I am what they call a functional alcoholic. I don’t call myself that, I prefer heavy drinker. However, every morning, I awake and say to myself, why did I do that? It may be as simple as why did I drink so much, to as complicated as what did I do with this guy next to me?
I tell myself throughout the day, you really shouldn’t drink tonight. It’s bad. It’s fattening. It leads to debauchery. You could do other things. And yet, every night, there I am, at the store buying more beer/wine/rum. It doesn’t help that I have a friend who likes to drink as well.
I wonder how many others around here endure a similar issue. :smack:
If you’re functioning, whose business is it what you do on your off-time? But, you may have fewer troubles with your kids if you stayed sober a few nights out of the week, and it will make a big difference to your household budget.
Quit if you want to, you are the only one making yourself drink.
This was me 25 years ago. The real answer is, you have to quit drinking permanently. Thinking “I’ll drink less tonight”, or “I won’t drink tonight” never worked for me.
Pick a date in the near future, like this Friday. Call ALL of your friends and tell them that your drinking has gotten to be a big problem and that you are quitting cold turkey Friday. Tell them that you’d like their help: maybe suggest things to do together that don’t involve drinking, or ask them to call you on it if they ever see you drinking again.
These first few weeks aren’t going to be easy. You’ll have to both break your patterns and break the physical addiction. But trust me, it is worth it. For literally YEARS after I quit drinking, I would often think, “I’m SO glad I’m not drinking anymore”. Just to feel good when you wake up in the morning is worth it.
If you find you can’t do it alone, look up some of the treatment groups. Of course, there is AA. There are also non-God based groups if the higher-power stuff of AA is off putting to you.
Don’t bring liquor home. Whether it’s beer, potato chips, or candy, all of my willpower is located at the store. If it’s not in your house, you won’t drink it.
The problem really isn’t that you’re getting fat, engaging in debauchery, and (making an assumption here) you frequently have the runs. It’s that you want to stop doing something that you inexplicably continue to do. If you like to read and want to read about quitting, try Allen Carr or Jack Trimpey.
I think the issue is whether or not you are able to enjoy one or two drinks and then stop. If you are unable to stop after a few drinks then every time you drink you will end up having a big night and feeling bad the next day. Perhaps try meeting a friend for one or two drinks at a bar and then going home (where you do not have any alcohol) and see whether that works. If you manage to do that you will feel much better the next day and it is that feeling that will help you repeat the process and say no to the third, fourth etc drink. Eventually you will not need to drink as much to have a good night.
I’m not an alcoholic (I’m not addicted to alcohol, if anything if I drink on days that are too close together, I start to get disgusted by alcohol) but I am a binge drinker. If I am bored or had a shit week I might have about 6-10 shots of whiskey either right after work or on a weekend, which will give me a nice buzz and kill about 6 hours which I spend watching TV or playing video games.
When I tell people this they look at me like I’m an alcoholic. I don’t see the problem. I’d rather smoke pot to kill time, decompress and make media (video games, TV, movies) more enjoyable but since it is illegal and they test for it at work I’m stuck with alcohol.
I also (almost) never get hangovers. About the only thing that causes a hangover is red wine. I have drank almost a fifth of whiskey over the course of a day, and sobered up by nightfall w/o any side effects. No headaches, muscle pains, nausea, etc. I could eat an entire pizza after I sober up from binge drinking. My genetics are L337.
I went through stages one and two, and was edging into the territory of stage three. Seeing the disaster looming, I cut it out. Cold Turkey. Damn, damn, damn tough to do, but it was that or ruin.
I was functional…but with problems. Black-outs of memory. Withdrawal from friends. Wasted time playing video games while kicking back beer after beer…and the occasional shot. Mostly beer.
Hell, if nothing else, think of the money you can save…
If you can quit, you should. If you can’t quit, you must!
I wish you the very, very best in this struggle. It’s a heller.
Based on the problems you’ve discussed in other threads, I question how functional you are. Get some help; get a grip. Being sober and building some self esteem will go a long way toward dealing with the other stuff.
