How much do you drink, honestly?
Discussion
smileymikey said:
Couldn't cope with the stress of my job and one morning, I was in a hotel in Central London had a cheeky Gordons Gin out of the mini bar at eight in the morning and fell off the edge of the world for more than a decade. I held a good position with a Blue Chip Company with his and hers company cars, Corporate Amex and all the toys and within eight months was working as a drivers mate delivering fridges.
It got worse after that.
I fear the same could happen to me. It got worse after that.
Are you dry now or hyper controlled with consumption or can you drink normally ?
Was it the lifestyle that pushed you to the edge or like so many (me included) did /do you have a naturally addictive nature.
Three bottles of wine per week. It's always a bottle at a time because I can't open a bottle and just have a glass. My wife doesn't drink.
I somehow justify this by sticking to two rules; never before 7pm, never two nights in a row. The day is largely irrelevant. This slips if there is a social, but I tend to plan not to drink the day before.
I did a dry January last year after I realised that I have had a drink/got pished at least once every single week without fail since I was 15 in 1990. Obviously still drinking now though.
I somehow justify this by sticking to two rules; never before 7pm, never two nights in a row. The day is largely irrelevant. This slips if there is a social, but I tend to plan not to drink the day before.
I did a dry January last year after I realised that I have had a drink/got pished at least once every single week without fail since I was 15 in 1990. Obviously still drinking now though.
ben5575 said:
Three bottles of wine per week. It's always a bottle at a time because I can't open a bottle and just have a glass. My wife doesn't drink.
I somehow justify this by sticking to two rules; never before 7pm, never two nights in a row. The day is largely irrelevant. This slips if there is a social, but I tend to plan not to drink the day before.
I did a dry January last year after I realised that I have had a drink/got pished at least once every single week without fail since I was 15 in 1990. Obviously still drinking now though.
One thing I notice a lot is the youth now drink drastically less quantity and vastly less frequently and the number who don’t drink at all is a far far higher % when I was younger. I somehow justify this by sticking to two rules; never before 7pm, never two nights in a row. The day is largely irrelevant. This slips if there is a social, but I tend to plan not to drink the day before.
I did a dry January last year after I realised that I have had a drink/got pished at least once every single week without fail since I was 15 in 1990. Obviously still drinking now though.
Welshbeef said:
smileymikey said:
Couldn't cope with the stress of my job and one morning, I was in a hotel in Central London had a cheeky Gordons Gin out of the mini bar at eight in the morning and fell off the edge of the world for more than a decade. I held a good position with a Blue Chip Company with his and hers company cars, Corporate Amex and all the toys and within eight months was working as a drivers mate delivering fridges.
It got worse after that.
I fear the same could happen to me. It got worse after that.
Are you dry now or hyper controlled with consumption or can you drink normally ?
Was it the lifestyle that pushed you to the edge or like so many (me included) did /do you have a naturally addictive nature.
smileymikey said:
I'm totally dry and have been for three years now. I tried to find every solution that didn't involve giving up and the truth is there isn't one. I was dead set against AA for years but stuck with it and it has been the thing that has got me to where I am now. Giving up alcohol is actually pretty easy, even in my position but you need to have a support network around you that you can turn to because you really are going to need it in recovery. I've now retrained as an engineer love my job and make really good money from honest hard work. I also have a separate online business and am a happier and more self assured person now than I ever was before. Very different to the guy that stole money from his children's piggy banks for cheap cider. I once stripped out the dashboard of the family car to get at the pound coins that had slipped through a gap.
Some people trundle through life, others scale and descend mountains that most couldn’t comprehend, but here’s the thing, personal contentment is a very personal thing.I'd never advocate being down, but to those that have been there, and returned with the recognition of how fragile life can be, kudos.
tumble dryer said:
See now, we need to be careful here. The thread so far has managed to avoid 'judgement' and I think it is the better for it.
Let's not do a 'standard' PH here. Please.
Agreed. I'm still quite amazed though at the sheer volume being consumed. A family member was an alcoholic for most of his (short) adult life so I'm probably more into soft drinks than most.Let's not do a 'standard' PH here. Please.
I admire the honesty in this thread.
I'm currently 3 years without a drop of booze, largely inspired by the folks in the "365 days without booze" thread.
Before my dry spell, I would always have at least 4 cans of lager or a bottle of wine on a Friday night and the same on Saturday night. I would also have some beers/sprirts before Sunday lunch. If work was stressfull, I might have started having cans midweek too. I know this isn't much compared to many of you guys but I never though I had a problem with booze at all. Looking back, it can't of been doing me much goodl.
I took up running at the same time as giving up booze so I manage to loose about 10kg fairly quickly. My sleep is much better too. I'm not financially better off as I have sent all my booze savings on stuff like shoes and watches.
I'm currently 3 years without a drop of booze, largely inspired by the folks in the "365 days without booze" thread.
