Alcoholism is ruining my life

yes, definitely try running an ultra. it will help. don't waste your time with a 5k or a marathon, go straight for a 100 miler and try to complete the full distance. the process of running it will be transformative, you will be in pain the entire time and thinking about your life. there will be no excuses

No one has to tell you how hard quitting is, but one thing I wish I knew when I stopped is how much more fun I'd be having in a couple years. Just after I quit, a "friend" who did not support my decision told me that he couldn't imagine "not having fun anymore." I think about his words as I'm wreck diving off some Caribbean island or rock climbing in Europe, instead of having another drink with that assh*le. No drinking = a lot more money to spend on other stuff & a lot more time and energy to do other, better things. This concept won't get you across the river, but just know it's so much better over there.

While my situation was never as bad as yours, I was always a pretty hard partier, but it seemed to be escalating in my mid-to-late forties. Never had a DUI or lost a job, but I was drinking every day. I instituted a few rules for myself like "no drinking before six" then "not more than three drinks on a weeknight." I stuck to the first one but not the second. But I wasn't trying to quit, although I recognized that it was getting out of hand. I was having a pretty good time and was, for the most part, still in control.

Somewhere along the line I discovered kratom. I'm always surprised at how few people know about this stuff. Apparently, it's good for pain, and people with chronic pain take it to keep off of narcotics. People who are drug addicts take it to get off of their drugs. Anyway, at some point I tried it and discovered that it got rid of my anxiety. Turns out that my attraction to alcohol was based on the fact that it alleviated my anxiety. Anyway, I barely drink anymore (I sometimes go weeks without a drink), and I wasn't trying to stop. Of course I'm addicted to kratom now (and it's not cheap), but I'm also no longer the guy who gets sloppy drunk all the time.

I instituted a few rules for myself like "no drinking before six"

Funny, my rule is no drinking after six.

Get the drinking done early and go to bed sober.

I don't know about alcoholism, so it's presumptuous of me to really say anything, but I'll do in anyway.

It sees like alcoholism is the secondary problem, not the root problem. The root problem is what leads to the excessive drinking. If you stop drinking you are still left with the root problem that lead to the drinking in the first place, which is likely an unsustainable situation if not addressed and resolved. Of course, if you continue with the excessive drinking then the drinking itself can become the primary problem, but, again, even if you fix the drinking you are left with the root problem.

Is this true or BS? I don't know. That's just my thought.

Do you really want to stop ASAP?

If the answer is no, your life will continue as it is. I would suggest to go to a doctor and check how's your liver etc., until it's too late. But it's totally up to YOU.

Alcoholism is real, and it is a real disease. There's a difference between people who like to drink occasionally and those who can't stop. Brain chemistry causes the problem. So, it's not as easy as just drawing a line and not going over it. Everyone has to find a way to stop, and that will be different for some than others. Obviously, some people find a way to beat this disease.

Here are three stories from my own life:

1) I had a younger cousin who had all kinds of substance abuse problems, including alcohol. Eventually he was arrested for a second time for producing meth, and he went to jail for what was to be a 15 year sentence. He didn't make it one year...hung himself in the prison.

2) My wife has a cousin who secretly (really, no one in the family knew) had a major drinking problem. We found out because he was admitted to the hospital with liver failure and immediately put on a liver transplant list. Well, THAT was the wakeup call he needed. His liver has recovered, he is no longer on a transplant list, and he hasn't had a drop to drink in over 5 years.

3) Former bandmate of mine was a raging alcoholic. He turned to Karate and is now a personal trainer and Karate instructor. He has been sober for 30 years.

Alcoholism will kill you one way or another. Hopefully you don't take another life with you.

You need to try again, even if it's the same program you've taken before. Good luck to you.

Never gets old.

thejeff wrote:

http://youtu.be/4BjKS1-vjPs

Watch this CAREFULLY.

That you, Brett?

What are your PRs please ?

8/10

I found Kratom about 7 months after quitting heavy drinking. It's amazing stuff, anxiety is reduced, urge to drink is gone, and my work production has increased dramatically. That is at least partially due to not being hung over and anxious all the time.

I justify my kratom use by knowing it at least helps me avoid alcohol and I KNOW the health problems associated with alcohol. It will be interesting to see more research being completed on kratom to eventually see the long-term health effects.

Chris Bell is releasing a documentary soon on kratom too (or has it already been released??). He is the creator of "Bigger, Faster, Stronger".

Good luck to everyone quitting drinking - it significantly improved my quality of life. Stay strong.

Hey man. First off, addiction is a disease that requires a lot of work to overcome, sometimes involving treatment. It's not simply about "mind over matter", it's about daily work and practice. I drank and smoked pot for 27 years, starting at age 13, and reached a point where it was controlling my life. I tried several times to stop but never made it past a week of sobriety before starting the cycle again. I began my journey by listening podcasts, specifically The Bubble Hour and Since Right Now. I listened to all of the backlogs of those episodes and continued listening every week since then. I began journaling every day, writing down all of my thoughts, feelings and emotions out onto the page - I wrote about my drinking history, why I thought I was a drinker, what I have done to people as a result, etc. I started a regimented morning routine of exercise and meditation, using the Headspace app for the latter. I read sober blogs (there are a ton of these) and for the first time began to realize that I was not alone. I have not attended AA but to this day I am not against the idea and would like to attend a meeting in the future. You do need to make the commitment, but once you do, it becomes more achievable with every passing day.

Hope this helps.

I'm a little late to this, but Teen Challenge (definitely not just for teens) will change your life. It's an amazingly powerful program and the success rates are much higher than other programs. Check out the website below and find a program you can get into. I know Minnesota subsidizes so people will come from all over the US to find a spot there.

https://www.teenchallengeusa.com/

I've had similar problems but not to the same extreme. This is probably the best advice. While I can't quite understand as much how hard it must be to quit from a large daily portion, I've tried to quit a daily beer but the closest I've come is 1 every 2-3 days.

There's no way to say this without sounding cliched, but setting long term goals is the best solution IMO. Either triathlon, marathon, ultras, business goals, whatever. Good luck.

Stop being a p@ssy. You're not a real alcoholic until you start drinking hand sanitizer to get a buzz.

Alcoholism is a DISEASE and if not treated it is almost always FATAL. You must decide that you want to treat it and then begin the hard work. Just keep trying. It can be treated.

I've got a friend, an academic psychologist, who is a behaviorist. He doesn't believe in addiction. He just doesn't think it's real. He believe that context drives behavior. So he has no patience with AA and their insistence that you need to surrender to a higher power. He laughs richly at that error. He thinks that 12-step programs, when they work, work because they end up surrounding you with people who create a difference context than, for example, people in bars, or yourself alone with a bottle.

Since you've had no luck with AA and similar 12-step programs, I'd urge you not to dismiss his skepticism out of hand, but do some research and see what behaviorists say about alcoholism.

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&q=behaviorism+alcoholism&oq=behaviorism+alcoholism&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i22i30k1l2.3481.9454.0.9649.24.23.1.0.0.0.206.2265.0j18j1.19.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..4.20.2269...0j0i131k1j0i22i10i30k1.0.FI-8cR_4C60

Here's an article with the sort of ideas that he throws at me: addiction is learned behavior. Okay. So.....?

But maybe what you need is just this sort of reframing. Be fearless. Be willing to learn something new. Clearly you've learned how to be an alcoholic. So NOT being an alcoholic will require you to learn something new.

http://www.amhc.org/1408-addictions/article/48346-learning-theory-of-addiction-and-recovery-implications-