Alcoholism?

Anyone else feeling the urge?

It started once Saturdays, then Fridays and Saturday, and lastly Wednesdays. Right now I'm feeling it as soon as Monday comes around...I just want to get drunk. It's a mix of the high, chasing tail, and just not caring. Coke is OK, Cannabis is OK, MDMA OK, but being drunk throughout the night is just too good. chasing the sweet spot, because I hate blackouts and puking.

I also hate being hungover, so I can't really drink every day. But the first thing I think about after getting to work is getting drunk

Anyone else in the same boat?

 

I view life as one long, ongoing and gigantic battle against my liver. My liver keeps bouncing back but it's an interesting slog.

OP-just stop drinking for a little while. Month or two. Pick up some healthier habits like working out, get a hobby of some sort, etc. Reevaluate, have a few drinks, see if you can only have a few a couple of times per week. If not, seek help.

Smoking weed's something most people can actually do but I'd give up the coke and ecstasy-just not sustainable for the long term and way too easy to fry your brain or become a real drug addict (I've had some friends and family go the coke thing and you can really fuck up your life because that becomes an expensive habit so you end up addicted to coke and broke/in debt), especially if you have an addictive personality.

 
coreytrevor:

Uh going to AA is a bit drastic, they're going to tell you you're an alcoholic 100% of the time. I'd follow dingdong08's advice first.

Going to a free, one hour meeting (which has a success rate multiple times higher than four-to-five- figure therapy) is really not that drastic.

Also, alcoholism is a self-diagnosed disease. Truly, they won't "tell" you anything. Rather they will share their experience with drinking (and drugging) and ask if that sounds anything like your drinking career. If the answer is yes, well you may want to consider stopping. If the answer is no, they will actually be pretty happy for you, because you can still drink successfully.

 

I'd take pot over alcohol any day.

I had an issue with pot when I was in my 20's. I wouldn't call in an addiction, just a strong attachment to the relaxation it provided when I was working >midnight a lot of nights as a lawyer (this was several careers ago).

I found arbitrary and sensible self-imposed rules helped control my tendency to over-indulge. No smoking after 9pm was one (that also incentivised me to work more efficiently, get home before 9 and then smash my way through a few cones). Giving up pot during Lent was another.

What killed off any habit was dating (and later marrying) a girl who would not tolerate pot in the house.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
 

The problem with alcoholism in America is a cultural one. As someone of Eastern European descent who grew up in the states, getting trashed, as a badge of honor, stopped being "cool" for me when I was 17. That's what happens when you gain early exposure to alcohol and get experience and tolerance levels early.

Unfortunately, in America, first exposure happens for most during their college years and the novelty of drinking continues into mid twenties. I simply feel sad for seemingly grown adults in their mid twenties who parade their alcohol intake around as a bragging right. If drinking is tangibly affecting your life and health, get yourself and your situation under control and grow up. If you can't do that alone, then definitely seek outside help / counseling or AA.

 

No offense but I've done extensive business in a couple of eastern European countries and Russia and anecdotally and by nearly every quantitative study this is just not true. I have nothing against incorporating alcohol into people's lives earlier as part of a cultural norm and if you had said you grew up in a Mediterranean country I'd believe you but this is such a cliched statement of Northern and Eastern Europeans when they compare their drinking to Americans. Maybe drinking in some of those countries isn't done in such a "frat bro" way but it's almost comical to think that Eastern Europeans don't consume larger amounts of alcohol and experience alcoholism in larger numbers than the US. I'm also not some American cheerleader with blinders on who thinks we can do no wrong or that we're the absolute tops in every measure of humanity.

Like I said, anecdotally I could give talk for hours about how hard drinking Northern and Eastern Euros are (in addition to doing business in Eastern Euro countries I lived in London for a few years and also did business in Scandinavia) but here are the just a couple of first page search results.

http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/substance_abuse/bod_a…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption_…

 

I understand your point of view, but I have to respectfully disagree. Americans get first exposure to alcohol simply too late in their development. I may have misrepresented my stance towards drinking in my first post. I by no means advocate an “anything goes”, hands off approach to alcohol consumption as a teenager, vis-à-vis Russia for example. That is an irresponsible and dangerous attitude and results in high rates of disease in Eastern Europe and Russia.

