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Sobriety

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by downndirty, Jan 1, 2010.

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  1. Kittie

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    Wow, this topic came during an extremely timely manner for me. I just got out of inpatient rehab January 4th. I was in there for about sixty days and got to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years in a sheltered sober environment. I knew I had a problem when I got two DUIs in a week before I left. Actually, I knew long before but never wanted to admit it.

    I wasn't court ordered to go, it was just time. Normal drinkers don't blackout daily or wake up AT the bar with no recollection of how they got there. Normal drinkers don't do 90% of the crap that I did. Therefore I had to quit. Like AA says, my life had become completely unmanageable.

    I realize I have only been sober sixty days, but this is the longest period of sobriety I have had in years. I was a truly functioning alcoholic until the very end when my liver tried to divorce me.

    I miss alcohol and would probably slap my mother for a beer right now, but it is simply not possible anymore. I fully expect several of my friends will disappear when they realize drunk Kittie is not going to be around anymore and that is OK. Most of them are douche bags anyway.
     
  2. kakutogi

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    ALT FOCUS: Aside from the obvious vices, I'd say magic mushrooms. I don't even see the point of weed anymore. I eat half an eighth to an eighth about every two weeks, and it is the greatest thing ever. The lingering effects of low-stress and generally enhanced mood is awesome. Too bad during finals, I just don't have the time to do it as much, when I want it most.

    Also influences me to binge-drink less.

    Internet Porn. God I have tried so many times to kick this habit, but I think this is the most addicting thing ever. I resent internet porn, and legitimately wish I could resist it for an extended period of time (like one year).
     
  3. Samr

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    I, unfortunately, love the taste of alcohol. I have on multiple occasions wished that beer was non-alcoholic, simply because I love the flavor and dislike having to stop after 4-5 because I have work the next morning. Vodka goes with soda, whiskey and burbon go with water.

    This is not conducive to stopping drinking.

    I have at least a beer or two every day. Just like I always drink a soda with lunch. I'm drinking a beer now, and I'll drink a few after. Alcohol is not currently affecting my life, as I usually get tired and go to sleep before I am able to consume enough I even feel it in the morning. When it does, I hope I can cut back. Right now, though, I would grow quite agitated if you attempted to make me stop for a day or two (not that I can't, or haven't). I love the taste too much, and though subtle, I enjoy the calming buzz from a few cold ones after a meal.

    I'll differ to a quote by Chris Griffin (Gris) for the second reason I enjoy a few drinks. I could put it in my own words, but it's better said by his:


    All those that are able to manage sobriety, even for a week, have my complete respect. I couldn't do it, and quite frankly, I don't want to. I enjoy the flavor of booze, and it makes me settle the fuck down. Some people may take medication and see doctors, but my vodka club tastes better.
     
  4. MTW

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    I'm kinda surprised about the bitching about the hangovers on here. Yeah, the first time you spend the entire day doing nothing but drinking water and swallowing Tums so when you puke it's not the dry heaves or yellow acid that burns. But after the first time you know what the consequences are. I didn't enjoy the hangovers, but they're just part of heavy drinking. If I hated the hangovers, I wouldn't drink so much.

    I know I can have about five or six beers and still be fine, make it bed and feel great in the morning. But I know if I have just a few more, maybe 8-10 beers, I'm gonna be in for a ride that will end when the keg is kicked, the bottle empty or I'm ready to pass out.

    I've been burnt by booze before, but every time it was me making a stupid decision that resulted in bad things happening. I realize that it's something that has to be managed, but I see over indulgence in the same light as abstention, the path lies in the middle. Without the "bad" things in life, I just don't see life worth living.

    I think Philalawyer said it the best: http://philalawyer.net/2006/06/the-amish-look/#more-32

     
  5. Bourbondownthehouse

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    I'm drunk right now. As I have been for most of the nights in the past 4 years. I started drinking at 14 but it escalated after I graduated high school. I drink about 4 drinks a night during the week and get hammered any night that I dont have an obligation the next day. Has it affected my life? Yes. Do I regret it? No. I'm an alcoholic by anyone's definition. I go to college, and hold a part time job. I have decent grades and dont miss work. Eventually i will quit drinking altogether but I have no desire to currently. I still enjoy it. I dont have withdrawals if I dont drink, but I'd rather be buzzed when i relax at the end of the day. In my opinion we have developed into a teetotaler culture. I live alone and have no dependents; what do you care if I get drunk? Most people have some sort of vice be it booze, pot, cheating, religion (yes its a vice). Mine may kill me by 50 but to be honest I have no desire to be old enough to forget random shit and take 10 different drugs to regulate my body.
     
