Alcoholism

[JaDanketies]

Anything that messes with GABA can be lethal to withdraw from. Alcohol, benzos and ghb are all in this class. This means that alcohol withdrawals are defacto worse than famously-bad heroin withdrawals. And they last longer

[paruses]

Posting while it occurs to me - it won't help with withdrawal but helps brain function - get hold of some B1. The 100mg type size. If you have been drinking long term chances are you've not been eating properly and something will not have been absorbed properly - sorry I can't remember the pathology. Hospitals will discharge you with those to be taken couple times a day along with more immediate stuff.

[chrispmartha]

Im not sure if I was sn 'alcoholic' per se but I knew I drank too much, looking back a typical  week would be Mondays off the booze then Tuesday- Thursday either a couple of large brandys per night, or a bottle of wine a night, the weekend would either be the same but having quite an active social life a lot of weekends would consist of quite a lot more, typically wine and brandy I wasn't much of s beer drinker, Sundays would be brandy or wine to get over the hangovers (which we're getting really bad) then repeat and repeat, it was taking me till at least Tuesday to get rid of the anxiety.

I did dry January in 2020 which has turned into a dry 19 months, I could have easily drank a shitload during the lockdowns but I guess I knew if I started id drink too much.

I know it sounds cliched but I've never felt as healthy, never slept as well and never been as enthused sbout work as I am now, I own my own business and could tell i was letting things slip because of feeling terrible due to alcohol.

The surprising thing for me was and is how easy I've found not drinking, despite me not drinking much beer before I have found that the decent range of non alcoholic beers has helped when I've been in social situations.

[Bernice]

I feel like once one gets going, in the right setting, it's really hard not to go over the limit and get pissed. Moderation is difficult with anything, let alone booze.

This is very true - people blame themselves and each other, bot booxe itself is bad for moderation. It makes you want more and more. It make you reckless and thirsty and dumb. I know of a small number of people who seem to be able to drink somewhat regularly and almost never get too drunk, and if asked it's rarely a sign of virtue and more that they start to feel a bit ill after a few drinks so switch to water. Me, I feel great after a few drinks. I often think I've turned a corner and become a "three pints and home" kind of guy, but all it takes is a lapse in concentration or willpower for me to end up blacking out and hurting myself.

I'm not sure if I was sn 'alcoholic' per se but I knew I drank too much, looking back a typical  week would be Mondays off the booze then Tuesday- Thursday either a couple of large brandys per night, or a bottle of wine a night, the weekend would either be the same but having quite an active social life a lot of weekends would consist of quite a lot more, typically wine and brandy I wasn't much of s beer drinker, Sundays would be brandy or wine to get over the hangovers (which we're getting really bad) then repeat and repeat, it was taking me till at least Tuesday to get rid of the anxiety.

I did dry January in 2020 which has turned into a dry 19 months, I could have easily drank a shitload during the lockdowns but I guess I knew if I started id drink too much.

I know it sounds cliched but I've never felt as healthy, never slept as well and never been as enthused sbout work as I am now, I own my own business and could tell i was letting things slip because of feeling terrible due to alcohol.

The surprising thing for me was and is how easy I've found not drinking, despite me not drinking much beer before I have found that the decent range of non alcoholic beers has helped when I've been in social situations.

Good for you. This sounds very familiar to me - I've always felt so much better when off the booze. I'm currently minded to pack it all in, but I worry that I'll forget that at some point when a friend asks me out for a pint. After all, I'm not an alcoholic, I just need to take it easy, make sure I limit myself to four pints, blah blah blah.

Honestly very bored of wrestling with it at this point.

[touchingcloth]

I'm currently minded to pack it all in, but I worry that I'll forget that at some point when a friend asks me out for a pint. After all, I'm not an alcoholic, I just need to take it easy, make sure I limit myself to four pints, blah blah blah.

I'm currently minded to pack it in because I don't think I have the willpower to limit myself to four pints. I could maybe limit myself to one, but I think the mental switch which triggers the urge to just keep drinking kicks in quite a bit before I'm obviously drunk, or barely even tipsy. Designated driver, I reckon, nip it in the bud.

