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Alcoholism Discussion Thread Version 7.0

Wow, what negativity going on itt. I don't believe that addiction is a disease but it does rewire your brain. I'm not a fan of AA at all, but everyone has their own opinions. Either way, I started working out again and the drinking is currently under control. I still drink about twice a week, but not too excessively. I think as long as I keep focusing on working out and going to see my therapist I might finally be able to have a healthy balance.
 
I'm a heroin and alchy....

Alcohol is by far worse than heroin. I've drank on My hepc liver for a good 7 years ...booze is so hard because it's everywhere and cheap ....and booze leads to other things

I hear ya and can relate as i was a daily beer drinker that contracted the hep c virus in 2002 and why using denial as a coping technique that my drinking while having hep c was not that bad i continued to drink beer every day from the time i got hep c till early 2008 when my doctor referred me to a liver clinical as my liver function test were off the charts and i was able to start intrafuroen treatment that thankfully cleared the hep c virus after 6 months treatment and from the end of the treatment to now 8 years later my liver function levels are normal and I still enjoy a beer so you could say i cheated death. I was lucky as my hep c could be cleared with the early treatments available now i believe in the year 2016 up to 95% of hep c cases can be cleared.

The moral of the story drinkswithevil is consider looking to treatment options at your local hospital. Medical treatment for hep c treatment has came a long way in last 5-10 years. 7 years with hep c is nothing when on average even for heavy drinkers it takes 20+ years for cancer of the liver to develop and start being life threatening. There is hope drinkswithevil.
 
Wow, what negativity going on itt. I don't believe that addiction is a disease but it does rewire your brain. I'm not a fan of AA at all, but everyone has their own opinions. Either way, I started working out again and the drinking is currently under control. I still drink about twice a week, but not too excessively. I think as long as I keep focusing on working out and going to see my therapist I might finally be able to have a healthy balance.

Agreed, very harsh, but as far as I can tell her or his opinion is valid as the rest of ours are. We are an open forum, after all. Then again, I just got out the hospital after having part of my large intestine removed, and tripped ballz on iboga yesterday, and I'm still kinda feeling it, so take any advice I give here with the required grain of salt.

EDIT: Ahh, now I see the problem. PM coming you way. NO BICKERING ALOID here BLOKES! And I say it with respect for our forum here, our community. We don't need more bigots, we need more large minded peoples.
 
^^ I'm sorry you have to go through such an invasive surgery. I hope you are feeling better now. Was it an elective surgery, I mean did the doctor give you options? The reason I ask is because I have a friend who did as similar surgery due to a tumor, but she's now okay. I hope things you are fine!

Wow, what negativity going on it. I don't believe that addiction is a disease but it does rewire your brain. I'm not a fan of AA at all, but everyone has their own opinions. Either way, I started working out again and the drinking is currently under control. I still drink about twice a week, but not too excessively. I think as long as I keep focusing on working out and going to see my therapist I might finally be able to have a healthy balance.

I totally agree with you, addiction is a disease and there is a medical code for that sort of problem. Just like you said, different from others, when we use drugs or drink, your brain will react differently and if you don't have the support, either from doctors or friends, supporting groups, etc, your mind will go back to day one after you have quit drinking or doing drugs. By 'rewiring' your brain you'll be powerless and your judgement will be affected regardless of the amount. You can manage it for a couple of weeks but there's no good ending from there.

I'm not a huge fan of AA as I have also mentioned before, although I do believe we need some sort of outside support with people who has gone through similar problems. Sharing is therapeutic and by venting your issues with a group that knows how you feel can make you feel a lot better, especially if you are having cravings or during times when depression has got a grand part of your days.
 
Agreed, very harsh, but as far as I can tell her or his opinion is valid as the rest of ours are. We are an open forum, after all. Then again, I just got out the hospital after having part of my large intestine removed, and tripped ballz on iboga yesterday, and I'm still kinda feeling it, so take any advice I give here with the required grain of salt.

