This might just be the yips. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yips

Good luck LFS, you sound like you have your mind right, and that's the most important thing.

damn LFS never read this until now. You know I think you're a kickass mod. Best of luck to you!

Well I just watched the whole BCS championship game at a bar and drank like 4 club sodas and 7 waters. (I made a post on Facebook that I'd pay $375 to the first person to catch me with a drink before the superbowl - mainly for weight loss reasons.) By the end of the game I was peeing as much as if I'd drank beer the whole time. Still had a very good time watching the game and my friends down about 6-8 24oz giant mugs each. It was also very weird driving away and realizing I didn't have to worry about driving straight or not doing anything stupid. I also spent basically nothing, except for some food. Feel pretty good right now.

I still think I'd have a really tough time getting through a whole party sober where I didn't know a ton of people. Sporting events are a built-in distraction.

I quit drinking a few months ago (it didn't last) and after a couple weeks I had extremely vivid dreams about drinking....And all sorts of crazy situations.

I know exactly what you mean here. It's a really good feeling. Congrats on the night at the bar, I haven't done that yet. Overall a great start for you.

I've had a difficult week. I run a business, a family, and a community center, and each has some crazy stuff going on. My son's been getting me up at 5AM every day so I'm dog tired, which doesn't help. Anyway, my point is that this is the kind of time the previous me would be drinking a lot. I haven't done that, and I don't even have the urge. The problem is that I'm pretty miserable. At the end of a terrible day getting ****faced would mean I would get to just forget about it and pass out. Now I obsess, wake up in the night going over events and trying to plan their resolution, etc. Not pleasant.

So, again, I think the drinking was a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself. I need to start at square one and figure out how to deal with this **** in a healthy way. Being miserable all the time is no good, drinking to forget about it was no good either.

LFS, my guess is if drinking was your normal pattern of behavior to cope with this kind of stuff, it's going to take a while for your brain to learn new strategies.

IE - I'm used to having a blowout once every 3-4 weeks. Leading up to that, I start getting really irritable and steadily lose more and more patience with everyone and everything (poker, ugh). Watch in a couple weeks I'll probably be getting in thread wars on 2p2 (I'll try to take it out on the anracho-capitalists if I can). Then after the blowout I feel guilty and depressed, but I also have let off all that steam. I'm a lot easier to be around at that point.

I think of my brain as being like a spoiled child in these spots - just trying to figure out what kind of tantrum it can throw to get what it wants. But the more you don't give in to it the weaker its protests become.

One thing to consider is that if you had a physical dependence on alcohol, some of the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal are increased anxiety and sleeping poorly. These symptoms can actually last quite a while, on the order of several months, but will eventually get better as time passes.

OP is tl;dr the whole thing, but I used to drink too much and knew I couldn't quit altogether, so now I just drink a small amount of wine when I get the urge. I sip/nurse it and that seems to keep me satisfied.

I also feel better and have much more energy these days.

Used to be a fairly hard everyday drinker, too.

LFS, this thread made me happy. best of luck with everything.

I used to have these dreams a ton when I quit. Now that I drink again I still have weird alcohol-related dreams. This past weekend I went out with some friends and had a few drinks, though nothing excessive. I dreamt that I was chugging shots of sambuca and that I got into a bunch of fights (sub-conscious fear of history repeating).

Best of luck, OP.

Kind of rambling here, but here goes...I'm definitely on the verge of becoming an alcoholic, if not already there. My dad drinks beer nightly and since it's so readily available, I began just consuming tons of beer on a nightly basis. While it initially started out as a "sleep aid", I began just pounding booze and play 360 while getting ready for bed just for the hell of it.

I received a DWI 3 years ago, which should have been a full-blown DUI. I've also been told on numerous occasions that people had no clue I was that drunk. I'll be like pretty much blackout and people will say that I was acting totally normal.

The good news, I guess, is that I'm 23 years old and just graduated college. Hopefully I can land a job and these problems will just sort of work themselves out (not drinking nightly because I have to be up early, don't want to smell like booze, etc.)

Life changes don't really erase patterns. This is sort of like saying "the problem will go away on its own". If you really think you have a problem, then you need to take a more active approach imo.

You can quit if you're motivated. I was getting a whiskey gut, so I stopped sucking down the Jack. Ladies don't like it and ladies > whiskey IMO.

Just wanna say GL to OP and all who choose to quit.

you have a lot going for you right now in your life. you have to focus on the positive things. you just graduated college and have a bunch of friends. you are a funny guy that ppl truly enjoy being around. you are too smart to let alcohol take over your life. i hope you have the willpower to cut back/quit/whatever you feel you have to do to regain control.

i have recently cut back on my drinking alot and will always shoot the sht w/you about it on aim sometime. holla

(as i type this my grandfather offered me a glass of cognac. i thought about turning it down just because it feels weird drinking after typing that, but it is a nice feeling knowing i can just have one and be done with the bottle for the night. i prob wouldn't be able to do that 6-8mos ago)

I guess I will share my story with alcoholism/addiction. Hope it sheds some light on what people are going through ITT.


Note: I had a very "normal" middle class upbringing. Neither of my parents drank much and i was not abused growing up.


Cliffs:

- Had my first drink when I was 11.
- Started experimenting with pot when I was 12
- from 12-16 I would drink to get drunk about twice a week.
- i played football in high school and started using steroids when i was 16

- 16-18 : steroids, lots of booze on weekends and started experimenting with other drugs (opiates, X, ghb, acid, etc). arrested for dui, assaullt and a few other alcohol related misdemeanors.
-When i was a senior in high school my best friend died in a car accident. He was leaving spring break at Padre Island, still drunk and had drugs in his system. After my friends death I started drinking and using drugs during the day.

