Torneyboy Posted May 25, 2008 Report Share Posted May 25, 2008 Numbs the brain ..to get through the night i guess.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentors Posted May 25, 2008 Report Share Posted May 25, 2008 since i quit smoking my (large) beer consum went down about 2/3! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted May 25, 2008 Report Share Posted May 25, 2008 Well done on giving up the fags Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted May 26, 2008 Report Share Posted May 26, 2008 Stand back lads, the real alkies are here. OH, you there? Okay, I've said most of this before, forgive me, but... I'm an alcoholic. Was a full-on hopeless unemployed (self-chosen) fall-down drunk for about 18 months and came within an ace of fucking everything I've worked for up, but I pulled back from the brink at the last moment and got back in the saddle. I did it initially largely alone no AA, fuck that but with essential support from some friends, a professional one-to-one counsellor, and unbelievably generous love from one woman in particular after I'd fallen off the wagon big style a couple of times thereafter and come clean about my problem to all my friends. Been more or less dry for almost 4 years (yup, a lot of it's boring, but you feel okay and get loads of stuff done, have less shit to apologise for, remember more of what you've done and said) but when I do drink I (like to) drink to excess and more often than not end up pished and on a 3 to 5 day bender, even a 10-day jag if the place and the price is right. Step forward, trips to LOS. In other words, I've come to the knowledge that I can no longer trust myself to drink in moderation, and that knowledge has empowered me, and I live my days on the basis of it: not railing against it, but embracing it and making it a part of my character. Okay. Accepted. So, I very knowingly simply only have that first drink when I am some place where it doesn't matter that this first beer will inexorably lead to 100 hours of intemperate madness and nothing but boozing and being drunk. Step forward, trips to LOS. Oh, you already did... I don't do anything dangerous or cruel or hurtful to others when I'm drunk. I almost always have a f*cking magnificent time. I just lose the will to do anything but drink, so my drinking days are totally useless for anything else. But that's okay. We all need a holiday. :: And after 4 or 5 days, I'm ready to go back to sobriety now, no problem (this is progress: before, I wasn't ready to go back to reality, was scared of it). I still enjoy drinking as much as I ever did, but I'm the boss again now. To AA and it's tub-thumpers, I'd be grateful if anyone could give me his own, and AA's 'official' (if there is one) position on this question, as it's the question I always ask myself: [color:red]Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, or can an alcoholic ever drink safely again?[/color] I ask this, because, during the last year (and this is a new development) I actually aappear to have reached a point of being able to drink safely again. I haven't f*cked up in any way due to boozing for a very long time. I can now drink on my home turf. I drink about once a fortnight, get drunk (not blind drunk, just merry, then sleepy) about once a month. And I no longer feel the compulsion to continue drinking the next day (which 5 years ago used to be the prelude to shocking 2 week benders of oblivion...). And, yes, it was bad with me. I think I would be dead by now if I hadn't stopped drinking, almost certain of that. Or in a gutter or a jail somewhere, or teaching English in Thailand*, certainly not here, not employed, not loved, not happy. I remember Lou Reed on telly being interviewed about his alkie/druggie days, and the interviewer half-jovially asking him, "Just how bad did it get, Lou?" and Reed looking straight into his eyes and steely eyed and humorlessly replying, "As bad as it could have gotten." He said it with a heartbreakingly mournful conviction that, I think (and you wrote something like this earlier) anyone who is not an alcoholic could not have appreciated. But I got it. For that's what my time was like too. As bad as it could have gotten. death was the next stop. But I somehow managed to pull back. F*ck knows how, really. I claim no kudos. Love of some friends, a tiny remaining speck of self respect (vanity, no doubt in my case) that held me back at the very last moment? :offline: Yes, I'm not arrogant about this state, not claiming any great victories, and certainly don't think I've 'beaten' alcoholism. I still regard myself as an alcoholic. It could all go wrong very easily and, to be honest, every time I go out boozing I kind of expect it to. But it doesn't. I just have some mad fun. No harm done. What about where I am, then? Am I okay then? What would AA say, I wonder? My AA advisor/friend in the UK loudly says, NO, I am not okay. My only course is to stop drinking completely. He says I am kidding myself, that sooner or later I will come a cropper, and it will be a bad one and I will quite possibly die because of it. I disagree. It is the only point on which we do not agree, though, graciously, he accepts my opionion, and we remain the best of friends. And, yes, I am grateful to AA, and to the active AA member in particular (the guy I just wrote about) who helped, and continues to help and advise me wonderfully in this matter. And to Old Hippie, who's been through some alkie confessional stuff with me online, and is always a mate. I wish everyone similar good fortune with their drinkng issues, if you have them. It is doable, and it doesn't have to be total sobriety in cases like mine. And I was pretty fucked this time 3 years ago. If I had a week off work starting today, and was somewhere no one knows me right now, I would be having that "first drink" in about 2 hours time (it's 8AM now). And I would see you in about 5 days' time. jack * Just a little joke. Probably. :smirk: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted May 26, 2008 Report Share Posted May 26, 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism I would say that if one consistently can pull back, go for long periods (months?) without drinking, then that person is not an lcoholic but one that enjoys drinking...IMO. Wiki says... Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions. In common and historic usage, alcoholism refers to any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite the health problems and negative social consequences it causes. Medical definitions describe alcoholism as a disease which results in a persistent use of alcohol despite negative consequences. Alcoholism may also refer to a preoccupation with or compulsion toward the consumption of alcohol and/or an impaired ability to recognize the negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption. Although not all of these definitions specify current and on-going use of alcohol as a qualifier, some do, as well as remarking on the long-term effects of consistent, heavy alcohol use, including dependence and symptoms of withdrawal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted May 27, 2008 Report Share Posted May 27, 2008 Yes, I remember reading somewhere once (or maybe a doctor told me) that one of the problems with alcoholism is that there is no universally agreed/accepted medical definition of the term. What one medic/textbook terms "alcoholism", another might not classify as such. No common consensus. "Alcoholism". It's like "sexism" or "political correctness". I often wonder what people did before these terms were coined. Just got on with living and enjoying themselves, I suppose. jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted May 27, 2008 Report Share Posted May 27, 2008 Or perhaps beating their family getting sacked, dying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted May 28, 2008 Report Share Posted May 28, 2008 Or perhaps beating their family getting sacked, dying. Scotland? jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tartempion Posted May 31, 2008 Report Share Posted May 31, 2008 I do drink Heinekin in LOS. Since when is there alcohol in Heineken :question: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USVirgin Posted May 31, 2008 Report Share Posted May 31, 2008 Or perhaps beating their family getting sacked, dying. Call me an alcoholic, but I would never beat dying family members after they got sacked. Terrible behavior , and it smacks of opportunism. Is there an inheritance involved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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