How and when did you start drinking? How has drinking affected your life? How and when did you realize you had a problem? How long have you been attending AA meetings?
I'll start.
I started drinking when I was 18. I never drank during high school but a few months after I started going to college I went to a party and some friends gave me a pina colada. They told me there wasn't anything in it, but after I drank it they told me it had a lot of alcohol in it and I wouldn't be able to drive, so I might as well get drunk.
Drinking has affected my life, I started drinking quite often after moving in to student housing and I ended up going home with many girls who I later regretted. It also caused my grades to suffer in one class when I showed up drunk one day and the teacher said I treated her class like a "cocktail party".
I realized I had a problem when my friends confronted me about it.
I have yet to attend an AA meeting, I thought maybe this forum would be a good way to get my feet wet.
-- Edited by Michael Hartmayer at 18:13, 2005-06-05
Hey Michael, Glad you have joined us. I am Rose and I started drinking when I was 12 years old. But before that I would always have a drink from my Dad's beer,even as young ad 7 or 8 months old. Then there were the wiskeys and lemon for a sore throat, wine and the drink at New Years,soooo I started young.
I was a bartender for many years, and I drank everyday for almost 18 years. I married 3 times all under the infuence of alcohol.My drink of choice was vodka, in anything or staight up.
I started to have blackout a few years before I quit drinking. I drove home one night in a blackout, my husband had to drag me in the house, as he tells me kicking and screaming. I ask him the next day what happened , after he left for work I got on my knees, prayed to a God I had left behind at 12 years old. I said "If you are real then you'd better take this from me or I will kill myself, and it will work this time. He did, it was a miracle.
I started a spiritual quest for 6 years, read the bible, went to many churches, but that journey came to an end when I walked into my first AA and Al-anon meeting in Sept.1991. I was home. I was with people who understood me and I understood them. They loved me, taught me to live life on lifes terms, and have added so much to my 20 years of sobriety, they are my family.
I hope you will go to an AA meeting. It sounds like you are on your search.Keep coming here.
Welcome Michael. Started drinking when I was nine--became addicted to it,-- for a while I lived to drink--then, I drank to live. What happened in those 28 years, would fill a book, and I can say, a lot of it was not good.
Tried controlling it-didnt work
Tried quitting on my own--didnt work
Tried blaming my life on everyone else--didnt work
Tried going to AA meetings and drinking at the same time--didnt work.
Knew I had a problem with it long before I quit--but the compulsion to drink overpowered any thoughts of quitting.
The other thing I couldnt fathom was how do people live happily without booze?
Couldnt see that happening.
Alcohol took everyone and everything away.
I hit a bottom where I didnt want to live. Tried the gun. Couldnt pull the trigger.
Had no choice but to call AA. They gave me hope.
Have attended about 3000 meetings--stayed stopped drinking--one day at a time--met new freinds--learned how to live on lifes terms without alcohol--learned how to live a new way of life. Grateful
Try it-yu might like it.:)
__________________
Easy Does it..Keep It Simple..Let Go and Let God..
michial startedat age 13i drank off and on through high school and colege got married at 27 . i drank somewhat off and on .the last ten years have been a mess drank everday as much i could get my hands on. real thought i had a problem for the last ten years ive missed so much of my life to the bottle ,i have been going to meeting=s the last 4 months been sober for 5months. god bless wagon
i had my first intoxication at 3...dandelion wine in the closet with the little boy from upstairs. Not that I remember it but related by my mom. I think it's significant though because i grew up watching my parents drink, and at three my Dad left.
Intoxicated again at 8..sneaking drinks.
my first drunk was at 14 and I built my tolerance up from there. I say i went to party when i was 14 and left at 38
Drinking affected every aspect of my life..you name it, it was afftected..jobs, health, emotional, spiritual...it left me bankrupt.
I didn't think i had a problem for a long time...everyone else did...not me. I ended up going into drugs along with the booze and finally realized i had a problem when I'd lost everything and everyone that meant anything to me. My girls, my family, my job, my car, my home...my self respect. I just simply didn't care. But i almost died a few times...ironically it took a few times for me to realize i needed help.
I went into detox for 2 weeks, and 4 1/2 months of treatment after that. I was introduced to AA and NA during this time.And went to an average of 5-6 meetings a week.
today I regularly attend AA, it saves my life. I was scared to go at first, shameful. But today i am grateful. its my home away from home. People who share their experience, strength and hope.
Hi Michael ! I too have not been to an AA meeting yet, but I started drinking when I was 12 The frist time I ever got drunk I was 12 years old. I had no idea what had hit me, but after that I just wanted more but, didn't really start in on heavy drinking untill I was in highschool, I had boyfriends who were way older then me and I could get drunk with them anytime I wanted to. At frist it was just plain fun, but after I graduated it became a way of sirvieing, As I didn't know what to do with my life becasue I had sooooo many disabilities and was basically told there was not much hope for me to have a normal life.
I drank every night life became one big party it was what I lived for.
Then reality hit me when I almost lost my life because of depression (suicide attampt) I just suddnely stoped drinking and gave my life to GOD. well since then its been a very long hard road life has not stayed simple and the will to drink has come back again.