- I went to college, never went to class and proceeded to ingest as many chemicals as possible.

- Got kicked out of college after two semesters, lived with my parents for a while and then got shipped to rehab. As this point i did not think i was an alcoholic. I believed i was an addict but could drink "normal" one day (once i "figured stuff out")

- I stayed clean/sober for 9 months then started smoking pot. I did not consider pot a drug.

- went back to college and pledged to not get back into hard drugs. i didn't for a long time. however, it is around this time i started to become physically addicted to alcohol. I needed it..mentally and physically i craved it. i would drink till i blacked out. i stopped going out with friends and would drink by myself at home.

- fall 2004 I start using hard drugs again. i overdosed several times and was a complete mess. i was not a functional drug addict or alcoholic. i couldn't hold down a job and everything around me fell apart. I finally decided to check myself into rehab. i packed my bags and moved across the country where i went to rehab.

I had physical cravings and would dream about getting drunk/high. After a few months my cravings went away. I started going to meetings and found peace in my life for the first time in many years. I met new friends who were also sober, got a job, and became a productive member of society.

Life goes on when you get sober. Bad things still happen. I lost my mother to cancer in 2006. I was obv tested by this but managed to stay strong.

For years i thought i could drink like a normal human being. Most of my friends drank a lot when we were in our early 20's. Many still do and are professionally successful and seem happy. I know what will happen if i start drinking again. My life will turn into a mess.

Despite the fact that i have been sober for 5 years and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if i drink i will be miserable, my alcoholic mind tells me i should drink. That my friends is insanity. I don't think about drinking that often but the last few weeks have been really tough....tougher than when i was 2 months clean.

Alcoholism is a terrible disease. I have seen friends die and go to prison because of it. If you feel you might have a problem, nip it in the bud. Talk to someone and be honest.

Sorry for the PSA but i needed to post this. The last few weeks have been tough for me and i have found that reaching out to others gets me out of my head.

tl;dr, etc

bevo54

I had my first drink when I was 15. Loved it.I was never an anxious or nervous kid, quite the opposite in face. I was very outgoing, charming, and popular. At 16 I was drinking with friends on the weekends.

At 18 I started to feel different. More anxious, nervous, and unsure of myself. I didn't know what was going on. I smoked weed a lot and weed was now having the opposite affect on me. Still not sure why this was, weed was making me super anxious and nervous.Anyway, I went off to college and was drinking about 3 nights a week. Next year I joined a Fraternity and was drinking about 4 nights a week. I was feeling very unsure of myself when I wasn't drinking. Also, the hangovers were becoming a lot worse and lasting longer. I feel extreme anxiety when I am not drinking.

I graduated and then came back home to VA. I drank heavily on the weekends. I have been in front of a judge three times for alcohol related offenses. One time required 24 hours in jail. I went to AA and manged to go everyday for a lil over 30 days. That is when I went on vacation and had a drink. I have been drinking ever since. Mostly just on the weekends, but pretty much blacking out and passing out. I have never really had a serious job, just internships, temp jobs, and being a waiter. With the economy killing all career opportunites for most people just out of college, I decided I to get a visa and head down under for a lil while since I had never studied abroad and it is something that I always wanted to do.

I have been here for 4 months and my drinking as really taken off, I have been drinking everyday. I am 26 years old and desire to be a social drinking, although when I look at my history, there is nothing that says I can ever be a social drinker. I have never even tried it. I just wanna get flat out hammered drunk when I drink. I don't think I can quit entirely right now. Not while im away and living in a country and with people who pretty much all drink. I have decided that I wanna stop for a week.

1. To get some perspective on my drinking
2. To get my appetite back
3. Because the people I live with want me to.

I am scared to detox though. Since I have been drinking so much I don't know if I might actually need medical supervision. I don't know what to do because I am in a foreign country and I am not part of their national health care since I am not a citizen.I plan to just take it as it comes starting sunday and I do have some benzos I can take if it gets to bad. I know im gonna have to quit completely, as I seem to have most if not all of the symptoms of an alcoholic. I just don't know if I can do it now.

not sure what your experiences were with going to AA when you were younger but maybe you should hit up a meeting in australia. explain your situation to someone after the meeting and see what your options are for detox in the town your in. most cities have free or low cost detoxes. they may not be nice but if your worried about your health/DT's it's probably the smart thing to do. the benzos will take the edge off cause they are essentially booze in a pill. they affect the same chemicals in your brain. however, they are VERY addictive, so be careful.

good luck

John Barleycorn, Jack London
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace

My question is, if you actually do want to stop drinking, but you simply don't know a single person who isn't in the entire "drink every weekend" mentality, how in the world do you make any sort of change? I've accepted that I shouldn't be drinking as hard as I am. I honestly have no solution to what to do instead. My honest attempt at not drinking this weekend was offering someone a ride to go see avatar in 3d. I thought this would be pretty bad ass to go see, but I honestly couldn't get a single person to agree to it. Every single person I know has a life that revolves around alcohol, how do you stop this?

Appreciate the love, brah.

i wish you well in accomplishing your goals. just read the whole thread, very good read!!

how often would you go out by yourself and drink?

how many bars/restaurants in boston would you consider yourself a regular?

whats the name of those places?

is drinking the only thing you have quit doing in terms of vices/addictions?

just do like me, never go out.

To be honest, this is virtually the only answer that makes sense to me. I REALLY hate the idea of being a hermit though.

Klompy you probably need to find some healthier friends that are in to stuff like hiking, or whatever, as long as it's not just getting wasted. Obviously this isn't easy to do, but you just have to be receptive to new people who are into a more healthy lifestyle, and usually something comes along. I started doing a fitness boot camp by my house. I hang out with them sometimes and definitely try to let their geeked-out-ness about living healthy rub off on me as much as possible.