There is another way bröthers.
There is another way bröthers.
Show it to me
Show it to me
Alcoholism is an escape.
Escaping is not wrong.
When you look towards the Universe, and wonder why suffering, and pain, and misery, are all allowed...
Sometimes you want to forget about that shit...
Sometimes you need to numb your mind.
Sometimes you just need a drink.
Alcoholism is an escape.
Escaping is not wrong.
When you look towards the Universe, and wonder why suffering, and pain, and misery, are all allowed...
Sometimes you want to forget about that shit...
Sometimes you need to numb your mind.
Sometimes you just need a drink.
The cerebellum developed in humans incredibly fast and doesn't interact seamlessly with the ancient lizard-brain. Thus we drink
The cerebellum developed in humans incredibly fast and doesn't interact seamlessly with the ancient lizard-brain. Thus we drink
I would like to ask a few questions if thats ok. I have a brother, cousin and friend who are all in this boat but because I have never had an addiction problem of any kind I have a really hard time trying to grasp this one. My friend likes to use the "My life sucks so I drink to forget" line. Yet when he drinks the misery is just amplified. He's forgetting NOTHING just focusing MORE on the shit his life IS BECAUSE of drinking. My cousin, a VERY hard worker, (a finished concrete guy) will finish a work day with his head on the bar passed out, then wake up and drive home. My brother is much more functional, had a 40 year business, retired and still breaks his ass etc but end of the day and out come the beers never fails and he has two fridges chocked full of them.
This is the part where I get lost. What is so appealing about all this? And I will quantify this by saying that in my youth I drank ANYTHING. Boones Farm, White Port, MD20/20, moonshine, Narragansett, Black Label, Colt 45, Shlitz for God's sake, Iron City etc. But that was as a young guy going out to tear it up with the boys. When I was on the road playing gigs I developed a like for Jim Beam but now it'll take me two years to kill a bottle. I long ago realized that standing at a urinal rocking back and forth for my 25th piss of the night was NOT fun so that was it. I stopped. Like I stopped a lot of shit once I grew up.
So I ask now (out of ignorance) What is the attraction here? Is it taste? Is it the high? Both? And why does it have to be constant? Why is there no middle ground? I'm not judging I'm asking. I never got a satisfactory answer from the guys I mentioned so i'm hoping maybe to get schooled up here. I also had a mother who had every addiction known to man SAVE alcohol and why she left THAT on the table I will never know. SO I've lived around this all my life but never could get a solid WHY.
Anyone?
I would like to ask a few questions if thats ok. I have a brother, cousin and friend who are all in this boat but because I have never had an addiction problem of any kind I have a really hard time trying to grasp this one. My friend likes to use the "My life sucks so I drink to forget" line. Yet when he drinks the misery is just amplified. He's forgetting NOTHING just focusing MORE on the shit his life IS BECAUSE of drinking. My cousin, a VERY hard worker, (a finished concrete guy) will finish a work day with his head on the bar passed out, then wake up and drive home. My brother is much more functional, had a 40 year business, retired and still breaks his ass etc but end of the day and out come the beers never fails and he has two fridges chocked full of them.
This is the part where I get lost. What is so appealing about all this? And I will quantify this by saying that in my youth I drank ANYTHING. Boones Farm, White Port, MD20/20, moonshine, Narragansett, Black Label, Colt 45, Shlitz for God's sake, Iron City etc. But that was as a young guy going out to tear it up with the boys. When I was on the road playing gigs I developed a like for Jim Beam but now it'll take me two years to kill a bottle. I long ago realized that standing at a urinal rocking back and forth for my 25th piss of the night was NOT fun so that was it. I stopped. Like I stopped a lot of shit once I grew up.
So I ask now (out of ignorance) What is the attraction here? Is it taste? Is it the high? Both? And why does it have to be constant? Why is there no middle ground? I'm not judging I'm asking. I never got a satisfactory answer from the guys I mentioned so i'm hoping maybe to get schooled up here. I also had a mother who had every addiction known to man SAVE alcohol and why she left THAT on the table I will never know. SO I've lived around this all my life but never could get a solid WHY.
Anyone?
