What happened to the OP? Don't see trying again's handle beyond page 1.
Haven't been drinking myself the past few weeks mainly to help drop a few lbs, but find these threads to offer a strong warning on why I don't want to overindulge. If you're still sober and wining the inner demon fight -- best of luck!
Any chance that long post by sniffson and any post that quoted that long post can get deleted?
Nobody is going to read it and it's a serious pain to scroll through. I think it totally killed the momentum of the thread, because scrolling through it is terrible - especially on a phone.
As if people are this addicted to drink! LOL. I stopped two years ago, best thing I ever did. I recently went out sober as a friend invited me out and I'm glad I did because it was a good reminder why I quit that lifestyle in the first place. Whole lifestyle is fake and sad.
Drank like a fish for nearly 20 years, and now I have been completely sober for 15. I'm a hobby jogger to many of you, but I did run my first four marathons at the end of my drinking career. I would pound 10-15 beers 5 or 6 nights a week and do my training at lunch.
Cutting out the drinking made it possible for me to become a morning runner, and to achieve the small level of expertise I did reach before hip surgery interfered. I'm sure the physiological changes must have been huge, replacing 1000+ empty calories per day with real food. The sleep difference was like night and day - like going from crashing on a friends couch in a lit and noisy room to having your own dark and quiet bedroom.
I was luck enough to never have a bottoming-out crisis. The thing that made quitting finally work for me was the calm and relief of not having to think about drinking any more. Someone referred to it earlier as "the war inside my head". I have read books that talked about it as the battle with the beast. When I was drinking, EVERY DAY from mid-afternoon on, there was something in my brain that was trying to convince me that getting drunk would be a good idea. Bad day? Good day? Boring day? Exciting day? Those could all be reasons to drink.
I envy those who could control their drinking by rationing or just cutting down. I finally had to admit that it was much easier for me to shut the door completely, put the beast back in the bottle and throw it in the recycling. It took a few months for the thoughts to subside, and a year or so for it to go away completely. Now I can't imagine opening that door again and having to struggle with those compulsions. I know I'm not going to drink, and life is much easier because of it. It's also somewhat less fun, but I'm OK with that.
One last opinion: many, many people don't need AA to stop drinking, and the attitude that this is the only path to sobriety is counter-productive.
Thanks for starting this thread...
hj wrote:
Drank like a fish for nearly 20 years, and now I have been completely sober for 15. I'm a hobby jogger to many of you, but I did run my first four marathons at the end of my drinking career. I would pound 10-15 beers 5 or 6 nights a week and do my training at lunch.
Cutting out the drinking made it possible for me to become a morning runner, and to achieve the small level of expertise I did reach before hip surgery interfered. I'm sure the physiological changes must have been huge, replacing 1000+ empty calories per day with real food. The sleep difference was like night and day - like going from crashing on a friends couch in a lit and noisy room to having your own dark and quiet bedroom.
I was luck enough to never have a bottoming-out crisis. The thing that made quitting finally work for me was the calm and relief of not having to think about drinking any more. Someone referred to it earlier as "the war inside my head". I have read books that talked about it as the battle with the beast. When I was drinking, EVERY DAY from mid-afternoon on, there was something in my brain that was trying to convince me that getting drunk would be a good idea. Bad day? Good day? Boring day? Exciting day? Those could all be reasons to drink.
I envy those who could control their drinking by rationing or just cutting down. I finally had to admit that it was much easier for me to shut the door completely, put the beast back in the bottle and throw it in the recycling. It took a few months for the thoughts to subside, and a year or so for it to go away completely. Now I can't imagine opening that door again and having to struggle with those compulsions. I know I'm not going to drink, and life is much easier because of it. It's also somewhat less fun, but I'm OK with that.
One last opinion: many, many people don't need AA to stop drinking, and the attitude that this is the only path to sobriety is counter-productive.
Thanks for starting this thread...