[good times]

It's only in the past couple of years I've put together the fact that my mum was an alcoholic, and also one of my uncles on my dad's side (my dad was until the last few years also a regular evening drinker, but somehow kept a lid on it impacting on his work/life/health) and how this perhaps relates to my own drinking, and how I should be more sensible with it.

My mum suffered from anxiety and her alcohol intake increased significantly in her later years, even when she was looking at potential liver failure, and basically just stopped going to work due to stress but in retrospect was pretty much due to an inability to function day to day. Anxiety runs on her side of the family, but looking back I do think continual alcohol withdrawal was massively contributing to the problem.

During her worst times I used to find crushed up cans of Strongbow hidden places in the house when she was meant to have stopped drinking because of the risk to her health - she was hospitalised a few times, the final time (which she survived) was when she collapsed one morning in the kitchen having suffered internal bleeding, I had to clean up all the blood off the kitchen floor while my dad took her to hospital. I was dealing with all this as a 17/18 year old so didn't really have the tools to properly help/intervene, or really process what was happening.

My dad's brother died of an alcohol related illness aged about 60, mum died in her late fifties after an accident in the house which I don't think was alcohol related, and was in a time where she was seemingly on the mend health wise but still fairly frail.

All pretty grim stuff, but it's weird it's taken me about 12 years to start thinking about how maybe drinking a couple of bottles of wine over a weekend seems fairly harmless but is probably something I should start taking a bit more seriously.

I've also got a close friend who is pretty much a functioning alcoholic (at a guess, he binge drinks about four days a week) even though he's fairly healthy and regularly goes on massive runs etc, again it's only recently I've started thinking about this and whether it's something I should speak to him about rather than just thinking what a great laugh he is. One of my sisters is also a big social drinker even though she otherwise looks after herself, always looks incredibly healthy and young for her age, has a great job and seems mentally very strong.

I do worry eventually this shit just catches up with you one day.

[Dex Sawash]

Too much booze not enough exorcise.

[Beagle 2]

Decided to knock it on the head for a bit. Boozed so much during lockdown, not getting drunk as such but steady (and standard, judging by my friends) dad beer chugging. I'm fat, I feel like shit and I've  got two young kids to look after.

[Janie Jones]

Decided to knock it on the head for a bit. Boozed so much during lockdown, not getting drunk as such but steady (and standard, judging by my friends) dad beer chugging. I'm fat, I feel like shit and I've  got two young kids to look after.

Lockdown has had much the same effect on me. Reading what I wrote in that 2017 thread that jobotic linked to on the first page of this thread, I'm chastened to realise that although the binge drinking happens less frequently, I have far fewer alcohol-free days now. And I'm still happy to drink far too much on the rare occasions that the opportunity presents itself. From what I can see in my friends and contemporaries, this is very much the story of lockdown. So I think Gin Karens like me and Dad Beer Chuggers like Beagle 2 all need to consider pulling ourselves together.

[Buelligan]

I feel like once one gets going, in the right setting, it's really hard not to go over the limit and get pissed. Moderation is difficult with anything, let alone booze.

I think this is an interesting observation - for most, it is about what is expected socially.  If we go to a restaurant to meet the stick-arse parents of someone we love awfully much, we don't imagine ending the evening puking into their laps.  We go, pre-programmed with the expectation that we might have an aperitif, maybe a glass and a half with the meal BUT THAT WILL BE IT.  Because of our fear of their judgement.  Nothing at all to do with how much or what we we like to drink.

If we go out with our friends, we expect to snort gak in public, guzzle strong drink until we vomit and piss ourselves and insert flares into our anuses.  So we do it.  Nothing at all to do with how much or what we we like to drink.

I think, for a frightening number of us, this is true.  Then you have to add our own social anxieties and other internal issues that we medicate ourselves for and see how removed from choice we've allowed ourselves to become.  Needs to change.

[El Unicornio, mang]

When I lived in Portland OR I noticed that every bar I went in had meals served all hours, discovered that it's state law that bars do this. I don't know the stats of how well it works to curb drinking related problems but I find a meal between drinks definitely helps.

I've drunk barely anything during lockdown, just because I only drink socially. Although I've gone a bit mental the past few weeks with some meetup.com events, with more coming up, probably making up for a year and a half of practically being teetotal/not socializing.

