The giving up/cutting down alcohol support thread!

jo1972

It's funny cos you don't even realise half the time what goes on in peoples lives. I met a woman at the drug and alcohol place a couple of years ago, totally normal (just like me ) and it turns out she drinks 6 bottles of wine a night (ETA literally a night, she works 2 very good jobs a day and doesn't start drinking till around 6pm and doesn't stop till she's had the 6 and blacked out), her liver is shot, and I mean shot, I'm really worried about her. She won't stop drinking She is so smart looking, she always wore a suit to the meeting we went to, made up, lovely hair, nice bag etc. etc. The question I always wanted to ask her was....what the hell do you do with 6 empty wine bottles every day

I'm still in contact with her, she had 35% damage to her liver back then and has not stopped drinking, even after 3 residential detoxes (sp?). She's now found out it's 48%. I'm told, so don't quote me, that 55% can mean a transplant

It is literally a sobering thought....


Anyway, on to happier things...

Happy birthday to your ds tomorrow Andy

It's the complete opposite to me, in a couple of weeks it'll be my youngest DD's birthday, she'll be 3 and wants EVERYTHING :eek: :eek:

xx

jo1972

Fantastic Craig! Keep us updated.

How you been feeling every night??

Bismarck

jo1972 wrote: »

It's funny cos you don't even realise half the time what goes on in peoples lives. I met a woman at the drug and alcohol place a couple of years ago, totally normal (just like me ) and it turns out she drinks 6 bottles of wine a night (ETA literally a night, she works 2 very good jobs a day and doesn't start drinking till around 6pm and doesn't stop till she's had the 6 and blacked out), her liver is shot, and I mean shot, I'm really worried about her. She won't stop drinking She is so smart looking, she always wore a suit to the meeting we went to, made up, lovely hair, nice bag etc. etc. The question I always wanted to ask her was....what the hell do you do with 6 empty wine bottles every day

I'm still in contact with her, she had 35% damage to her liver back then and has not stopped drinking, even after 3 residential detoxes (sp?). She's now found out it's 48%. I'm told, so don't quote me, that 55% can mean a transplant

It is literally a sobering thought....

er thanks for that....

as a natural hypochondriac, I've been wondering about having a full check-up to see if there's anything I should know...

I am aware that I don't have a beer gut anymore...it's now a cheese and biscuit gut and I'm a bit grumpy sometimes...however, as I'm also jobhunting, I'm leaving any medical stuff until I'm past a probation period as I want to honestly declare on any form that I'm free of ailments.

I am optimistic that my body will ultimately forgive my past excesses and can confirm that my skin is a lot better than it was and the puffy redness I used to have around my cheeks is gone...

I'm still curious as to how I'd fare in a liver function test but there are some things I'd rather not know sometimes..

6 bottles of wine sounds a lot - funny thing is it that wine often gets a bad image ...."a whole bottle of wine???" some would say...well if it's Hock at 8% or something, a 70 cl bottle is about 2 pints of Stella...drink 10 pints and some people think that's a lot...5 bottles of wine seems worse somehow.

anyway...the empties....I'm surprised she's not on wineboxes....now they're dangerous!!

best go, I'm rambling! I'll go and put the kettle on...

good luck everyone with a quiet night in (or not as the case may be)....;)

jo1972

With the amount of abstinence you've had I'm sure you're fine...otherwise you'd not be feeling as good as you obviously do. If you were ever worrying though I would say go for the test so you know, obviously easy for me to say...go back a few (lots) of pages and I was in the same position :rotfl:

I used to think about the amount of alcohol I'd drunk in the day compared to a bottle of coke, just thinking that one can of beer equates to a quarter of a 2 litre bottle of coke, I could comsume 2 of those :eek:

jo1972

Bismarck wrote: »

anyway...the empties....I'm surprised she's not on wineboxes....now they're dangerous!!

I did actually mention something about how does she hide the bottles a while ago, she makes daily visits to the recycling thing which is next to where she works.

I haven't seen her for a while cos I guess she started drinking heavily again and then you tend to bury your head. But I was in the local Sainsburys and I looked up and saw her and I swear she saw me, she looked down really quick and kinda rushed down an aisle as if she hadn't really planned to IYKWIM. I noticed she had a couple of bottles in the basket. I feel bad that I never went to say hello, but I've text her quite few times and she's not responded, I know that feeling..

