Hi, I am Dingfod. I am alcoholic

[Dingfod]

This is my 8th day of sobriety. I wouldn't say I was a hardcore drinker because I usually only drank a half pint and a six pack of 3.2% malt beverages or a pint of whiskey or rum, but I drank every day for the past four months or so. This was after going 3 weeks not drinking at all, and before that passing out in my driveway and ending up hospitalized for two days because of low sodium and potassium and blood glucose.

Enough already. My body and my finances are being harmed. Now that I'm not drinking I'm going to save a fortune, $600-$750 per month, if inland wave can stay off the rum punch. We're basically living on Social Security and a couple of small pensions, and our drinking was consuming about 40% of our income.

[Crumb]

Sorry to hear that, Warren. I'm glad things are looking up. We missed you around here.

[Ensign Steve]

You're gonna lose a ton of weight, too.

[JoeP]

As a mark of respect you're not getting the hideous green welcome ... although this one's not definitely much better.

[Ymir's blood]

pfft

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

You're gonna lose a ton of weight, too.

I've already lost a ton of weight, down to 190 from 360. But that was due to gastric bypass surgery 2 years ago.

Edit: the weight loss and the surgery itself made me more susceptible to alcohol. That's why, even though I was not a heavy drinker, but a daily drinker of relatively small quantities, but still had the typical alcoholic profile. I just can't do it anymore.

[ZEZOZE]

one day at a time.

really.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Welcome to the club.

You can do this.

[Dingfod]

I'm not doing very well at it, but I haven't been drunk in over 3 weeks.

[Qingdai]

It's never a perfect thing, people are human and make mistakes, but you can get up and try again.

Welcome back dingfod. I know that weight/alcohol makes a huge diffrence in what you can stand. Being a cheap date isn't all that. But also alcohol is a depressant, so here's to better health and mood!

[Dingfod]

I haven't completely stopped drinking, but i have not been drunk for more than 3 weeks,

[Dingfod]

I discovered a pint of 80 proof rum in a bookcase we were going through to see if we wanted to keep certain books or not. The Complete Works of Shakespeare made the cut, as did a number of Mark Twain works.

[godfry n. glad]

Hi. I'm godfry, and I'm still a pothead.

The glad abides....

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I haven't completely stopped drinking, but i have not been drunk for more than 3 weeks,

Good plan.
I still like the occasional Beer, or Whiskey, but I have done very well now for about 20 years at just having one or two when out with friends.
I like the taste of the stuff, but I don't really like getting shit-faced.

Of course the fear that my wife will beat me silly if I ever get into trouble with the stuff again helps.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by LarsMac

I like the taste of the stuff, but I don't really like getting shit-faced.

[godfry n. glad]

It's not the getting shitfaced that is the problem for me; it's the following day. That pile of shit feeling for a day or more after was enough to warn me off of too much alcohol ingestion.

[Kyuss Apollo]

For the true alcoholic, the idea of control is an illusion, and the memory of a hangover is no deterrence as soon as its over.

If I thought I could drink in safety I would, but the last time I tried that I was drunk for a year and a half.

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

For the true alcoholic, the idea of control is an illusion,...

The Shrink that, one day, after he told me I was an alcoholic.

This was after I stopped in a bar in Ft Lauderdale after work on Friday, and woke up in Virginia Beach the next Tuesday, with nothing but a pair of cut-off shorts, and no frigging clue what happened that weekend.

That was about the third time Something like that had happened.

I quit drinking for years, and did very well.

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

and the memory of a hangover is no deterrence as soon as its over.

If I thought I could drink in safety I would, but the last time I tried that I was drunk for a year and a half.

I finally decided to see if I could have a beer without going apeshit, and it worked out OK. So far, I have been able to keep it under control. Just a beer with dinner, or maybe two when meeting with co-workers. The fear of fucking my life up, so far has kept me doing well.

I suppose, one day, I might just not give a fuck, and that will be the time it all comes down. With luck, that will be when I am a doddering old fart wandering a Mexican Beach with nowhere in particular I need to be.

[Kyuss Apollo]

I'm glad that it is working out for you Lars. Some people can do it. I am just not going to risk it.

For every one person I know that has managed to go back to drinking after taking considerable time off and be able to successfully control it, I know a considerable number more that are now in prison, are homeless somewhere, or are dead. Including several people that were very good friends, people who I tried to help but to no avail. Sucks hanging out with your best friend at the graveyard. I don't want to do that to my kid.

And then there was the complete and utter emotional desolation that accompanied my drinking for the last 6-8 months I drank. Nope, none for me, thanks. I've had enough.

My sobriety is assured if I just don't drink.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Finding out the hard way that you (generic you) still can't handle the bottle would only make it worse if it involves killing someone in an auto collision.