Before my dry spell, I would always have at least 4 cans of lager or a bottle of wine on a Friday night and the same on Saturday night. I would also have some beers/sprirts before Sunday lunch. If work was stressfull, I might have started having cans midweek too. I know this isn't much compared to many of you guys but I never though I had a problem with booze at all. Looking back, it can't of been doing me much goodl.
I took up running at the same time as giving up booze so I manage to loose about 10kg fairly quickly. My sleep is much better too. I'm not financially better off as I have sent all my booze savings on stuff like shoes and watches.
Edited by FreeLitres on Sunday 26th November 21:39
Usually one night in the week I'll have two-three ciders and Friday I'll have four, occasionally five, both times in the pub.
Saturday I'll drink a few random spirits or maybe half a bottle of wine at home.
Sunday usually one at the end of the afternoon.
In fairness on other nights if the missus offers me a drink I rarely refuse, but that's the default setting.
Saturday I'll drink a few random spirits or maybe half a bottle of wine at home.
Sunday usually one at the end of the afternoon.
In fairness on other nights if the missus offers me a drink I rarely refuse, but that's the default setting.
smileymikey said:
I'm totally dry and have been for three years now. I tried to find every solution that didn't involve giving up and the truth is there isn't one. I was dead set against AA for years but stuck with it and it has been the thing that has got me to where I am now. Giving up alcohol is actually pretty easy, even in my position but you need to have a support network around you that you can turn to because you really are going to need it in recovery. I've now retrained as an engineer love my job and make really good money from honest hard work. I also have a separate online business and am a happier and more self assured person now than I ever was before. Very different to the guy that stole money from his children's piggy banks for cheap cider. I once stripped out the dashboard of the family car to get at the pound coins that had slipped through a gap.
Glad you managed to get out of that downward spiral. I’ve got to the point where I ensure the empty bottles are moved out of the kitchen and kept hidden away in the garage. The other week after I’d emptied the glass recycling I didn’t want the first night showing loads of empties so I out the empty glass bottles back into the packs they arrived in. I also super speed drink if the Mrs is getting the kids to sleep - can easily guzzle 6-8 down in barely 25/30mins but all evidence is gone and I hold what I think is assumed to be a / the same bottle as when she went up.
These bits worry me - I don’t know why I do that? Wanting to keep it On the QT or actually embarrassed by what I’m doing.
I also am at the bottle bank super early every Sat morning or Sunday and see the same facesalways worse for wears.
Tonight I’m 5 Doombar in now. Slow pace.
Occasionally / far too often off my face I’ve posted on PH once it got out of hand and was utterly Rd divulged - is so the same to be fair - but they don’t know what is happening in real life to said individual. Some people can take it thick skin others less sovand sometimes the flock attitudes of some on here can unknowingly have real impacts to people especially those who oddly chase you round the forum for months to years reminding you of what might have been a really bad real life event.
I stopped drinking over 5 years ago and don't miss it. I stopped smoking about 6 months before that (Jan '11).
I worry about how much my little brother drinks as it seems he can't have an evening without consuming copious quantities of red wine; his wife became pregnant about 7 months ago and as a result she stopped smoking and drinking. I hoped he would stop smoking and perhaps rein back his drinking in support but unfortunately it hasn't really slowed him down.
I've gently broached the subject with him but it's (unsurprisingly) not something he's keen to talk about and perhaps doesn't even think he has a problem. That said, it seems his wife thinks it's getting a little out of hand as she commented the other weekend at a family event that she didn't know if he was at the bottom of his second or third bottle of wine that evening. This was with she and I not drinking at all and my mum having just one glass as she was driving home at the end of the night.
I worry about how much my little brother drinks as it seems he can't have an evening without consuming copious quantities of red wine; his wife became pregnant about 7 months ago and as a result she stopped smoking and drinking. I hoped he would stop smoking and perhaps rein back his drinking in support but unfortunately it hasn't really slowed him down.
I've gently broached the subject with him but it's (unsurprisingly) not something he's keen to talk about and perhaps doesn't even think he has a problem. That said, it seems his wife thinks it's getting a little out of hand as she commented the other weekend at a family event that she didn't know if he was at the bottom of his second or third bottle of wine that evening. This was with she and I not drinking at all and my mum having just one glass as she was driving home at the end of the night.
Welshbeef said:
.... I also super speed drink if the Mrs is getting the kids to sleep - can easily guzzle 6-8 down in barely 25/30mins but all evidence is gone and I hold what I think is assumed to be a / the same bottle as when she went up.
These bits worry me - I don’t know why I do that..
Drinking with the wife in the garden, chugging bottles out of the case I kept in my workshop, when she popped into the house to get more wine for herself, then hiding the bottles in the garage again so she didn’t notice the empties...These bits worry me - I don’t know why I do that..
