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I am a successful software dev but I have a serious drinking problem

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Re: I am a successful software dev but I have a serious drinking problem

#121
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's sad, but you are not doing drugs serisously, this nonsense has to stop. Alcohol = drugs and whoever tells otherwise doesn't properly understand what drugs are and how they work on your mind and body. Note: I tried a lot of stuff out there, and in the end alcohol is just one of the others, sole difference being it's 'accepted', sort of (btw same is true for quite a lot of the prescription things as well) - you…

To you and others - i didn't know it's not a drug. It was my opinion, apparently wrong. Thanks for clarifications! Will do beers only on fridays then!

> To you and others - i didn't know it's not a drug. It was my opinion, apparently wrong. Thanks for clarifications! Will do beers only on fridays then!

But it's not an opinion, it was a factually incorrect statement. There is a distinction.

The only reasons people categorize the two as different are societal, cultural, and legal. Not by any empirical, scientific standard.

In the end it is a chemical that has an intoxicating, mind altering effect on the body. Which is, by definition, a drug.

Acting as though alcohol is somehow "not a drug" or that alcohol addiction is somehow distinct from "drug addiction" is unproductive at best, lethal at worst.

Re: I am a successful software dev but I have a serious drinking problem

#122
post #66

As another poster mentioned, addiction is about getting away from some kind of unbearable inner pain. I'll share mine, what I did to get deaden it, and how I finally healed it. I'm 31 now, have a wife, exciting job, close friends, and most of all, I'm happy. My pain comes form severe bullying; I got beaten up literally every day as a child for three years. After that, I finally got transferred to another school, but…

Did you use the DMT solo or under guidance? National Geographic channel had a program on recently about how DMT and LSD are making a comeback for curing addictions and painful pasts.

I used the DMT solo after doing thorough research.

Re: I am a successful software dev but I have a serious drinking problem

#123
post #98

I'm an escapist. Whether it's movies, youtube, video games, literally anything that is unproductive, I'll spend an inordinate time doing. Luckily, I don't drink or do any drugs, but I might as well since I'm pissing my life away. It is as if I'm stuck in neutral. However, I do make just enough money to get by. The odd thing is that I can't pinpoint why I'm this way. It wasn't always like this. I guess reason doesn't…

You might want to watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFIa-Mc2KSk I've been struggling with this as well at times.

Very informative, thanks for sharing.

Re: I am a successful software dev but I have a serious drinking problem

#124
The good news is that it's not a hopeless cause, even though it might seem that way. I used to think that mine was.. totally genetic and thus incurable; that I was doomed to the same death-by-alcohol fate as many in my biological family, so why bother?

The only people who can understand are those who've been through it and found a way to put the brakes on. It's worth testing out.. my test found the world a whole lot better with the brakes fully engaged at a complete stop, so that's where I've been for a while now.

There are people out there -- young and old, men and women, wealthy and poor, god freaks and atheists alike who've done it. Find them, listen with an open mind and among them there will surely be someone you can relate to who can help you learn about what worked for them.

Re: I am a successful software dev but I have a serious drinking problem

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest (genuinely) do you also think people suffering from depression should just pull themselves together?

I downvoted GP assuming that indeed the GP would tell a depressed person to "stop externalising a blame" and "grow up". Which is actually quite a good advice for depressed people. Repeat it enough times and watch suicide rate grow rapidly... And depression rates declining! On a more serious note, people need to understand that the perceived "only in the mind" problems are actually illnesses which are much more deadly…

Having suffered from very mild depression from time to time, my view on people suggesting that depression not be seen as an illness is that it's something of a red herring, at least in terms of practical solutions.

If in some strange world someone decided that a broken leg wasn't a medical condition, it wouldn't change the impact if had on the person suffering from it. Someone still couldn't run it off just because it's not deemed a medical condition.

Similarly people may view depression as an illness or not but that shouldn't make the believe that reclassifying it suddenly means that someone can just pull them self together.

Speaking personally in the situation I was in you could certainly tell me that but the very best that would have happened is that I could have pretended to be OK for a bit, before relapsing worse than before (which happened several times, not because people told me to pull themselves together but because life just didn't give me the bandwidth to do anything else).

Similarly telling an alcoholic that they're wrong about the nature of their problem does next to nothing to actually address it - it's just meta discussion.

Re: I am a successful software dev but I have a serious drinking problem

#126
Well. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14636959 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2732004/

The original study on nurses in Israel estimates the probability for stressed people to give in to addiction to be 150% more than average.

Coders are liking this culture of burn in/burn out like junkies anyway.

It is clear our way of working is health hazardous. I never saw another profession more despising that much CHSCT or usual working wisdoms or health protection.

In my former (game company) the alcohol was even bought by the company every friday and it was poorly accepted people refuses to share a toast. And I saw the casual boozing a lot in a lot of places.

The average drinking in computer development and drug use {when I include the graphists designer} are way above the average of my supposed to be unsafe with all these junkies suburb. I don't come from a favela, just one of the «banlieue» that gives nice rioting picture on CNN/fox news every 10 years.

The work culture in IT is the most dangerous and irresponsible I never saw. No respect for anyone, neither workers, nor providers, nor sometimes customers.

It makes me sometimes feel as if I was working with psychopaths, and I did my conscription, so I met psychopaths. But soldiers made me feel more secure.

Re: I am a successful software dev but I have a serious drinking problem

#128
post #126

Well. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14636959 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2732004/ The original study on nurses in Israel estimates the probability for stressed people to give in to addiction to be 150% more than average. Coders are liking this culture of burn in/burn out like junkies anyway. It is clear our way of working is health hazardous. I never saw another profession more despising that muc…

btw, alcoholic, the same way other people do sports.

I don't care, I don't brag about it, I try to improve it by myself and it works. Neither proud nor guilty.

Bad practice 101: drinking alcohol on your work place.

I kind of see it as an occupational disease. And for every new jobs I try to voice myself against these practices. And it fails because I am over «reacting».

Now, I don't care.

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