Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
I am new to the site and don't know whether or not I have a bad problem or am down the road to having one.
I am probably considered a "functional alcoholic". I go to work, come home, and at some point or another start drinking until I feel like I have had enough and am ready for bed. The problem is that it's everyday and I can never just have 1 or 2, no matter how hard I try. I really want to avoid meetings.
I haven't been blackout drunk in a long time; I'm pretty consistent where I'm at now with the 5-6 drinks a day.........but would really like to quit before things get much worse. I'd appreciate any input since I know a lot of people on here have been through a lot and are already very strong. I need some strength and support and hope to give back in return whatever I can.
My father and grandfather are both alcoholics, and I don't want to follow in their path. I congratulate all of you in all of your accomplishments.....I've read some of the discussions on the site....I think it's really tough and this is the first time I've reached out to others that are having an issue. My boyfriend knows about my problem but he doesn't understand because he's one of those people that can just have one and quit.
I am probably considered a "functional alcoholic". I go to work, come home, and at some point or another start drinking until I feel like I have had enough and am ready for bed. The problem is that it's everyday and I can never just have 1 or 2, no matter how hard I try. I really want to avoid meetings.
I haven't been blackout drunk in a long time; I'm pretty consistent where I'm at now with the 5-6 drinks a day.........but would really like to quit before things get much worse. I'd appreciate any input since I know a lot of people on here have been through a lot and are already very strong. I need some strength and support and hope to give back in return whatever I can.
My father and grandfather are both alcoholics, and I don't want to follow in their path. I congratulate all of you in all of your accomplishments.....I've read some of the discussions on the site....I think it's really tough and this is the first time I've reached out to others that are having an issue. My boyfriend knows about my problem but he doesn't understand because he's one of those people that can just have one and quit.
For years I wanted to quit drinking and would go several day/weeks without a drink and start to think maybe I am not an alcoholic and would decide to have a couple.
So this cycle would go from drinking stopping drinking etc etc.
It was not till I started to look at myself and support that I finally started to believe I was an alcoholic and once I found my truth then I could start a course of a solution.
As for being an alcoholic for me it was a simple statement "once I put alcohol in my system I could not control how much I drank" Now this did not mean every time or even most time. For me all it took was one time. This started the progression to a point where it did become most times.
Wishing you well and hope you find your truth so you can make the best choices for yourself, G8
Heres a quote I like " Take the easy way out and things will get harder. Take the hard way out and things will get easier."
I did much the same for many years - until the blackouts started happening more often than the just having 5 or 8 and going to sleep. I am an alcoholic.
There are a myriad of methods to overcome alcohol. I used AA and it worked for me. You might just want to quit for a month or two and see how that works out for you. If that doesn't quite cut it you may want to try one of the programs kicking around here(AA, SMART. etc).
Glad you made it far enough to ask for help...
Hugs,
Dennis
I used to drink and manage similar to how you do now but sadly this illness - if you are alcoholic - is progressive with the main problem being a gradual (sometimes quick, sometimes slower) loss of control over the amount being drunk. There were times I picked up carelessly without thinking at all, but because I was already in so much trouble I usually felt the need to "justify" it.
Normal drinkers, despite their best efforts, can never really understand that alcoholics have an illness that affects them mentally and that their bodies process alcohol in a different way. The main thing is that you start to understand the differences and what you need to do to get happily sober, if that is what you want.
You are very welcome to the forum and I hope that you will find some answers here.
Much of what you have posted is similar to what I would have said about myself a few years ago. I did not consider myself to be an alcoholic at the time but I have no doubts about it today. Later on when things got completely out of control I gave myself that nice title of functioning alcoholic and that did not seem as bad as the real thing. Then I heard a man ask, functioning, compared to what and I had to admit that my functioning was very limited indeed.
Let us look in more detail at some of the things that you have posted and see if they give any clues about the extent of your problem. You come home from work and you start drinking at some point every day. By now you may even be saying to yourself in the morning that you will not drink today but you still end up drinking. That is not the sort of relationship that a normal drinker has with alcohol. It looks like drinking has become an obsession for you and that is one of the signs of alcoholism. I have been there and the next stage was having a few drinks at lunchtime, something that I told myself I would never do, and finding excuses to leave work early because I could not wait to have a drink.
I have never been a blackout drinker although I was getting close to that before I stopped drinking. However, that does not mean than I am not an alcoholic. You are consistent at where you are now, with 5-6 drinks a day and that was a ploy that I used too. Instead of drawing attention to myself by crashing cars, falling off chairs etc. I changed my way of drinking so that I had just enough most of the time, which I thought was a neat trick at the time. However, enough is not a fixed quantity and I found myself drinking more and more in order to try and maintain that high. You can never have one or two drinks and the reason for that is that you get a craving in the body (not in the mind) for more alcohol once you take a drink. That is another symptom of alcoholism.
There is a history of alcoholism in your family and some studies have shown that while there are many possible causes for alcoholism, there is a genetic connection among a sizable percentage of alcoholics.
The conclusion that I would draw from what you have posted is that you have the symptoms of alcoholism but only you can make the diagnosis. In my opinion you cannot drink safely and if you continue drinking you will progress to drinking a lot more, with all of the resulting problems that you are probably well aware of. What then are your options should you decide to quit.
You have read some of the discussions on this site and you have concluded that getting sober is really tough. However, it does not have to be tough, providing you are willing to do what it takes. There are different ways that you can approach it as you will have seen from other threads. Like you, I really wanted to avoid meetings but when all else failed I went to those meetings and I did not drink since.
If you keep doing what you always did you will get what you always got. Change is the key and it often takes help in order to bring about that change.
Now I look back and realize there is a lot I do not remember about the last 4 years. I'm not sure I was truly functioning and living the life I wanted.
Welcome! Hang in there!
If you are even questioning it, you likely are. Curious why you are against the meetings? Do you feel like they are intimidating? What are your perceptions of AA meetings?
I hope we can all be successful together and look forward to getting to know all of you more.
I signed up here because last night I drank a lot, being home by myself, and I came to realize that my playing with fire is already giving me blisters and it's going to get worse unless I do something about it. And it's so scary it makes my hair stand up and mind panicly curl into fetus position and murmure "no-no-no, please!". It's seems to me that any remnants of scrupuls help me drink less during social events, like drinking wine with my boyfriend. Maybe that's just because there is never another bottle to open. eh...
First step: signing up here for support to resist the urge to drink. Next: focusing your thoughts on something else - I'll try gym. Something like indoor cycling and joga classes. It will fill up my time, get me away from booze, tire me out and clear my head. Hopefully one day I won't hear this nasty internal little voice any more. Wanna try gym too?
layla, I wish you good luck with all my heart. I do believe you and I and many others will succeed. Hugs.