Simply put "wet" brain actually means a brain innundated with alcohol.  If you learn
more about the chemical and the power it has to penetrate barriers and enter every
and all parts of the body it can and will under excessive and long term drinking take
residence in the crainium and brain which will then become totally under the influence
of the alcohol which is not a natural body fluid.  The brain will not function.

From my experiences as a therapist working at a rehab...the human body is very
remarkable for making a comeback when the chemical is completely absent over
time and the person will appear "normal" or somewhat normal.  However there
is those consequences we speak about; "institutions" that often house and care
for those who will never recover their mental faculties because the damage has
become permanent. 

Is it common?  I haven't checked lately other than locally the people who have
been arrested for trying to drive with one or manage a marriage or family or
job with one.  That usually is the temporary condition of one.  Some are heading
toward more a permanent condition as they repeat offend.  I don't know how 
many are being institutionalize cause that isn't often spoken about in connection
with alcohol.

Good question.   

Cafe6 wrote:

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Most of us alcoholics drink a lot daily, so how much drink does it take to get wet brain? Do we even know?

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Cafe6 wrote:

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Hi, I'm not the alcoholic/addict.  My Husband is, but to better understand what he's going through, that is why I posted something on this board.

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It's best to consult a physician as we are not Doctors here and can't  diagnose anyone, are you worried for yourself or someone else?

 

-- Edited by LinBaba on Monday 6th of December 2010 12:00:53 AM

Cafe6 wrote:

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My wife thinks I have wet brain. She wants me to check this website out

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What do you think? Do YOU think you have "wet brain"? Do you want to quit drinking? As a Paramedic I learned when I walked up to a patient I would introduce myself and ask how they were doing and what their name was, if they answered coherently I knew they were "ABC" (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) and Alert and oriented x4 (person/place/time/situation)

Using the same Logic, since the symptoms for wet brain are

• Confusion, which often manifests as apathy to external surroundings and low voluntary verbal participation
• Confabulation telling of events that did not happen, and believing them to be true
• Dementia
• Hallucination visual, aural or tactile

Now I can't tell if you are hallucinating, however whoever I am talking to doesn't appear to be suffering from the other symptoms of "wet brain", especially since you are able to remember your username and password from 5 years ago, that speaks of pretty sharp cognitive acuity, however, if YOU are worried, consult a physician

There is help for those who are affected by someone else's drinking, Alanon sites and such, we actually have one here, she can find support and understanding for herself there, Here is a great search engine if she would like to do her OWN research on wet brain, www.Google.com this site is for alcoholics that want support to quit drinking

Good luck and Godspeed, whatever road you decide to take

-- Edited by LinBaba on Monday 6th of December 2010 08:49:35 AM

Cafe6 wrote:

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I dont know what I think anymore.

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Well, I certainly relate to that statement from my drinking days

The first step in AA is we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives were unmanageable

Well thank God we have our wives to manage our lives for us huh?

The thing about drinking and "powerless" is it gave everyone else power over me, my Girlfriend telling me what to do, what was wrong with me, the police, my job, judges, between the decisions I made while drinking and my low self esteem I let everyone walk all over me and I didn't even know it, I'd bitch about someone "stealing my car" metaphorically speaking but it was always me that gave them the car keys

I remember reading the following passage and realizing I was the other half of the equation, I -needed- someone in my life to tell me what a horrible person I was, I -needed- someone in my life to be dependent on, I needed someone in my life to validate my world view of what an awful person I was, and Boy oh Boy did I find her

The following is in reference to a woman who has taken back her abusive, philandering, gambling, alcoholic husband.

