Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

[coalfire]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Ceslie;1086150 wrote: You know what? All I want is to be a normie.....but that just isn't an option. Wherever I go, there I am!!!

Very interesting Ceslie. Great line by the way.I hear you. Wherever I go, there I am too!!:H

[coalfire]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

mollyka;1086154 wrote: Coalfire, you make an interesting point there. I'm aware through 2 different 'relapses' in the last year an a half, that my 'need' is to drink into oblivion alright, but that's it - next day - nothing, no problem getting back on the wagon, no mad cravings - nothing. In a way that is my weakness, I sometimes think 'so what if I get wasted tonight/Sat night/tomorrow, whatever, I'll just have a blow out and stop.' I reckon that's prob verry dangerous thinking, maybe I wouldn't be able to stop - it is an ongoing temptation tho. Just another 'difference' I s'pose between alkies

I nearly turned the page and missed that mollyka. Yes I think that could be my weakness too. I know that my drinking binge will end in one night so sometimes I think to hell with it-just go for it.My problem is that my behaviour can be so bizzare and unpredictable that I could nearly do the harm in 1 night that others could do in 20. I would need someone to drop me off in a deserted island one night every 2 weeks and say away you go.Failing that I better remain AF .....though if anyone has a spare island going:H:H

[Cinders]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Coalfire,

Interesting question and I have enjoyed reading all the answers.

In my case, as a teen, if I drank, I drank way too much. I did not drink everyday.

When I became "legal," which was 18 back then, I started drinking one or two every evening after work.

Once married (at 18, omg,) I was drinking every day, one or two.

It stayed that way, with only interruptions while pregnant. I did not drink at all once I knew I was pregnant and I didn't miss it at all. However, once done breast feeding, I started up again with my routine of one or two a night.

This lasted until my 40s when I started traveling. As I would sit in bars at night, I would drink up to five drinks a night, just to avoid going to my very quiet and lonely room. This lasted for six years.

Then I had gastric bypass. I did not drink for many months, not sure how many.

However, once I started drinking again after my GB, it is as you describe it. I was an alcoholic. It took me about a year of struggling to figure out I simply could not stop. It was scary and horrifying. Life had changed in an instant.

Today, I am a horrific alcoholic. A quart of vodka is typical. I have been through rehab three times and I have been involuntarily put into the ER in detox four times. I am so sad it is so difficult for me to stop.

One or two drinks is just enough to p@ss me off, btw.

HTH,
Cindi

[Accountable for Me]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

I always drank in excess. When I was a teen, maybe a handful of times.

In my 20's not so much either, but always drank to oblivion when I did. I had my first born in 1993 at age of 21 and afterwards my taste for AL started to increase a bit. Maybe drinking once every weekend - till I was pretty drunk.

At the age of 30 I was working a very stressful job. Taking me out of the City, staying in hotels a lot of the time. I was a Media Coordinator for high Profile Trials at the time. Being away from my child and being lonely; my drinking became nightly - after Court. I eventually resigned from that job, but still drank nightly.

By the time I was 33, the alcoholic in me was fully formed. Did a lot of stupid shit. My daughter ended up living with her dad, and I drank most day and night. She wasn't legally taken from me, but I decided she was better off while I tried to sort myself out. I found MWO at the end of 2006. I was desperate, and had been to rehab 2x without success.

I have had ups and downs with my sobriety. But it has been a Hell of a lot better since finding the support here. In the last two years I have drank a handful of times; emotionally stressed due to 'feeling' again. I am working on that though.

I feel it is definitely a progressive disease. I always drank until I was drunk, but it escalated to daily and even all day drinking in my 30's.

[coalfire]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Hi cinders. That seems to be so common after gastric bypasses. I have heard of that again and again.Its crap...you try to improve your health and you end up an alcoholic...so you were sudden onset as well. Its strange.

[coalfire]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Cinders;1086198 wrote: It took me about a year of struggling to figure out I simply could not stop. It was scary and horrifying. Life had changed in an instant.
Cindi

Thats how my first year felt too.It was the most terrifying year of my life.I was in absolute shock. Yeah I cant handle 1 or 2 either.Panic stations.

[redhead77]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

I couldn't drink very much when I was young. It made me sick. 3 drinks and I would be extremely intoxicated and throwing up. I powered through it anyway. Kept drinking. I eventually developed tolerance and a couple of years ago crossed the line, into alcoholism.

[bleep]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Wow, interesting thread.

I used to be amongst the heavier drinkers in our crowd when we started drinking at about 16. Last few at the bar, that sort of thing, but never excessive, just heavy. Weekends only,etc. Then a personal disaster in my mid twenties led to me drinking excessively, and I think that's what did it - from then on I was alcoholic.

I think I always was, but had kept a decent level of control on the whole thing, until I let it get way out of hand. Once the animal was out the cage there was no going back, and it got steadily worse. I never really suffered from hangovers, so was able to drink daily to complete intoxication and still function at work, which is what I was doing until recently.

