Anyone use drugs or alcohol to deal with pain and struggles

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Okay I am a recovering alcoholic as well as an officially diagnosed aspie. I know that many aspies use things like alcohol to cope with life's struggles. For me it almost got me to the point of becoming homeless and pretty much my family was ready to let me die. It was that bad.

My drinking was up to 18 beers every single night. I sometimes drank 1/5 of hard liquor in three days. The first time I drank it was tequila and other stuff. It was amazing and the best feeling i ever felt in my life. It made me feel like I could conquor the world. It made all pain stop. But it was double edged sword as it started to change my personality and cause more pain. As I tried to escape from myself it always caught up with me.

Needless to say my drinking started off alone and ended alone in despair and feelings of wanting to die. Alcoholism is in my family history a grandfather and an uncle were both alcoholic. And i am sure AS is also in there as well though no proof of it. My biological parents gave me up for adoption at 2 months old or so. I never knew my real family only some documents with a family history no names. My mother was a teenager only 16 years old. And my father was between 18 and 22.

I was also an angry and violent drunk. I drank out of bitterness of a life I thought was misery. I drank to forget at the end. It was a living hell. As I descended further into daily drinking I became a monster. And I truly felt I passed through the gates of hell and they clanged shut.

That was until I found AA and that is where my life took a turn for something better. I have been sober for about 11 years (since July 7, 2002), Although now my addictions are other things. I wold to be completely free of addiction but I just cannot seem to shake them. Nothing ever was as bad as it was when I was drinking though. They say stop the addictions that hurting you the most first.

Anyways, I am just wondering if anyone else on here has experienced addiction of any kind.

I was a raging drunk for my first three months in active duty army. I was literally drunk 24/7 365. I was up to a case of beer and 1.5 to 3 fifths of hard A a night. It got so bad that I almost drank myself to death. I was hallucinating, and vomiting everywhere. I got sick of feeling that way, so I just up and quit. I smoked for 16 years (from age 12 up until last month), and then one day decided to quit. It has now been a month since I have smoked a cigarette. Anything is possible as long as you believe in yourself, and remember that there are always others out there that can help. If you ever need help with coping strategies or anything like that, send me a private message and I will do what I can to help.

I had my first drink, gin, when I was 7 or 8 so you could say I was doomed from the start. I was so drunk I staggered back to my house, vomiting along the way. It was from my uncle.

My grandfather smoked opium. My father was a falling down abusive drunk. I guess I inherited their addictions.

I really didn't pick up drinking again till college. I drank for years and then, boom, I started doing drugs because it brought me company. I was living in a crack hotel at that time so I was doomed.

I became homeless and suicidal and ended up in several psych houses and a long term inpatient drug treatment program.

I've lost two decades to drinking and drugging. How I'm still alive now is a mystery to me.

I don't do anymore drugging, but I still have the occasional drink. It relaxes me at night and prepares me for sleep.

I know that I shouldn't drink anymore. I try not to beat myself up about that, though, because it's a panacea for my extreme loneliness.

Just know that there is no need for loneliness. You have friends all around you on the site here. I know that you cannot physically see them, but we are all here for you should you need someone to talk to. The event that stopped my drinking (or at least put me to where I can barely handle one beer once every three or six months now) was this:

I remember starting to drink Jack Daniels. The next thing I know I am wandering out of the woods on base wearing nothing but my PT shoes and holding an empty handle (or was it half handle--memory is fuzzy there) in each hand. A female officer pulled me over and started yelling at me. Threatened me with the MPs and started crying hysterically. She said she was so mad and crying because her dad had been a minister that drank himself to death after his prayer's to save her mum from cancer were not answered. The next thing I remember is waking up in the bathroom of my barracks room. One foot (sock off) in the tub, one foot (sock on) against the door, a pair of thong panties that smelled like sex in my mouth, a bra in my hand, and a 2nd lieutenant rank on my chest (all of which I got rid of). I don't even know or care to remember her name. It was that event that made me realize I would drink myself to death if I didn't stop.

I share that story in the hopes that it acts as an inspiration and motivator for you. I started to drink lots of ginger ale, soda, tea, and coffee instead. It is better too, if you find anything and everything that you can to keep you occupied long enough to not think about it. I have been through that dark place, and come out of it (battered mentally and emotionally by myself at times). I am here to help you as much as I can if you ever have the need for someone to shoot the breeze with about it all.

