Keep up the good work people. I just realized it's been just over 7 months for me, no booze whatsoever. These seven months strangely haven't been all that difficult, but I did make a concerted effort about 2 years to start drinking a lot less, then went on a nasty bender the end of 2017 and finally decided booze just wasn't for me. Not drinking isn't the majestic paradise some make it out to be, but it's a huge positive. Not even the whiff of hangovers ever and actually quite productive in the morning, every aspect of my personal health has improved somewhat, I rarely drag and have more energy, no cold fist of anxiety gripping my bowels as I try to decide whether or not I need a drink to stave off that weird anxious high-strung feeling of mild withdrawal, etc. I'm just going to say it too: I look good.

Some of the social aspects can be a bit annoying but certainly don't outweigh the positives. For example there is are people who always seem to want to hear some fantastic, drunken story that ends in arrest and/or spectacular injury told as the reason you quit drinking (don't have one). I think I might steal Rob Delaney's about DUIing into some large building and breaking all kinds of bones (not that DUI is funny, Delaney is a hilarious comedian who quit booze a while back, worth a follow/watch). Close friends have been supportive and helpfully not treating it as a big deal, it probably helps that impulsiveness isn't a problem of mine so I'm fine being around alcohol and people boozing. I do write this as a buddy of mine troll-texting me something this morning about a N/A whiskey named Arkay that apparently "tastes like a horse saddle." Although this a friend who, after learning I quit the sauce, signed himself up for a weekly one-on-one online alcohol counseling thing to see where he was at with it. And I am absolutely NOT one of those people who butts in unsolicited and suggests that sort of thing to people, we did not discuss him signing up beforehand. One social event that was a bit annoying was a longtime friend's birthday "lunch." He invited me to it as a lunch with his family, turns out it was a surprise pub crawl with 50-60 people and he and I were the only ones surprised. Probably 20-30 friends from HS and college, some of them I hadn't seen in 10-15 years were all there getting after the sweet EtOH from like 2pm-midnight. So that was some kind of personal record in answering the "You quit drinking? Why, what happened did you wake up in jail?" department. Oh, you also usually get free non-booze drinks (I'm becoming an Arnold Palmer connoisseur, they cost like $5/each in the Pearl District so on that pub crawl I probably had >$100 of those) and female bartenders are often exceptionally nice to sober guys (we're pretty rare in there). That's a time you don't mind the "you aren't drinking" question.

I should add that I do usually smoke pot in the evening. I haven't noticed it being a problem with responsibilities, the only health issues I notice are an occasionally scratchy throat, and skipping it for days at a time brings on no sort of anxiety or withdrawal symptoms. Booze is just something I am not wired for. I'll also never take benzodiazepines, with how easy it is for me to get dependent on alcohol I assume I'd get hooked on those in about 4 days.

Anyway, whatever your goal is (reducing, quitting, just keeping an eye on yourself) keep working at it. For me there's not really some mind-blowing single moment where light glows around you because you're now sober (or less boozed) but it is a clear, steady positive rise towards being the person you were always getting mad you weren't being when you were drinking/using.

I don't hear much about liver damage as a result of drinking. Maybe it's in this thread. Haven't read through, first time seeing this thread. But how much do you need to be drinking to worry you could have done serious damage to your liver where you will need to see doctors someday?

Like I rarely drank for most of my life then about 4 years ago I started drinking beer. Sometimes light beer sometimes regular. But I started drinking almost every day. Maybe 1 or 2 days off. I would drink anywhere from 4 to 6 on somedays to 12 to 15 on others when I really started getting drunk.

I once took a full month off for a diet, but also because I read you can repair your liver if you don't drink for one full month. Is this true or a myth? And should I worry I've already done irreversible damage?

I never drink and drive. I'm responsible that when I drink I let my girlfriend drive as she's not a drinker. So main issue is with if doing liver damage.

Hope it's not off topic and wish everyone the best in quitting cold turkey. I may do that as well someday but right now it helps relax me. But if i'm screwing my liver it not worth it. Thanks for any info?

Also is it worse on your liver if you drinking hard alcohol as opposed to beer?

Liver damage will start to be repaired after about a month, but repairing fully takes longer. Certain types of more severe damage can't be repaired.

