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Alcohol Alcohol Megathread

jasperkent said:
I can relate. Currently one of my favorite drinks is a cheap boxed Cabernet (14.5%alc) mixed 2:1 with apple juice.
It's fuckin delicious.
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Nice! I'll have to give that one a try sometime. Have you named it yet? It's your signature drink, after all . . .
 
Back in my hard liquor days I used to drink Early Times with Dr. Pepper.
I called it a Dr. Earl.
 
I think the rebound anxiety itself can act as sense of dependence. If I drink a lot, the next day I feel as though I Need to drink to make the horrible anxiety go away.
I was physically addicted to alcohol 3 or so years ago when I cold turkey’d heroin. I was drinking morning to night for a few months to cope with the feelings of loss. I had to leave a relationship with my kid and start over. Long story. But I would have to say I agree with what most people said on this thread… drinking a few beers a night isn’t really going to cause physical dependence like drinking liquor all day will. I notice I feel the worst the day after I drank for an extended period of time. I try to limit my drinking time to a few hours.
That being said, I would assume anything you’re consuming every day is probably a pacifier of some kind and I would recommend trying to get to the bottom of what is motivating the desire to escape.
I can also attest to the fact that alcohol is harder to quit than heroin. Both because it’s everywhere and because of the withdrawals. I withdrew worse from alcohol personally. Alcohol is a spiteful drug.
 
It depends on how much, but much moreso, how much time you're drinking during each day. If you only start drinking at night, and stop when you sleep, you can keep it up for a long time, or even indefinitely, depending on how susceptible you are to alcoholism (which is a genetic factor), and whether you've previously been addicted to gabaergics. However, if you spread those 6-8 beers out throughout the day, you will become addicted much faster. Basically, your body will become addicted when you're unable to achieve homeostasis in your receptors without the drug. Alcohol has a short duration, so if you only drink at night, you're spending at least half of your time without alcohol in your system, so your receptors have a chance to re-regulate themselves between uses. But if you're drinking steadily throughout the day, you are never, or rarely, returning to sobriety, so you will become dependent. If you've previously been addicted to alcohol, or benzos, or other gabaergics, you will get dependent much more easily and quickly, because of the kindling effect.

Personally, I have drank heavily every night for weeks or even months at a time, and never got any withdrawals, but I always save it for after work. My good friend drinks 6-12 high gravity beers every single night... he had been doing so every night with he said probably literally just a few nights off the whole time, and decided to take a break because he was afraid he was addicted. He said he felt great for the week he stopped.

Mind you, I am not recommending anyone do this. Some people are more susceptible to alcohol dependence, and even if you aren't, that level of drinking is horrible for your mind and body.
 
14 days ago I made a concerted effort to quit drinking and simultaneously started taking L-theanine to help. In the first few days I noticed high doses of L-theanine (300-500mg+) actually had a noticeable psychoactive effect on me, but this lessened after about a week once tolerance set in. A pleasant relaxation, notable anxiolysis, with a very slight disso like touch to it (it's a partial NMDA agonist). It effectively stopped all my alcohol cravings. I wouldn't describe it as a buzz, maybe very slightly, but it was very noticeable and enjoyable, certainly not placebo. I continued taking it daily in the morning with small redose in the afternoon, 500-600mg per day. It lasts a very long time, over 8 hours, well past it's half life.

I slipped up and drank 3 times during the last 2 weeks. There was a very noticeable potentiation in the effects of alcohol, not the first few drinks but later on. I noticed I was much more drunk than usual with my standard dose of alcohol, and I was blacking out. Now, I'm an alchy and extremely familiar with how alcohol effects me and how I should feel after a certain number of drinks. Obviously it's difficult to really quantify such a thing, but again, I know my alcohol. There were no other factors that had changed and I didn't even smoke weed while drinking which I usually do.

Last night I drank significantly less than usual and I was surprised to black out, I didn't even finish drinking all my beer which is VERY abnormal for me, woke up fully clothed on the couch in the living room (I have no idea why I didn't sleep in my own bed). I'm guessing I walked to the kitchen and for whatever reason couldn't make it back to my room and passed out on the couch. Not unheard of behavior for alcohol, obviously, but this is very unusual for me... almost never happens. I also noticed that my resting/sleeping heart rate was over 100bpm when I woke up... alcohol leaving your system increases heart rate, I know, but I found this somewhat alarming and a lot higher than usual (no other drugs involved). Took some propranolol and it went back down.

