how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

[Time4Change1]

For those of you who drink wine, how much a day do you drink? Does it get worse on days your off? On weekdays I would only buy one bottle, so thats what I would drink after work. However lately ive discovered the "mini" wines, so two or three days out of the week I only buy two when I go to the store. heheh So weekdays have been better. Ive also discovered the gym and how great it is. So a good day i will come home, eat, then go to the gym, come home and have my two mini wines. ( comes to a half of bottle-two large glasses)

However weekends and days i have off ( often during the week too) suck because I dont have off. My bf got me into going to eat by myself out at restaurant/bars. Its my favorite thing to do. Bring a magazine, drink , and eat at the bar. so i end up doing it early, anywhere from 12-2. IF im good i come home and then wait till nighttime to take out a bottle of wine. however, sometimes im bad and i come home from ther estaurant and keep on drinkin! all day and all night. and worse, thats when my drinking and driving has happened. Thank Gosh i have been better with the drinking and driving. i was so scared for awhile bc it happened where id do it bad like once a month. i wanted to die when i woke up and realized what id done.


The alcohol effects my depression.. im mildlly depresseed when not drinking but when drinking i become a mess. so after the weekends monday morning im really blue.

im curious how much everyone here drinks each day/night?

[Doggygirl]

how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

I don't drink at all.

In all seriousness, I was so depressed at the end of my drinking career that I was seriously considering suicide and had a plan for that. I realize that for some people, there may be issues contributing to clinical depression beyond just alcohol. But for me, giving up the booze was a HUGE first step in getting to a happy place.

They say it's not how much or how often we drink that matters, but what happens when we drink. Suicidal level depression was only one of the many consequences of my drinking. This didn't change if I tried to drink less, or if I tied to drink beer instead of wine, or whiskey instead of vodka, etc.

All the best to you on your road to freedom!

DG

[Anotherday]

how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

Well, I am a wine drinker who is trying not to drink wine today and so far I have not.

On a good day, 1 bottle, on a bad day 2, on a horrible day - I've been known to consume 3. On a disasterous day - the most it's been has been 4. That would be on a holiday spent alone that I'd drink 4. I did so on Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve. Don't recall Christmas. I am vowing this year not to be alone for the holidays but we'll see.

At any rate, I notice with one bottle I am ok the next day or so it seems. With two I can tell the depression is worse. With anymore, same deal.

Alcohol is a depressant, to be sure. I have asked my therapist how long it should take someone's mood to lift following stopping drinking and he told me two to three weeks. For me, this is when the real depression sets in, hence my good fortune of being dually diagnosed.

All the way around, wine makes thing worse I know. Oh, and I should add, I have started reading this great book called "Undoing Depression." This is a bit on alcohol in there. The author says if you can drink 2 oz of alcohol no more than 3 times a week, it's ok to drink. Haha! I can drink that in 2 minutes. The gist is that no alcohol is to be consumed if one is dealing with depression, period. My psychiatrist has been telling me this for years now. Time for me to stop completely and just deal with what is.

[spuddleduck]

how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

timeforchange, ive been thinking along a similar line myself. i remember the days when i would have a bottle of wine in the evening, get the effect i was after and be able to just about function the next day. the years went by and did my alcohol consumption. when drinking wine at home i would always have 3 bottles to hand (this would just be for an evening). 1 was not enough, after that i would lose track but i usually opened the 3rd bottle and found it next day in varying degrees of emptiness. vodka was also my poison and i would drink 3/4 of a bottle.... and pass out. if drinking in the day i havent got a clue how much i had. as for depression, i think i am a bit of a negative person by nature (working on that). alcohol made me 100 times worse. i ended up in hospital twice after overdosing on my insulin (im diabetic). i would never have done that sober. i was totally disgusted and ashamed of myself. the upset i caused to my loved ones and to be in hospital with people who were ill through no fault of their own. yet i still kept drinking. how powerful is the drinking demon. im 14 days sober, its been hard and still is, but in the last few days i have had no negative thoughts and feel positive about a lot of stuff. reading here it seems a lot of people feel the same. so far im finding it well worth the struggle... soon i hope it wont be a struggle it will just be a happy more positive me. getting rid of AL has got to be a big step in the right direction.

[Eve11]

how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

Time,

I'm seriously following a moderation program here and post most often on the long term moderator board.

I believe chronic alcoholics can never moderate. Those are the folks whose tolerance is so high that they would never in a million years get a buzz off of one drink and cannot really even comprehend how a person can moderate.

I try to follow the NIAAA's guideline (National Institute for Alcohol and Alcoholism) and try to not drink more than 7 drinks a week. That is still considered moderate and NOT mild drinking. Mild would be 3-4 a week. I usually drink 2 glasses each week-end night and may have a glass or two an evening or two on week days for special occasions.

For those that think they can moderate there's a lot of support on the long term moderator board but please don't delude yourselves. Most people that are problem drinkers that come to MWO discover they cannot moderate so it's nothing we want to brag about or make it sound like "it's so easy even a caveman can do it."

:l
Eve11

[mama bear]

how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

If you log onto WEB MD and look up depression there is an entire section devoted to alcohol and drug addiction and it's link to depression

[momof3]

how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

Alcohol is a known depressant and it causes anxiety in most.

I suffered from both of these when I drank and I eventually started taking anti-depressants for the depression and ativan for the anxiety.

I have been alcohol free for almost 2 years. I am no longer on anti depressants or anti-anxiety meds.

[KatieB]

how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

With the 'chicken and egg story' in relation to my life:
I started off with low self-esteem and self-hatred from a young age (teenage-hood) - then I discovered AL - this seemed to make my life more bearable.. though ultimately led me on a path of self-destruction for the next 15 yrs of my life - I could not get help for my low self-esteem and depression whilst drinking and binging - I was basically self-medicating.. trying to cope with life and my self hatred the only way I knew how.. I did'nt really know about counselling.. and it was not an option as I was travelling around a fair bit and moving house constantly.. it wasnt until my late 20's that I decided I really needed help.. I was in denial too.. as we all know, you cannot get help unless you are aware yourself that you need it!
AL is a depressant, and though a temporary mood-uplifter.. it then brings out the very worse in people.. it makes people paranoid, aggressive (you only have to watch the news every week for the fights in clubs and pubs), reckless and depressed.. the depression is both chemical (due to the depressing nature of the AL itself) and the depression due to actions undertaken when under the influence.. as humans, we have rational parts of our brain for a reason - to survive, to do the best for ourselves, to be safe, to have good judgement - to decide to do things based on rational thinking (weighing up the pros and cons if you like..).. AL suppresses all these natural instincts.. and turns us into irrational beings that cannot forsee consequences.. which is not the intelligent species that we are.. my opinion anyway!
Katie xx

[Gearhead]

how much do you all drink? does it make you depressed?

Been to the brink of suicide during binge drinking, twice. Something that would never enter my mind in sobriety. That's pretty clear evidence to me alcohol creates depression.