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U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

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Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#141

Post by germinalphrase »

unstatusthequo wrote: post #137
hooande wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given your success, I'm surprised that you feel the need to remain anonymous. Is it only social stigma, or do you think that there would be business or professional consequences if people knew that you are an alcoholic in recovery?

I’m not surprised at all. Why cause yourself trouble by airing dirty laundry? Zero upside for him to do so, and really no reason to. Knowing he is X person doesn’t add anything to the message, it would almost certainly have blowback for him.

Agreed. His message is a gesture enough.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#142

Post by elfexec »

wjossey wrote: post #5

My father died in July of 2015 from alcohol, at the very young age of 60. He drank daily, and then slowly stopped moving due to other health issues related to back pain. After refusing rehab and other options, he eventually died at his home one evening. His drinking buddy was my step-mother, who followed an identical trajectory. Less than four years later, she died in the same spot of the house, in her late 50s. The…

> My father died in July of 2015 from alcohol, at the very young age of 60.

Condolences, but come on. Since when is 60 "a very young age"? You could start collecting social security retirement benefits at 62.

> Despite him committing slow suicide by alcohol

We are all committing slow suicide. That's life. You think are you going to live forever? I'm assuming he drank all his life, so a 42 year "suicide"?

> we were advised by lawyers that we had no legal recourse and would just end up burning money in a court battle we could not win.

What were you hoping to do? Force someone who doesn't want rehab to go to rehab? How would that even work? Wouldn't that drive him to drink even more?

Listen, if I was dictator, I'd ban alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, drugs, soccer, 99% news/media, etc. I don't drink, smoke, do drugs, gamble, feel soccer is a waste of time and most news/media is a toxic waste of time. But we live in a free society and grown adults are allowed to waste their time and partake in harmful activities as long as it doesn't directly harm others.

And I'm sure others have their own list of things they don't like or feel is harmful or a waste which I disagree with. I don't want them dictating how I live and in return I don't dictate how they live.

There are obvious exceptions where someone is physically/neurologically debilitated, but a functional adult human being deprived of liberty is not anything I will ever support.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#143

Post by 0x8BADF00D »

ccsnags wrote: post #98
elliotec wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did you realize it was too much? Number of drinks? Hangovers? What was "heavily" 3/4 nights a week? What precisely was the moment you were brought to your knees as you say?

Number of drinks is not a good way, in my experience. It’s a detail that isn’t important unless you are trying to game your own standard. You will convince yourself that your arbitrary line makes you ok. Hangovers turn into waking up drunk at some point. For me, they were a reason to drink. Withdrawal is like a hangover that lasts for weeks. The whole time, you will want a drink. My bottom was the realization that my…

Taking a bath as they say (my uncle used to do it until he developed cancer) is indicative of a problem IMO. When you wake up at 9 AM and start drinking, get drunk the whole day, sleep and repeat the whole cycle, that's when you definitively have a problem.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#144

Post by dpark »

dhconnelly wrote: post #126
bradlys wrote: post #122

My father is an alcoholic. (in his case, he went to rehab and doesn't drink much anymore but he is still an alcoholic) I used to think that I was going to drink at one point. I remember thinking, "if I was of age I'd like to buy that lady a drink." But by the time I turned of age and could, I decided I wouldn't touch it. I'd never really been offered alcohol growing up - so maybe that helped settle in the habit. But,…

My father is also an alcoholic, went to AA for a while, has had two divorces since because of drinking. My sister is an alcoholic, my mother is a prescription drug addict. The way this manifests in me is that I'm obsessed with Not Being An Alcoholic. So I drink. Because it's Not A Problem! Sometimes I drink too much, sometimes it lasts for months. And then I Prove To Myself that I'm not an alcoholic, and I stop for a…

You must realize you’re describing relapsing alcoholic behavior, right?

I would think this was sarcasm if not for the edit.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#145

Post by 0x8BADF00D »

pstuart wrote: post #30
wjossey wrote: post #5

My father died in July of 2015 from alcohol, at the very young age of 60. He drank daily, and then slowly stopped moving due to other health issues related to back pain. After refusing rehab and other options, he eventually died at his home one evening. His drinking buddy was my step-mother, who followed an identical trajectory. Less than four years later, she died in the same spot of the house, in her late 50s. The…

I'm so sorry. I've been there too and that powerlessness is devastating. It seems like the pendulum swung too far in the opposite direction from how we treated mental illness in the previous century (aggressively locking people up in institutions). It would be a huge benefit to society if we could find a (relatively safe from abuse) mechanism to treat people who are "functional" yet too mentally ill to stop their sel…

> It would be a huge benefit to society if we could find a (relatively safe from abuse) mechanism to treat people who are "functional" yet too mentally ill to stop their self-destructive behaviors. I'm not sure how that would/could work, but it's a worthwhile goal.

