Are you addicted to alcohol?

padma

feelingblue wrote: »

Hey Padma,

Thanks a million for your kind response to my post. I am not suprised it frightened you it scares the hell out of me. When I look back over the last ten years it makes me so very sad. I have a great job that I love and more friends and family that love me than I deserve at times. A breakdown in a long term relationship 2 years ago left me devestated and I still am. It seems that my drinking and drug use helps me get away from my sadness that is with me every minute of every day. I still wake up everyday with a heavy heart and spend my time in the shower in the mornings crying. I do know what it was like to have true happiness and enjoy my life and I believe I can get that again. I guess I have been burying my head in the sand as such and before you know it so much time has passed. Maybe it is time I took control of my life and started seeking happier times.

A hug would be much appreciated and your kindness brought me to tears just now.

I have taken what you said on board and here is to better times ahead and a Christmas not destroyed by hangovers and remorse.

Thanks again.

FB

Have you ever heard the expression " there's a bigger lobster hiding behind the rock" It can have a multitude of meanings, for now, let's say hiding behind that rock is all your emotions, sadness, hurt feelings, anger etc.. when we stay too long in our brain over-thinking it is a natural human tendingness to go behind that rock and follow the emotions that are there, the longer we follow our emotions, the longer we stay there usually until we get fed up of our emotions we seek outside for happiness, yet it is temporarily found in things like (your a girl i guess ) so shopping, drinking, revving it up on all night all weekend parties.

The truth is these are temporary distractions of happiness, and are only found in outside things, whereas lifetime happiness is within you, it is very easy to be on the side of happiness within you rather than stress and sadness. The key is "be happy" choose to be happy, by not following your emotions. Take a full conscious decision to be on the lighter brighter side of life. Negative emotions are there in a roundabout way to help us to understand there are/is a more positive way of being. Letting go your ownership of these emotions is important, your right to be sad, of course is natural enough, but not as "Natural" as your right to be Happy

Smiles

Rumpybumpy

I probably am but really dont want to deal with my problems......hey theres a magpie outside

bicardi19

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

You really don't have a clue about booze from the sounds of things. I drink too much, black out regularly, as do most people I know who drink a lot when they binge. I'm 31 by the way and the blackouts are getting worse. Do I have a problem? Maybe, but you'd be surprised how many people black out regularly. Why the f*ck would people want to brag about drinking too much?

Yeah, I'm 31 as well and find I really have to watch what I drink more and more cause otherwise I'll just won't remember the night.
It didn't happen as much when I was in my twenties, but it seems the older I get, the more it happens.
So now when I go out make a consious decision to take it handy.

youcancallmeal

bicardi19 wrote: »

Yeah, I'm 31 as well and find I really have to watch what I drink more and more cause otherwise I'll just won't remember the night.
It didn't happen as much when I was in my twenties, but it seems the older I get, the more it happens.
So now when I go out make a consious decision to take it handy.

Blackouts happen because the brain shuts down the memory centers in order to protect it from excessive poisoning. Some people will naturally have a higher tolerance or else an acquired tolerance. As you get older your brain's tolerance will decrease regardless. I know a lot of people who have gotten a shock when they wake up from what is a normal nights drinking to them find that they blacked out.

bicardi19

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Blackouts happen because the brain shuts down the memory centers in order to protect it from excessive poisoning. Some people will naturally have a higher tolerance or else an acquired tolerance. As you get older your brain's tolerance will decrease regardless. I know a lot of people who have gotten a shock when they wake up from what is a normal nights drinking to them find that they blacked out.

yeah, I wouldn't even say I would be drinking an excessive amount of alcohol. (To clarify that to all those who would try and tell me I'm in denial that would be about 6 drinks.)

I wouldn't be falling around the place drunk or anything, like some people have suggested earlier when talking about black outs.

People jump to the conclusion that the person has to be a slobbering wreck in order to have a blackout.

Sounds

Remember, many people with drinking problems think they are in control,

An alcoholic in most cases will not admit to having any issues with drink.
They will lie to you and make up stories about how long they can stay off it.

They will lie to themselves and others about their problem, and try pass it off as an occasional drink.
They're not willing to help themselves and definitely won't admit to having any problems with drink.