TL;DR:

Anyways, it has become clear to me that L-theanine is potentiating the alcohol in me. Yes, since reducing my intake my tolerance has gone down somewhat, but again I'm extremely familiar with where it should be and how it effects me. The amount of beer I drank last night has NEVER caused me to black out like that. Brown out, sure, but not like that. I drank so little that I did not even have a hangover which increase the unusual nature of last night.

I cannot find any information about alcohol + L-theanine interaction on google other than reports that it is generally safe to combine, and that L-theanine can actually reduce the damage alcohol has on the liver.

I'm assuming that L-theanine may be upregulating GABA and that may be the cause (have been taking it daily for 2 weeks in high dose), I don't think it's a direct interaction, but I could be wrong. Or maybe it's effect on glutamate or possibly even it's minor NMDA effect. Maybe all 3... ?

Anyone know anything about L-theanine or this combination? I'm curious if it would also potentiate benzos.

Overall, it's not a massive interaction. I would say it's potentiating alcohol by about 15-30% or so. Other than increased effect I did not notice any other signs of interaction or side effects.

This is not really a desired reaction, I am committed to quit drinking, I'm just curious as to what's going on.
 
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There does seem to be a noticeable interaction, probably largest being enzymatic, specifically an increase in aldehyde/alcohol dehydrogenase activity. There also does seem to be a direct pharmacological interaction of a glutaminergic nature.

I was taking giant doses of l-theanine, like 1g-1.5g, sometimes multiple times a day, in combination with alcohol, but something switched in me after a while. I remember one night I combined large doses of vodka and l-theanine, and the next day I started getting these very unique and intense surges of intense physical anxiety, like a sort of akathisia. I told my girlfriend lets go on a walk (which i never say, because I felt so weird. Ever since then I've reacted strangely to l-theanine and no longer take it. The glutamate system is complicated and mysterious, best to avoid taking large doses or things that modulate it.

Would avoid taking large doses of it, my guess is that it might turn on you like it did me.
 
Weird, I did low to very high doses of l theanine and got absolutely zero effects. Also weird that a NMDA agonist causes disso like effects but I heard before that nmda weak partial agonists behave like antagonists. Glutamate is a mystery.
 
plumbus-nine said:
Weird, I did low to very high doses of l theanine and got absolutely zero effects. Also weird that a NMDA agonist causes disso like effects but I heard before that nmda weak partial agonists behave like antagonists. Glutamate is a mystery.
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Ive taken it before and felt nothing in the past. I was surprised to feel something this time. My guess is years of alcohol abuse changed something in my brain.

I don't feel it so much anymore, built a tolerance to whatever effect it was having.
 
negrogesic said:
Would avoid taking large doses of it, my guess is that it might turn on you like it did me.
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Yeah after last night I'm going to chill out with it.

I'm so scared about fucking up my brain again.

Thanks for the advice.
 
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It's basically the same, right?
I just ate a slightly largish (read: fucking huge) portion of tiramasu without really thinking about it but my aunt made it and from the taste she used a metric SHIT TON of rum in it.
I used to be an alcoholic and now don't drink (apart from the extremely occasional glass of wine).
Am I gonna be drunkish lol?
 
The last few times i drank without a benzo or zopiclone which is rare these days i noticed it made my anxiety really bad and made my tmj worse. Could the latuda im on have anything to do with it i wonder? Im just curious cause its annoying
 
Hi people. Have a question will try to make a long story short....

Had a bad allergic reaction to my blood pressure pills which caused all my air ways to swell and close family called 911.. Took me to ER. They medically put me in a coma for 3 days untill swelling went down because I could not breath on my own got tuned down my throat and everything also untill they figure out what's Goin on. In for 12 days ICU unit for 8 days. Also went thru alcohol withdrawal while in there, been 3-4 weeks without a drink, although I do not wish to go back to the point of drinking so much that I need it and would withdrawal from it again. Would it be alright to have a couple of beers or shots 1 night hanging out with the guys or at a BBQ or somthing like that?

Or would I just take myself back to being dependent on it again and once I stopped WD'S?

Thanks in advance sorry for the long post
 
Sorry to hear about the shitty situation and I hope your feeling much better.

When I quit drinking I didn't really withdraw much. Not like I thought I would anyways. It was just anxiety and lack of appetite for 3 days. I dry heaved abit on day 1 also.