I’m advocating a moderate middle ground somewhere between Russia’s laissez faire stance and America’s stiff, antiquated ideas about drinking. You should be able to drink at 18. I don’t care what anyone says – if you can smoke, vote, and go to war and die at 18, but can’t drink a bud light, there is something wrong with the picture. What’s wrong is the irrational glorification and simultaneous stigmatization of alcohol that causes young adults to go crazy upon first exposure, and this mentality leads to addiction.

 
Dingdong08:

No offense but I've done extensive business in a couple of eastern European countries and Russia and anecdotally and by nearly every quantitative study this is just not true. I have nothing against incorporating alcohol into people's lives earlier as part of a cultural norm and if you had said you grew up in a Mediterranean country I'd believe you but this is such a cliched statement of Northern and Eastern Europeans when they compare their drinking to Americans. Maybe drinking in some of those countries isn't done in such a "frat bro" way but it's almost comical to think that Eastern Europeans don't consume larger amounts of alcohol and experience alcoholism in larger numbers than the US. I'm also not some American cheerleader with blinders on who thinks we can do no wrong or that we're the absolute tops in every measure of humanity.

Like I said, anecdotally I could give talk for hours about how hard drinking Northern and Eastern Euros are (in addition to doing business in Eastern Euro countries I lived in London for a few years and also did business in Scandinavia) but here are the just a couple of first page search results.
http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by...

I've been to EE myself a few times and I can confirm these observations anecdotally. I'm telling you, some of these chicks were breast-fed with vodka. As a result, most (female) 20 year olds still drink a lot but generally have their shit together and do not get trashed in clubs anymore. Americans on the other hand start around that age and love sharing these drunk pics on instagram and whatnot. This contributes to an image of Americans drinking much more than many other countries, which is more of an illusion than an accurate reflection of reality.

OP - quit drinking entirely for a while. After a few weeks, your desire for alcohol will slowly fade away. I also presume you're still in college. I would honestly not be able to get hammered Wednesday, Friday and Saturday each week if I had to work the next day.

 

Life is so miserable in college, thus, the urge to drink is high. Struggling through 4 years of figuring out your place in the world and then graduating into a shitty economy pretty much sums it up.

Like one of my favorite quotes says: "Anyone watching what really goes on in this world, how fucked up it all is…checking out temporarily, permanently, my darling, it’s the only choice that makes any sense.”

It ain't what you know, it's who you know
 

Australia has a somewhat similar,Anglosphere culture to the US. Legal drinking age is 18 across the country and Australians are generally still have a terrible alcohol culture with belligerent tendencies. The predominant historic cultural influences - English and Irish - have the same 18 drinking age and much the same "arseholes when drunk" cultures. Google "drunk chavs".

Some cultures do alcohol better than others. Generally, it seems Northern European cultures do it messily and belligerently. Maybe something that can be linked with barbarian beer drinking cultures who liked to go into battle with their wiggly bits hanging out and an axe in both hands,

My experience in East Asian cultures is that its more giggly there, without the undertones of belligerence. I haven't had much experience with other cultures' behaviour under the influence.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
 
Aphex2123:

As a former hard drug addict, my recommendation is to quit cold turkey and if you can't you need to get help.

I set my self back over 4 years because of addiction and it is a miracle that I am where I am.

I hope you get help if you need it because I could have done anything if I wasn't an addict.

Best of luck

Note to OP: If you are an actual hardcore alcoholic, please don't try this at home. No, really. Quitting alcohol cold turkey can literally kill you.

 

This is a real problem. I was drinking six days a week when I was working in S&T.

When I got to grad school, I created a rule where I would stay sober for a four day period every week. That seems to work fairly well in controlling my drinking.

It is difficult. It is more difficult when you have a stressful job like sell-side trading and you are surrounded by alcoholics.

At my old firm we would have people talk about taking a two week vacation at the Betty Ford clinic. You have to find ways to destress and spend your time that do not involve alcohol. This is very difficult in finance, especially difficult in trading, and being in NYC (alcoholism capital of the country) probably makes it even harder.

