After 2 years of daily lurking, it's time I contribute to the community that has helped me start and maintain my sobriety. Unlike most of you, I haven't got most of the rest of my life ahead of me. I'm 62, so most of it's in the rear view mirror, and I drank for over 40 years. But after reading your stories and supportive comments for 6 months, I finished Alan Carr's book (see the sidebar) and my last drink simultaneously. As in his description, I found myself sliding further and further down into the pitcher plant, drinking a little more each year. I've never been blackout drunk, or endangered others, and I've always functioned well on the work side; I still own a successful internet company and get up early every morning to go to work from my living room. But starting at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, I'd reward myself with a little happy hour that never stopped until I turned the lights out. What started with 3 or 4 beers when I was in my twenties became over 40 years later a half a fifth a night, plus a little wine or beer. Insidious little habit, isn't it? My wife, whom I love and have a good relationship with, never considered me to have a drinking problem, I was just a heavy drinker. Of course so was (is) she...so if I'm an alcoholic...
I our mutual enabling is one of the main reasons I was never successful in quitting earlier, although I tried many times. It's pretty hard to quit when you swear off, then open the refrigerator several times a day and see a box of wine at eye level, a couple of beers, and there's bottle of bourbon in the freezer and a single malt scotch bottle sitting on the counter. But hey, I've read stories of some of you folks who work as bartenders, so I knew it was not insurmountable, and that it's always up to us to choose what we do.
I've been more successful this time not only because of the support of you guys but the knowledge that as I age, the effects of drinking are going to (have already) piled up. At my heaviest, I weighed 293. Carry six bowling balls everywhere you go and your knees are going to blow out when you reach my age. Check. Waking up at 3AM with the shakes. Check. Getting hard to swallow, is that a pre-cancerous growth in my throat??? Check.
Going on a keto diet (check out /r/keto) and laying off the alcohol has resulted in my losing 80 pounds so far, and I'm no longer obese, just overweight, but I'm continuing this journey. No more waking up, no more worrying about throat cancer, I can run 3 miles on the treadmill now. I still hear that little voice saying "Hey, when you reach your goal weight you could start drinking again!" But there's another one that says "Nope, I don't think I want to resume my slide to the bottom of the pitcher plant."
Well, there's my story. Thanks for all the support and know that there are lots of people reading and getting support from this place every day, even if you seldom hear from them.
TLDR; Never too old to quit.
Submitted January 06, 2015 at 06:39PM by donedrankin http://ift.tt/1BFtNiO stopdrinking
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