Bravo, great post. 6 years totally dry here, like you, the motivation was to escape the grip that sh*t had on me rather than some bottoming out incident or moment of clarity.
I'll sooner put a loaded pistol into my mouth than another idiotic drop of booze. I did it without AA or any other outside influence, and believe me, I was often a 24x7 guzzler - all hours of the day.
This might be a meaningful trend ... or this might be selection bias, because, you know, you *work in a hospital*.Probably still good advice though.
ML wrote:
I work in a top mountain west hospital in a very active running, trail running, ultra running community. The ever increasing number of admissions of younger and middle aged patients with chronic medical (and homeless) issues related to making alcohol or other substances (including sex) top priority is crushing. Sometimes it feels as though "life" has become too easy and people aspire to SSI and food stamps (SNAP) to game the system. Then we have the slightly older system gamers with SSDI who have alcoholic livers, HIV from unprotected sex, PTSD from whatever, as well as Hep C due to "I don't know how I got it." Wait until you have alcoholic encephalopathy...
Others are working their butts off to survive taking care of these folks. All I can say is that running will never protect you from self indulgence. Most top runners quit when they can't win anymore. Kudos to those who keep showing up when the results are embarrassing!
Be a worker and not a "gamer" as the meaning of your life is at stake! Be proud of those slow, but recorded, over 50 age group results. Lets run posters with their grandiose ideas of "others" value will likely never last that long...
This. That post sucks.
clean it up wrote:
Any chance that long post by sniffson and any post that quoted that long post can get deleted?
Nobody is going to read it and it's a serious pain to scroll through. I think it totally killed the momentum of the thread, because scrolling through it is terrible - especially on a phone.
these guys ... wrote:
This. That post sucks.
clean it up wrote:Any chance that long post by sniffson and any post that quoted that long post can get deleted?
Nobody is going to read it and it's a serious pain to scroll through. I think it totally killed the momentum of the thread, because scrolling through it is terrible - especially on a phone.
+1
anyone still doing the quitting thing?
Nope, in fact I think I've developed a budding taste for single malt whiskey
Change @ Park wrote:
If any of you are in Greater Boston I invite you to run with us. "We rise by lifting others."
http://www.bostonbulldogsrunning.com
This looks interesting ...
Anyone still doing this?
Yeah. I quit dec 8th. I'm sticking with my plan on the first page. Lots of exercise, & I sip tea throughout the night. My brain is getting re-wired where I don't look to alcohol as a fix.
fafdfd wrote:
Anyone still doing this?
I've only had drinks once before in 2016, not for any reason, I've just busy, running lots, work, etc. but then I got totally wasted on Wednesday night. A freaking Wednesday. I still feel like crap today, two days later. I read this thread, and I have no idea how people get drunk every day. It seems to me that has to be a living hell. How can a person get addicted to feeling like a bag of sh*t every day? Feels like the best cure for alcoholism is alcohol. I never want to drink again.
bump
This is gonna be quick and choppy, as I'm at a bar. I have been drinking for 18 years. Im 33. I have been drinking heavily for 6 years. Heavily to me is every day. More than 10 drinks per day.
Here is my real problem. I'm married. I make a good living. I budget incredibly well. I can completely black out and, apparently, act like an extremely nice, helpful person. A war story: had pre dinner drinks with wife's family. Went to dinner with them, and drank. Went to friends engagement party and drank. Met wife's extended family at another bar, and whilst completely unconscious ; paid the bill, called an uber for them, poured them into it, called an uber for me and the wife and got everyone home safe and happy. Woke up in my parents in laws house with little to memory thinking I was in the dog house. Wife rolls over and says "I love you so much, you took care of my family and were so cute during our uber home telling me you love me".
I never wake up with a hangover. I mean never. I can drink a bottle of red wine. Several beers. 3 shots of whisky. Top it off with some vodka and sodas. I wake up fresh as a daisy and go work my butt off 6 days a week.
