A Drinking Problem

[tacticalturnip]

Last Tuesday, 2/3/2026, was one year of sobriety for me. I'm never drinking a drop of alcohol again. As Ron White said, "I've drank all the alcohol I'm allowed to drink in a lifetime!"

I have a stressful job, and for many years I used alcohol to forget about work every night. I don't miss it. I was destroying relationships and my body. It's literally poison for your body.

Good on you for seeing it. Going on 4 years ago I quit drinking, but it took a slap upside the head.

I gotta throw the BS flag on that. I saw my dad lay his pack of Kool cigarettes on the table and say I am quitting smoking. Mom left that pack lay there for a year before throwing it away. Dad never smoked after that day he laid the pack down.
That was 1968, he died in 2004.

I'm glad it was that easy for him, but people are not monolithic and addictions run a gambit. My father-in-law quit cocaine cold turkey and at 66 he still hasn't successfully quit smoking cigarettes.

This is what it took for me to stop drinking.



Now I work in the recovery field, in hopes that I can help guide people out of their addictions. Many need support, from counseling, to peer support, sometimes medication. It doesn't make them weak. Not at all.

Our brains are fascinating, and addiction is complicated.

 

[airbiscuit]

I think Harry Truman said
The only thing worse than a drinking man, is one who doesn't.

 

[airbiscuit]

Someone on TBN came across an old beer coozie that said

Nome Alaska, a drinking town with a fishing problem.

 

[Jstpssng]

I might add that the younger you are when you start smoking, drinking, drugs, ***, gambling or any other vice; the more apt you are to become addicted to it.

A coworker previously worked as a drug counsellor and told me about one of his clients. As a kid he was out snowsliding with his brother, and gave him a push which resulted in his sibling sliding into the road in front of a car, killing him.

My sister dated a recovering heroin addict who had scars his stepfather taking a knife to him in a drunken rage.

I've seen and heard other things which make me realize what a sheltered life I've lived.

 

[murphy1244]

Some people have the switch and some don't. Once its switch on it is hard to quit. I know for me it started at 15 years old.

 

[Jstpssng]

Some people have the switch and some don't. Once its switch on it is hard to quit. I know for me it started at 15 years old.

Which goes back to my comment above about starting young... which I learned somewhere along the line while reading about addictions.

 

[lman]

Some people have the switch and some don't. Once its switch on it is hard to quit. I know for me it started at 15 years old.

I guess they should have listened to their parents and everybody else that told not to start.

 

[tacticalturnip]

I guess they should have listened to their parents and everybody else that told not to start.

On the flip side, some folks are introduced to their vices by their parents at unfathomable ages.

"Parents" get their daughter hooked on heroin at 11 and she has an easier time bringing money into the household. If she lives to 30 she is going to have a rough go at things.

@Jstpssng your comment about living a sheltered life really spoke to me; I never knew quite how wretched people could be on an individual level.

 

[murphy1244]

Your missing the point. Its not a willpower question but a medical problem. Alcoholism is a disease

 

[mllud]

I quit in 1995. The hangovers got horrendous. I can't have a couple beers; I don't stop until it's all gone or pass out. I hated myself every time but continued to do it. Hard liquor makes me want to fight.
I finally quit and don't look back.

I don't preach to drinkers, it's their choice but I get aggravated at people that drink shoving one in your face and won't take, No Thank you for an answer.

I had a neighbor that always drank snoops and kept pushing it at me. I finally said the next time you do that I'm going to break that f'n bottle over your head. He said, Damm Mike you don't have to get mad.
He would not stop! He is dead now.
Snoops is a good buzz. I know I misspelled Schnooops

Trying to push a drink at a recovering alcoholic is ignorant. Just accept that if someone says no to a drink that they may have a good reason.
Though it is nice of you to offer! Once

I quit without any outside help, but I am an alcoholic.
My mouth still waters for a beer once in a while. Two or three would be fine but I know my weakness for more and more.
My mouth literally is watering rite now thinking about a beer, I'll make some
The Habits of humans

 

[bigtiller]

I have a similar desire for cigarettes.
I quit in 2007, but
I don't want one, I want all of them.