I drink. I never recognize it and never show it. Some days don't think it's a problem, and some days I am afraid of becoming an alcoholic. Thank you guys for your experiences, cause it makes me be more aware of how dangerous it is.

But is so difficult..... I'm so anxious, and then sometimes after quite a few drinks I feel NORMAL, not drunk, just ok. I stop having obsessive thoughts and being so anxious for nothing. Specially those days in which I've had too many conversations, I come home and I can do nothing but relive them on an on in my mind, checking what I did and said, trying to guess whether I understood what the other person meant..... you know. Or those days in which I desperately need silence. I just dream on coming back home and having a drink of 2. or 5 or 6.

Sometimes, the highlight of my day is to get drunk alone with my music. I just feel relief for a while. Sometimes I even feel like when I was younger and didn't have so much s**t on my shoulders. I let my feelings flow instead of being obsessive about them. I feel the music, I feel like if I took out all the crap and my inside could be filled by music. I feel alive, I feel like myself.

The problem is that after a few days doing that, I need a bigger amount for the same effect. And that sometimes it's too often. And the morning after some days it's so bad, I feel twice as miserable as the afternoon before. And back to the start.

And yes, alcohol addiction IS very "inheritable".

Yes. I am an alcoholic and addicted (yes ADDICTED) to pot. Pot is my drug of choice, but liquor has gotten bad. I'm not sure what a fifth is (I think 200ml), but it's not unusual for me to polish off most of a 750ml in a night when I'm really going. A pint is bare minimum. I hate beer so it's always the hard stuff.

I did have a recent bout with mixing Xanax and liquor, which probably almost killed me one night. I love that feeling so much, but don't barely ever do that anymore, and when I do the dose of Xanax is very small and the liquor is toned down.

Drugs and alcohol are more or less my primary interest. So it's even deeper than the addiction or the escapism for me-which run deep to begin with. It's what interests me. I love hearing about people's experiences with different drugs, and watching shows about stuff I've never taken, listening to the accounts of it's effects and trying to imagine what it feels like. I'm unable to really enjoy anything unless I smoke first. Prior to starting smoking, I didn't even enjoy too many things at all, so it's not like the weed made me that way like a lot of people try to say.

I wish you the best in conquering this demon though. I've tried in the past to live sober and I simply hate it. But I know it's a way healthier way to live.

Yeah, drugs can convince you they're great. It's convincing yourself that they're not that's a real trick.

I am recovered alcoholic and an ex drug user in terms of pills and harder drugs.

I am however a severe pothead and getting off pot a few years made me turn to harder drugs. Than I became an alcoholic and kept using the harder stuff and basically my life fell apart. I became clean mid 2015 and I relapsed on marijuana on September 21st of 20015. I only used that day but this has lead to an everyday habit.

I don't really f*****g care at this point, I gave up alcohol and hard drugs that I didn't even want and have just gone with what I really want. I probably do use it as an escape but hell people use it to treat PTSD for that reason. If anyone lived in my life, you would need some damn weed too. Life sucks without weed and life is to damn short, I mean hell I'd rather have a record and enjoy life than just be a slave to conformity.

I used to self-medicate with energy drinks. I haven't done that for 10 weeks now. I feel that it's better for me to have a hanky on me.

Howdy. I had my first drink when I was 12. I still remember it. Beer was my favorite. Drank all through high school. My Ma got it for me cause she thought as long I drank at home and didn't drive then it was ok. A lot of parents think that. Drank through college when I was getting my first degree in secretarial of science. I became a Realtor around this time also along with working a part - time job. I had a pretty high tolerance so I could still function most of the time, but my grades weren't the best. At 23, is when something happened to make me quit drinking. I came home from a bar one night and went to sleep and when I woke up I must have had a panic attack or something neurological because I went totally numb from my head to my feet to the point that I couldn't even walk. My parents took me to the ER and both had to walk me in - it was that bad. The doctors ran tests and nothing came up and I eventually got my feeling back after about 5 hours. I quit drinking that day and for 10 yrs. It was during those 10 yrs that I went back to nursing school and made something out of myself.

