Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselling Thread

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We addicts have a tendency to be perfectionists and at least for me, a relapse was a reason to give up and give in. I know you are suffering but try not to deal with it like I did, which is "hair of dog" because that's what catapulted me into 3 day binges and then hearing voices when I was detoxing. Yesterday is over. Today is today. Treat yourself gently today.

It seems to get worse every time I relapse.

The stomach aches and the cravings get worse. I'm trying not to think about it as the day turns into evening but it's hard at times. Being by myself makes it even harder since drinking was my huge way of compensating.

Had a very scary alcohol and drug event recently.

I have been using several drugs to cope with things in the past five years. I smoke weed and cigarettes daily and and drink in the evenings. Sometimes I take Gravol to help me sleep.

I've been having a very hard time post-graduation, dealing with being unemployed. Several times I have been suicidal and have been close to self-harm via overdose. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a party with my parents and had a lot to drink in a short span of time. I continued to drink when I went home. I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately with all my troubles so I took 4 expired sleeping pills(!) I woke up around 6 AM with my sheets and pyjamas covered in vomit. I didn't remember vomiting at all. It hit me then that I must have vomited in my sleep - and am extremely lucky that in early morning hours, I always sleep on my stomach or side. When I vomited I thus did not aspirate, choke and die. This experience taught me that I don't actually want to commit suicide, that I want to find a way out of all of this.

I continue to use the abovementioned coping mechanisms, but I no longer mix alcohol and sleeping pills.

Now that I know I am not the only one who lives with "this life" and "this brain" I feel less alone.

Find close-knit spiritual fellowship with others like ourselves and you can be okay.

All I will say about alcohol is be careful. Its very tempting once you start using it because it decreases your anxiety in social situations a lot. However that doesn't necessarily mean you'll make a lot of friends. Just because you're not nervous doesn't mean you won't do something stupid. If you really need something to help your anxiety, talk to a doctor and get some medication that won't make you wake up somewhere miles away from your home.

Alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, insane amounts of caffeine....just wondering what's next in store if the gateway theory holds true...

For a short while I came home after work with a 6 pack, then drink the day away. I couldn't stomach the bitter taste and when I overdid it...put two and two together, in the bathroom the next minute. It doesn't cure anything, it's a temporary fix and one that makes me wonder whether or not I should get back on the same meds I quit 5 years ago.

I Drink to relax....not as often anymore. but there was a time, where a would drink entire bottles of jack in a night

Hello, it's me, back with a new problem.

I'm afraid of becoming an alcoholic.

My father drinks a great deal and drives drunk with me in the car. He went all the way through AA once, but he regressed when he split with my mom three years ago. He is a true alcoholic who drinks steadily and heavily whenever he can. Sometimes he takes me to the bar with his pretentious friends, and I feel like I'm missing out on all the fun because that bar "cards." There are a lot of alcoholics and smokers on both sides of my family.

Sometimes, when I'm having a bad anxiety night, I break into the family liquor cabinet and drink myself to sleep with liquers or hard liquors. Even though it's not exactly a habit yet, I worry because:

1. I'm underage
2. I'm drinking alone
3. Straight vodka is a bad starting point for someone with the addiction gene
4. I'm on medication that can enhance the effects of alcohol

I've never drunk socially - in fact I would probably make a big, prudish show of refusing alcohol if a high school classmate offered it to me - but I'm about to go to college, so, well, um, yeah.

I went to the AA website and looked at their teen resources, but AA seems to be more about fixing the problem after it's there, not stopping it before it starts. I'm truly confused about where to turn. I tried telling my former therapist, and her reaction was to ask me if I needed child protective services called (um, no).

Maybe Al Anon is the way to go. It's for family members of alcoholics and has the same basic structure as AA. I agree I think you may be headed for trouble. I am an alcoholic but have been sober for 10 years. The last few years before I went into treatment were pure hell.

Thanks. Much love.

In the strict sense, that is not actually possible. Either you are already "genetically pre-disposed" toward out-of-control drinking once you begin, or you are not. However, not all alcoholics who drink always drink out-of-control from the beginning.



"Steady and heavy" does not necessarily mean your father is actually alcoholic, and neither does the fact he has been to AA, especially today's.



As time goes on, watch and see whether you begin to lose all control over how much you drink after you begin drinking. A real alcoholic eventually or ultimately has two problems:

1) A complete loss of control while drinking;
2) Unable to just leave it alone altogether.