EDIT: Ahh, now I see the problem. PM coming you way. NO BICKERING ALOID here BLOKES! And I say it with respect for our forum here, our community. We don't need more bigots, we need more large minded peoples.

TPD - I hope you're okay!!! How long is recovery time for your surgery? I wasn't aware you were having issues - was this something that you've been betting for a while or was it sudden?

I totally agree with you, addiction is a disease and there is a medical code for that sort of problem. Just like you said, different from others, when we use drugs or drink, your brain will react differently and if you don't have the support, either from doctors or friends, supporting groups, etc, your mind will go back to day one after you have quit drinking or doing drugs. By 'rewiring' your brain you'll be powerless and your judgement will be affected regardless of the amount. You can manage it for a couple of weeks but there's no good ending from there.

I'm not a huge fan of AA as I have also mentioned before, although I do believe we need some sort of outside support with people who has gone through similar problems. Sharing is therapeutic and by venting your issues with a group that knows how you feel can make you feel a lot better, especially if you are having cravings or during times when depression has got a grand part of your days.

I didn't buy into the addiction as a disease until I was a late stage alcoholic. I always thought it was a mental health issue yes, but not a disease per se like mono etc. However, once you hit late stage it does absolutely have very real and extreme physical manifestations, and by that point the brain has been severely altered, which takes an incredible amount of time to recover from, if recovery is possible as there is point where one has incurred to much damage.

It does technically fit the disease model, but I think it's imperative to catch it as early as possible, before one suffers physically. In early stages it should be treated as a mental health issue as I believe addiction is a symptom of mental health and not a stand alone health issue in itself. If there wasn't a mental component then we wouldn't use to our own detriment and /or possibly death.

By 'rewiring' your brain you'll be powerless and your judgement will be affected regardless of the amount. You can manage it for a couple of weeks but there's no good ending from there.

I agree. I think this is where "powerlessness" comes in. I think once somebody is in late stage addiction there is a lot of damage that hs been done and you no longer have the clarity or rationality to control yourself. In my experience, I didn't want to be addicted but I quite literally couldn't stop on my own. The biofeedback from withdrawal was telling my brain I was going to die if I didn't drink and that overrode rationale. Of course, this was late stage alcoholism, I didn't have those sensations early on. I knew that I wouldn't be able to quit on my own and the only thing I could do to break the cycle was to check into rehab.

I think many people don't agree with this because they haven't gotten to the later stages on addiction, and cannot relate so they assume it's an excuse. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of compassion for addicts in general, and sometimes in our own communities. The lack of compassion and "just quit" mentality is so damaging to addicts trying to get healthy as it just perpetuates the addiction cycle by implying that addiction is a moral failing.

There are underlying issues that need to be resolved in order to successfully achieve sobriety and often those take a backseat to the addiction that people get stuck in the stop start cycle of using because their only focus is quitting, meanwhile the pain from the mental health piece continues to build, self confidence decreases, and depression from continuous failing keeps the addict trapped.

I think addiction needs more acceptance and compassion from society in general. It's happened with obesity and the mechanisms of obesity are pretty similar to addiction with respect to underlying issues prompting over eating as a form of self medication. At any rate, not certain in will happen and time soon as there is such a stigma to addiction, and legal penalties a severe which just serve to perpetuate the stigma.
 
^I totally agree with you, addiction is a disease and there is a medical code for that sort of problem. Just like you said, different from others, when we use drugs or drink, your brain will react differently and if you don't have the support, either from doctors or friends, supporting groups, etc, your mind will go back to day one after you have quit drinking or doing drugs. By 'rewiring' your brain you'll be powerless and your judgement will be affected regardless of the amount. You can manage it for a couple of weeks but there's no good ending from there.


Ummm, I said I didn't believe addiction was a disease. I believe it does rewire your brain if you've been an addict long enough but I never said that I thought it made you powerless.
 
please do not post abusive comments toward any members or their paths in recovery

this is supposed to be a place of tolerance and understanding.