  6. 300

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    Fuck, you sure make it disheartening for an eighteen-year old in the prime of his drinking. I work out and am pretty serious about it, I can happily go 1-2 months sober if my training requires it. But shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit if I don't enjoy drinking, for the sake of my sanity, I'm going to stop reading this thread.
     
  7. dewercs

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    Just something to consider, you may not want to take 10 different drugs to forget random shit and regulate your body at 50 but you are taking 1 drug right now almost daily to forget random shit and regulate your body.
     
  8. Frebis

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    I see that a bunch of people drink because they think they have a stressful life. Or something bad happened to them. Or they hate women. Or they want to forget something unpleasant.

    The main reason I drink is to alleviate boredom. I actually enjoy getting drunk. In fact, I usually don't drink when I am sad, or have something negative going on in my life. I try to fix the problem, and alcohol usually hinders fixing it.

    Is this not the norm?
     
  9. AbsentMindedProf

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    Maybe it's an Ohio thing. I grew up in Cincinnati, and boredom was my main reason for drinking. It made everything fun. I've moved out west recently, and found that I've been drinking much less without even really thinking about it. Maybe I'll have a beer or two while grilling out in the ski resort parking lot, but I'm not getting bombed just because there's nothing else to do.
     
  10. cdite

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    I have only read the first 2 pages and I apologize in advance for the long, jumbled post, but from the Christmas / Newyears drunk thread -

    "This probably doesn't belong here but this is the 1st time in 5 years that I have been sober for my birthday, Christmas, and New Years ( all 3 in December obviously ). Part of me is happy for myself, the other part is depressed knowing that I am sitting on my PC on New Years and all my friends are out doing what I want to be doing. Attending AA meetings at 23 is not fun, its down right depressing. Sorry for the off topic rant, everyone have a shot of whiskey for me."

    From when I started drinking at 18 I realized that my Irish / German family had done me well, at 5'8 150 I could easily out drink people 100+ lbs over me and still be ready to go. Pregame for me on any big party or holiday was a 750 of Beam, and then where ever the night went, and I could wake up the next morning feeling perfectly fine while everyone was throwing up. I am not using this as an example to brag about how much I can drink, its looking back at how pathetic I was to be proud of that. I put myself in the hospital 2x in the last 6 months due to seizures caused by alcohol withdrawal and both times I was back at the bar the same night the hospital released me. I have had BAC's registered at over .3 more than once. I've been sober for 5 weeks now, attending meetings at least 4x a week. I am 23 and I am a alcoholic.
     
  11. Fernanthonies

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    This is why I drink.

    If for no other reason but this...

    I downloaded the recordings of Phish's NYE run a week or so back. I am a pretty big Phish fan (Phish Head, or Phan) and I have listened to it over the past couple of days while I was at work, and it was pretty damn good stuff. but it didn't move me.

    Right now it is Saturday morning at 4:45 am. I have been drinking steadily since I got off of work almost 12 hours ago, however I'm not shit faced...just pleasantly drunk.

    When I am sober I listen to Phish and I love it. When I am sober I hear the lyrics, I hear the melodies...and they are fantastic.

    When I am drunk...oh boy.

    I hear the lyrics and melodies and harmonies all at once. It is a cathartic experience. I am sitting in my room with my headphones on, volume cranked to the max. I have a glass of scotch in front of me...and life could not be better. Not because of the alcohol, mind you.

    When I am sober, I listen to the music and I enjoy it. When I am drunk, I dance. I dance in my room by myself because I can, and because this fucking music moves me. I fucking love it.

    This is why I drink.

    If for no other reason but this.
     
  12. LucasJackson

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    This is a great thread, and I didn't have time to read through every post after the repetition started, but I have to chime in on this. I drink. A lot. This last week, before my birthday on saturday, I went out six nights, and drank a few beers while I read a book on the seventh. I was up drinking until 8:00 am on my birthday. Wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything.

    I really don't think I've ever regretted any experience I've had while drinking. Sure, I've had the black-out, crazy drunk nights that alienate people. I've destroyed property, insulted people, burned down relationships, stopped relationships from starting, ruined people's evenings, gotten my ass kicked, gotten kicked out of bars, banned from bars, ran from cops, injured myself, injured others, had drunk sex with uglies, drunk sex with hotties, drinks thrown in my face, my face beaten in, the list goes on and on. Instead of regretting it, I tell stories about it and laugh. And then I drink more.

