Current Events > Alcoholism seems incredibly easy to slip in to.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hell yeah. We were stupid and drank Sunday, but didnt finish it, now were arguing about what to do with it.


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It's been a week since I've had a drink. Longest I've gone in years. I'm an every day drinker. I work in a brewery and have four taps in my house.

I feel physically better, but holy shit the depression and anxiety is crushing me. I don't know if this is withdrawal or just how I feel without alcohol.
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JlM posted...

It's been a week since I've had a drink. Longest I've gone in years. I'm an every day drinker. I work in a brewery and have four taps in my house.

I feel physically better, but holy shit the depression and anxiety is crushing me. I don't know if this is withdrawal or just how I feel without alcohol.

No, life just sucks and alcohol helps make it better lol

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Giant_Aspirin posted...

it's very easy. like most habits, it's easy to form and hard to break.

what you outlined in the OP is exactly how i went. at first i was just having 1-2 beers every day. that slowly escalated over time and eventually i was drinking about a 5th / day.

I never understand what people mean by "a fifth."

A fifth of what? I never understand what that means with size.

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AzurexNightmare posted...

Giant_Aspirin posted...

it's very easy. like most habits, it's easy to form and hard to break.

what you outlined in the OP is exactly how i went. at first i was just having 1-2 beers every day. that slowly escalated over time and eventually i was drinking about a 5th / day.

I never understand what people mean by "a fifth."

A fifth of what? I never understand what that means with size.

A fifth is a unit of volume formerly used for wine and distilled beverages in the United States, equal to one fifth of a US liquid gallon, 45 quart, or 25 35 US fluid ounces (757 ml); it has been superseded by the metric bottle size of 750 ml,[1] sometimes called a metric fifth, which is the standard capacity of wine bottles worldwide and is approximately 1% smaller.
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Told her I wanted to finish or toss the two beers we have left.

she doesnt feel good, so that turned into Im just trying to drink hers, Ive never cared about anything shes ever said, etc

gonns be a fun day

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lww99 posted...

Told her I wanted to finish or toss the two beers we have left.

she doesnt feel good, so that turned into Im just trying to drink hers, Ive never cared about anything shes ever said, etc

gonns be a fun day

*slaps you*

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I just dont want to have it in the house all week again. We even agreed to this.

i know exactly what would happen
i drink mine tonight
she waits until tomorrow, I buy more to drink with her.

then its Wednesday, her day off... see where this is going?

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used to be like that for me, but as i got older the handovers got worse to the point i just dont bother most of the time. i also found my self getting more and more irritable. the aftermath for 3-5 hours of fun stopped being worth it.

lww99 posted...

I just dont want to have it in the house all week again. We even agreed to this.

i know exactly what would happen
i drink mine tonight
she waits until tomorrow, I buy more to drink with her.

then its Wednesday, her day off... see where this is going?

Yep classic. Sucks when you have some leftover cause then it turns into "well let's just get some more to even it out" and then it's another full blown drink fest.

I dunno, I think I might just be over drinking? After taking a month break and doing it once a week, I really realized just how useless it is. It's fun to start with, maybe playing Mario Kart and having a good time, then it ends up with chunks of memory missing and a next day that's just annoying and unfun. I am losing the desire to do it aside from the voice in my head saying to, so I'm hoping this is a nice turned corner.

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Yep it just doesnt seem worth it. And we seem like the kind of people that struggles with moderation

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lww99 posted...

I just dont want to have it in the house all week again. We even agreed to this.

i know exactly what would happen
i drink mine tonight
she waits until tomorrow, I buy more to drink with her.

then its Wednesday, her day off... see where this is going?

Or you could just drink yours tonight, let her drink hers tomorrow and not buy more until the weekend? If its that much of a problem to do that then you should probably quit altogether.

I am a weightlifter so I wont drink the day before any training days, or before work days, so I mostly only drink on the weekends.
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Cleo_II posted...

Or you could just drink yours tonight, let her drink hers tomorrow and not buy more until the weekend? If its that much of a problem to do that then you should probably quit altogether.

seems simple enough, in theory. But theres a reason we end up drinking 6 days per week. Its just that easy for us to fall into the habit.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

one wont do much, but its at least a high content beer. Think close to 10%


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Then it sounds like you need to just not have it at all in the house for a while before you can build up to drinking in moderation. Especially if it will cause these petty kind of arguments between the two of you.

I dont disagree.

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Its also been a couple months since weve gotten in a pointless argument. Guess we're due

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If there is beer in my fridge, I am constantly thinking about drinking it. It isn't such an issue with liquor in the house, thankfully. I especially have the itch to drink beer while watching sports. I'm going to focus on not drinking during March Madness....wish me luck.