It's a horrible sickness, and it happens in most families at some point, almost all families.

Part of the problem is people enjoy being drunk, to the point where they would even attend alcoholic anonymous
meetings just to say they did it, but they have already convinced themselves they don't have a problem.

And then there are people who don't care about the fact they're already destroyed because of alcohol, it's harder to get help then,
But you know what, you will destroy more than just your own life, because you're too cowardly to get help and end the worry you're
causing the ones that actually care about you, but you don't care enough about yourself or them to quit or get help, that's sad.

I've seen it happen.

It's a horrible thing to have in your mind every day, it took me about 3 years before I stopped thinking about it,
What I mean is I use to drink a lot, every night, drugs also, I know it's not the same for everybody but I just decided
a few years back that I'd never touch alcohol again, and had to slowly ween myself off it, I thought about it every day
until recently, and then realized I wasn't craving a drink any more, part of it is convincing yourself you don't need drink.

If my mind was any weaker I would have just got a 6 pack and forgot about it, but thankfully I don't any more.
I could go to a nightclub now and not drink at all, but that doesn't feel right, I mean you're in a club to have a good time.

Supermarkets don't care about your health, obviously if the Government cared enough they wouldn't allow companies to
advertise alcohol on TV because that alone can put the though into someone's mind that they feel like having a drink.
I have walked into supermarkets in my families city and as they know the local community, they would know my family,
It's a horrible feeling but I feel like they know the alcohol they're selling my family is the cause of many problems in family homes.

Tesco, Aldo, Lidl, Dunnes Stores and all these other c***s they don't care what you do with the drugs (alcohol) they sell you.
You can go off and destroy yourself with their alcohol products and come back the next day and do it again, if you can walk.
They don't care about the fact that the drugs they're selling you kills thousands of people each year and destroys lives.
Alcohol is not very well regulated that way, just put it on the shelf and people will buy it, how the legal high stores operated.

Alcohol is one of the worst drugs on the planet, and even with all the evidence out there, they will sell it to you no problem.

Alcohol makes people very sick, they start drinking for a reason, then it's out of control, in nearly every case.
I Know it's difficult because you might be lonely, living with someone that has drink problems all your life, or you
lost a loved one and hit the bottle, whatever the reason, you drink to escape, next thing you know, you're drinking every night.

You're going to have really bad days, everyone does, but how can normal people get through the day without a drink?
Well you probably don't want to listen to how someone else got off it, you're problem is not the same as theirs.

I know what I'm talking about because I've seen it all my life and I have done it myself.

The reason I'm here is to try find help for family members that won't seek help, drink will kill them, it will destroy them.

When you're sitting at home on your own or with your family and you can't say no to alcohol, have to down a few cans
or drink a glass of spirits, you definitely have a problem with alcohol.

Alcohol is as bad as any drug, because you drink it to get a hit, get drunk, feel the way you do, you couldn't get through the
day without it, you just had to have that can of beer or whatever other toxins you drank just to get the thought out of your head.

You have alcohol problems.

harry Bailey esq

It's only a problem for me when I run out of the f*ckin stuff.

VinLieger

Jaysus someone really went digging for this thread

harry Bailey esq

VinLieger wrote: »

Jaysus someone really went digging for this thread

Damn right. They should crack open a cold one and chill the fuk out!

valoren

For me a simple test to determine addiction is to ask yourself the following.

If I can never have (insert whatever) ever again I am completely ok with that.

Essentially, from this moment on, you can hypothetically never have whatever it may be e.g. alcohol, tea, chocolate, porn, biscuits, your phone, computer games etc again it wouldn't affect you in any way, that your thoughts wouldn't be consumed by it's absence then you enjoy something as it is and you are not addicted.

If you told me I couldn't ever have cigarettes again, I wouldn't care less thus I'm not addicted.
If it were bread or coffee, I'd struggle thus it's an addiction for me.

Same applies to alcohol, but as it's a psychoactive drug, when the enjoyment of it impacts your everyday life and your use of it generates problems;

be they family ones, social, work related, health ones;

then it's a problem that needs to be confronted, accepted and addressed.
I drink, it's a drug that gives me a euphoric feeling, I drink moderately so that feeling when everything is good in the world happens about half way down the third pint. It's diminishing returns after that. I'm a happy 'drunk' so to speak.