I hope she's okay, I might text her again tonight..

Leigh73

Hi there Jo and co,

Long time, no 'see'!

Hope you're all having a relaxing evening.

I'm sat here, playing about on my Mac, getting ready to watch a film I'm downloading from itunes, 'Into the Wild' which looks good

As for the boozing, I went on a crazy 4 day bender, which came to an end 2 weeks ago tonight...I haven't drank since then, which is the positive part of this sorry tale, which i'm trying to focus on.

I did however get through £400.00 (including 2 hotels) during those 4 days..stupid I know. What makes it even more stupid, is that it was money I can ill afford, from a credit card, I'd only had for a day just to improve my credit rating.

I've turned things around however.

Since then, I've started going to a group meeting at my local alcohol support charity, and arranged to see a counsellor on a weekly basis as of next Thursday too.

My CC hasn't been touched since then, and I've budgeted well, so that yesterday, I gave my Dad (who I've been temporarily living with) some dosh for keep, paid my mobile bill, and I have the money to pay around double the 'minimum payment' on the Credit Card. So, if I stay sober and sensible, I can pay the debt off with time! :T Boy do I feel bad for being so stupid 2 weeks back though.

The great news, is that a local Housing Association called me at the end of April, and offered me a flat, a 2 bedroom flat at that! :j

It looks lovely, very tidy, and it turns out that my future neighbour is a great girl who I went to school with!

I've only actually seen the outside of the flat, but it's in a gorgeous, quiet street, a 5 minute walk from the town centre.

I'm due to meet the 'housing officer' next Friday, at the flat, where I'll be filling out the paperwork. The girl at the office (who's been updating me over the last 5 weeks) told me that they'll be able to hand over the keys to me there and then that very same day! I'm pretty excited, but also pretty worried about living alone again, having been living at my Dads (although, have been essentially homeless) since December of last year.

My Dad even treated me to a second hand bed and mattress, as well as a tumble drier (virtually brand new and spotless) which we found in the paper...all three came to £80! He's also promised to help me look for a fridge / freezer / cooker / washer and sofa

Anyway, sorry to witter.

Thanks for reading, if you got this far, and I promise not to leave it so long next time :A

Take Care all of you, 'cos I know how hard it is.

Kind Regards,

Leigh x

craigp_2

jo1972 wrote: »

Fantastic Craig! Keep us updated.

How you been feeling every night??

Brilliant thank you Its nice getting up early every day and having the whole day ahead of me while feeling fine :j not arguing with my parents is also a plus.

Leigh73

craigp wrote: »

Brilliant thank you Its nice getting up early every day and having the whole day ahead of me while feeling fine :j not arguing with my parents is also a plus.

Well Done Craig.

Waking up with a clear head, certainly does feel great doesn't it?!

craigp_2

Leigh73 wrote: »

Well Done Craig.

Waking up with a clear head, certainly does feel great doesn't it?!

It does and more than likely means I wont be waking up regretting what I did the night before lol

jo1972

Leigh :wave: so pleased you came back to let us know how you are! We do worry on here you know

That is absolutely fantastic news about the flat, I know you're worrying about living alone but I do remember you mentioning a few irritations you had going on when living with your dad so your life will be yours to live now and only you can decide how to live it. Is that job you applied for still available, now that you can have a phone line to yourself?

I think you needed that last bender to appreciate how close to the edge you live sometimes. Maybe write down anything you can remember leading up to it, during it and how you felt after and now and go back to that when things look dodgy. I am so pleased to hear you've got counselling, it's surprising how many people don't consider binge drinking every few weeks or even months as as much of a problem as daily drinkers....in fact for your health it's worse. As a daily drinker I can manage day to day stuff, my body tolerates the amount of alcohol I drink, apart from driving (which I wouldn't do), I can do pretty much everything else as normal. But binge drinkers, after the alcohol leaves the body after 4 days the tolerance goes back to where it was and the body can't cope with copious amounts of it, which leads to black outs and doing stuff like disappearing (hotels and big CC bills etc :rolleyes: ). This is how daily drinkers can easily consume an amazing amount of alcohol and still be coherent compared to those that just go to the pub once a week.....I've always been the last one standing during evenings out

Please keep posting Leigh, let us know how your flat is inside and make sure you've got internet on as soon as possible so you can get on here when you're home alone if you need to.

xx