How much alcohol for how long is needed to damage the liver is very idiosyncratic. Some people drink heavily their entire lives and never get it. Others get it much more quickly. Keeping an eye on your liver enzyme blood levels can reduce but not eliminate the risk that you are developing problems. You should talk to a doctor about this and not some guy on the internet.

Not going to lecture, but I used alcohol to relax as well and can testify that this stops working. In general what alcohol can do to your brain is imo more frightening than liver damage.

The speed at which you drink does matter for damage, i.e. doing shots is worse than beer, but sitting and slowly sipping whisky is not. Doesn't matter if it's diluted or not, just how much ethanol you consume in how much time.

I had a liver function test a few months ago and, surprisingly, it came back ok.

I drink a lot of coffee and take conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) supplements which supposedly help.

Thank you Chris. Much appreciated.

BTW, great to hear that you're doing well SirOsis. Have wondered how it's gone for you a couple times. Congrats on 7 months. Thought that was a good summary of the benefits of non drinking vs the annoyances. I have been drinking while on holidays here in the US, going to go at least a month without when I get back.

I’m not an alcoholic, but I hope it’s OK if I post about my dad.

He’s 65. Retired about 5 years ago because of anxiety (maybe true, but probably because of drinking). His thing is getting up in the middle of the night and drinking heavily and then going back to bed (most of the time). I found out because he would write me non-sensical texts that were vaguely related to something we had talked about. He and my mom blamed this on some weird memory issues related to anxiety medication, but it turns out he was just drinking excessively and then writing crazy emails to people and cleaning the house and other weird ****.

He has a rare reaction to alcohol in that is makes him very manic – incredibly talkative and ambitious to take on projects. But then combine this with being incredibly unreliable and not good at following through with anything when being wasted (obviously). Things got worse and worse over the past 5 years. My parents eventually got divorced (together 30 years) when he started spending money like crazy. He bought 3 $1000 bikes over 3 months (he kept leaving them unlocked), expensive clothes, 5* restaurants multiple times per day, and then secretly buying a Mercedes and parking it around the block (wtf). Mom found parking tickets lying around and figured this out. Apparently, he lost his keys (hid them in the house somewhere).

I was very close to my Dad growing up. He was a great parent: reliable, supportive, good to talk to. I hardly talk to him anymore. After things really went off the rails for him, I got up the courage to say he couldn’t be left alone to watch my daughter anymore (she’s 3). I hoped this would be a wakeup call for him. His response: “I’m sorry you feel that way.” Proceeded to act as though nothing happened. Not even mad.

I’m not angry with him. I mostly just find this all so sad. He must be dealing with some heavy ****. I feel like my Dad died a couple years ago…but then he texts my a few times a year and I remember he’s still around…just as a shell of his former self.

That is really sad. Sounds like you're dealing with it as well as anybody could. My mother was an alcoholic and addict almost her whole life. As she got older she began to experience early-onset dementia, I wonder if that's a factor with your dad.

It certainly seems likely. He has an atrocious memory.

I bragged a bit today about that I quit alcohol last november. I'm seeing it as an important part of trying to enhance the quality of life, these other changes (exercise and weight loss) have been possible: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/8...nover-1711406/.

Feel this is starting to work. Don't think it would have been possible without the stability quitting alcohol brings.

Congrats. For me not drinking also makes everything else
Possible.

Went to a meditation meeting this morning - I have to admit that this is one area where my
program has been lacking for most of my 22+ years sober. Format was 15 min speaker followed by 15 mins meditation followed by sharing. I was curious how quickly the meditation time would move given how out of practice I am (at one point years ago I went to a Buddhist meditation place that was a hour), but it went fast and I left there centered and relaxed. Been a good day ever since.

Went to the doc today, he said I had a hernia, subsequent conversation triggered a vasovagel reaction where your brain gets all adrenaline and no oxygen and you black out.

I was out like 10 seconds, he said.

So as I'm coming to, *completely* disoriented and lost, I went thru that familiar "Where am I? What have I done?" thought pattern when you wake up after a blackout ....

I have not quit alcohol, though I have cut back, but I wanted to post in this thread ... there is something I read time and time again that I connect with, heavy drinkers talking about that sense of shame and dread when they wake up, no memory .... And how much of a relief it is when they don't have to do that anymore ... I can 100% recognize and embrace that ...