 

You should look into naltrexone. It curbs craving for alcohol. Most doctors here prescribe it and recommend total alcohol cessation, but studies have shown that's actually not the best way to take it. In Europe they prescribe it and say drink as normal. After a while, you find you crave alcohol less and drink less when you do drink. Ask a doc about it. As an additional note, you should probably also get some therapy. You clearly have emotional stressors that you aren't acknowledging or dealing with. A psychologist will give you better coping strategies. IMO, AA is kind of BS. Besides their weird quasi-religious cult vibe, they have awful quit rates. Early studies show Naltrexone is 3-4X more likely to work than AA.

 

Naltrexone doesnt curb cravings... You still want to drink, but when you do you get sick as a dog. Maybe it would in that case but one would just not take their daily pill in order to get drunk... Vivitrol would probably be better as its an injection that lasts a month.

 

Yes, Naltrexone blocks cravings. You were probably thinking of Antabuse (Disulfiram), which basically gives you "Asian flush" when you start drinking. As an added bonus, Naltrexone also reduces desire to overeat. As an opiod blocker, it might (no evidence to support this) reduce cravings for some of those other drugs as well. You can only use it if your liver isn't totally screwed up already. Sure Vivitrol is great, but it's really expensive, and most insurance doesn't cover it. Source: I'm a doctor. Disclaimer: This isn't medical advice.

 

If the first thing you think about when you get to work is when/where/how you're getting drunk that night, I would think that is a problem. I think you can quit cold turkey, at least long enough to gain some perspective from the side of those that choose to avoid alcohol/drugs and you can then decide of that's the path you want to continue or not.

I am someone that has an "addictive personality" which led to more bad decisions than I care to count. Remarkably, I came out relatively unscathed with the exception of a few DUIs, losing thousands of dollars in court fees, fines, personal belongings being stolen when shitfaced, losing friends, etc. That said I still have some great friends and family that stuck by me during all of this mess. I was never a drinker in high school but once I got to college that changed in a big way. I never really saw it as a problem because "everyone else was doing it so I'm not worse than they are" or I would justify to myself that I was only really bad last week but that's the first time in a long time. My entire life revolved around finding out the next party to go to and how drunk I could potentially get because, after all, what is the point of drinking otherwise?

Then I graduated college. I had a job and some walking around money and that mentality never really left me. I continued to be the shithead at parties that would get belligerent and ruin the night for people but still never really saw truly negative ramifications and in no way did I see myself as an alcoholic. I have will power. I can refuse to drink if I want to, until I can't. Then one becomes ten really fast and we're back to square one.

This went on until I was fed up with myself for having to place all of the phone calls to friends to find out what happened the night before and who else I need to call to apologize. It's one of the worst feelings in the world. Thankfully no one ever got seriously injured from this crap, though I'm sure there's some emotional scarring left along the way. I finally made a point to myself that I need to quit this and I just did. I ended up telling a few family members and close friends and they were certainly more than supportive. I did start going to weekly AA meetings but I could never really get on board with how religious it can get (to each their own), and the stories told at the meetings I attended were getting repetitive and depressing.

Like a few have recommended here, I needed to fill the void and so I started forcing myself to exercise in the mornings before work; something you cannot do effectively if you're hungover. I used the Jerry Seinfeld method of just marking off the consecutive days I would go before a rest day or whatever, but consistency was the key early on, even if I only went for 10 minutes of squats.

I started looking into other sober people out there and there are a TON that have spoken about this in Hollywood (just google the list, but you'll find Bradley Cooper on their). I also found a sober training inspiration in the form of Mark and Chris Bell. Chris is a documentary filmmaker behind Bigger, Stronger, Faster and most recently, Prescription Thugs. They lost their brother to addiction and Mark has since opened up a free gym for those dealing with shitty life issues to have a place to come a train free of charge.

I'm not perfect and wasn't in the exact same boat as the original poster but hopefully you can take some of this with you and find your own inspirations to change your life for the better. If it's not as bad as someone might think by reading your post, than consider yourself lucky and just get your shit together, but if it is that bad, there's virtually unlimited resources out there you can take advantage of, and maybe just finding people that make sobriety cool is a good place to start. That's something that worked for me. I genuinely hope this story helps and if you have any questions, just shoot me a message on here.

 

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