to get my life back together before I lost anything, like my marriage, my job, my health and other stuff. Physically, I am healthy, eat well and exercise daily (and I play competitive tennis and do quite well). It wasn't always easy, but I feel blessed that I was able to get my life back together.

And I'm lucky, it could have gone the other way. A guy I know my age didn't make it. He got divorced, lost the respect of his adult kids, lost his job and drank himself to death in his studio apartment over the Christmas holidays. His ex-wife and kids discovered his body two weeks later.

Hodd

^ Good stuff, Zebra. I reckon you’re an example of an ex-drinker who rediscovered life and is probably now better off than someone who’s never drunk (if that makes sense).

Sorry to hear about your friend/acquaintance, but it doesn’t have to be like that. I’m getting divorced now at 53, and it’s a very sad time, but hey I’m healthy and sober and doing OK otherwise. The future’s now what I want it to be. Drinking was definitely a contributory factor in my marriage ending, but it won’t get me twice

Leana

Hi Midton
Very similar story. Started at 16 but nothing more than a drink or 2. In college I drank all the time (but so did everyone). I drank just about every other day from age 25- 46. I have no idea what happen on Aug 1, 2008, but I woke up with a raging hangover, panicked over what I did the night before but couldn't remember and screamed NO MORE. I have not had a single drop since. The first few months were difficult, and I really had to keep myself busy but now- I rarely think about alcohol. I can't even imagine drinking to excess again. But I will never, ever fool myself into thinking that I can enjoy just 1 drink. I can't. I know that about myself. It seriously fascinates me, how other people can have a drink and not down it and immediately order another and another and another. I mean seriously if you are drinking aren't you doing it to get drunk?

I'm not sure what you are looking for but I will say this. I have been on both sides of the aisle and a life a not drinking is so much better. It may be a little boring but damn- I'm 60- And I'm ok without drama and chaos. Good luck.