so how much did you/do you all drink?

[Miss October]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

I have been drinking wine EVERY SINGLE NIGHT for 25 years consuming way over the recommend daily allowance for women on my slight 5'4" frame. Only abstained when I was pregnant....thank goodness for that. Maybe I should get pregnant again :egad: .

[sunshine_gg]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

Lurkers, please excuse greenie... she's terribly bossy. And terribly right Fight it NOW - no matter what stage you are at.

I bet we all think of us as being at one end of the scale. Either, 'oh gosh, I'm not THAT bad...' or 'OMG, I'm such a horrible fall down drunk' that we don't 'fit in' here....

We all fit in here. Essentially, it doesn't matter how much we drink/used to drink... it was/is a problem in OUR life. It was taking away from OUR life. From US. From OUR loved ones. Even if it's just a couple of glasses of wine that renders us unfit to drive after 9pm. Every night.

[Milly24]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

I was drinking up to 2 bottles of wine per day, usually starting as early as noon. That was a normal weekday at home, however weekends would end up with drinking much more, to the point of having many blackouts :upset:
Today, I feel good about my decision to become totally AF but still really scared about my ability to stay strong. I guess a part of me still wishes I could be a "normal" social drinker, but that is the naive side of me the realistic side knows better!!
Take care everyone and thx for being here:thanks:

[RedThread12]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

What a great thread - my drinking was so weird I just have to take Greenie's challenge. From 1987 - 1998 I was sober and never had alcohol in any place I lived. Then my husband and I split up and I remember bringing the first bottle of red wine into my home. I don't remember how much I drank that night, but I know that I NEVER drank the amount I told myself I would from that night until 2006. If I planned one glass, it would be two; two glasses turned to three. Same thing happened when I graduated from glasses to bottles.

I finally figured out that I would drink whatever I had in the house, so I stopped bringing more than one bottle of wine of 1/2 pint of vodka into the house at a time. Which would have been great, if that was all I drank. But, oh no, not me. I have a good friend who always has (still) a big bottle of vodka and/or tequila in the freezer and a couple of bottles of wine in the cabinet. I have the key to his house, so I started stopping by in the afternoon while he was out of the house and drinking excessively. Then when I added what I had at home to that, it meant I would wake up at 5:30 a.m. shaking and sweating and unable to resist - get this - getting into my car at 5:30 a.m., and driving over my friends house to drink vodka straight from the bottle. Yep. Yuck. I did this for months!

When I hear about "the insanity of alcoholism" I figure this behavior scores pretty high. I mean, this was so insane that the question "what was I thinking" doesn't even apply! So I'll never be able to figure out how much I actually drank at the end. I know my friend's liquor bill got way up there! And once I got sober you can bet he never again saw me at 5:30 a.m.!

So I guess the moral of this story is that it's not only the amount, but also the behavior around whatever the amount is. I've recently relapsed for a couple of months, but am back on track now and fortunately, things never got as nutty as they were before. Although - I did have guests from out of the country while I was in my relapse and just last Saturday I found an empty wine bottle in my bedroom closet that I suppose I put there while they were here. Oh thank God that time is past . . .

[akgirl]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

My "norm" was one bottle of wine per day plus one small screwdriver (the pre-made ones in the can) just to make sure. I always thought I couldn't sleep without it. Even though I would wake up at 3:00am or some ungodly hour, and toss and turn, feeling like shit until morn.

It's the craziest thing when something you don't even enjoy anymore becomes just pure habit.

So glad to be on MWO

[De-Sauced]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

Well for me, I am a new member as of today, and glad to have joined. Indeed, we all struggle with this problem.
For me, it is (was) whiskey, drinking a pint / day alone in the garage or in the car without any noticeable effect. On occasions as this past Saturday a 5th put a hurtin’ on me, never again. On social occasions, mixed drinks, wine flowed like water.

I struggle to find my reasons to drink. Many times I have quit, and felt great, but then the urge returns. The mood could be happy and celebrate, or unhappiness.

This is a great site and social network to support our desire to be AF.

[Angelcakes]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

RedThread12 I love your honesty...and I know I shouldn't but it's a little funny the idea of you driving to your friends house at 5.30 in the morning. The insane things we all do - sometimes I have to laugh or I'd be a blithering mess on the floor!t
Starting, I am very grateful that I'm here...I know there are many that aren't.
I can only re-iterate what the others have said - alcoholism, like any other illness, is progressive if left untreated. Pls, lurkers, learn from our mistakes and don't leave it too late to treat the illness.

xo

[Popeye]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

limers;729979 wrote: on the contary, I think its very important to discuss this stuff, too much on mwo is about anything BUT our alcohol issues. There is one common theme emerging throughout all the posts...escalation. Drinking problems escalate , this thead bears witness to that!

I couldn't agree more.

I think the amount and frequency of our drinking reflects how far down the path to destruction that we have reached. Being able to drink a bottle and a half of vodka was never a thing I was proud of and drinking stipid amounts of anything never impressed me. I watched my mum do it for years so I've always known there's nothing manly or heroic about it. To my shame, it was just the way I behaved. When I was younger, I would drink slowly and I'd gradually get more and more drunk. I'd generally remember going to bed and I'd wake up feeling relatively healthy. At the end up, I'd half fill the biggest glass I could find with vodka, top it up with coke and it would be gone in two gulps. The effect was immediate and I'd remember maybe three of these and nothing else until I woke the next day, usually still drunk. If it was a work day, I'd be working until about two in the afternoon before I sobered up and not remember much of what had happened up to that point in the day. Often, this would go on for weeks at a time, until my body just couldn't take any more. I have been on the floor at four in the morning at least a dozen times, so poisoned that I almost couldn't get up, unable to stop vomitting and not in complete control of my bowels and I'm certain that if I hadn't made myself move, I'd have lay there and died.
I'm sitting here now, writing this, and I cannot believe how stupid I have been. I really can't. I know it was me but it feels like someone elses memories now.