I went to a party shortly after and didn't drink, just to make sure I could do that and it turned out it was zero issue.

Years later, now single, I decided to pick up some beers. Day one was fun and I had no plan to drink day 2, but day two I got drunk twice. Day 3 I was drunk all day.

So I stopped again.

3 more days exactly like when I first quit.

I still drink from time to time and everytime now it takes me 3 days to recover, so it's really not worth it.

That being said it's different for everyone, but you know what the best route is here.

If you WD that bad, I'd just avoid it all together since 1 drink isn't going to do shit anyways
 
Vinxy said:
Hi people. Have a question will try to make a long story short....

Had a bad allergic reaction to my blood pressure pills which caused all my air ways to swell and close family called 911.. Took me to ER. They medically put me in a coma for 3 days untill swelling went down because I could not breath on my own got tuned down my throat and everything also untill they figure out what's Goin on. In for 12 days ICU unit for 8 days. Also went thru alcohol withdrawal while in there, been 3-4 weeks without a drink, although I do not wish to go back to the point of drinking so much that I need it and would withdrawal from it again. Would it be alright to have a couple of beers or shots 1 night hanging out with the guys or at a BBQ or somthing like that?

Or would I just take myself back to being dependent on it again and once I stopped WD'S?

Thanks in advance sorry for the long post
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You're asking a dangerous question lol. It looks like you've had a terrible time from this situation I'm sorry. :/

It definitely is possible *for any drug literally* to overcome a previous addiction sky-rocketing and ruining your life in various ways, and we all will never stop missing certain effects-- --despite all their destruction we caused together after so many chemical reactions--although most never will truly be able to keep it at "once in a blue moon" post addiction while others definitely do. It definitely is a mental battle for each their own to decide and really honestly decide if reliving the glory days again turns into what we once were quickly and unavoidably. I respect alcoholics who recover because if my cup of tea was constantly on commercials with hot babes in every advertisement/socially everywhere around me... I don't think I'd be able to stop. WIthdrawals can be a good thing though in many instances. I don't think anyone who goes through hardcore alcohol withdrawal is down to do it repeatedly time and time again because despite whatever reasons alcoholics drink.. alcohol withdrawal is worse than anything in real life,
 
Vinxy said:
Hi people. Have a question will try to make a long story short....

Had a bad allergic reaction to my blood pressure pills which caused all my air ways to swell and close family called 911.. Took me to ER. They medically put me in a coma for 3 days untill swelling went down because I could not breath on my own got tuned down my throat and everything also untill they figure out what's Goin on. In for 12 days ICU unit for 8 days. Also went thru alcohol withdrawal while in there, been 3-4 weeks without a drink, although I do not wish to go back to the point of drinking so much that I need it and would withdrawal from it again. Would it be alright to have a couple of beers or shots 1 night hanging out with the guys or at a BBQ or somthing like that?

Or would I just take myself back to being dependent on it again and once I stopped WD'S?

Thanks in advance sorry for the long post
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especially this early in, i would not. GABA receptors take a uniquely long time to heal. I went through a terrible benzo and booze withdrawal 3 years ago, and at this point if I go out and drink 2-4 pints, I will wake up the next day with DT/AWS/Tremors/agitation whole bit. IMO if you've badly damaged your gaba system, you can get to where you can do a one off -- but the come down is hell. I can feel the glutamate cooking/damaging my brain a little more each time. That's after 3 years. MUCH better than it was at 2-3 weeks. if you were dependent to the point of genuine DTs, I would expect a severe shaky/nervous rebound even if you manage one off use.

A much better idea in my opinion would be to get some GABA substances that don't damage, and even help. I get kava kava and amanita muscaria extracts (not mixed, separately) and mix them into nice cocktails. Muscimol is the only GABA-A intoxicant I have found I can one off use without terrible rebounds -- kavain potentiates it by up to 358%, and on its own upregulates and repairs GABA receptors. and it feels great/relaxing. I honestly like it better than ethanol, because it lacks the dramatic/sloppy/angry/stupid parts of booze. Do what thou wilt and all -- but you dodged a real bullet getting to sleep through the DTs. that's a blessing -- but also doesn't let you know how truly awful they are. One of the worst ways a human can feel.

if it were me I would give my brain serious time to heal before even trying a low dose of a damaging gaba substance.
 
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