I started drinking on and off about four years ago. Over the last two years I’ve probably
averaged about 4 - 6 drinks per day and only stopped recently because my joints started to
hurt. The orthopedist I have visited has so far found no damage but I do have an
appointment on Friday to go over some hip X-rays. I hope to get some answers
quickly as the pain seems to be getting worse. I am very afraid that I have done
some terrible and irreparable damage to my body.
If you even think you have a drinking problem PLEASE go and get help - no matter how
embarrassing it may be.
I may post more later - I feel so stressed right now and I guess I need to vent.
Very sorry for the depressing post.
No I don’t have a cite but it seems pretty obvious to me.
Perhaps I should have said:
It may have saved much pain and suffering and thousands of lives.
COVID has taken a terrible toll on people. The forced isolation, the lack of human contact, and the pervasive fear that blanketed everyone had many people turning to alcohol for relief.
@X.L.Lent - Your OP is not depressing, it is a sign of hope. Best of luck to you, and congratulations on having the courage to do what needs to be done.
Good luck to the OP. I’m against Prohibition, but don’t think there should be advertising for the major addictive vices, particularly gambling and alcohol.
I’m also not thrilled with the common smiling, winking, and general ain’t-we-coolness that shows up in conversations about alcohol.
Home distillation, which you’re more likely to want to do if you need to conceal the booze, is not as safe or easy.
Anyway, I thought the meaning of OP’s statement about prohibition was plenty clear. He’s acknowledging that it didn’t work, i.e. it didn’t stop people from drinking. He’s saying that if it had worked, i.e. if it had made people stop drinking, that would have saved lives. I don’t think there’s really a reasonable counter-argument to that. Alcohol is one of the worst drugs we’ve ever discovered. It kills so many people in so many ways, and causes so much suffering beyond that. But because it’s fairly simple to make with any number of widely available ingredients, it can’t effectively be banned. (Even drugs that are harder to make haven’t been very effectively banned, but that’s another subject.) So it falls to the individuals to resist temptation, with mixed results.
OP, I wish you the best. I’m not sure whether you ended up consuming 4-6 drinks a day because you just really like the taste and/or the buzz, or because you were self-medicating a deeper hurt, but if it’s the latter, I hope you can find some relief for that, too.
I’ve probably fucking screwed up my life. I had hoped to retire in the next few years and take a few nice trips. Now I’m afraid that I will spend the rest of my life as a cripple.
My God, why didn’t I reach out and ask for help.
Some simple questions like “Am I drinking too much?” and “How can I stop?” may have
started me on the right path. I thought I might be drinking too much and at one point
and thought of looking into joining AA but 2 seconds later the idea slipped out of my
mind.
I guess I was drinking to relieve stress and it made doing the housework enjoyable.
A few drinks, crank up some tunes and cleaning the kitchen becomes fun.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and comments.
Dung_Beetle please do anything you can to quit. The consequences of not quitting are beyond terrible.
Try not to catastrophize. If you can’t mentally stop yourself from imagining the worst-case scenario, it might help to lean into it and approach it in a practical way. Let’s say you did destroy your hips by drinking. Lots of people nearing retirement age have to get hip replacement surgery anyway. From what I hear, the recovery isn’t too terrible–it’s certainly not as bad as knee replacement. A family friend of mine in her 70s had to have both hips replaced recently. They did one at a time; she was able to get around with a walker while she healed, and it wasn’t long before she was back to her old self. She’s being a little bit of a shut-in because of COVID, but as far as her hips are concerned she can do everything she always wanted to spend her retirement doing. You can get through this. You have good days ahead still.
You’re not dead, so count that as a plus. Also, just because you’ve stopped, that doesn’t mean you’ll stay stopped. Get therapy, and I don’t mean A.A. Get some one-on-one therapy and get to the root cause. My family is littered with the bodies of alcoholic people who didn’t do that. Father, brother, aunt, cousin, son. All died ugly deaths, but only after making everyone around them miserable. Get your shit together and get help.