Doing sober now

[Ne/Neva Eva]

Satz, Oh, good. And I responded to the wrong quote. i meant the one where I was suggesting I could quit if someone dared me.

Thing is, the only thing that has ever really and truly kicked my ass is alcohol. Probably because if I couldn't win it, I quit it. But that's a whole 'nother thread and people should get paid to hear about it. lol

As a rule, I don't think people have an AUD until THEY think they have an AUD. But also as a rule, anyone who ends up in a room or a website full of people like us, well... One would guess that one doesn't end up in a room or a website full of people like us if one isn't one of us. ETA: It sucks to invest time and energy and thought and feelings and then have it all fall apart because the person on the receiving end just can't hear it. It's why I graduated from slogging through nursing school in middle age realizing the last thing I want to do is be a nurse. Especially in psych or addiction. funny, but true. And I LOVE a drunk/drunks. Also funny but true.

But damn if denial isn't stronger than addiction. It's the strongest muscle I ever flexed--the denial muscle, that is.

It's an irony (or a conspiracy, depending on how you perceive things) that of the substance addictions, nicotine kills WAY more people, and is way more addictive, than all of the others combined. After that? It's still not narcotics. It's people with AUDs. Alcohol Use Disorder (not just daily drinkers, ftr) related illness kills more people than all of the other substances, again, combined. Every year, year in and year out, for decades. Despite the "epidemic" use of (name the substance of the decade...) So more than coke, crack, meth, heroine and even fentanyl deaths, combined. Because it's legal, easy, and easy to deny. And several of those narcotics kill people quickly and easily, whereas those of us in active alcohol addiction get to suffer for a loooong time before our bodies shut down. Or our minds. That's my biggest fear. I know too many non-alcoholics who ended up brain dead or mind-fucked (excuse the word, but I don't want to pretend "wet-brain" is not one of the most horrible things that can happen to someone) in long term care facilities, where the care is minimal and the body holds on.

So Kev. Take good care. I mean it. Don't become a statistic. Read scientific literature about how much more dangerous binge drinking might be than daily drinking. It's fact.

[Mulburry]

I honestly think I'll probably keep drinking until that new gabba alcarelle drink hits the market or if something like cannibis becomes legal in UK and I can take it in a social settings such as a cafe.
I don't smoke but I could eat it.

What I don't quite understand is: if you're just a social drinker and don't have a problem with alcohol why did you ever come on here in the first place?