Alcoholism question.......

[gimmefeedback]

So,

I grew up living with an alcoholic father. It started very mild, and in the last 5 years has gotten totally out of hand.

For those that haven't lived with this - it's absolute hell. A surprisingly large % of the population deals with it - 8% (roughly 1 in 12) is the # for the US. Certain ethnic backgrounds are much worse - I believe Irish,Russian, and a few others suffer almost double that rate (1 in 6!).

The relationship between me and my dad is pretty awful now, which is a shame because he was pretty good to us growing up.

Please fill out the poll, and share any stories. I'd like to take this chance to let people know that if they see their friends dangerously falling into a true alcoholic pattern to keep an eye on them and warn them.

(That is, regularly drinking during the day, drinking -every- day and can't help it, etc).

I tend to go out drinking about 2-3 times a week, but have kept it in very small amounts, and can easily go for months at a time without a drink.

[KilgoreTrout]

My typical Irish family:

One of my paternal uncles was an alcoholic. He was also the type of smoker who would light one off another, and so he died a horrible death from lung cancer (he was in his 50's when he was diagnosed, but the disease aged him rapidly so that he looked like he was in his 80's when he died).

His son, my cousin is a functioning alcoholic. He was dismissed from the Massachusetts State Police because of his alcoholism, though. Now he's a letter carrier.

I suspect that my mother may be an acoholic. She's in her 70s and if I see her or talk to her just about any evening she'll have slurred speech. I only had one alcohol-related incident with her, and that was many years ago, shortly after my father passed away.

I came home from work (was living with mom - I was 23), and she was bent about me not mowing the lawn. She was ironing clothes / mending something. I told her to lighten up and she flipped out. I dismissed her and walked away, knowing she was loaded. She grabbed my arm with the hand she was using to hold the scissors, putting a two-inch long slash in my forearm. I moved out a month later and all has been well as far as I'm concerned.

I enjoy drinking, myself, and at times have to remind myself of my family history. Fortunately, I get horrible hangovers when I binge, and I'm too old now to rally like I did in my 20's. Still, I have to be careful.

[gimmefeedback]

Alcoholism stories are some of the most shocking things you've ever heard.

I don't think I feel comfortable sharing them all yet publicly, but if people want to PM me I can talk about it.

The behavior of alcoholics is almost identical to a totally addicted heroin user.

[JasonK]

Both of my parents were alcoholics when I was growing up. My dad much worse than my mom. He used to regularly pass out at the kitchen table. They fought a lot, and took it out on me and my siblings too, mostly it was verbal not physical abuse. It sucked.

We used to go to my aunt's house a lot and my dad would play cards and drink all night. One night we were driving home and he was really hammered. Instead of turning into the driveway of our apt. complex he turned about 50 feet in front of it and ran over the fence. Thankfully that's the worst damage he caused while driving drunk.

I was about 22-23 when they stopped drinking so much.

[MasterLJ]

I'm Irish/German by blood (family comes from the Islands).

We don't have a problem, so long as we have our beverages.

[Los Feliz Slim]

My mother's father died when she was like 16 because of alcohol. It almost killed her at around 50, which was probably the only thing that could've gotten her to stop drinking. She is lucky to be alive and will never be "healthy" again. Her sister is also an alcoholic, they don't speak (woot Irish Catholicism yo). I have more "my mother is an alcoholic" stories than I can count, none of them at all amusing or worth sharing.

At various times in my life I've been a very heavy drinker, but I seem to be able to put the brakes on at some point.

[Matt Williams]

[ QUOTE ]
Alcoholism stories are some of the most shocking things you've ever heard.

[/ QUOTE ]

My next door neighbor when I was growing up went into rehab and did everything, ect. About a year later, he bought a puppy for his family. He had a wife and 3 kids. They were the type that you would never think of having a dog. So anyway, my brother was mowing the lawn one day and in my front yard, he noticed a bottle of vodka. Turns out, the neighbor was buying the vodka at lunch and placing it in my yard. When he came home from work at 5 or 6 PM, he would take the dog for a walk and drink the bottle while out with the dog. He did this every day.

[hoksy]

IMO if you need to ask, you have a good chance of being an alcholic. I'm not trying to make fun of a serious situation. I think I might be a borderline alcholic and am a little concerned about it. I'm in college and like to believe this is normal for the average American college student. My worries stem from the fact that this probably won't end at graduation.

[The Glidd]

I went with a girl in college who drank a lot. It was fun for a while, but I wondered why the vodka in the fridge tasted really watery when I made drinks every few weeks.

Then things weren't going so well, we had an argument, and I pulled the plug on the relationship half-heartedly.

She bought a big jug of wine (750ml?) drank the whole thing, and slit her wrists. She recovered and knew at that point that she sure had a problem.

She went to treatment and then we stayed together through the summer.

It didn't last. It was senior year by then and I needed to get as much drunken tail as possible, so we broke it off.

I think she's sober to this day, though.

[hawk59]

my dad is an alcoholic, he wasn't home very much, but when he was he made it a pretty terrible place for all of us. once i got out of the house and started living on my own i pretty much stopped talking to him.