The alcoholic Dutchman thread reminded me: Last weekend was my one year anniversary without a drink!

Congrats to you!

7 years here - got sick and tired of being sick and tired.

McDrank wrote:

Congrats to you!

7 years here - got sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Thank you! And congratulations to you as well. Seven years is fantastic.

You should celebrate with a drink.

drinky wrote:

You should celebrate with a drink.

lol, I'm drinking right now!

The Dutchman will also be celebrating his streak as well.

We should celebrate. I'm buying!

internet.g wrote:

I quit drinking the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2015 because I felt I was losing control a bit. I recognized some unhealthy patterns and I worked hard to nip it in the bud. Feeling good and happy. (Yes, I'm gloating a bit!)

I hope others that are struggling with the firewater find their own balance, whether that means abstinence or not.

Not an easy thing to recognize and take action.

OP, what were your warning signs?

Warning Signer wrote:

OP, what were your warning signs?

The day I was walking home and thought "Oh! I don't have anything to drink at home! I must get some!" instead of just feeling like having a beer.

Do you think people have a problem if they never drink alone and very sparingly have a social drink or two, but when they go out they go hard and blackout?

Is the solution to that type of problem to stop drinking completely? Or be very strict about having 5 drinks max on a night out?

internet.g wrote:

I quit drinking the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2015 because I felt I was losing control a bit. I recognized some unhealthy patterns and I worked hard to nip it in the bud. Feeling good and happy. (Yes, I'm gloating a bit!)

I hope others that are struggling with the firewater find their own balance, whether that means abstinence or not.

Good on ya, man-- that's fantastic. You know you've turned a corner when "anniversaries" pass and you're not aware of them.

You just reminded me that three days ago was 28 months for me.

internet.g wrote:

drinky wrote:

You should celebrate with a drink.

lol, I'm drinking right now!

What are you having? 🍺🍷🍸🍹 ❓

Bravissimo!! Took my a few stabs at it before I got a year sober. I celebrate 20 years this July 7, 2017.

People that don't drink deserve more respect. Read that thread. It is so depressing. Congratulations on your one year without drinking.

Warning Signer wrote:

OP, what were your warning signs?

My wife and I were going through some challenging times and I started to rely on drinking too much to help me "get by." Thankfully, I never would drive drunk. In fact, if we went out, I would never drink....I refused to drive a car after even one drink (not sure why...it just always bothered me).

However, I always did my drinking at home, usually Friday and Saturday nights in front of the TV. I would leave work on Friday, anxious to get home so I could start drinking. Also, I would get upset if something cut into my weekend drinking time. I'd also attempt to skip out on doing stuff with friends/wife so I could go home and drink instead. I never drank enough to black out and I only once missed a Saturday long run because I was sick. But it was affecting my running, for sure. I started googling "am i functional alcoholic?" and realized my patterns weren't healthy. I would sometimes finish a bottle of liquor and put the empty in the recycling bin in the garage instead of the recycling container in the house, hoping that my wife wouldn't see it.

I'm not sure that I was officially "abusing" alcohol, but I realized I was looking forward to drinking way too much. I have an addictive personality; also, my dad went through AA and alcohol abuse runs in my family. My brother is struggling with it right now, too. So, I though it was best to just quit and be done with it!

swaglord wrote:

Do you think people have a problem if they never drink alone and very sparingly have a social drink or two, but when they go out they go hard and blackout?

Is the solution to that type of problem to stop drinking completely? Or be very strict about having 5 drinks max on a night out?

Sorry, I'm not sure about that. I'm sure others can chime in.

Also, congrats to everyone else on their sobriety.

Ok let's get real, on avg., how much were you drinking on those Fri/sat nights? Be specific. Give us a typical weekend of drinking.

I liked homemade longisland iced teas. I'd pour the alcoholic ingredients into a water bottle, shake it up, and top it off with tonic water. Then I'd pour it in a glass and top with Diet Coke. I never measured how much alcohol went into that water bottle, but it was probably 7-8 servings. Once that was gone, I'd typically have a gin and tonic or two (strong). So, maybe 10-12 servings in total over a period of 6 hours or so.