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Will it ever catch up on me?

Posted , 5 users are following.

GB94
GB94

Hi people, new here & looking for advice etc.

I am a 22 year old male with some slight mental issues that make me over analyse situations and probably make mountains out of mole hills.

I wouldn't say I have an alcohol problem in the sense that I dont drink too often(I used to), but what I will say is I have a terrible habit of taking it too far when I drink.

Rewind a few years ago, early 2013, not so long after turning 18. I would drink 2/3 times a week and it wasn't even decent alcohol most of the time it was cheap white cider. I'd have multiple glasses of the stuff with friends, usually a few litres between 2/3 of us. Long story short I got a girlfriend and it calmed down a bit.

Fast forward to late 2014 and the drinking multiple times a week came back along with recreational drug use.

Going into 2015 this kept up, but then I started not going home & staying out for two or three days at a time, waking up in somebodies house on a Saturday after a night of drinking on the Friday & "continuing the party" so to speak, sometimes even continuing into the Sunday. As 2015 progressed the benders got worse, sometimes it was 3 days, sometimes 4/5 & the worst was 6. This happened multiple times with hardly any weekends off the drink.

Going into 2016 I promised myself I wouldn't drink every weekend & I certainly wouldn't drink 2 days in a row. I failed. There was a few weekends here and there during the first 6 months of the year that I drank two days in a row/from one night into the next day with short sleep intervals here & there. In the Summer of 2016 I got a new job that never afforded me the luxury of having every weekend off so the job came first & I found myself drinking less & less(in frequency). Now we're in 2017 & I'm still in the same job which I love but now if I go out I either go out for one night & end up blacking out or falling asleep and waking up the next day and keeping the party going. Nowadays its the least often I've ever drank in my life but still end up out for a few days when I do drink & make myself ill for days or out for one night & I get that smashed I fall asleep without even realising.

Will this catch up on me or am I over thinking it? Bearing in mind at the end of 2015 I went to the doctor for something unrelated & had bloods taken & the results showed my liver aswell as everything else was fine. Sorry for the long read, I appreciate any reply. Thanks.

0 likes, 11 replies

11 Replies

  • RHGB
    RHGB GB94

    Posted

    'Will this catch up on me'

    Yes. Maybe not for a decade, but yes, it will.

  • ADEfree
    ADEfree GB94

    Posted

    This seems typical of binge drinking, dry for awhile, then off the rails. You can use a medication called Naltrexone to start reversing the process and counter the unconscious part of the brain that always calls out for "more". It tends to limit blackouts in bingers fairly quickly and over a period of months helps to reestablish conscious control over drinking. You can read about it under the heading for "The Sinclair Method" on this page:

    https://patient.info/forums/discuss/useful-resources-487627

    There's also a video on YouTube, if you google:

    Claudia Christian TEDx talk 

    you'll see a talk on TSM that Claudia delivered at the London Business School. 

    I'd suggest you start pulling in the reins on this in fairly short order. It has a bad, bad habit of getting out of hand in the long run.

    Does alcoholism run in the family at all? 

  • JulieAnne101
    JulieAnne101 GB94

    Posted

    Hi GB94

    Unfortunately, yes it will catch up with you. Look up kindling, binge drinking, blackouts. I have witnessed someone with this pattern of behaviour, he reached the stage where he became physically addicted after just 2 days of drinking, which, meant when he tried to stop, he would get delerium tremens and seizures-life threatening. Its not only your liver that can be affected, it affects every organ in your body.

    He is now following TSM (which Ade has sent you a link to) and is doing very well. You need to research and find a method which will suit you, but you definately need to do something, now.

    Kind Regards

    JulieAnne

  • GB94
    GB94

    Posted

    Thanks for the replies guys, will be sure to check out the link, is any damage maybe caused so far reversible?

    And alcoholism has only affected one family member that I know of but we aren't very close.

    • ADEfree
      ADEfree GB94

      Posted

      Hard saying what damage might have occurred, but you're young and if you bring it to heel now it will likely be minimal. It's an excellent time to get on top of it and having been addicted to daily drinking for over 30 years myself, I can tell you that the anesthetic effect very easily makes you numb to the fact that you're swiriling down the rabbit hole. Don't become one of the "rock bottom" crowd, the right meds make it much easier to put this problem in it's place.

    • GB94
      GB94 ADEfree

      Posted

      Thank you! Hopefully I wont have caused too much damage in the long run & if I stop now hopefully I wont have any problems in the future!

    • ADEfree
      ADEfree GB94

      Posted

      Good deal. Don't get lost, let us know how you're getting along with this! What's the plan going forward? 

    • GB94
      GB94 ADEfree

      Posted

      Going forward I think the best thing to do is to learn to know when to stop & call it a night, like I said it isn't how often im drinking thats the problem, it is how much I am drinking during one session. Thanks for the support!

    • ADEfree
      ADEfree GB94

      Posted

      Excellent! If you can keep yourself within "low risk" drinking boundaries, that would be a huge benefit. 

    • RHGB
      RHGB GB94

      Posted

      Too young to have any permanent damage. AFL is the most you could have done and calming your drinking down will reverse this.

      But cheap white cider is the devil's spawn. It is not cider, not been within a mile of an apple. It is just ethanol and sweeteners.

      It's cheap, strong , tastes awful and is bought for only one reason, to get a buzz quickly and for the least amount of money.

    • GB94
      GB94 RHGB

      Posted

      Thanks for the reply, What is AFL?
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