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.
Why is it that certain people can drink vs.people who can't? Is it genetic or how our brains are wired? What is it that alcoholics have that other people who drink don't? Just wondering the psychology of it all.
-
check out that smoke ring. It tasted really good. I smothered it with Maulls BBQ sauce which is Local to St. Louis and one of the best I ever had.....
-
I was recently separated from my wife of 33 years and it's complicated. Anyway I rented a room about 15 minutes away and I see my kids about once a week. I see the people who own the house I live in once in a while but other than that I stay in my room where I do my cooking, wash dishes in the shower, read, color, and sleep. I get out at least once a day. I grocery shop and I attend 2 meetings...
Would love to give a detailed answer to your question but right now, other duties call.
Not to worry though, because listening to the guy at the link below is way better than anything I could offer. I would urge you to watch the video right through to the end and watch it over and over, even if you feel that you do not agree with everything. Put your doubts on hold, go with the flow and this can be the start of an amazing journey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMC62Y_5dyE
God Bless
Most of us have past trauma and use it to just feel good. For myself, being straight without drinking felt awful. Ever since I remember as a kid I just didn't feel right. Something was always wrong with me, but I never knew what it was, and you never talked to anyone about that.
I'm starting to learn through therapy that it was from physical, but mostly emotional abuse. I never knew what abuse was so to me it was normal. We couldn't talk about what we didn't know. I'm 56 now and it still affects me a lot, but now I'm trying to do something about it so I don't go back to drinking or drugs.
I find that comparing yourself with non-drinkers is really a waste of time. It can cause anger, resentment, frustration. It's just two different things. It's like you hear in some recovery meetings, an allergy of the body. Alcohol just acts differently with me. I am just not the same as a normal drinker, and never will be. Alcoholics never become non-alcoholics.
A two fold illness, one of the body, one of the mind, that is impossible to remove by oneself, if that person is a real alcoholic.
There is a difference between a heavy drinker and an alcoholic. The heavy drinker can stop, and chooses to drink, for whatever reason, the heavy drinker just loves alcohol and how it makes him feel, he or she is not subconsciously craving the feeling of power the alcohol is giving them. It's like me working out, I love the feeling I get when I excercise, but I can leave the gym, at any moment, if I have to, and not obsess about wanting to work out more, I can make that decision to leave, knowing it will be there the next time I choose to exercise. My alcoholism however, wouldn't let me choose, it would cloud out all other options (coincidentally none having to do with drinking more) and strangely demand I drink more, extremely baffling, and extremely frustrating.
Once the abstinence happens, and the alcoholic somehow finds a way to not drink for a period of time, usually locked up or physically ill to an extent it scares the crap out of them, then it is all about not taking a "first drink" so the craving won't happen and the obsession won't have anything to persuade off of.
It is very simple, and alcoholism has become somewhat commercial, with celebrities and the well to do promoting their sobriety, and calling themselves alcoholics, when most just are so miserable they would rather drink than accept the responsibilities of fame. Not all who drink alcohol a lot are alcoholics, according to alcoholics anonymous, real alcoholism is the definite fact that the person has no ability to stop, the power of the illness inside, manifested in the form of a craving and obsession to drink more.
There is a great example on a National Geographic program of real alcoholism, and in that program you see a real alcoholic who swears mentally he is going to die if he doesn't drink vodka. I will try to find it on youtube for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lny5u-HIwbg
There it is, and I have to warn you, it is tough to watch, but if you do watch it, I think you'll see it is far from a Lindsey Lohan situation where a DWI or two happens once every five years. In this documentary you see real alcoholism and how it kills.
You have raised interesting questions and strangely, the answers are a mystery to a great many alcoholics. Therefore, here is a short summary that you and others may find helpful.
Alcoholics are different to social drinkers in two respects, with part of the difference being in the mind and part in the body.
The mental aspect of alcoholism is that the person slowly develops an obsession for alcohol. Some people argue about words such as ‘obsession’ but it is the idea and not the word that is important. An obsession may be described as an idea that overcomes and overshadows all other ideas. Therefore, when someone becomes obsessed with alcohol, they will always find a reason to drink and they will usually justify their drinking in some way. It is common to put the blame on people, places or things but rarely on the drinker. Family members, employers, police, courts etc. are often cast as the villains of the piece, when in fact, they are just convenient scapegoats. It is said that a person who has an obsession for alcohol is defenceless against the thinking that leads up to taking the first drink, and that where alcohol is concerned, such a person suffers from a form of insanity.`
An obsession for alcohol would not, in itself, be a huge problem if it was not for the second aspect of alcoholism. You ask, what do alcoholics have that other people who drink don’t? Well, the alcoholic is different physically to other drinkers and this is a critical part of the problem. The body of an alcoholic develops an abnormal reaction to alcohol, in much the same way that a person with an allergy to strawberries would react badly to eating the offending fruit. In the case of the alcoholic, the body does not break out in a rash, but instead, the person gets a strong craving for more alcohol. The craving leads to another drink and each drink makes the craving stronger. That is why a social drinker can stop at a couple of drinks while the alcoholic will continue drinking. For an alcoholic, even after a huge amount of drink is taken, there is often a feeling that one more is needed – this is an attempt to satisfy a craving that is beyond the person’s control. This is why an alcoholic cannot control drinking and the only safe option is to quit entirely.
Background, genetics etc. may have a part to play in leaving some people more prone to alcoholism than others. However, the undisputable fact is that nobody can be born an alcoholic, or can become an alcoholic unless they abuse alcohol over a long period of time.
While some alcoholics can stop drinking on their own willpower and never drink again, such people are almost certainly an exception to the rule. For most alcoholics, the obsession for alcohol is always likely to eventually overcome even the strongest willpower. For such people, recovery from alcoholism depends on finding some means of removing the obsession of the mind. The AA programme of recovery is designed to do just that.