I have a drinking problem.

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Not planning on stopping... just going to have to plan around league nights.

If you hang around the barber shop long enough...

you Will eventually get a haircut.

Yeah, your hair'll grow and it'll just make sense, because, you're already there.

I'm assuming there's some applicable meaning behind the saying, but I've never heard that one before. I'm honestly not trying to be dense here.

And I'm not trying to be a smartass when I say -

If you do what you did,

You will get what you got

Truth is, doing this on your own is going to a b***h on steroids.

It's great to see yeah around here, and nobody wants to see you die an alcoholic death.

Have you seen this other thread over in the Haven -
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt30990.html

Again, be very careful with this detox - IF you absolutely have to go it on your own, this is a very old recipe that works. Take a glass of Orange Juice, and put a couple Tablespoons of Honey in it, drink it as quickly and as much as you can. The acid in the OJ carries the honey into your system very rapidly, the shakes will stop in about two minutes, but it is not enough, you need to eat also, even though you will not feel like it. This is a b***h to do on your own, get help.

Belief it or not, as hard as it may be, getting sober, that is the easy part, staying sober...well that's where the rubber meets the road. And your driving record is not that great, let someone else drive, even if from the proverbial backseat, meaning take Life suggestions literally.

Have you ever heard of the AA Big Book?

It has helped many get over, past and through the things you are experiencing.

There is NO Way that you can change way alcohol effects you,
but you can change the way that you affect alcohol.
But not by yourself, it will take a team effort.

OK, now I see what you mean.

You misunderstood. I know how to deal with the alcohol shaking. There were times when I'd be broke for a week and have to deal with them for a caouple days. The shaking I was talking about is from nerves. Completely different.

This is getting tough.

Was out with friends last night. A few of them don't drink, so none of us felt out-of-place. Their favorite bar was having their last night before closing-down to move to a new location in a few weeks, so it was a bit of a celebration.

We had a nice table away from the music, but it kept getting louder and louder. Sober, all my sensory issues are at their peak, and I was having a tough time. It finally reached a point where it was way too loud for me. It felt like I was being shocked! They could tell I wasn't doing well, and dragged me outside where it was quiet. They were legitimately worried; I was shaking, my heart was racing, my head was spinning, and I could feel that I was only a few minutes away from having had a full-on meltdown in front of everyone.



I really gotta get on meds. This sobriety is kicking my ass.

I don't have AS, but my wife does & I am a "retired" drinker. 12+ years sober.

I was in the same hole as you. You know what I found? That going out to bars just wasn't as much fun or even as interesting when I was sober. In fact, bars are usually full of loud jackasses who are not as nearly as funny or interesting as they think they are. I know. I used to be one of them.

Walking into a bar & trying to have a fun time while sober is hard for everyone, NT's included. I suspect it's even worse for people w/AS. My advise? Find something else to do or someone else to do it with. Friends that would rather go to a movie or a bookstore, whatever.

I was in as deep as anyone can pretty much be & I was able to get sober without AA. Couldn't stand the preachy chanting & group think. Plus I was told I would never be able to do it (stay sober) without AA so, of course, I had to prove them wrong. If I ever have an urge I just think, "Well, f' it. I'll just skip today.". I've skipped "just today" for 12) years.

The bottom line is you'll need other things to fill your time. Reading, exercising, TV, video games, creating art, masterbating anything, just about anything but sucking on a drink.

Good luck man. While my life is not perfect I'm very very happy I was able to stop. At least for a day. : )

That's been my experience, too. While AA held my hand for a while, eventually I had to leave. But for a while it made a difference and helped me get over the hump. And they have free coffee....

That was one of the things that truly proved my alcoholism: I could no longer live *with* the alcohol, but neither could I live without it. Sufferingly sober, I had to have *something* to make me feel okay.

Here is where I ended up:

"Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power?
"Well, that's exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem."
("Alcoholics Anonymous", the book)

I'd say I have a problem not drinking. I love to drink. I don't have a NEED to drink, and most of the time I don't want to, but then that night comes and I'm feeling it. So I go out with a friend and bar hop (I'd never go alone, cos then I'd have nobody to talk to, cos I'm certainly not gonna strike up conversation with just some random person).

I've been drinking since I was 16, and for most of my life I just got the normal hangover. Just recently, though, I've noticed it's starting to affect my nerves. After I go out drinking and I wake up 5 hours later I have what seems to be alcohol withdrawal symptoms. I don't feel like drinking anymore, though. I never understood addiction. I've done different types of drugs in the past and never once felt I had to have more.

Nonetheless, I think I need to quit drinking; at least for several months just to see how my health improves, then just stick to a couple glasses of wine or a few beers. No more binge drinking. It's too expensive to bar hop, anyway.

In my opinion, that is a great plan ... and I say that as a recovered alcoholic.