[Cloud]

I drink more than I should if you ask a GP but not nearly as much as some mates do.  Did half a dry January last year to prove to myself I could manage without booze for a couple of weeks before sacking it off and I'd say the biggest thing for me was trying to find some way to replace the sense of "treat" / general desire to just have something to sup on on an evening or weekend.

A good alcohol-free beer is one way, good ones are rare but they exist.  It's a bit like fake meat and veganism though in that some people might prefer not to have anything that reminds them of it / tries to pretend to be it.  I also found these little cans of bitter lemonade that seemed to satisfy something in me (maybe the bitter aspect triggered some association in the brain somewhere).

[chrispmartha]

I drink more than I should if you ask a GP but not nearly as much as some mates do.  Did half a dry January last year to prove to myself I could manage without booze for a couple of weeks before sacking it off and I'd say the biggest thing for me was trying to find some way to replace the sense of "treat" / general desire to just have something to sup on on an evening or weekend.

A good alcohol-free beer is one way, good ones are rare but they exist.  It's a bit like fake meat and veganism though in that some people might prefer not to have anything that reminds them of it / tries to pretend to be it.  I also found these little cans of bitter lemonade that seemed to satisfy something in me (maybe the bitter aspect triggered some association in the brain somewhere).

Some of the non alcoholic beer is excellent, well I say non alcoholic it is actually 0.5% so not sure its good for alcoholics as it could be a trigger? But it's really helped me in social situations.

This one is great

https://www.beersniffers.co.uk/thornbridge-zero-five/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1ODSlcbg8QIVdIBQBh0UyQJXEAQYAyABEgLcDPD_BwE

[the science eel]

Some of the non alcoholic beer is excellent, well I say non alcoholic it is actually 0.5% so not sure its good for alcoholics as it could be a trigger?

Yeah, I sometimes wonder about that. I never touch even the alcohol-free beer, always go for water or juice, but do any reformed alkie know about this? I guess even 0.5% is dangerous.

I can scarf a big bowl of tiramisu or sherry trifle, mind - maybe I should leave those well alone too.

[Cloud]

Yeah if you can get away with "low alcohol" they do often seem to be better. I like Shipyard's "Low Tide"

[non capisco]

Yeah, I sometimes wonder about that. I never touch even the alcohol-free beer, always go for water or juice, but do any reformed alkie know about this? I guess even 0.5% is dangerous.

I've read before that there's more alcohol in a bread roll than that and about the same in a banana. Happy to be corrected/ refuted on that by someone who knows what they're talking about. There are certainly a lot more decent tasting no to low alcohol beers about than there used to be.

[chrispmartha]

Yeah, I sometimes wonder about that. I never touch even the alcohol-free beer, always go for water or juice, but do any reformed alkie know about this? I guess even 0.5% is dangerous.

I can scarf a big bowl of tiramisu or sherry trifle, mind - maybe I should leave those well alone too.

My chocolate and biscuit intake has gone through the roof, that's my next challenge to cur down in that...

With the low alcohol beer (no more than 0.5%) it's strange drinking so many and feeling 'normal' I went out with my mates snd I think i had 10 over about 5 hours, as it's basically water with lottle alcohol it kept me hydrated, that does mean my mates drank 10+ pints though theres no way i could have kept up

[shiftwork2]

At 0.5% ABV you'd be very hard-pressed to put alcohol into your system faster than your liver can take it out.  If you metabolise one unit per hour then you would have to drink more than two litres of this stuff every hour to begin to see (or feel) a noticeable rise in blood alcohol content.  Ghost Ship 0.5% is nice, but it's not that nice.

[Beagle 2]

I do really like the good non-alky beers, but weirdly I start to not want one after a couple because it feels somehow unhealthy to be drinking all that brown burpy liquid. Ah, it's alright to mindlessly pour pilsner down my neck though.

Also the crafty ones are more or less the same price as the boozy ones (no reason why they shouldn't be I guess) but you don't even get pissed! Imagine that, just enjoying something nice without destroying your health.

[canadagoose]

Has anyone mentioned buzby's horrible tale of his poor late aunt? I seriously dread that happening to me, should I go out of control. Would recommend reading it if you're thinking you're drinking too much (with the greatest respect to buzby and his family, obviously).

