You are here:
Addiction to Alcohol/beer
Advertisement
Question
about 5 years ago I started having trouble relaxing and sleeping.I started drinking a quart almost every night.It knocks me out.I than relized that a quart was to much so I changed it to no more than 2 beers a night.I went to the doctor for help because I wanted medicine to controll my anxiety when its bed time but they always try to give me meds that are like highly addictive so its the same.I than tryed taking zanax a few times .It wasnt as nice .Now I just drink 2 beers a night.I feel like something bad and unhealthy is going to happen to me.It feels so relaxing.I have had nights were I dont have a beer too.I am worried about my pancreas and liver.I ama small woman so I know that what I am doing is not so good.I quit smoking a few yaers ago And I have not craved any smokes at all but It jusr feels so good and relaxing to have a beer before bed.I cant take a heavy sleeping pill because I wont be able to hear my kids at night.My husband uses ear plugs so I have to be half alert.I dont want to strt taking pills and end up on them regularly and I tryed meletonin and it is not so helpfull.I knwo I am hurting myself but I dont know whats worse .Any ideas?sometime on weekends my husband and I will have 4 beers like maybey once very couple months.
Greetings to you.
Our human anxieties are quite natural, normal and even necessary, and so are our desires to have our natural anxieties quieted ... and there is where trouble can begin and even worsen as time goes on ... and please allow me to try to explain.
We all have natural instincts and desires that must be met in order for us to feel well, and we can become quite anxious in any of a variety of ways when our natural instincts and desires are not satisfied. For example: A baby usually cries when it is hungry, wet or in need of assurance of love, and a baby usually goes back to contentment and even “sleeping like a baby” after those instinctual needs or desires have been met.
As we come through childhood and into adulthood, we discover and learn about all sorts of things that can make us at least *seem* to feel well, and alcohol can do just that. But as time continues on, we ultimately find ourselves in need of something far more effective and dependable than alcohol if we are to truly be happy, joyous and free in life.
I do not know whether a couple of beers each day will eventually shorten your life, but I do know there is not enough alcohol anywhere to permanently relieve anyone’s anxieties. So then, the question we eventually face next becomes something like this:
“‘I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?’
“Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is [an autonomous] fellowship in [an ad-hoc society informally known as] ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship [we share within the Fellowship of the Spirit (‘Alcoholics Anonymous’, the book, page 164)], and so will you.” (page 152)
If you have a desire to stop drinking and you are willing to walk a spiritual path that really goes somewhere, I would gladly help you take the Twelve Steps.
Joseph Lee O.
Email: leejosepho@hotmail.com
Related Articles
Answers by Expert:
Joseph Lee O.
Expertise
Greetings to you! Amidst the insufficiency of all the philosophical, religious and “self-help” approaches to relief from chronic alcoholism, I have personally experienced the content of “Alcoholics Anonymous”, the book. Thus, I can now explain at least the essence of the physical, mental and emotional aspects of an alcoholic's inherent condition and plight, and I can show why a spiritual solution is required and how it works and how to attain one.
Experience
The oldest of four boys, I grew up in a religious, Midwestern-USA family. Unable to decline a friendly offer in a social setting, I had "no effective mental defense against the first drink" ("Alcoholics Anonymous", the book, page 43), and took my very first drink ever at age 24 ... and within minutes I had become obsessed with getting more of the effect that glass of homemade wine had given me. Alcohol had just done something *for* me that nothing else had ever done; it had seemingly "fixed" something inside me I had not even known was broken.
Over the next seven years of my life, I "drank up" just about everything and everyone ever meaning much to me at all, and I eventually abandoned my young family so I could drink and smoke pot at will. For, you see, alcohol was giving me a good-to-go feeling about life and a sense of control I had never before had, and at least in the early days of my drinking it could kill just about any pain that came along.
At age 31, however, circumstances and consequences had piled up all around me in ways that were making it obvious I could not continue on much longer. Life had become too tough, my pains had grown too great and the dangers of continuing to drink had become too undeniable for me to be able to continue believing I might ultimately survive an inescapable drop to the bottom of the pit. I still wanted to be able to drink safely as in days past, but something had seemingly "taken over" my drinking and was dragging me completely out-of-control after just one drink. So, and even while completely overwhelmed by the thought of facing life alcohol-free, I decided to stop drinking altogether ... and I quickly discovered I could not. No matter what I said, thought or did even just "one day at a time", I always ended up drinking once again. Where I wanted to drink safely, I could not, and neither could I remain abstinent for very long at all ... and such is the physical "allergy" (where one drink takes another) coupled with alcoholism’s mental-emotional obsession for the effect of alcohol ...
... but then I met a small group of people who personally understood my deadly dilemma - my complete personal powerlessness - and those same folks were quite able to propose a permanent solution. I accepted, of course, and today it is as if I "could not drink even if [I] would" ("Alcoholics Anonymous", the book, page 57), and for that I now remain unendingly grateful.
©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.