First the man or woman takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then drink takes the man or woman.



At least for now, this might all be very simple for you:

Decide ahead of time how much you will drink (a maximum amount) in order to find sleep on your next "bad anxiety night", then never drink any more than that and never drink at all at any other time. If you actually are an alcoholic, you will likely not be able to do either or both of those things for very long.

I don't find drinking fun. Maybe I don't drink enough, but it all seems silly to me.


How often is the anxiety? Can you function sufficiently well on little sleep? I am just curious, as not sleeping is a possible way to avoid drinking yourself to sleep. In fact, if I have a problem sleeping, I usually tend to stay awake all night.




Yeah, the best thing you can do if you are worried is setting limits if/when you drink and avoiding alcohol as much as you can.


Yeah it is. If you aren't engaged in out of control drinking, then you aren't really an alcoholic.

I actually don't know how much to worry. The fact that you seem like you may be a high anxiety person might paradoxically mean that you don't actually have a problem. I say that as a person with high neuroticism and a tendency to freak out over a lot of things. This could be "freaking out over nothing", with an amplified reaction. I wouldn't be able to say. Generally, I will say that "more structure means more control". Also, given that you are probably somewhat of a nerd, you might easily avoid groups of people who drink in college. A lot of people do, but the people who don't or who don't drink often/heavily are somewhat common in the more intellectual and higher achieving crowds.

You are wrong, and please try to acknowledge my context before you again argue. Many people today are considered alcoholics if/after they have problems either while or because of drinking, and that is certainly nothing for me to compain about ... yet I am only talking about the *real* alcoholic as experientially-clearly described within "Alcoholics Anonymous", the book:

"Moderate drinkers have little trouble in giving up liquor entirely if they have good reason for it. They can take it or leave it alone.
"Then we have a certain type of hard drinker. He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. [But if] a sufficiently strong reason - ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor - becomes operative, this man [or woman] can also stop or moderate, although s/he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention.
"But what about the real alcoholic? He may start off as a moderate drinker; s/he may or may not become a continuous hard drinker; but at some stage of his (or her) drinking career he begins to lose all control of his liquor consumption, once he starts to drink."

Personally, I had someone tell me I was an alcoholic and should go to A.A. nearly a year before I had ever even had my first drink ... and about seven years later I stopped laughing about that.

I can easily understand why you believe I am fos here, but there is just no such thing as *becoming* a real alcoholic! Just like with autism, one is either born that way or one is not, and not all people ever show the same symptoms in identical ways at identical times, if symptoms are ever even recognized at all.

From Dr. William D. Silkworth in "A.A.", the book:

"The classification of alcoholics seems most difficult, and in much detail is outside the scope of this book. There are, of course, the psychopaths ...
"There is the type of man who is unwilling to admit that he cannot [safely] take a drink ...
"There is the type who always believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time he can take a drink without danger.
"There is the manic-depressive type ...
"Then there are types entirely normal in every respect except in the [out-of-control] effect alcohol has upon them ...
"All these, and many others, have one symptom in common: they cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving." (Dr. Silkworth in "A.A.", the book)

Now "developing" might there sound just like "becoming", but only in the sense of the seeming and pre-existing allergy eventually "becoming evident". See, the reason a real alcoholic eventually "begins to lose all control" over how much s/he drinks has to do with his or her eventual accumulation of tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ, a highly-addictive alkaloid) in his or her brain as caused by some enzyme issues while drinking, and that only happens within people born with a particular genetic disposition.

So, how can someone uncertain know for sure whether or not he or she is a real alcoholic? Believe this or not, but the real A.A. occasionally actually suggests some people go take a few drinks (and *never* tells *anyone* to *not* drink):

"We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself. Step over to the nearest barroom and try some controlled drinking. Try to drink [just one or two or maybe three] and stop abruptly. Try it more than once [in another day or two or three]. It will not take long for you to decide, if you are honest with yourself about it. It may be worth a bad case of jitters if you get a full knowledge of your condition [making it impossible for you to control your drinking once you get started (again)]."

I agree. From the very first time I had a beer when I was about 14 I craved more. My loss of control was more gradual. But the desire was there from the beginning.

Yes. I was just now thinking more about Silky saying "developing the phenomenon of craving", and like with a picture on film, one cannot develop something not already existing at least in some raw form!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I68fqeuNij8[/youtube]

this helped me