A year ago today is when I took my last drink of alcohol, and decided that it was in my best decision to quit drinking.

Why did I decide to quit drinking? It was a multitude of different things, and a bit of foreshadowing. For one, when I drink I either go full throttle, or I wouldn't start the car. Hell, quite a few of the NVHTF members have seen me drunk, and many more have seen me drunk in a purple nighty on Tosh.0 . The main thing, is I cannot just have one or two drinks when I decide to drink. I would buy "Just a six pack" on my Friday night, so that I am "limiting" myself to just six beers. Well, those six beers would go down pretty good, and I would go out and get a twelve pack. Once those were gone, I would be looking through the cabinets and mixing blackberry brandy with iced tea, or whatever else I had. Wine, hard liquor, whatever it was, I would drink it.

This also caused quite a few issues with the wife. I used to really like just drinking by myself, browsing arfcom, or playing the PS3, and she said this wasn't a good thing. For me, it became a point of resentment with her. I would get mad at her because she is mad at me for drinking alone, or mad at me for how many I am drinking. Needless to say, this is not good for a relationship.

There were a few things that it really boiled down to that made me quit drinking. The first thing was I had just gotten pretty serious about working out. Doesn't matter how good of a workout that you had, if you come home and drinking 14 beers, you might as well have not even worked out. The second thing was it was obviously causing problems in my relationship, and my life overall. I had periods where I was proud of myself if I went a night without having more than 4-5 drinks. Waking up with a perpetual hangover is no way to go through life.

The third and final thing was some foreshadowing, and deciding to quit while I am ahead. This happened after my best friend from childhood got his second DUI within a year. He got it in a company vehicle, and as a result lost a $75,000 a year job, had his license suspended, and had to get a lawyer. After this I really started to look at myself, and what had happened to people around me. Looking into it, I was the only one out of my group from Highschool that had not had a DUI or trouble with the law due to alcohol. On top of this, most of these friends had a series of failed marriages or relationships due to this. This is when I finally decided that I should probably get my shit together, and quit drinking. My birthday is on the 22nd of January, and at my birthday party with my friends on the 27th of January 2013, after having the final beer we had there (a Ruby Mountain Buckaroo Brew), I decided that was all she wrote.

The first few weeks were pretty damned hard to say the least, in a multitude of ways. First off was the withdrawls. I was cranky as fuck, and beyond an asshole. Not drinking just felt alien to me, and is something that took quite a while to get over. I started replacing my desire to drink with doing something productive. Sorting my bucket of mixed brass, going to the gym, doing a chore, just something to take its spot. Since then, I have now replaced it with a gym routine, and attempting to do one thing a day at the house that I do not want to do.

The other hard part was the shit I got from my drinking "friends'. This really made me see who my true friends are. The core group of friends I have had for years, fortunately understood my desires, and supported me. One of them also went through this, so there were many times he gave me advice, and told me when it was really bad, just take it hour by hour and stay strong. Some of my friends from my core group who drank with me often (including Mr. 2 DUI) accepted it as well, and never gave me shit about my choice. On the other hand, some of my friends who drank quite a bit turned downright hostile, calling me a pussy, faggot, quitter, etc. As the months passed, they seemed to disappear from my life, and I have seen them having legal issues due to drinking on facebook.

This first few months it seemed like my body was getting used to being deprived of alcohol. My sleep was like shit, my thoughts were all over the place, and things just generally seemed odd.

It seems like much longer than a year since I quit drinking, but overall my life is much better. I now know how to be social without drinking, which I always insisted I had to be drunk to be social. I can now play Designated Driver/Designated Shooter when I go out with the wife and friends, and it is nice not to have to depend on someone else. Overall my health is much better than it was a year ago, and I am seeing much better results from my workouts. My relationship with my wife has improved greatly, and it seems like my relationship with my close friends is better as well. No more waking up after a night of drinking and thinking "Oh fuck, what did I do last night", and no being ashamed or embarassed from my drunken actions.

I went back and forth about if I should post this all morning, but it was threads like this, right here on arfcom that made me think "Maybe I should stop drinking". I figure if this can help anyone out, then it would be well worth it. Hell, do you think you have a drinking problem, or are you going through this right now? Feel free to IM me, I am open to talking about it.

TL;DR, I am an alcoholic, and quit drinking a year ago.

EZ

Congrats!

Congratulations man!  Stay strong.

Good job!

MM, you make ol scruff proud to be like you.
I dont think i ever drank only one beer. If there wasnt enough to get drunk on,
why bother.
and if a friendship was based on drinking, it wasnt much of a friendship. I dont miss them.

I have a good life now, and a large list of good people who will come running if I need them.
and I`ll run to them.

Mrs Scruff approves.

Congrats!

Does this mean you won't be turning anymore rapes into murder?

Congrats, btw. I quit two months ago.  I still miss it.

No one likes a quitter.
















.  Congrats!!

Good for you man. Good for you.

Welcome to the club!

Almost 5 years for me.

Frist off, congrats.

Secondly,

I never understood how you could still be an alcoholic if you don't drink anymore.


Alcoholic
1. a person suffering from alcoholism.
synonyms: dipsomaniac, drunk, drunkard, heavy/hard/serious drinker, problem drinker, binge drinker, alcohol abuser, person with a drinking problem.

Alcohalism
1. an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency.

You're not dependent on alcohol any more, its all past-tense... just always confused me.

Funny how that gets sorted out.