[Cinders]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

Escalation.

I do want to speak to that because there are those here who have not gotten there, yet, and I pray they never do.

I couldn't tell you how much I drank. A fifth a day was probably a minimum.

I have awakened in bed or on the couch with a bottle in my arms that I have no idea how it got there. Umm, let's see. Blacked out middle-aged woman who ran out of alcohol, had the ability to get her keys, drive down a mountain and on a highway to a liquor store, purchase another bottle, go home and drink until not just blacked out but passed out.

This has happened to me numerous times. Numerous.

I always try to explain that when people here at MWO say, "Well, whatever you do, don't drink and drive."

Very smart words of wisdom. Not always doable when you are a late-stage alcoholic who is unaware that they are driving.

I used to drink a glass or two of wine a night. Over many years, it increased. In the last few years, alcohol took over my life completely.

I read Popeye's last post and saw myself. Lying on the floor unable to move, unable to do a simple thing like get up and get to the bathroom. Then wanting to do it again later that day.

I ended up in the same shape just a few days ago. After months without alcohol.

I am praying I have hit my "jumping off" point. I do not want to die and even more importantly, I do not ever want to kill someone else because of this horrible addiction.

Cindi

[TakeHeart]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

WOW! GREAT THREAD....

Puddytat, I thought your post was so spot on about not comparing yourself to others...for I think we will all be the there eventually if we don't get OFF THE FREAKIN' ELEVATOR!!!!! ( Disclaimer: for those of us who think we have a problem with alcohol)

I recently moved and came across journals dating 10+ years back where I certainly don't drink as much as I do now, but knew I had a big problem and wanted help. Well now I have an even bigger problem and NEED help.

Redthread, I found a couple of empty bottles when moving. Not good. Of course, if they had not been empty I would have remembered EXACTLY where they were!

So...getting back on track....I drink one to two bottles of wine almost everyday (actually "every" with a few white knuckle events thrown in).

MORE THAN ANYTHING....I hope anyone looking at this thread makes an effort to STOP NOW if they even THINK they have a problem. Time marches on and so does this disease. I certainly didn't start out drinking as much as I do and looking back see the progression.

If there is one thing I know, long before alcohol becomes detrimental to your happiness...listen to your inner voice. I PROMISE, if left unchecked, you will find yourself slipping deeper and deeper.

OBTW..Pops...vodka and coke????? I mean vodka and ice tea, vodka and milk; I can see, but....LOL!

[My New Beginning]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

When I drink, I drink way too much. I have a lot of blackouts too which are so terrible. Can't even remember some of the movies I have watched with my family!! I just cannot drink alcohol without going overboard. For me, in the not so distant past I would drink one to 1 1/2 bottle of wine every other night. I'm so thankful to have found this place. It's wonderful being AF! And waking up sober is the best feeling ever!

[ribald]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

Routine

Limers, interesting that we all have our own routine, but that nearly all have/had a problem.

For me, a few beers every PM (5ish) then wine before/during/after dinner, say 1 bottle or 1.5............amounts to maybe 10 or 12 units every day.

Handled it fine for years until the liver started protesting, and I always said that when it began affecting my health I would 'put the cue in the rack'.

If things go 100% well it may be OK.............if not, probably only a matter of time beofre the early morning snifter, vodka etc.

Don't want to go there

:thanks:

Mark

(4 days into the AF journey)

[QuitinTime]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

I'm another wine person - grew up in a house with both parents sipping until bed time - I thought that was normal - frankly I still do with them at least however dad's gone and mom still has 1 or two a day with dinner.

I can't do one or two - with me it was whiskey & beer in the 70s - changed to gin - didn't drink at all most of the 80s then brandy and wine in the 90s - to wine only in the 2000s. I went from a couple of glasses on weekends to 1-2 bottles a day. I more recently have cut back alot but still at about 2-3 glasses a day with hangovers resulting which tells me the body aint happy with even that. Today I'm sober - and I really have to cut it out as I'm borderline diabetic now and I think I'd rather live dry and sober than lose my feet or life. So here we go again - gonna try for dry in October. Keep me in your prayers.

Startin over ageeen.

[peacenik]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

cindi and popeye, thank you for you brutal honesty...i know i was headed to that stage. i watched my mom in law have to get carried to bed, get her stomach pumped, drink the morning of my daughter's birth so she wouldn't drop the baby...i swore i would neverget like "that"...well, i was damn close.
i always hid my dinking and usually it was 1 1/2-2 bottles of wine an afternoon/night with the precursory 2 shot bottles of whatever looked "good" at the liquor store...sometimes, if my husband was on call or out of town and my kid had school the next day (so i could sleep it off), i would go all out and drink champagne, wine, vodka dinks, whatever i damn well felt like because i was "free" of having to hide it. for the past 6 months i was bingeing occassionally and abstaining quite a bit. about 2 weeks ago i drank 2/3 bottle of vodka and a bottle of winethat i think could have killed me. i was so sick and in pain for days after, i almost went to the er.

i appreciate this thread as a reminder and as an honest account of how ugly and sad drinking is. i don't ever want do it again and here's hoping that we all have the strength and tools to make it out!

peace

[peacenik]

so how much did you/do you all drink?

just writing that made my liver area sore...weird!