[touchingcloth]

Has anyone mentioned buzby's horrible tale of his poor late aunt? I seriously dread that happening to me, should I go out of control. Would recommend reading it if you're thinking you're drinking too much (with the greatest respect to buzby and his family, obviously).

There's a post by buzby on page 1 of this thread which quotes someone else linking to it. I'd link it again, but it's quite intense in itself but also appears a few posts beneath a Sick as a Pike one for the extra gut punch.

[flotemysost]

Blimey, that is indeed sobering stuff. What a horribly sad situation, thanks buzby for sharing at the time.

I've also just re-read DukeDeMondo's post on p6 of that thread and as mentioned at the start of this one, it really is staggeringly moving. I think that was all before I registered here but I hope he's OK.

[Dex Sawash]

I've also just re-read DukeDeMondo's post on p6 of that thread and as mentioned at the start of this one, it really is staggeringly moving. I think that was all before I registered here but I hope he's OK.

Still posts a little bit in films

[Beagle 2]

I haven't had a drink since the Euros final, and what I'm finding is that I don't feel any better but I am playing absolutely fucking loads of Minecraft. This is not the kind of productive new me I was anticipating.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

tmi i guess but had my first four pints in ages and the fucking mental miasma depression is completely overwhelming oh my fucking god i want to die before i've even slept. literally don't think i can do this any more but doubt any ability to be social without. feels like the alternative is being a hermit which is half-tempting but i really don't want to be a hermit

[flotemysost]

Strength to you Goblin, I think the intense pressure that's inherent in the having a social life = drinking mandate can be really tough to navigate. Coming out of a period of limited/augmented social plans thanks to lockdowns etc. must make that even more difficult, especially if you've had a reduced alcohol intake for any of that time.

Wish I had something helpful to add re: the latter, but I'm currently half cut following my first big work social event since early 2020 - it was fun, but I wasn't even really meant to be there, and there was free booze, so what better way to assuage the massive impostor syndrome I always have at these work events?! I feel OK tonight, but I've absolutely been in that place of hating myself for how I am when I drink, but still absolutely chucking it back in certain social situations, simply because I don't know how else to be, so I know what you mean.

I will say that you seem like a really great person and I'm sure it's not a stark toss-up between drinking and hermitage. I think that kind of self-flagellating anxiety and paranoia that comes with drinking is extremely common, especially after a period of sobriety or reduced intake - I'm pretty sure I was sending "I understand if you never want to see me again, I know I'm a useless piece of shit and I deserve nothing" type messages for a good week or so to the handful of friends who were at my first proper 2021 post-lockdown pub thing earlier this year (spoiler alert: they are still my friends, none of them have stopped talking to me, the cruelest thing that's happened is that one of them since forwarded me a voicemail I sent that evening and it was actually quite funny in hindsight).

Booze often has a way of heightening the stakes in your role as your own worst critic, so I hope you're able to feel kinder to yourself soon.

[Bence Fekete]

For some reason alcohol convinces you a hangover is just a side-effect of happy times but in reality it's literally a direct effect of alcohol consumption.

Euphoria -> Pain -> Denial -> Repeat

[touchingcloth]

Euphoria -> Pain -> Denial -> Repeat

Watercolours, or...

[poo]

Blimey, that is indeed sobering stuff. What a horribly sad situation, thanks buzby for sharing at the time.

I've also just re-read DukeDeMondo's post on p6 of that thread and as mentioned at the start of this one, it really is staggeringly moving. I think that was all before I registered here but I hope he's OK.

Yeah hope he's OK.

[Johnny Foreigner]

Two years ago, my doctor told me certain liver enzyme levels in my blood were slightly elevated, and that I should 'watch it' with the alcohol. I then drank nothing for about four months to be on the safe side, during which she referred me to the hospital for an ultrasound, where they told me my liver was 'quite fatty'.
Then, a few months later during which I had drunk nothing either, she tested my blood again, and when I rang for the results, they said somewhat cryptically: 'OK for patient, no further action needed'. Which I interpret to mean that these enzymes are always slightly elevated in my case.
I now drink fizzy water for at least half the week. Not drinking does not cause me any anxiety; sometimes, when there's a bottle of wine in the house, I rather fancy water instead. I somehow just 'feel' that my body wants water rather than alcohol.