Thank you,
Captain
 
I believe in the the disease model of addiction. If the common cold is classified as an disease addiction had to be. It effects your mind and body to eventual death is absitance isn't achieved. I never had a propllem with this concept. There's was weaker diseases and nobody disputes them. I think it's addicts and there giant egos that don't want to admit they have a disease. This is just my opinion on this, not a definitive statement. I was so bankrupt mentally and physically if that was a disease I don't know what is. I didn't ask for this disease. I used to be bitter but that gets me know where. I believe in my times of heavy using and drinking I was powerless.Hell yes. My life was in shambles and I was hurting Ripken around me and I couldn't stop. That's powerlessness to me. It's very debatable and we'll all never agree on this but I just wanted to give me opinion. Boy am I glad it's in remission right now and that's a perfect word cause if I pick up again I don't start at the beginning I start where I left off when I stopped so remission is a perfect word. One sip of beer will turn into chaos in 2 weeks. Alcohol is what I fear the most. I have chronic pain and take opiates, no problem. It's alcohol I fear. That's what almost killed me several times and now I have an ostomy bag everyday bc of that shit. My obsession is gone for alcohol but if it ever came back I would pray and do whatever it took to not pick up. But thembtaking my colon out really effected my drinking. I already had a year before the surgery but having to go thrubthe pain of recover killed my desire to drink. We'll see if it lasts but I've been trained how to deal with it so I just do it. Anyway, hope everybody has a safe, sober day
 
I respect that opinion but I don't believe in this one size fits all model of addiction. As controversial as it is, I don't believe that once you've had a problem with alcohol you can never have another drink again without facing certain death. It's just too black and white to me. I could be completely wrong but I believe there is a grey area. With that said, I think people should do what's right for them whether debating whether to stop, cutting back or going cold turkey. I think everyone deserves support.
 
I tend to agree with both sides of the argument, but then again I am bisexual after all %) tmi? I think yes. but you got the point
 
Doctors have classified addiction as a disease, not us. It's understood that both drugs and alcohol decreases our judgment and in severe cases that is what makes it difficult to say this or that person is an ex-addict, or, former addict. It's also very commonly understood that living one day at a time is a way of having more successful rates of relapses. Someone that has drank recreationally may drink for his or her entire life. I'm not quite sure if we can say the same about some of us.

I've seen tons and tons of friends all over my life trying to drink again. Some of them do behave for a while but in a month or perhaps a bit more most of them will be rock bottom again. I've seen this happening more times than I could count. I get that we don't to be called sick, who wants that. Anyway, like toothpaste I can see both sides of the argument.
 
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Peronsally, I really don't see any argument, just, on the surface at least, mutually opposing ideas. But I do not believe their mutually exclusive either. It's all about attitude. One view embraces the next, one view dose not, or does it? Things are not always as they seem, so please everyone try not to rush to judgement about anything.


I have no idea what I'm talking about now, but I do love the new mac! :)
 
Why does home brew give me the worst hangover, I never get one off store bought
 
Okay I will settle this right now. Addiction is generally a co-occurring chronic mental disorder. The same as someone that has an anxiety disorder with Bi-polar 2.

There is a lot to be said about powerlessness. I was using hard drugs and drinking since age fifteen because I could not deal with my anxiety disorder. This led to hopelessness, isolation, fear, etc. I had to drink a warm beer I kept under my bed to steady my hand enogh to do a shot to take the sick away...I would lay in bed hating myself harder and harder each time. At that point I did not believe I could ever stop because I had been to rehab a couple times, done outpatient...I tried church...everything that was suggested to me to stop and I was still unable to. I got a year once and the whole time I was miserable. I was given medications that made my mental disorders worse which led to more using and more misery. If you have never felt that hopelessness and desperation than you will never understand what addiction does to someone. It changes you. It warps your mentality. It causes you to cringe when someone tries to love or help you. It causes you to spend time with people in your same fucked up mindstate which further reinforces the mentality that you are not worth the trouble.

That being said: It has taken years of therapy, detox, rehab, being on the right medication, hard work, and lots of heart ache to get to a point that I no longer feel powerless. It was not some all knowing invisible deity that saved me...it was the belief that I was worth more. No it never goes away...it is always there in the back of my mind, waiting, watching, composing its own critical notices of when I should use and how I can get away with it....but I trudge on...this mental disorder will not defeat me.