Whenever alcohol enters the human body, it ultimately gets "processed" or "broken down" into water, carbon dioxide and sugar. The water then leaves the body as perspiration or urine, the carbon dioxide leaves through respiration, and the sugar is either burned for energy or stored in fatty tissue for energy at some later time. To make that process happen, the pancreas produces enzymes for use by the liver, and that is where and how the alcohol that is actually a poison in the human system is chemically converted into harmless water, corbon dioxide and sugar ... and I say all of that as background for this:

The human system can usually process ethyl alcohol efficiently and effectively at the rate of about one ounce (one normal drink) per hour. But in certain people, such as myself, the quantity and quality of the enzymes available to the liver are insufficient for breaking the alcohol down as quickly as in a normal system ... and that results in an excessive amount of in-process acetaldehyde in the blood stream getting to the brain and interacting with dopamine to produce one of the most addictive substances known to man: tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ) ... and that alkaloid sets of a physical "phenomenon of craving" for more ethyl alcohol. Like someone else has already posted:

First the wo/man takes a drink,
Then the drink takes a drink (because of THIQ),
Then drink ultimately takes the wo/man.

Stopping drinking for a while might give you an opportunity to re-evalute and plan for your future drinking, and maybe you will be able to control it better next time around ... and if so, I will glady tip my hat to you in congratulations! But if you might have my kind of abnormal body chemistry, there is likely already some previously-produced THIQ laying dormant in your brain and waiting to accumulate with even more and "pull the trigger" once again ... and there is no way to get it out of there or keep that from happening when you drink.

So, give it a go and see what happens ...

For myself, even just one drink is too many because it makes even a thousand too few.

It took you this long to warm up to the bottle? I drank heavily here and there for two years in my mid twenties because I hated myself for not having a girlfriend, a better job, or a place of my own even though I had graduated college. I just got scared when things like the jag you described started to happen - the awful dreams, the weird hangovers, feeling sick as hell every morning. I had to ask myself whether I wanted to kill myself, because that's what I was slowly doing. I went to AA meetings for a few years and managed to leave those days behind me.

The urge to drink and drug is freakin' powerful, I know. But for all of life's sadness and challenges, I'm glad I'm clean now. Something else you should consider is that alcohol can damage your brain. I think it affected my short-term memory. Aspies can't BS, so you can't afford to lose any intellect. Best of luck to you, find some AA meetings and get gooble-gobble with those guys.

Drinking Problem?

Do you just drink beer? I had a problem with this a while back and found a solution that might be a bit of cheat (i.e doesn't address the fact that you don't like being you). I used to brush my teeth a lot and eat mints constantly, it makes beer taste like crap. It also ruins any affect advertising causes. Anytime I quit before I'd see an advet with someone having a "Tall frosty one" and that would be me off to the bar. With the minty taste in my mouth I didn't want a beer.

Also if you go to a doctor and say you are trying to quit they will sometimes give you valium to help. This might help with the anxiety in the pool hall, though will afeect your performance at the table. You can easily buy it online even if a doctor won't give you it.

If you're at the whiskey and vodka this will have no affect. If it's just beer the minty method is suprisingly effective because there is not enough alcohol in beer for your body to develop much of a dependancy. Thats why your not getting proper shakes when you go for a week without (you said that was from nerves). The shakes from people addicted to alcohol from hard liqour are usually accompanied by being drenched in sweat. Sometimes it's called the sweats and not the shakes because your body is sweating the achohol out of your blood. Beer won't do this to you (unless your taking about 20 pints a day).

However I'm now slightly addicted to the valium and a sleeping drug called zopiclone/zimovane/imovane. But they are better than drinking from a health perspective and on days when I'm feeling strong I can do without. Sometimes I even forget if I've taken one or not and I've put a few placebo's in my jar.

Last edited by EngishForAliens on 08 Nov 2009, 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have always heard the actual alcohol content is the same in any normal-sized drink of any kind, whether that be of beer, wine or hard liquor. So-called "near beer" would be an exception there, and some beers, wines and liquors do have higher-than-usual alcohol contents. But for anyone who happens to have the abnormal body chemistry that is the root of uncontrollable drinking, a drink is a drink is a drink that physically demands yet another drink.

Real alcoholics don't order normal sized drinks. It's a timing issue. For example it would take you 3-4 hours to drink 6 pints of beer in a pool hall or whatever the equivalent bottle level (9 or 10 depending on the brand). In that same time space an alcoholic could easily put away a bottle of vodka. It would start off with ordering normal drinks like a vodka and coke etc.. or a cocktail and then after a few months it's half a bottle and gradually it gets worse and and worse. They stop ordering the normal drinks and get the bartender to leave the bottle. Or get the smaller bottles from a store and keep it in their pocket. Going to different stores around town all day buying more.

They would stop giving a damn about pool or any social issues and just head start for the bar stool or else drink it at home or sneaking it at work. I had a boss like this once. We used to sit beside each other at coffee breaks because neither of us drank coffee we drank orange juice so we were at the table 1st while everyone else was messingwith cream and sugar. He used to pour a bit of ornage juice into a glass and then fill it up with a little flask from his pocket. Rest of the orange was chucked in the bin. It was weird why he hid this from everyone else but let me see it. Looking back he maybe have been an aspie and saw it in me. We know we aren't tell tales.

A bottle of vodka or more over a day is a world a way from 6 pints a night in a bar.

Last edited by EngishForAliens on 08 Nov 2009, 10:02 am, edited 1 time in total.