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What did alcohol take from you?

Old 08-05-2020, 08:31 AM
  # 81 (permalink)  
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Years of my life
Morals
Loads of hard earned money
Friends
My spouse

But I found me again!! I am grateful to God for helping me through the storm.
4 years, 3 months sober
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Old 08-08-2020, 08:40 PM
  # 82 (permalink)  
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I'm still trying to figure out what kind and to which degree alcohol has caused damage in my life. It has only been recently until I acknowledged to myself that alcohol is the central problem in my life and that I'm an addict.

I know that alcohol has ruined my sexuality. It ruined my career. It ruined most of my 20s. It strongly accelerated all of my depressive and suicidal thoughts that I'm having since youth. It fuels another addiction (non-substance addiction) of mine. Without quitting alcohol, I'm unable to quit my non-substance addictions, they are all connected and alcohol is the ultimate root cause.

I'm still healthy, so I wouldn't say it ruined my health, but it certainly will in a couple years. There is only so much a body can take after years of alcohol-induced insomnia and high blood pressure. You treat your body like that and it -will- repay it sooner or later.

Other people on this forum told me I'm still young (30). That gave me a little optimism that I didn't expect. I hope I can change course right freakin now. I don't wanna die before 40 and I know for sure it would happen if I don't take measures now.
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Old 08-08-2020, 11:06 PM
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Alcohol took the joy out of my life and replaced it with misery. Glad that misery is gone now.
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Old 08-11-2020, 01:45 AM
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Alcohol took EVERYTHING!
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Old 09-09-2020, 11:20 AM
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It took my wife
my stepchildren
my dog
my house
everything I knew was the future
(I wasn't the drinker)
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Old 09-16-2020, 09:12 PM
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Alcohol took away a full decade of my life. I've had friends and family members distance themselves from me. I've lost job opportunities. Poor financal and poor life decisions. I've made so many wrong moves due to alcohol, that in turn has made me focus in my sobriety. I am committed to protecting my clean date.
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Old 09-22-2020, 07:29 AM
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THIS TOO SHALL PA$$
 
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Originally Posted by bringmeback7693 View Post
For me, alcohol took away my sense of self. Before alcohol I had passions and interests that I could have explored more, but alcohol made me forget about all of them.

I loved writing and art and theatre, but was always too hungover in college to pursue any of these activities. I stopped caring about them. Pretty soon my only hobby was drinking.

Alcohol also made my anxiety, depression, and social anxiety infinitely worse. It destroyed my confidence and self-worth.

What did alcohol take from you? How can you get it back?
The number one thing booze took from me is time. For what should have been the best era of my life (teens to mid 20s) I was in a state of fog. Non-productive!! I caused lots of folks (mainly family) various levels of pain, worry, and concern and I didn't care. The years I wasted drinking were likely the most important ones for developing social skills; cognitive reasoning; and goal-setting.

Although I successfully overcame drinking I am basically a failure in every other way. Three failed marriages; I live in an apartment (at age 60); I manage a welding supply store at a nominal income level; I drive a 2003 truck because I can't afford anything else; and I'll never be able to truly "retire." So my life is a mixture of gratitude on the one hand and disappointment on the other.
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Old 09-22-2020, 07:36 AM
  # 88 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by coming_clean View Post
Alcohol have been a gateway drug that lead to drugs.
Drugs blurred the connection with myself, the universe.
It isolated me. It depressed me.
It made me scared ********.

I got Some sense of normaliter back by practising buddhism and going to meetings.
^^^What he/she said^^^

Acid was the most frightening of all of the drugs I used. It magnified my fears and produced some of the most satanic hallucinations one can imagine. Crystal Meth was probably the second worst since it caused so much paranoia. I'd wake up from a night of booze in the most bizarre places and have no idea how I got there. The entire booze/drug scene is a living nightmare. Was for me!!
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Old 09-22-2020, 08:46 AM
  # 89 (permalink)  
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Hi,

I really don't think alcohol is the culprit. Alcohol is an inanimate liquid.
How it affects us when we drink it is the issue. That we continue drinking it after living through the negative consequences of it's affects on us is the issue.