My dad was an alcoholic and so is my brother so it's in the family. My brother also had a problem with the alcohol and Xanax, but he said a doctor helped him off of that. I still have some wine before bed now, because even though I stopped those 10 hrs, I ended up picking it back up after I started working nights to help me sleep and I did drink a little too much the first few years of being a nurse. (I also started back to drinking because my dad kept making fun of me for not being able to drink - I think it made him feel better about himself so that he could drink.) I miss beer because I'm allergic to it now from drinking so much of it before. I have a couple glasses of wine now before bed because I like the taste and it's kind of a ritual that would be hard to break. I don't drink anything else or at any other time because I hate the "drunk" feeling. Exercise has also seemed to stop much drinking because I don't like that "sick" feeling either. I just worry what will happen when something really bad goes on in my life and will I revert back to alcohol to deal with it.

my late father was forever into the sauce, and it eventually killed him. I, on the other hand, WISH DEARLY that I could drown my sorrows in the same way but my body won't let me, I simply cannot tolerate more than trace amounts of alky, it just comes right back up if I drink it, even 3% beer. I am doomed to sobriety. luckily, as narcotic pain meds are so hard to come by [docs out here in the sticks generally won't give them to patients unless they are dying], I have found that Canadian 222s [8mg codeine, 300mg acetaminophen] are good for moderate to severe pain flare-ups especially when combined with advil. for my arthritis, sometimes I can get flexeril which works as a muscle relaxant/anti-spasmodic about as well as valium but sans any good feelings. also I take a daily preparation of 1,500mg curcumin extract [standardized to 95% curcuminoid] and 10mg piperine [black pepper extract which boosts the bioavailability of the curcumin by 250%], this works about as well as the feldene I used to be on for my arthritis. also I eat a low-acid diet [no refined carbs] which reduces inflammation which the doc says is the basis for most body pain. nighty lumbar traction and core strengthening exercises help with my lumbar stenosis/spondylolisthesis [aka "slipped disc"].

I have a drinking problem. But I haven't had any alcohol to drink in about 2 months.

^^^

I may have a slight drinking problem

I take a few meds for mental stuff; OCD, other anxiety disorders, schizo (mainly paranoia nowadays), and the ASD. (I kinda got whacked hard with the broken brain stick. I suppose I need some negatives to offset my grand intellect. )

Though, I've cut them down to half the dosage over several years, so I guess that's pretty good. Docs reckon I should keep it at that, as I get help from them at that dose, and they aren't too high a dose anyway.

I drink, but it doesn't really make me feel anything. I just like the taste of spirits.

Yes & no. I use marijuana for actual pain as I prefer it's effects, and lack of side effects, after a long hard day's work vs. ibuprofen. Even at that I smoke so little that I could smoke it almost every single day and still only smoke 2-3 grams in a month - which for anyone keeping score, that's nothing compared to heavy marijuana smokers like some of the guys I work with who smoke ~28grams/week. I also used to smoke more of it when I had anxiety issues to deal with. It helps medicinally, but I'm not gonna lie.. I do like the high. It's fun & relaxing, and as socially acceptable as it can get here w/o actually being technically legal yet, so people don't care if you choose to partake or not.

I don't drink much, but since working with guys that drink a lot I've had a few more.. and usually have a couple on Saturday night. But still, an average week where I'm socially drinking with these guys and then my friend on Saturday will still be only 3-5 beers a week. It's quite rare that life troubles catch up to me and I think "F this, I need a beer." But once in a blue moon it happens. Instead, I tend to just have an extra toke to chill out if I Need to, and then just do what I have to do to resolve whatever situation is going on.

Lately, I haven't really had my own struggles to deal with.. just everyone else'. Other peoples' health and legal issues, drama here and there etc. But I've been able to help with what I can and do my best to not let the rest of it keep me up at night. Somedays when I think "A beer would be good right now.." I don't bother because I know that if I have one or two I'll be tired and unable to focus on actually doing anything for myself or anyone else when I get home. A little marijuana doesn't prevent me from being productive, but a beer or two? Game over. If I might need to do some medical research for an older family member or wear my lawyer hat for someone else, I know I need to keep my head straight - so I do.

Besides that, I'm in a fairly balanced state of life where if it weren't for helping others I still wouldn't be turning to drugs/alcohol. I save it up for party time once in a while when it's time to let loose and have fun. I also save a lot of money by not spending it on stuff like that. And I keep in better physical/mental/emotional/spiritual health via a healthy diet and exercise and not much in the way of intoxicants. Buuuuut, party time? Call a cab.

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