"Suddenly a strange idea begins to dawn; maybe this woman endures her husband's mistreatment, and even seeks it out, for the very pleasure of talking about it. But what would be the nature of such pleasure? THe therapist remembers the woman's self-righteousness. Could it be that the most important thing in the woman's life is to have a sense of moral superiority and that in order to maintain this sense she needs to be mistreated? The nature of the pattern now becomes clear. By allowing herself to be treated basely she can feel superior. Ultimately, she can even have the sadistic pleasure of seeing her husband beg and plead to return, and momentarily acknowldege her superiority from his humbled position, while she decides whether or not to magnanimously take him back. And in this moment she achieves her revenge. When such women are examined it is generally found that they were particularly humiliated as children. As a result, they seek revenge through their sense of moral superiority, which requires repeated humiliation and mistreatment. If the world is treating us well, we have no need to avenge ourselves on it. If seeking revenge is our goal in life, we will have to see to it that the world treats us badly in order to justify our goal. Masochists look on their submission to mistreatment as love, wheeas in fact it is a necessity in their never-ceasing search for revenge and it is basically motivated by hatred.
" The issue of masochism highlights still another very major misconception about love - that it is self-sacrifice. By virtue of this belief the prototypical masochist was enabled to see her tolerance of mistreatment as self-sacrifice and hence as love, and therefore did not have to acknowledge her hatred.
...Whenever we think of ourselves as doing something for someone else, we are in some way denying our own responsibility."

Oh, wow.
I was picked on endlessly as a child. I was tripped and called names and pushed and teased. Perhaps everyone was. I know it hurt me deeply. I took on my moral kindness as a badge of honor. No matter how mean they were, I was more nice as they were more mean. It made me better than them. It made me good while they were bad. It made the awfulness of being picked on okay (kind of). It was a way to make sense of it. No one protected me against all the meanies. I was powerless. It made school awful, often. I felt very alone and out of control. But I had the righteousness of martyrdom. I felt blameless and picked on for no reason. So while being so picked on made me feel unloved and unloveable, my own martyrdom was a way of counteracting my feelings of worthlessness by me telling myself that I was BETTER THAN all of them!
I think, as painful as it is to admit, I DO get a lot of "juice" from telling how "bad" he is to others. I get such a good feeling of validation from telling his "badness" and having people say how crummy it is and what a strong person I am to be dealing with it. I get attention. I get validation. I get to feel morally superior. The more detached I can be and compassionate about his situation the more "good" I feel. The more out of control he is, the more in control I feel. (At least I am keeping my cool. At least I am not berating him. At least I am not raising my voice. He is obviously the one causing the problems here.) Perhaps I get my self worth in comparison to his lack of his own self worth.


So what if we would create these situations where we hurt each other somehow so we could play out these scenarios? to make what we were doing familiar?

what if this was the reason for the neverending drama?

I have to say Sobriety was the gateway to Freedom from that, it was slow going, with periods of backsliding into old thinking and old behavior, but ultimately Sobriety gave me the tools to take my "Power" back from sick relationships, from Judges, From creditors, from The Police, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but Freedom was ALWAYS the result

But it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. We have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. The primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being. Our egomania digs two disastrous pitfalls. Either we insist upon dominating the people we know, or we depend upon them far too much. If we lean too heavily on people, they will sooner or later fail us, for they are human, too, and cannot possibly meet our incessant demands. In this way our insecurity grows and festers. When we habitually try to manipulate others to our own willful desires, they revolt, and resist us heavily. Then we develop hurt feelings, a sense of persecution, and a desire to retaliate. As we redouble our efforts at control, and continue to fail, our suffering becomes acute and constant. We have not once sought to be one in a family, to be a friend among friends, to be a worker among workers, to be a useful member of society. Always we tried to struggle to the top of the heap, or to hide underneath it. This self-centered behavior blocked a partnership relation with any one of those about us. Of true brotherhood we had small comprehension.

Sobriety has brought me freedom from the "bondage of self", that bondage was so large, and so vast, and I had created such an ugly reality I didn't even know I was in a cage, if that is something that would appeal to you, please, keep coming back to this forum and reading, maybe you will see something that makes Sobriety seem attractive, However, Truly, Whatever you do, drink or don't drink, Please Go with my best wishes