[LarsMac]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

I'm glad that it is working out for you Lars. Some people can do it. I am just not going to risk it.

For every one person I know that has managed to go back to drinking after taking considerable time off and be able to successfully control it, I know a considerable number more that are now in prison, are homeless somewhere, or are dead. Including several people that were very good friends, people who I tried to help but to no avail. Sucks hanging out with your best friend at the graveyard. I don't want to do that to my kid.

And then there was the complete and utter emotional desolation that accompanied my drinking for the last 6-8 months I drank. Nope, none for me, thanks. I've had enough.

My sobriety is assured if I just don't drink.

Yes, those are good points.
I have some simple rules.

Never drink when upset, lonely, or bored. Booze won't fix any of those.
Never drink anywhere that I cannot walk to and walk home from. (When traveling the hotel counts as home. )
Never drink just to be sociable.
Never drink with people you don't like.
Never drink with people you know to have a drinking problem.


The problem is that some people think that they can control their drinking. They can't really, once they start. All you can do is avoid situations where drinking can cause a problem. (for some, that means anywhere, anytime)

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

I'm glad that it is working out for you Lars. Some people can do it. I am just not going to risk it.

Amen to that. Some ugly and painful history strongly suggests that no booze/drugs at all it the only way to go for me, and I ain't risking it either. No judgment whatsoever toward anyone who's found another way that works for them.

~ S. Maturin, sober since 12/29/83

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by Stephen Maturin

12/29/83

Must have been a hell of a Christmas bender.

[Dingfod]

I've quit drinking multiple times over the last couple of years. I quit drinking when preparing for gastric bypass surgery, two months before and at least three months after. When I resumed drinking with the okay from the surgeon, he warned me I would be more susceptible to the effects of alcohol and told me to be careful. So, I drank only a few drinks at bars and none at home. Unfortunately, my wife got a job at a liquor store, and started bringing some home. It went well, really, I only drank a few drinks per day.

Then I retired in February last year. I started drinking daily. Then in March I had a bleeding ulcer and damn near died. Of course I stopped drinking after that.

Then in June I moved to Sedan, Kansas and started working on this pet stained and moldy house we bought for a pittance (regret it greatly). In the morning, I would buy a six pack of Redd's Apple Ale, drinking one about every two hours when I would take a break from the back-breaking sweat-inducing labor I was putting in (I filled a 20-yard dumpster with stuff removed from the basement). When I got tired or the sun was getting low in the sky, I would go to the motel, take a shower, change clothes, and walk across the street to the liquor store and buy a pint of some liquor or another, usually rum.

A month later, my wife and grandson joined me here. I quit drinking as much, as my grandson and I were swimming for several hours every day. This town has a very nice pool. I was still working on the house, but drinking rum instead of Redd's during the day. One August day I passed out, fell face-first into the gravel of our lower driveway. I laid there in the sun until my wife roused me enough that I could crawl into the garage. I slept for about three hours in there on a stack of folded cardboard boxes. A few days later, I passed out down there again. This time my wife got help from a neighbor, took me to the hospital ER. Crisis intervention team from Coffeeville came. ER tests showed I was seriously depleted of sodium and potassium.

So, I spent a few days in the hospital. I quit drinking then. My sister came to stay with us while my wife went to Texas to be with her dying mother. I stayed sober for 3-1/2 weeks. I thought I was back in control, that I could have a few drinks now and then. That worked for a few weeks, then it was one drink after another until I got sleepy and went to bed. One difference though was I was drinking smaller quantities, half pints instead of pints, low alcohol beverages instead of hard, etc. But when I tried quitting in January, I had serious withdrawal symptoms.

I've quit twice in the past two months, the first time I lasted 11 days, this second time, 8 days. I drank a half pint of peppermint schnapps last evening. I woke up this morning after sleeping over 7 hours, ate some breakfast (link sausages and a waffle) with my grandson, took my vitamins and other pills, and I feel just fine, no shakes, no withdrawal symptoms. If I am going to drink, it's going to be smaller quantities and only once in a while, maybe once a week.

[Dingfod]

I went to AA Monday. I don't know if that's going to work for me. This is something I have to conquer on my own, not turn it over to a "higher power". I'm trying to fill my time with other things, reading more, or just reading again, playing my piano keyboard, even playing solitaire.

One thing that probably helped me deal with drinking that liquor last night is I had plenty to eat during the day. Where I was getting into trouble with drinking was I wasn't eating. When I would quit drinking, I couldn't eat because I was too sick. The smell of sausage cooking would make me retch. I couldn't even stay in the house when my wife would cook breakfast for our grandson.