    I can't say what it is, it's just who I am. The closest I've ever gotten to even evaluating how much I drink was this past summer, at my sister's wedding, where I was at least a mile shitfaced beyond everyone else. When my sis hugged me goodbye before I flew back to Washington, she said, "Thanks for coming and thanks for giving that great speech, even though you didn't get me a wedding present and embarrassed me at my reception." Then it was time to hit the brakes a little bit.

    The drink runs deep in my family. I didn't drink until I was 18 because of it, never touched it, especially after watching it destroy my brother's life and my brother try to destroy our family with it. I've never drank alone (OK, twice), never drank as a proxy to cover pain, and have never drank to get me somewhere I wouldn't get sober. I don't drink to have fun, I drink because I'm having fun. I just happen to have fun an awful lot, and I love it. People might get hurt because of it, but oh well. It's never been a problem because I've never depended on it for anything, other than the mild reason to have a good time.

    Other than that, and porn, I really don't have any vices. Four cigarettes smoked in my lifetime now (one in Rome, New York, Mackinac Island and Washington, DC), but that's it. Plus one hit on a bowl, because a hot girl convinced me to. That was a disaster, never again.
     
  13. Bundy Bear

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    I'm with the others on this, I sometimes go above and beyond the normal but generally when I have nothing better to do than to go down to the local and drink with mates. I learnt the hard way that drinking when sad or depressed makes it far far worse.
     
  14. seelivemusic

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    I have eleven months and three weeks of sobriety today. I went thru my first detox experience last January and attend AA meetings four to five times a week. I find AA tremendously helpful due to the fellowship and sense of normalcy I get from the program. Sure there are people there who suck but there are people everywhere that I hate.

    My life has taken a 180 from last year, I was drinking in the morning before work and most days during work. My life was imploding after eight years of daily drinking and it was time for me to get help. Admitting to myself that I needed help with a personal problem disturbed me greatly but I learned to deal with it. I still go see live music every few days and only one friend of mine won't talk to me. All in all its been a pretty stable first year of sobriety. Sometime this past summer sobriety became a lifestyle for me and not a conscious daily decision.
     
  15. Fracas

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    This hits close for me, as I'm entering my final week of a 30-day sober period. (In accordance with the Moderation Management system, which I recommend as a possible alternative to AA.) I've always been the biggest drinker in my group, occasionally binging when things are good and getting shithoused daily when they're not. Basically, I'm getting older, the hangovers are getting unbearable, and I'm tired of missing opportunities and behaving like a mongoloid around friends and strangers.

    I didn't wreck my car, get arrested, or any such thing. When, after a full Saturday of boozing, I met a few acquaintences for drinks and they kept asking me if I was on quaaludes or something - I felt perfectly normal - I thought it might be time to dial it down. And when I spilled a coffee cup full of red wine on a stack of books - I'm a voracious reader - I finally decided to "do the 30."

    It's worked out well. I've had a couple of dreams about guzzling rum, but I've been a good boy, and the pros have outweighed the cons. When I drink too much, it's usually to stifle the low-level rage and obsessiveness that can make me a "difficult" personality. And while I've been a bit touchy, I've gotten A LOT done. I've made and saved more money. I've reconnected with some old friends. I've cultivated some new hobbies.

    I'd planned to celebrate next weekend with a three-day bender, but, as it turns out, one of my new activities is going to keep me from writing off Sunday. And I'm all right with that. While I don't intend to forsake the bottle entirely, I suspect my life will probably be more interesting with diminished tolerance.
     
  16. Decatur Dave

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    My life with booze involves lots of Rants about winding up in jail. Getting drunk EVERY night means having to have a lot of loser friends when you're in your late 20s, so you never have to drink alone. I've been on ten day benders, I've had 8 hour black outs where I was on my feet the entire time and can't tell you how any concert I've ever been to was. 4 hours of sleep is all you need, one meal a day and a pack of cigarettes. I drank close to 10gs of credit card debt in the two years after my divorce.

    I have been more or less sober for 8 months after pretty much ten years of getting drunk everyday, and that's also the last time I was in the back of a cop car. With the exception of a beer on my birthday, I went a good 6 of those months without any booze. When I drink now, I rarely have more than 2 or 3 drinks and I'll usually fall asleep after that. Now, drinking has been replaced with lifting weights. I eat at least 3 times a day and get at least eight hours sleep. I literally have replaced a bottle with a barbell. I don't hang out with anyone that isn't family or close enough to be, I still love bars, but my life is totally different. I don't miss having to call five people to find out what kind of trouble I got into last night.

    I kinda hate my life...
     
  17. shegirl

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    22 days and not only did it get the inital bump, someone replied. Thread Necromancer should be the user title.
     
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