I know most of you already know how it goes, but I never quite knew what my deal was. I always wondered, "Am I real alcoholic?" It is absurd that I ever wondered. Maybe some newbies will be interested. I wish I went to treatment at 22.

I echo your thoughts

I wish I had never started, when I drink I do stupid shit and that stupid shit has cost me dearly

Drinking today will never make for a better tomorrow.

First drink at 8 (glass of beer), first drunk at 12 (pint of Old Granddad), constant drinking at 18, full blown drunk at 26. First treatment at 29. Went back drinking until 35. I was drinking over a fifth a day (sometimes less sometimes more). It was costing me everything when I quit. At 29 I knew I was an alcoholic. At 35 I was convinced. I always thought I could drink like other people. I tried to. I really did. But the end results was always the same. I would end up having blackouts. I would end up fallen down drunk. In the end, it cost me a 15 plus year military career, a marriage, a relationship of 4 years, the lost of the relationship with my two sons.

I am convinced that I cannot drink like normal people. I have a problem with alcohol. I am an alcoholic. Thank God there were two men 75 years ago who found a solution and decided to share it with everyone. For if it were not for them, I would be dead.

For a long time I never thought I was an alcoholic. I just knew I drank too much, and that was basically the just of it. I didn't see it as affecting me in a bad way, I just figured that's what I was supposed to do, everyone else was drinking.

I always noticed though, that I always drank more than anyone else no matter where I was. If I went to a party that I knew might run out of alcohol, I would keep extra in my car and go outside and slam beers or drink liquour. I would always be the first one drunk at a party, and I had no control over it. I always drank long after the party ended, and woke passed out people up because I was pissed they weren't still drinking with me. I still felt that I didn't really have a problem, even though I obsessed about alchol 24/7 at times that were totally innapropriate to drink let alone get trashed.

The last year or so, I would get smashed and not even mean to, I would get drunk every single day no matter what I had going on the next day, or later that night. It just didn't matter.

I had a full ride scholarship to college, and it was even paying living expenses. When I was forced to drop out of college and lost my scholarships, I realized how out of control my drinking was. I kept drinking and just now got sober 20 days ago.

All I can say is that, there is so much truth in a quote I heard at AA "One is too many, and a thousand is never enough" That describes my relationship with alcohol. I can either choose not to drink, or I can let it make my life unmanageable and a living hell.

That's all I got.

honey, i never wanted to be my father-drink- or my brother-drugs- but still i not only surpassed them with the sheer numbers of nuthouses, jails, and hospital not to mention losing my child. this f'n disease does not discriminate and knowing what i know now ,would it have been different. sorry to say, probably not. i thought i was different. and it is heart breaking and soul crushing to know that today. i grieve everyday for what has been lost to me and because of me.

right Doc, they say when you do nothing but take hostages,, I can relate. Nobody existed around me that I did not use.

I say this because I really feel it and know it. Alkies can be happy, joyous and free.

As far as me being a real alcoholic, LMAO>
the ol' track record is proof.

"Experts" and others love to "define" alcoholic. Most of us who have trouble with alcohol probably have noticed that the definition of "alcoholic" is pretty darn subjective.

What I wonder though, is how often we believe that drinking makes us different somehow-- more angry or rude or reckless or unlikeable. I wonder if maybe, just maybe, all that being drunk does is reveal a part of us that we deny but that cannot be denied once we are drunk.

ding ding ding ding! Tell her what she's won Bob....

hee hee....

I hear light bulbs coming on all over the place here... :)

Yeah, ya don't realize how insane you are/were until you really stop adn think about it and get sober for a bit huh? And for me, it took a few attempts. I didn't get sober the first time I tried, I doubt there are many who did...I'm sure there are some who will say they quit the first time they decided to, but I doubt there are many.

Took me only a year of back & forth shit once I decided I had a problem & that I can't control it. I say only cause lotsa folks do the back & forth shit for years and years and years.

DOn't worry about wishing you had done it at 22, thank God you're doing it now! :)

it might not have helped. i had the legacy- deaths of father and brother-so i did other drugs for a time which led me to alcohol which, for me, was the worse of the worse. we have this thing and there is no wishing it away. so the question is "where to from now"?

me? i have lost so much there will never ever be what you can call normal life for me. i missed the proverbial boat.

First drink at 13 and after ten years of horror I stopped. I was hooked from the first sip.

Eesh, I thought I was bad starting @ thirteen. More power to you. Kick some _ss.

I say what you call it isn't as important as knowing that you can't control it. Either way, quitting is the only reasonable choice.

No, not me. I can quit anytime I want to. ha,..haha.