There is a way. When I was lost, dealing with my own problematic issues with drinking, I found another path. Taking a single dose of LSD-25 made me examine the root cause of my drinking, and made me understand just how self-destructive I had been. I've never been religious, but for those 8 hours I felt more connected to everything around me than I had in my entire life. I felt love for the first time. I touched the surface of God, of goodness, of kindness with my soul. And it healed me. Like a bright light, healing me of all of my old emotional wounds. It opened my eyes, so I could see for the first time.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#146

Post by dhconnelly »

dpark wrote: post #144
dhconnelly wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father is also an alcoholic, went to AA for a while, has had two divorces since because of drinking. My sister is an alcoholic, my mother is a prescription drug addict. The way this manifests in me is that I'm obsessed with Not Being An Alcoholic. So I drink. Because it's Not A Problem! Sometimes I drink too much, sometimes it lasts for months. And then I Prove To Myself that I'm not an alcoholic, and I stop for a…

You must realize you’re describing relapsing alcoholic behavior, right? I would think this was sarcasm if not for the edit.

Yes :)

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#147

Post by droithomme »

Alcohol sales went up after the 2008 crash. Drug and alcohol use increases when the economy is bad. Now that the economy is good, if this continues, the trend should hopefully decline. Though affordable and effective treatment may be necessary as well. Most addiction treatment centers are extremely ineffective and costly.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#148

Post by dpark »

throwaway287391 wrote: post #124
dranktoomuch wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question, the first year my sponsor said "avoid those events or have an escape plan" avoiding was a non starter so the "escape plan" was I committed to leave, akwardly as it may be, before i picked up a drink. aka if someobdy was pressuring me to drink to the point i felt i had to i would say "ok get me a beer i have to go to the bathroom" and then disappear and blame it on an upset stomach and believe the trut…

> avoiding was a non starter so the "escape plan" was I committed to leave, akwardly as it may be, before i picked up a drink. > aka if someobdy was pressuring me to drink to the point i felt i had to i would say "ok get me a beer i have to go to the bathroom" and then disappear and blame it on an upset stomach I hope this doesn't come across as rude, but I don't understand -- why was pretending to get sick easier th…

Some people don’t want to publicly embrace the label “alcoholic” and all the social stigma it comes with.

If you openly tell people that you “quit drinking” they will likely either assume alcoholism or openly ask you why. They are not likely to assume you just decided you don’t like the taste, so now you’ve got the label.

If instead you tell people you aren’t “drinking tonight”, you will absolutely get pressure to drink, because “drinking is fun”, and you don’t have a “real reason not to drink”. I’ve seen it many times and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve participated before as well, not because it was my intent to actually pressure someone to drink, but because it was “good natured teasing”. If I had a friend who loved steak and he suddenly ordered a salad at the steakhouse, I’d similarly be tempted to tease him about his dinner choice, even though I don’t actually care if he had steak, or wine, or whatever. I’ve since recognized that this behavior is not healthy and tried to weed it out of myself, but it’s very common.

This is by the way, why vegans complain about people teasing them or judging them about their food choices. With very few exceptions, it’s probably not malicious. It’s just people being stupid and not realizing the impact they’re having on others. In some cases, this can be just annoying. In others, this can be truly problematic.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#149

Post by vasilipupkin »

randlet wrote: post #7

Alcohol is really weird. It's unquestionably a pretty hard drug and yet it's (ab)use is completely normalized in our culture. It's also a drug who's abuse regularly kills people other than those using it.

The reality is that most of us can drink pretty regularly and enjoy it and not really experience any adverse effects. About 20% of the population develops serious problems related to alcohol consumption, but that leaves 80% of us.

Re: U.S. alcohol-related deaths have doubled, study says

#150

Post by rconti »

elfexec wrote: post #142
wjossey wrote: post #5

My father died in July of 2015 from alcohol, at the very young age of 60. He drank daily, and then slowly stopped moving due to other health issues related to back pain. After refusing rehab and other options, he eventually died at his home one evening. His drinking buddy was my step-mother, who followed an identical trajectory. Less than four years later, she died in the same spot of the house, in her late 50s. The…

> My father died in July of 2015 from alcohol, at the very young age of 60. Condolences, but come on. Since when is 60 "a very young age"? You could start collecting social security retirement benefits at 62. > Despite him committing slow suicide by alcohol We are all committing slow suicide. That's life. You think are you going to live forever? I'm assuming he drank all his life, so a 42 year "suicide"? > we were ad…

I'd say dying before you even reach retirement age sounds plenty young.
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