@squizz: Everyone has different ideas, in the end the only thing that matters is what gets you to the point of being able to change. What is right for someone else may not be right for you and vice versa, but the journey is much the same. We can sit and endlessly talk about what our understanding of addiction is, but in the end it is always just a different head on the same hydra. Be kind to others....we have not been kind to ourselves.

@nutty: Whatever wakes you up in the morning and helps you believe you are able to put your best foot forward. I highly suggest you read what a lot of people have said here because it will help you shape your own view and may save your life, or at least give your life meaning.
 
For me if I drink I either won't stop or I'll go right back to treatment. because I know I can't stop by myself..Id wake up and dry heave for 30 mins then try and keep down some vodka then walk to the store at 5am
 
For me if I drink I either won't stop or I'll go right back to treatment. because I know I can't stop by myself..Id wake up and dry heave for 30 mins then try and keep down some vodka then walk to the store at 5am

That does sound like a pretty shitty quality of life. If had I had to put up with that, day in day out, I'd definitely take rehab any day over that. How are you doing these days btw DWE?
 
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Addiction is generally a co-occurring chronic mental disorder. The same as someone that has an anxiety disorder with Bi-polar 2.

There is a lot to be said about powerlessness. I was using hard drugs and drinking since age fifteen because I could not deal with my anxiety disorder. This led to hopelessness, isolation, fear, etc. I had to drink a warm beer I kept under my bed to steady my hand enogh to do a shot to take the sick away...I would lay in bed hating myself harder and harder each time. At that point I did not believe I could ever stop because I had been to rehab a couple times, done outpatient...I tried church...everything that was suggested to me to stop and I was still unable to. I got a year once and the whole time I was miserable. I was given medications that made my mental disorders worse which led to more using and more misery. If you have never felt that hopelessness and desperation than you will never understand what addiction does to someone. It changes you. It warps your mentality. It causes you to cringe when someone tries to love or help you. It causes you to spend time with people in your same fucked up mindstate which further reinforces the mentality that you are not worth the trouble.

That being said: It has taken years of therapy, detox, rehab, being on the right medication, hard work, and lots of heartache to get to a point that I no longer feel powerless. It was not some all knowing invisible deity that saved me...it was the belief that I was worth more. No it never goes away...it is always there in the back of my mind, waiting, watching, composing its own critical notices of when I should use and how I can get away with it....but I trudge on...this mental disorder will not defeat me.

I totally agree with you.

By powerlessness I don't mean that someone that drinks is powerless or weak/sick. I believe that most of people who has a drinking problem are often in a tough spot over a toast of champagne or whatever. I feel that once you can't limit yourself to a glass of wine and be okay with it, something is wrong. Or whenever you socialize at work and end up drunk every time and eternally regretful on the following day.
 
That does sound like a pretty shitty quality of life. If had I had to put up with that, day in day out, I'd definitely take rehab any day over that. How are you doing these days btw DWE?

I'm in a really nice iop in surf city usa . Had a slip a month ago. Got 24 days today...been eating healthy and going to the gym and beach on the weekends...6 hours of groups a day which can be really dull cuz I've heard it all before so many times. Got a sponsor...

Going to try and give myself time and keep it simple....hard to find pleasure in things but I'm sure it will come back .

Been going to the Dr for my hepc should be on treatment soon ...

If i use again I'd be homeless so fast and right Back where I started...I'm almost 30 and 30% grey hair (women don't seem to mind it)....

Wanna try and live a meaningful life...I've partied enough
 
I hear ya. Keep up the good work. See all the infinite ways you can be a little easier on yourself. Once you really, like really pay just a bit of attention to yourself, slowing down and being kinder to yourself is possible and so fulfilling in so, so many ways. I can't deal with that much meetings, but do whatcha gotta do. How are you handling it all, the dullness I mean?

What kind of self-care you got going on?
 
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