 
















 

That is a big deal. Been. 1 1/2 years for me and I still have a  want but not as bad. Congrats

Alcoholism is just another name for any activity done to the nth degree. "Alcoholics" are people who can't control themselves from overindulging, whatever the activity. Their lack of self-control is what makes them alcoholics, not the alcohol.

Take away the alcohol, and you're still left with the lack of self-control. That is why they can never have another drink, while normal people can drink alcohol in moderate amounts.

My dad quit 22 years ago. Good for you.

Alcoholics are people who can't control themselves from overindulging... That I get...

However, if you're no longer overindulging how are you an Alcoholic? The mere fact that you (anyone) are no longer drinking is testimony to your (anyone's) self-control...?

EDIT: I'm honestly not trying to break balls, I'm genuinely curious because I have had this question for a long time.

Good man.  I can't get past 3 weeks. It used to be 2 days.  Great job!!!

You're life is better and now you will enjoy more years of it.

Congrats!

I quit drinking during the week, only weekends for me now

You saw the problem and took it head on. Good for you!

That is awesome. 6 weeks for me and I feel better already. Its amazing to wake up without being hungover anymore.

Congratulations!!!

I'm at 50 months and some change.  

You sir inspire me. Congrats.

Congrats. 13.5 years alcohol free here.
Oh and don't get sucked into having a non alcoholic beer with the fellas - I ruined a 1.5 year streak by thinking I had it beat the non alcoholic beer convinced me I could handle a couple real ones everynow and then which lead me back to my old tricks.

.....Oh crap.

Congrats.  

Congrats!

This calls for a celebration!   Drinks are on me!!!    

congrats, I am just starting with the same thing, I am saving this thread to look at when I think of not quiting.


speed

OP - Great post.  Congratulations!

I'm impressed.

That was a difficult goal and you did it.

I'm really happy for you!  I'm VERY close to that point myself.

 

congratulations.  I quit over 25 yrs. ago.  Our drinking style is the same.  I still wonder" could I just have 1 or 2" ?  So far the beast is in check. Stick with it you will do fine.

Congratulations for taking your life back.

Kudos!

16- 1/2 years,       just know  your not alone.....

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

As to the whole term "alcoholic", I cannot control my drinking. I could never just have one beer, in the past, or in the future, it would all roll downhill from there. It seems to be the way I am in a lot of things, I go full retard .

Before I finally made the decision to quit, I had pondered it quite a bit. What it came down to in the end, is I quit because I wanted to quit drinking. Yes, I quit drinking because my wife said I had a problem, my dad had talked to me about it, and a plethora of other things, but in the end it was my choice. At the end of the day you are the person who makes the decision to actively drink, or not drink. I did it for myself, and as a result my wife, and others benefit because of it.

Just like everyone else, I have good days and bad days. In the past when I had bad days I would just drink to drown it out, but that never got me anywhere. The next day I would be hungover as hell, and start the day off shitty. It was perpetual. I would drink more because the wife said I was drinking too much, and that solves nothing. Now when I have a bad day I either destroy myself at the gym, or I go to my gun room and break out the 5 gallon bucket of military 5.56 brass and start resizing it, trimming it, and then swaging the fucking things using a Dillon Super Swage. Swaging brass one by one really puts things into perspective.






If you need any advice, just want to talk about it, or anything, feel free to IM me. One of the hardest parts in the past when I had attempted to stop was I had no one to talk to. I did not feel like I could talk to my friends I drank with about quitting, because they would chastise me. I did not want to talk to others about it because I felt they would judge me. I did not want to talk to my wife about it, because she would give me shit and tell me how the other night when I was drunk I pissed in her dresser drawer and puked in the shower . I finally found someone I could talk to it about when one of my friends I had known for 6 years mentioned that he had not drank in over 10 years. For once, I could talk to someone who knew what it was like, and knew where I was coming from.

Sometimes it is hard to talk about, and you really do, but you do not want anyone to judge you. I am here, you don't know me, I do not know you, but I would gladly give you someone to talk to about it. This goes for anyone who reads this.

EZ

Good job buddy, tomorrow will be 21 months for me

So, with that said, someone with type 2 diabetes who changes their lifestyle and gets healthy and therefore is no longer diabetic... is still a diabetic? Or, are you saying type 1 when they are born with diabetes and they will have to live with it for the rest of their life, and therefore alcoholism is developed during gestation (I think that's the right term for it, haha)?

Now I'm really confused

EDIT: Again, congrats OP!

Congrats - that's a big deal!

8 yrs for me at the end of this month.

Thank you, God.

Cliffnotes? Sorry im drinking. Dont have time to read  all that
ETA, i glossed over the TL;DR part. Good job

I think the proper term is a "Shitload".

Hell, I can afford to buy LaRue mounts now even without crimping my beer budget

good work!

Congrats! Best decision I ever made. Keep it up.

For me, as an alcoholic, even though I haven't taken a drink in just over 9 years. If I were to pick up a JUST ONE DRINK I would without a doubt be right back into that old groove of behavior.

Just like if someone who controls their diabetes with diet and exercise were start wolfing down donuts and McDonalds would probably start having diabetic attacks.

If you think that's hard to grasp we could talk about the "disease concept" of alcoholism

Keep at it OP!!!

I KIND of what to quit drinking. However the issue is that I make a comfortable living working for a beer/wine/spirits distributor and and have an endless supply of alcohol. It costs me no money. Plus I need to hang out in bars sampling out and pitching new product as part of the job.