Driving to the titty bars after ‘four’ of those garden beers, (wife went to bed) ordering two beers at a time, in the bar, so I didn’t run out at all, chugging one bottle in one hit, ordering another, but I had a spare so there was no down time...thinking I was smart......
...driving to other bars....carrying a bottle in and out of the car......no down time...
....leaving the bar strip as the sun came up, 7am, one eye closed so I could only see one road....but getting home 10am, and no idea where I had been in between...
I can’t understand why I never turned to spirits to get a better buzz. Probably too s
tfaced to think of it. Lightweight.Still, haven’t had a drop since a year last November 5th, I promised my daughter I’d never drink again, after she saw me ‘performing’.
I don’t want any more. Well, I do, badly, but as long as I don’t have that first beer, I’m good.
King Herald said:
Drinking with the wife in the garden, chugging bottles out of the case I kept in my workshop, when she popped into the house to get more wine for herself, then hiding the bottles in the garage again so she didn’t notice the empties...
Driving to the titty bars after ‘four’ of those garden beers, (wife went to bed) ordering two beers at a time, in the bar, so I didn’t run out at all, chugging one bottle in one hit, ordering another, but I had a spare so there was no down time...thinking I was smart......
...driving to other bars....carrying a bottle in and out of the car......no down time...
....leaving the bar strip as the sun came up, 7am, one eye closed so I could only see one road....but getting home 10am, and no idea where I had been in between...
I can’t understand why I never turned to spirits to get a better buzz. Probably too stfaced to think of it. Lightweight.
Still, haven’t had a drop since a year last November 5th, I promised my daughter I’d never drink again, after she saw me ‘performing’.
I don’t want any more. Well, I do, badly, but as long as I don’t have that first beer, I’m good.
Have you tried the 0% beers? I’ve not stigma I suppose but if they did taste as good as proper beer I’d probably switch. To me I really enjoy the flavour of the beer and Cidar and fizz and wine I don’t do spirits. Driving to the titty bars after ‘four’ of those garden beers, (wife went to bed) ordering two beers at a time, in the bar, so I didn’t run out at all, chugging one bottle in one hit, ordering another, but I had a spare so there was no down time...thinking I was smart......
...driving to other bars....carrying a bottle in and out of the car......no down time...
....leaving the bar strip as the sun came up, 7am, one eye closed so I could only see one road....but getting home 10am, and no idea where I had been in between...
I can’t understand why I never turned to spirits to get a better buzz. Probably too s
tfaced to think of it. Lightweight.Still, haven’t had a drop since a year last November 5th, I promised my daughter I’d never drink again, after she saw me ‘performing’.
I don’t want any more. Well, I do, badly, but as long as I don’t have that first beer, I’m good.
On the last two pregnancies in hospital I’ve had loads of gas and air while waiting. My god it’s bliss I take it hard as much as my lungs can take and then hold it in keep doing it and in barely 30 seconds my hands are tingling and my face feels like it’s so so warm. I’ve said to so many re the addiction of the booze the upside is the buzz it gives you but I’d happily do gas and air instead with 0% beer. A mate is a Dr and when I mentioned this he flagged that in Swansea A&E there are weekly regulars who come in with the intention to get smashed on gas and air. His quandary is these guys are serious boozers total addiction however aside from suffocating risk gas and air is utterly risk free. So now they go to A&E to top up on gas and air saving their livers for a short time.
Once I was in hospital in patient and was in a ward some chap came in had been on the scotch for 3 weeks hard his “mates” dropped him off in A&E. He was yellow his eyes looked horribly yellow. He stank of booze nice chap we chewed the fat for a few hours on that Sunday morning. Then something went wrong dr and nurses running towards him as he choked and violently shacking as he was restrained the noise was horrific he was in utter agony.
He died there - they didn’t have time to close the curtains or move him out. I watched it all. I asked later what happened and why, turns out his liver had s
t down there was no option he was DNR. The guy wasn’t even 30 I was early 20’s. After that I didn’t have a drop of booze for 10months. It haunts me still - moreso when the nurse and separately the Dr verified that death with liver failure is horrific it’s agony. I can remember it in full like it was this morning yet it’s decades ago.
I used to problem drink and nearly paid the price for it. I just kept a drink diary and cut down. I found it better to not get into situations, so on nights out finish up by 10pm, and just drink beer. Been 10 years since I used to drink spirits in vast quantity, but now a lot better. Couldn't give booze up just too nice but I can see why people lose control. I always stay away from drinking on a school night.
Welshbeef said:
Ok so calling time tonight.
Rare Sunday drinking - but 11 in the belly Doombar. A good 5-6 in the last 2 hours really ??
Shows you how much you can build up a tolerance.Rare Sunday drinking - but 11 in the belly Doombar. A good 5-6 in the last 2 hours really ??
Last time I had anything like that, about a year ago for some type of celebration, i was sick and didn't get out to bed until 3pm the next day!
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