I like that feeling but I don't need it which is important. I actively avoid hangovers so I drink moderately. If I decided to drive a car drunk (or got caught) or showed up at work pissed or caused misery at home then I'd like to think I'd have the balls to take a good look at myself.

HandsomeBob

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Not really.

One or two of you genuinely have to do it, the rest are saying they have to either to try and deflect from something stupid they did (the i was drunk defence) or to just appear cool, because as we are aware nothing is cooler than drinker to much.

They are just losers tbh.

Jaysus.....people were quite judgemental back in the day on boards.

wakka12

People were unnecessarily harsh to the OP.. he seems to have a bit of a problem and maybe is embarassed and trying to normalise it a bit, its understandable
Personally, when I do drink, I drink too much, about a naggin and a half or a bottle of wine to myself or so in one night, but I only drink about every fortnight. Im quite quiet and I like the social release so thats why I drink a lot when I go out. I nearly gag at the taste of most alcohol so it'd be difficult for me to get addicted

Sounds

People that drink and say they have control over it, they don't in my opinion, they drink for the feeling of drunkenness.
Whatever they say about liking that feeling, or just have the odd one, you wouldn't be drinking it if it didn't get you high.
You could get the same effect from sniffing a can of petrol, fumes intoxicate your mind the same way.

So it's an addiction, you can be happy to accept that whatever way you like, it's your health, your mind, your opinion.
But you're not the kind of person someone needs around them when they're suffering worse that you from the same drug.
You're too ignorant to understand their issues or just don't care as "you're in control of it" and they should be able to control it too.

I use to get a cold can of cola when I thought about drink, or seen an ad on TV about alcohol, I convinced myself it was down to thirst.
But when you're dependant on that next drink or whatever addiction you have nothing in the world will stop you getting that next hit.

That's how drugs/alcohol works, and we don't all have the mind power to walk away from it, I'm just lucky I quit.
It's very hard to convince someone you care about to stop. They feel they have the right to abuse themselves however they like.
Obviously the ones around them are not important enough to give it up, or their situation is something they do out of choice, they're messed up.

Conservatory

I used to drink every day and felt like I was drowning in it. I started taking work a bit seriously as I got older. You get respected a lot more when you don’t turn up stinking of booze everyday. Still go wild Friday and Saturday but I’m starting to feel healthy again after a few years of moderation.
Some of you will say moderation isn’t going wild every weekend but everybody has their crutch. Whatever that may be. My BMI is robust I don’t do drugs. I’m not an Xbox fan. Just like to get drunk on the weekend and watch all the sports.

Sounds

Good for you dude, fair play,

As long as you don't reach the point where you're not caring anymore, depressed and sick from it, and just get piseed drunk every day.
I know people that are seriously abusing themselves from drink and sometimes drugs, they won't stop until they can't go on any more.

I use to smoke a fair bit too, it kept me off the drink most nights, but now I'm clean and sometimes I still feel like a smoke, not drink thankfully.
Everyone has their own heroin, it doesn't have to be the most powerful or illegal drug on the planet, but they become dependant on it for their fix.

I do honestly believe if the government legalized smoke today, half the country would never touch a drink again, the government know this as well.
Just imagine an Ireland where nobody had drink problems, because it's never gonna happen here, they care more about the taxes they make off people.

I actually came here just searching for ideas how to reach out to someone, but saw this topic and just reopened it.
It's not something that should be forgotten about because at some point everyone needs help even if they can't admit it.
I know people that drink to the point of injury, disability, depression, and dementia which was probably brought on from all the falls.
And yet they can't admit they have a problem, they will abuse you and accuse you of things you did just to cover up their addiction.

That's how horrible alcohol can be if you become dependant on it, and stores are happy to sell this to you even when it can destroy your life.
Luckily I don't know any of these store owners, they'd be holdin their teeth in their hands if we ever met, no questions asked.

Remember this, and I don't wish this on anyone,
If you ever have to watch someone you cared about die from alcohol, at least you can run down to Lidl or tesco to get them their last drink.