There is no rock bottom. I'm not drinking myself poor. I'm blacking out and no one notices. I feel great and am the happiest go lucky guy you can find
I'm not trolling, and I'm not bragging, I am actually at a loss as to what I'm "supposed" to do. "This will kill me at some point", is how I try to rationalize a reason to stop, but it ain't working.
Any thoughts?
It only gets worse as you get older and your metabolism changes... and it really kicks in after 30.... at some point you come out of a blackout and wonder where the hell am I? and it could be the hospital, jail cell, or some nasty, strange woman's bed in a trailer park. you're playing with dynamite.
How's this for a problem wrote:
This is gonna be quick and choppy, as I'm at a bar. I have been drinking for 18 years. Im 33. I have been drinking heavily for 6 years. Heavily to me is every day. More than 10 drinks per day.
Here is my real problem. I'm married. I make a good living. I budget incredibly well. I can completely black out and, apparently, act like an extremely nice, helpful person. A war story: had pre dinner drinks with wife's family. Went to dinner with them, and drank. Went to friends engagement party and drank. Met wife's extended family at another bar, and whilst completely unconscious ; paid the bill, called an uber for them, poured them into it, called an uber for me and the wife and got everyone home safe and happy. Woke up in my parents in laws house with little to memory thinking I was in the dog house. Wife rolls over and says "I love you so much, you took care of my family and were so cute during our uber home telling me you love me".
I never wake up with a hangover. I mean never. I can drink a bottle of red wine. Several beers. 3 shots of whisky. Top it off with some vodka and sodas. I wake up fresh as a daisy and go work my butt off 6 days a week.
There is no rock bottom. I'm not drinking myself poor. I'm blacking out and no one notices. I feel great and am the happiest go lucky guy you can find
I'm not trolling, and I'm not bragging, I am actually at a loss as to what I'm "supposed" to do. "This will kill me at some point", is how I try to rationalize a reason to stop, but it ain't working.
Any thoughts?
You're volume is heavy and you're playing with fire. I'm a pretty high functioning drunk but at some point here there's gonna be a DUI checkpoint, deer jumps out of the woods, something missed at work and a Pandora's box of shit will open. I too don't know how to really stop and am not sure I want to because like you I haven't seen the negative effects.
trying again wrote:
Another poster said he quit on December 8th. I quit yesterday.
Anyone else?
I am already starting to feel anxious but I am drinking a lot of tea (different herbal infusions) and at least I don't feel the thirst.
Last time I stopped I saw great results in my running after about 8 days.
OP,
Many runners feel the need to have a beer. Many runners, also, are the A type, that needs something to do at all times or they feel anxious. To quit drinking all together is fine. But, if you just maintain moderation, like 2 glasses of wine per night, or a drink every other day, it's no biggie. Most of the time, it is in your head. I know many runners who are good runners and have a drink or two each night when they get home from work or after an evening run. they are fine and often say no when offered a drink if not in the mood.
In the end, if this makes you feel better, than that is what matters.
I haven't had any drinks in 2016. Thought about it a couple of times but it passes. I was having 4-6 beers per night. Not a ton to some, but a lot to others. So a friend, who was in the same boat, and I decided to cut it out for the 1st quarter of the year. He gave up a few weeks in, and started over. I'm going to stick with it until the end and will decide what to do when I get there.
Things I have done in 2016:
Read a great many more books and magazines, articles than usual; not sure if I'm any smarter.
Haven't turned on the TV in 2016. Wife said we should just get rid of cable.
Increased the mileage a bit,
Joined a rec league basketball team
Lift weights 3 days a week
Cleaned out the basement during a snow storm
I'm not going to bed having just consumed a ton of sugar. I think I''m sleeping better, certainly more. Recovery is better for the exercise/running.
Some other observations
Chocolate consumption is way up
Book budget is way up
Congrats to you folks have stopped and plan on continuing down that path.