So the potential for alcoholism was always there, but in my case it took an event that I reacted to badly, over the course of a couple of years, to develop properly. Who is to say it wouldn't have developed all on its own anyway though, maybe just over a slightly longer period.

[spuddleduck]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

this is really interesting. i didnt drink often when i was in my teens/twenties but when i drank i alway drank a lot. for me it escalated in my late 30's. i dont think i ever had an off switch as i remember going out with friends and trying to stop/slow down when they did. my dad drank nightly and i never liked the way he was in drink.
and coalfire i too would have none rather than just a couple. i posted recently on another thread about this. the panic and craving if i knew i didnt have enough to 'finish the binge' is so intense and unbearable none is most definately my choice in that situation.

[spuddleduck]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

also, i remember people who i considered drank a lot when i was younger, then turned into people who just have a couple and stop. weird

[looking for peace]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

I remember the exact day and time I became an alcoholic. I had a serious boyfriend who came to the night club I was working at with another woman (I was a dj there). He brought her into the dj booth and told me he was now seeing her and I was in shock. Both of them just laughed at me. That night I must have drank about 6 drinks and got very sick and went home with some guy. Fortunately nothing happened. I have drank almost every night since than (more than 25 years). That night I found a "savior" from my extreme pain. That was the night that my obsession with alcohol began. Thinking about it most of the time. That's the worst part. So my alcoholism was sudden.

Before that night I might have had 2 drinks at the most on a Friday or Saturday night. There were bottles of booze and wine on top of the refrigerator collecting dust in my apartment. I barely ever noticed them... I could pass them by like they were a flour canister or something sitting out on the kitchen counter. I would love to be able to get back to that frame of mind!

[Bruunhilde]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Looking, so sorry about that episode, people can be so cruel & so hateful! They say two sentences that change your life...

These responses have me thinking about Joan Larsen's books and her alcoholic types. I can see patterns on MWO and in this thread most particularly.

-The people like Coal who binge one night and have no problem not doing so the next
-The people who can't stop a binge night after night.
-There are people who drink from morning to night, too, which I think could be a combination of types
-There are the people who get sick from the first taste of alcohol because they have an inability to metabolise it, and they drink past it becoming addicted.
-There are those like me where AL is a magic bullet and it "takes you there" more than anything else in your life.
- There are also those who do GB and then AL becomes their food. I used to substitute AL calories for food to keep thin and that's one reason it got so completely out of hand daily, I think.

This isn't categorized right, just some observations.

[coalfire]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Sherry and looking for peace,thanks for your replies. Brunn I am interested in what you are saying. What is GB and whats Joan Larsens book called? Thanks.Yeah its really interesting to look at the different types of alcoholism on the forum. Then we have the sudden onset and the slow descent people too. Some people can give you the actual date they became an alcoholic for some people it was a lot more gradual than that.The replies on this thread have been brilliant. Thanks to everybody who replied and those who might still reply.Its really helped me to understand people a bit better.It also shows why different treatment options might suit different people.. RJ Jewell named the site well-MY way out.

[coalfire]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Yes I am very interested in that type of thing. Thanks a million Sheri.

[Kimberley]

Were you a heavy drinker before you became an alcoholic.

Wow this is so interesting. My process has been a bit unusual I guess.

I was always the kid who seemed to drink harder, faster and more than anyone else and my tolerance was pretty high - I was only ever physically sick once from drinking and didn't really get hangovers. I was known for being a bit hardcore but never got into any bother.

I started getting these feelings in sixth form like I couldn't do things which might have meant people were looking at me or judging me. I became very scared of going outside, eating in front of people, going shopping. I noticed that alcohol and dope helped numb these feelings.

Due to the fact that my Social anxiety Disorder (which is what all that was about) became so bad by the time I went to uni that I was terrified of doing anything, I was drinking all day every day by the age of 18. By 19 I was physically dependent. I functioned for years by carrying a sprite bottle full of gin with me everywhere.

About 5 years ago I saw an NLP-hypnotherapist who removed my SA Disorder and I thought the alcohol problem would just go and I'd be able to drink like anyone else as I didn't have a reason to drink like an alkie any more. Wrong.

I have spent the last five years trying to control my drinking, then trying NOT to drink at all. This has resulted in me now fitting th criteria for a binge drinker, drinking only when I am upset or stressed. And then I can't stop - I'll drink around a litre of spirits a day until my body can't take any more and I have to do withdrawals.

I do not know most of my extended family but all of my close family are normies - my ma only has a drink at xmas really or the occasional glass of wine, my dad would like a nightly whiskey but due to health issues can leave it if he needs to. My sister drinks quite a bit, but in that social way that so many young girls do.

I am happy to say that currently I am nearly 3 months sober this time and I hope my next 'alcoholic stage' will be 'Recovered alcoholic'.

K x