Talk about your various addictions here

Well, as an ex-smoker who, if I let myself go, would be a raging wino as well (it runs in the family), speaking from my own very personal experience, it's mind over matter for me. I had to cut the ciggies aloose altogether because there was no controlling that ( quit cold turkey 4 years ago this November!) but I'm not giving up the grape too. I am able to control how often I drink and how much tho' but I have to remain concious of it. That's the best I can do.

Last February on a visit to Hong Kong for Chinese New Years, I drank too much vodka martinis and barely made it back to my hotel room with the help of travel companions. I played and danced like a teenager, and I'm now 70 years old. I thanked our tour director for making me feel "young" again. That was the last time for me.

I'm an alcoholic, and I also used used to smoke, when drinking, so it was pretty much all the time.

Amazingly to some, I quit smoking while I was still drinking.
For a while I used "extra helpings" of booze to pass out more quickly so I didn't miss the smokes as much.

I guess I got past the physical addiction to the cigarettes, and was happy I could pass out earlier. Win/win situation, huh?

Maybe 3 times since I stopped drinking I picked up cigarettes again, only maybe 5 a day, but each time I stopped, it was incredibly hard.

I was so terrified by the time I got to the point when I quit alcohol, I would have done anything.

To take a drug to get you off booze? I just don't know. You'd still have the personality that went with the drinking, and you'd have no incentive or even understand why you'd need to change your ways.

AA's fine, it serves it purpose. Personally, after going there for a year, I used it as a place to pick up guys. Then married one of those AA "gurus" who like many, are a street angel but house devil.

I'd sit at a meeting with him, going on about the big book, people standing around afterward to shake his hand, then listen to him on the drive home talk about what stupid assholes they all were.

That's when I realized how much I had changed, but how much more I had to go......Divorced him, and lived happily ever after (with another sober alcoholic)

Moral of above? If I had just taken a drug to stop drinking, nothing else in my life would have changed.
I needed the jump start, but realized eventually how glorious life could be.

I grew up with an alcoholic parent. As a child of an alcoholic, I have a much greater risk of alcoholism than the general population. I hated my father's drinking as a child and it was only when I became an adult, and started to drink socially, that I noticed the inclination to reach for a glass of wine, instead of some other nurturing device, when I needed to de-stress.

To this day, I know I can have one drink and be fine, or I can have a second one and will definitely have a third. After three I can quit, or continue, depending on the stress level. One of the unfortunate 'benefits' on the genetics of alcoholism is the ability to tolerate large quantities of alcohol. In college, I could drink everybody under the table, not something I'm particularly proud of, but something that came in handy when fending off unwanted drunken suiters.

Can it be cured? There are different aspects of alcoholism. Not everyone is genetically predisposed to addiction. I think it depends on what's driving the urge.

Thanks, I appreciate you having a second look and re-assessing. :wink:

That's an interesting way to put it. Yeah, I like that.

I'm one of those rare people (I think) who don't smoke, drink, or take narcotic substances. My way to de-stress is a nice shower and time on the internet. Hopefully, not too much time.

Reyn, Some topics on a2k can be stressful.

Yes! I stay away from those. You'll never find me in the Politics or Religion forums. :wink:

Smart!

Like Walter, I, too, am an alcoholic in recovery. This September will mark 10 years since the most recent time that I drank alcohol. It's a day-at-a-time program. Unlike Walter, however, I'venever been able to give up the cigarttes. It's the last bad habit I still have and I think everybody should have one vice.

Alcoholism cannot be cured. That's a given. But it can certainly be treated. Alcohlism, in this respect, at least, is like diabetes. A diabetic has to adhere to a strict dietary schedule (no sugar). The alcoholic has to adhere to the same kind of schedule (no alcohol). The diabetic usually also has to take medication, usually insulin. The alcoholic's best medication, in my experience, is attending Alcoholics Anonynous meetings. I just came from one.

Tobacco is a tough mistress, a large size monkey on one's back. But I love it and, as of this writing, at least, have no immediate plans to quit smoking.

Hmm, I started to smoke again. And as an alcoholic, I agree with Andrew's 'arguments'. (As a professional, I don't. [And - according to Mrs. Walter, I do have more vices, like A2K e.g. .]

To be honest, I never stopped smoking because of health resons etc, but just to show people that it is quite easy ... if you really want to. [That's from smoking up to 40 down to not smoking for years or just months like now.]

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Walter -- giving up smoking is quite easy. I've done it at least half a dozen times.

There have been interesting studies in the 70's/ro's:
1/3 of chidren of alcoholics become alcoholics as well, 1/3 doesn't mind about alcohol/behaves normal and 1/3 becomes vehement anti-alcoholics.

I'm not going to bet, but ..... you surely know a lot of people, who drink more coffee than the average, too :wink:

I'm one of them. It's half past midnight here and I have a tepid cup of coffee in front of me as I type.

I'm the other one, who drinks coffee in such a way

So many interesting personal stories on addiction to substances. I think its sad that these addictions happen. I was reading the article that started this thread off and the thing that hit me the most was the fact that the addicted was a doctor - which I regard as a very elite profession, as would most people probably. I wonder what it is that makes these people who are so successful have to turn to alcohol and other substances like so. A few years back in Australia there was a successful academic in Australia's top university - ANU - who was also an alcholic and he eventually got fired because of the habit.

Then again, this is coming from one who doesn't know of everyone else's personal circusmtances so I really shouldn't say. The above was just my personal thoughts on how sad it was, really.

Well, it's fact that some can drink what, when and how much they want - and others get addicted easily.

I sincerely doubt that profession has something to do with it - but being in the "upper storeys" of society makes it much easier to hide your addiction.

To quit smoking is easier - after 40 years of not touching a cigarette.

As for doctors being addicted, their profession could well have something to do with addictions other than alcohol. Doctors have ready access to all sorts of drugs which the rest of us can obtain only with a doctor's prescription.

But alcohol addiction cuts across all social strata. In the States, there's an old saying among recovering alcoholics: it doesn't matter whether you come from a park bench or from Park Avenue, whether you attended Yale or just got out of jail, we're all in the same boat.