But weed is another story. I cannot go without it; i get so anxious and think about when I can finally get that hit. And when I start running low, I start to think there is no weed left in the world and I need to savor what I have left. It's bad, but mixing alcohol and weed is such fun (until i forget what I did the night before) and if i had to choose one, i pick weed every time.

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Maybe replace the drinking with another activity you can do together. Go for a walk, hike, bike ride, etc. Do a puzzle together or play some board games. Cook dinner together. Shit can be stressful but try turning to other activities other than drinking together to help cope.

My husband and I will go for a walk together or a hike around the trails by our house. Just for 30 min or an hour. Its nice to get out and feel like youre doing something productive and gives us some better quality time together.

Now that decent weather is coming, kayak season is right around the corner.

that will definitely help.

conflicting work schedules tend to get in the way unfortunately. But we try to make time.

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probably buying whiskey tonight :)

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Same with smoking. Just try to practice. Make a schedule. Make it so you are only going to drink on the weekends. When you pick up that beer on Thursday tell yourself "im not going to drink this" and put it back down. Sometimes you will slip up, but that doesn't undo any progress you made. It's a process.

Remember you don't have to stop drinking entirely either. If you like drinking and spend all of your time and energy trying NOT to drink that thing still controls your life. You must learn the discipline.


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Yeah itll probably take me a long time to cut back on herb.

but determined to make a change with alcohol

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If you're anything like me TC, sobriety will probably click about 2 months in.

It's a shitty 2 months, but it's a pretty neat feeling when you get over the hurdle. I still crave a drink, and I might still go back to alcohol after a while and see if I can enjoy it in moderation - I still crave a drink every now and again. But I think I could just as easily avoid alcohol indefinitely.

It's like, I used to have to go out of my way to avoid drinking. Now it feels like I would have to go out of my way to have a drink. It took me 2 months to get to that point, but now I'm there. If you can make 2 months, sobriety should hopefully kick in.

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its weird how our brains work.

during those 5 days, I wasnt really craving it much at all. But since I drank on Sunday, and that left over beer on Monday, Im itching for more lol. But maybe it was just bc Monday was so stressful

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lww99 posted...

its weird how our brains work.

during those 5 days, I wasnt really craving it much at all. But since I drank on Sunday, and that left over beer on Monday, Im itching for more lol. But maybe it was just bc Monday was so stressful

life is all about momentum. your body craves what you feed it. so once you get in the new motions of not wanting it and figuring out what else to do besides drink, you start to think along those lines subconsciously. when you start drinking, oh boy, it's easy to fall back into those habits

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thats gonna make this moderation thing a real bitch. Might just be easier for me to quit all together, like some people have suggested.

its easier to consistently not drink, then to try to moderate. At least right now

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JBaLLEN66 posted...

probably buying whiskey tonight :)

fuck off dude. there's literally no point to this post other than to be a dick to TC by rubbing it in. this is not funny. this is not cute. this just makes you come off as a grade-A jerk.

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I posted about drinking too, to be fair. But that was more about holding myself accountable, and not bragging/rubbing it in

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lww99 posted...

its easier to consistently not drink, then to try to moderate. At least right now

i tried over and over and over again to regulate myself. and i would. for a brief time. then my addict brain would rationalize "oh just another one, just tonight". "you already had five, just have your 6th because one more isn't a big deal". falling down the slippery slope and i'd be right back to a 5th/day. sometimes after a week. sometimes after a month. but always right back to the same place.

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MrMallard posted...

If you're anything like me TC, sobriety will probably click about 2 months in.

It's a shitty 2 months, but it's a pretty neat feeling when you get over the hurdle. I still crave a drink, and I might still go back to alcohol after a while and see if I can enjoy it in moderation - I still crave a drink every now and again. But I think I could just as easily avoid alcohol indefinitely.

It's like, I used to have to go out of my way to avoid drinking. Now it feels like I would have to go out of my way to have a drink. It took me 2 months to get to that point, but now I'm there. If you can make 2 months, sobriety should hopefully kick in.

I'm actually pretty similar. The first week was rough but I was less focused on it while craving it for a month. After 2 I really havent thought much about it anymore. Now in the 3rd month I'm determined to make a year and then reassess where I stand.

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I think stepping back and not drinking for January than attempting once a week again in February kinda short circuited my brain. I don't really have the desire to go back into it because the negatives are much clearer to me now. I'd rather just smoke up (yay it's finally legal here) though I need to relax on that as well.

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Fuck the itch is strong today

hmph. Only Tuesday. Gotta be better.

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I'm thinking of taking a weed tolerance break. I just don't know when or how to start lmao

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I know should cut back on weed too, but theres just no way right now. One vice at a time.