I had an enormous flash of all of that today, but not tied to alcohol at all and obv with no repercussions .... It was a really interesting experience for a lot of reasons. And it definitely reminded me of waking up with shame after a night out. ...

The sense of relief I felt, remembering that no I wasn't wasted but just had a hernia ... best hernia ever.

Well over a year into sobriety, my weekly drunk dreams with exactly those feelings of relief are huge reminders of why I stay sober

Talk about details there! haha,,,

I haven't had any alcohol in the past few months... missing it though

I haven't had a drop of alcohol since 1995. Only drank alcohol from 1986 to 1995. Now, I have one thing on my list that I know I need to quit. I must quit drinking diet soda. It is garbage, and I know that there will be a big improvement immediately, but it is not the type of thing you hit rock bottom doing, so I am going to have to make a concerted effort to give it up. Maybe drink a little less each day until I get down to zero, so I have no headaches, and then it is phased out forever. I mean, it is total garbage poison, but I like the whole process of drinking it.

On the other hand, Donald Trump drinks eight diet cokes a day (I prefer pepsi or diet dr pepper), and Warren Buffet drinks many per day as well, so if it is the worst thing I am putting into my body, at least I am with good company....or should I say...those who have achieved greatly in the current system.

Go with the same solution a lot of alcoholics go with: drink La Croix instead. It won't be the same at first, but you'll get used to it. At a place I used to work, a colleague used to drink iced coffees in the morning (by which I mean roughly one-pint sized cartons of coffee flavored milk, highly sweetened, they're very popular here). I got him onto drinking unsweetened iced lattes made with the work espresso machine and after a while doing that, when he had a store-bought iced coffee again, he was revolted by how sweet it was.

From the headaches comment, I assume you mean caffeinated soda. Get some caffeine tablets from a pharmacy and take them when you drink the La Croix. That way you can easily taper down over time.

I have the same problem with Diet Coke, it’s the last of the substances that I want to kick.

One outside the world of addiction would probably say oh why can’t you quit that when you’ve quit everything else but that’s what makes it so hard - it has no clear obvious negative effects.

But for all the Buffets we hear about, we don’t know to the extent to which this trash messes up our systems and who knows how many people have died from the cancers it causes (if that is proven to be one of the effects)....or whatever else it winds up being proven to cause.

My best attempts have been when I’ve gone to iced tea instead.

I don't. Alcohol is pure ****, if there's something that IS pure ****.

We are in the same boat. I drink iced tea, diet soda, and water....and that is about it. I could easily quit diet soda by just sticking with iced tea, but I think the caffeine in the tea I drink keeps me up more. In any event, iced tea is probably better, even though I use Sweet N Low. There are contradicting studies now on Sweet N Low, as it may not be harmful at all.

Back in the day, everyone suggested drinking milk...not so much now. In fact, anyone trying to drink a container (not sure what the size, but not outrageous huge) of milk and keep it down, will usually throw up...they have challenges like that, so there may be nothing negative about it.

Water only would have to be the best way. If you screw yourself up doing that, then you just have to take the loss.

The milk/dairy lobby in the US used to be very strong.

Hey all, in the gentlest way possible I would like to remind that this thread is a place for people whose lives are being negatively impacted by alcohol. I think a thread about getting off caffeine, or other unhealthy habits, is a perfectly fine idea. But within reason please keep the basic subject matter of this thread in mind. Thank you.

There's no safe amount of alcohol:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/h...-a8505181.html

Glad I quit as part of trying to do something good for myself and maybe my immediate surroundings.

Hi guys.

My name is that_pope and I am an alcoholic. I've known that for years but have been in denial. I recently got 52 days sober before choosing to drink again. I have no idea how I convinced my wife to put up with me for all these years. I've made so many promises to her to stop, and I've broken them all. I have not had accountability previously, only my wife, parents, and a few others. Now I need to get the word out that I am an alcoholic and will change my behavior.

I'll be posting here daily to keep myself accountable. I need to do this.

Good for you. Are you going to meetings? Do you have a sponsor? If the answer to both questions is yes, everything else will take care of itself.

I'm at 610 days sober now, literally the best decision I ever made. Zero programs involved, just some posting and reading at one online sobriety forum. And a firm decision by my own bad self, with some slight course corrections along the way as needed.