I didn't lose anything to alcohol. I gave things up in favor of it.
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Old 10-11-2020, 10:33 PM
  # 90 (permalink)  
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Post what it took from me...

...is very much exactly what it took from you. I'm 8 days sober and i'm hopeful that i will EVER find myself. My mom died suddenly when i was 19, and i was already a big drinker. Her death ruined me. I drank instead of grieved. I still don't think i've properly processed her death, 31 years later. I never went to junior or regular college, and so I never gained insights to what is out there in world of education that might guide me toward interests and passions. I have no hobbies to speak of. Drinking has always ALWAYS been my #1 hobby. I gravitate toward people who party. I need the drinking buddies. I look for those who might even be into recreational drugs. thankfully I don't have my own connections for that sh*t, but if it's there, hey - sure! why not! But alcohol has taken away my ability to know how to live outside of the bottle. I have always had good jobs, paid my bills, paid my rent, moved up in the companies where I've worked. I'm bright, but kind of a dunce. No real ability to carry on conversations because my ability to retain information is stunted. Pretty sure that's because I started drinking at 13. I can't even tell a joke, much less reiterate a story I heard earlier in the day. Alcohol has taken a lot from me. It's taken my life in so many ways. I can tell that after 8 days, my memory is already improving. I am not getting drunk and hanging w/ my family, only to forget entire conversations from the night before. "Mom, you already told me that..." Can't tell you HOW many times I've had to endure hearing that from my 13 y/o. How humiliating.

I'm tired of being a forgetful mom, and I'm tired of not having a life I can truly live in. 8 days ago, I didn't have a plan. It was more or less to see if I could get through 7 days of not drinking. What alcohol took from me, I plan to get back, in some form or another.

thanks for posting this. it's given me so much to think about. <3
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Old 10-12-2020, 10:05 PM
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Alcohol was a real ambition killer for me. I self-medicated to alleviate my anxiety, but dulling anxiety with alcohol wound up costing me my sense of self. Abstaining from alcohol is the answer - my ambition always came raging back after periods of sobriety following week-long benders. Now to stay focused on sobriety!
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Old 04-17-2021, 05:46 PM
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Alcohol turned me into someone that didn't really care about anything but alcohol. Before going down this road I had so many interests and passions. They cannot coexist with the drinking version of me.

Things could have been much worse though. I almost lost my job because of stupid drunken behaviour and looking back I do not understand how I still have a wife.

I don't yet know how to relate to these things in my past. They disgust me now but they happened and they are part of my story. Regret doesn't quite seem the right word......I don't know......
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Old 04-21-2021, 12:03 PM
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i understand, grizzlan let her know how much you care. I wanted to get **** faces but then i found this place. i only fought i could have fun with being wasted. Don't let those thing be you. you got more to give
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Old 04-29-2021, 04:21 AM
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For me, alcohol did not take anything from me that i was willing to give up anyway and i wasted a lot of my life hanging all my problems on alcohol! Shame but still some time left to learn
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Old 10-06-2021, 06:38 PM
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It took away my honesty with myself and others, and to see Big Alcohol companies for what they are: money makers at our costs. I was too foggy to see the lies of advertisements, too blind to see that all the sheep following the crowd were headed into the slaughter house of addiction.

It took my logical mind away from chemistry.

Alcohol = ethanol=jet fuel=sanitizer=poison

My overuse caused my addiction.

I lost me because of me using alcohol, and believed media that it wasn’t poison.
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Old 10-06-2021, 09:19 PM
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it took away peace of mind and gave me chaos and doubt.
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Old 10-06-2021, 09:40 PM
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nez
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My dignity.
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Old 10-07-2021, 07:39 AM
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My love of me

my excitement for life
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Old 10-07-2021, 04:18 PM
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My father was an alcoholic. A physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic. His alcoholism cost me the childhood all kids need and deserve.

I then became an alcoholic. It cost me the opportunity for a life with a loving wife and family. My choice. My fault. There’s no one to blame but myself.
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Old 10-23-2021, 06:00 AM
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Took away so much. It took away my ambition,love for life, feelings of self worth,my drive for my hobbies, my drive for exercise, my personality. I became a person I did not know nor like. It is very toxic.
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