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Yeah it's rough. When you're drunk, another drink always seems like the best idea. For me, either I have to have just 2 drinks or like 8. A medium amount gives me an early hangover and it's just more comfortable to drink through it.

I've always drank a lot but quarantine has exacerbated it. There's nothing to do or nowhere to go or nothing to look forward to and it's boring, so drinking fits right in. Passes time, don't have to drive anywhere, don't have to socially limit yourself, etc. I've drank multiple times to the point of throwing up just in my own house. I don't stop unless I either run out of booze or it's to the point where I'm just dumb and can't even form thoughts anymore.

The four things that help for me is setting a rule while I'm sober and it has to be a day before I drink, not the day of. And that any attempt to break that rule is just my brain tricking my consciousness. The 2nd thing that helps is thinking that I want to be proud of myself the next day instead of ashamed. Being proud of myself feels way better. The 3rd thing is now I just buy what I'm prepared to drink for the session. I know if I have more booze, I'm going to end up drinking it. So just buy all the alcohol I plan to consume while I'm at the store sober. The 4th is to notice my thoughts. Dopamine is actually not the pleasure chemical but rather the thing that gets you to the pleasure. When you think about having a drink, that rush of excitement to drink is dopamine. I try to be mindful and sit with the rush of dopamine I get and then it eventually disperses. That's the idea anyway, I'm not perfect at it.

Another thing I've been thinking about is, maybe I'm just someone that needs alcohol as a part of my life. That doesn't mean I need to drink every day or interfere with work or anything, but kind of like how sometimes people need and plan for vacations and stuff. I feel like it's too much pressure for me to be absolutely sober and when I set myself up too high, I eventually end up crumbling and regressing hard.

Alcohol is rough because it feels so good. I like the warmness I feel and I like that I'm both energetic and relaxed at the same time. I've had self esteem and debilitating anxiety (and still dealing with it) so alcohol helps be more confident in trusting myself instead of second guessing everything. I love how real my emotions feel, how I can build on that realness, and that I don't question them since the self criticizing/shaming absolutely consumes me in my normal life.

I've done a lot of different drugs multiple times and alcohol is the thing that I've latched onto the most. The other stuff feels way more manageable, like I don't HAVE to do them all the time and I can save them for certain days/experiences, but booze is something I can do pretty much all the time if I wanted. Weed comes close but I can have weed and not feel tempted to smoke.

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There's a few people here saying that after they are sober for a good while they will try having drinks in moderation.

I really don't recommend it. That's not how alcoholism works and I think you damn well know it. I quit for two years and felt pretty good. My wife and I went out for wings one night and I thought "Fuck it, I've been good for two years. I'm gonna have a beer".

Since then I've drank almost every day. I just stopped again about ten days ago. It sucks but it's going alright. I have to taste the beer at the brewery, but I've been spitting it out.

If you can't drink in moderation now, you won't be able to drink in moderation a couple of months from now, a couple of years from now, or most likely ever.

Just quit.
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I used to think I was developing anxiety problems. Then I quit drinking. Now I have no anxiety. Alcohol fucks with your brain pretty badly.

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JlM posted...

There's a few people here saying that after they are sober for a good while they will try having drinks in moderation.

I really don't recommend it. That's not how alcoholism works and I think you damn well know it. I quit for two years and felt pretty good. My wife and I went out for wings one night and I thought "Fuck it, I've been good for two years. I'm gonna have a beer".

Since then I've drank almost every day. I just stopped again about ten days ago. It sucks but it's going alright. I have to taste the beer at the brewery, but I've been spitting it out.

If you can't drink in moderation now, you won't be able to drink in moderation a couple of months from now, a couple of years from now, or most likely ever.

Just quit.

I appreciate the heads up. I'll do this.

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this is annoying af. It wasnt nearly this hard last week

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instead of blue balls, Im gonna call it booze balls

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It is. There are so many two beers per day people who would flip their shit if they had to go a day without their two beers. Thats addiction. If you get all pissy and aggressive when you have to go without your two beers then youre an addict. No two ways about it.

She seems to be having an easier time this week, while I was having an easier time last week.

odd

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Payzmaykr posted...

It is. There are so many two beers per day people who would flip their shit if they had to go a day without their two beers. Thats addiction. If you get all pissy and aggressive when you have to go without your two beers then youre an addict. No two ways about it.

Life is short though

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so many people bragging about drinking today, its fucking everywhere

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Really TC, it no different than weed or any other drug really. Alcohol at least creates nice societal environments.

LivingLegend posted...

7 karma account.

Ever been to a bar? Its awesome. Ever been on a date and had wine? Its great. I mean how many examples do you need?

GrandesPonytail posted...

Really TC, it no different than weed or any other drug really. Alcohol at least creates nice societal environments.

the long term effects between the 2 seem pretty different IMO

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