I can revisit tomorrow if you ping me.
For something to begin to chew on, consider that alcoholism can be defined as needing to drink to achieve normalcy. A true alcoholic is more aware and effective with a certain amount of BAC. For example, an alcoholic crane operator would be somewhat prone to error without any alcohol in their system, achieving competency at a certain BAC, with resumption of degradation of abilities beyond that.
This is physical dependency and other substances do similar things.
I can revisit tomorrow if you ping me.
For something to begin to chew on, consider that alcoholism can be defined as *needing* to drink to achieve normalcy. A true alcoholic is more aware and effective with a certain amount of BAC. For example, an alcoholic crane operator would be somewhat prone to error *without any alcohol in their system*, achieving competency at a certain BAC, with resumption of degradation of abilities beyond that.
This is physical dependency and other substances do similar things.
This is physical dependency
Well THIS part of I understand, But does it START out that way? I thought it was something that the body became akin to like heroin or something that once enough of it has corrupted your system your body actually physically needs it.
This is physical dependency
Well THIS part of I understand, But does it START out that way? I thought it was something that the body became akin to like heroin or something that once enough of it has corrupted your system your body actually physically needs it.
Functional alcoholic here. And for the record I'm drunk as we speak. I can drink to passing out every night but get up and go to work the next day like it's NBD. Not that I'm not affected, but it's mostly my personality. In terms of performance I'm about the same whether I drank the night before or didn't. And i can quit for for weeks at a time but never suffer from withdrawal. Alcohol is one of the few drugs that can actually kill you when you stop, but for me it's a walk in the park. My grandfather was a drunk until he died at 80 and my father had all the markings of one but was also driven in other ways and always managed to keep it in check. Point being that genetics appears to have a strong role here, at least for me.
Do I need it? Absolutely not. But I really really like it and that's about the gist of it. Sorry that I can't provide more insight, but if you don't have the bug then you probably can't understand.
Functional alcoholic here. And for the record I'm drunk as we speak. I can drink to passing out every night but get up and go to work the next day like it's NBD. Not that I'm not affected, but it's mostly my personality. In terms of performance I'm about the same whether I drank the night before or didn't. And i can quit for for weeks at a time but never suffer from withdrawal. Alcohol is one of the few drugs that can actually kill you when you stop, but for me it's a walk in the park. My grandfather was a drunk until he died at 80 and my father had all the markings of one but was also driven in other ways and always managed to keep it in check. Point being that genetics appears to have a strong role here, at least for me.
Do I need it? Absolutely not. But I really really like it and that's about the gist of it. Sorry that I can't provide more insight, but if you don't have the bug then you probably can't understand.
I'm a functional alcoholic for sure.
I'm a functional alcoholic for sure.
I've been sober since 2015. I don't regret it but I sometimes miss the buzz of the first drinks. It wasn't for me. I was never as functioning as I thought I was. In the end it was just exacerbating everything that wasn't working in my life. At the time I realized it was also the gateway drug to cocaine which was really destroying me. I found out that all my mental locks I had in preparation to stop using cocaine were gone the moment I felt the buzz of alcohol. The two had become associated in my brain. The day I realized I had to stop drinking to be able to stop cocaine was the day I stopped drinking. I've tried almost every psychoactive drugs you can find and only alcohol and cocaine have an addictive grip on me. Both were drugs I thought I was a functioning user of.
I've been sober since 2015. I don't regret it but I sometimes miss the buzz of the first drinks.
It wasn't for me. I was never as functioning as I thought I was. In the end it was just exacerbating everything that wasn't working in my life. At the time I realized it was also the gateway drug to cocaine which was really destroying me. I found out that all my mental locks I had in preparation to stop using cocaine were gone the moment I felt the buzz of alcohol. The two had become associated in my brain. The day I realized I had to stop drinking to be able to stop cocaine was the day I stopped drinking. I've tried almost every psychoactive drugs you can find and only alcohol and cocaine have an addictive grip on me. Both were drugs I thought I was a functioning user of.
Huh, I was huffing gasoline outta a solo cup that day, i don't drink.
Huh, I was huffing gasoline outta a solo cup that day, i don't drink.
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