Mental Health thread

[santacruzin]

Y r u such a know-it-all?

Aunt Lil. My college roommate's aunt who lived to a ripe young 96 yo.

We used to take her a quart of gin, a quart of vodka, a fifth of scotch and a carton of Marlboro Reds. .... Every two weeks.

Yeah, you are the definitive authority on pretty much, NUTTIN.

Everyone has a story of someone they know like that. anecdotal evidence for the win!

 

[casa_mugrienta]

Y r u such a know-it-all?

Aunt Lil. My college roommate's aunt who lived to a ripe young 96 yo.

We used to take her a quart of gin, a quart of vodka, a fifth of scotch and a carton of Marlboro Reds. .... Every two weeks.

Yeah, you are the definitive authority on pretty much, NUTTIN.

Cool anecdote, brah.

Dabbling with heroin is no big deal either cuz Burroughs was a junkie that lived into his 80s, right?

I've been managing patients with heavy ETOH history, ETOH liver disease, and liver transplants for a long time now.

It always catches up, usually by surprise - especially the people that it hits in their 20s and 30s.

If it's not the liver specifically it's something else.
.

 

[Kento]

That would have lasted 3-4 days tops for a drunk like me. Carton of reds would have lasted about 2 weeks though

Likewise in my early 20s but without the smokes.

My liver and I have since made a deal. Beer and wine within reason (relatively) and only rare hard liquor and never vodka.

 

[Subway]

Just get your blood work and liver checked yearly. We did a lot of damage to ourselves in our yute and early adulthood

 

[SurfFuerteventura]

Hepatitis C called, and said: "hold the line my little biotch!"

 

[Mr Doof]

Had some bloodwork done recently (work health insurance related).

Among a bunch of other negatives, no Hep C for me. Is this a standard test?

 

[Autoprax]

One of the thing I've been blow away by is how much serious drinkers can drink.

I would always tap out trying to keep up with them.

One of the health benefits of alcohol is it can prime social engagement which is the optimal state for rest and repair.

I plan on stopping because I'm going on a fat loss adventure.

Alcohol really stimulates my appetite.

 

[Subway]

A quiet Tuesday at home I would drink most or all of a liter of vodka. 7 days a week. Some days it was far, far more.last couple of years it was more and more mornings to stop the shakes.my wife would warn people never to try to keep up with me no matter how much fun we were having because they would end up sick and/or blacked out by dinner…or breakfast for that matter

 

[Autoprax]

A quiet Tuesday at home I would drink most or all of a liter of vodka. 7 days a week. Some days it was far, far more.last couple of years it was more and more mornings to stop the shakes.my wife would warn people never to try to keep up with me no matter how much fun we were having because they would end up sick and/or blacked out by dinner…or breakfast for that matter

It didn't occur to you to put the brakes on so you could play the long game?

Or would you just loose control?

I enjoy drinking too much to abuse it.

I'm always putting the brakes on.

But I'm highly impulsive so that constant brake application is probably a coping mechanism.

 

[Subway]

tried that a couple of times in my teens and 20's. I never stood a chance. My Father was an alcoholic (died with 30+ years of sobriety) and his Brother drank himself to death at 43. His mother died from severe alcohol withdrawal when she was sent to a sanitarium and they let her detox unmedicated and called her death "extreme blood pressure drop" duh. That's my dad's side.

My mother isn't an alkie, but her father was. i get it from both sides of the family liquor-tree

 

[Random Guy]

It didn't occur to you to put the brakes on so you could play the long game?

Or would you just loose control?

I enjoy drinking too much to abuse it.

I'm always putting the brakes on.

But I'm highly impulsive so that constant brake application is probably a coping mechanism.

I’ll take “things normies say” for 1000, Alex

 

[Autoprax]

I’ll take “things normies say” for 1000, Alex

So the alcoholic just gets carried away?

 

[sussle]

Was in the ABC liquor store yesterday (all liquor stores are state-run, here in NC) - they had a sign on the wall over the counter, something to the effect of "Sometimes I drink water just to surprise my liver"....and I was sort of struck that alcoholic jokes are still kosher, especially in a quasi-government agency, when drug addiction jokes are not. Must be a Southern thing

 

[Subway]

So the alcoholic just gets carried away?

it's so much worse than "carried away"...the phenomenon of "craving" is barely understood, and it's power literally cannot be understood by non-alcoholics, that's why, in general, we don't talk to normies about it because unless you've been there, you cannot fathom how powerful that drive for another drink is. Why else would people literally drink themselves to DEATH, instead of just, you know, scaling back a bit LMAO. You think my Uncle, who was a 400 pound bloated whale of a drunk towards the end (he was a star athlete in high school), leaking and dying, would look in the mirror and see his yellowed skin, his jaundiced eyes, his massive bloated body and think "gee I better scale back a bit, things are getting carried away"

No, he looked at his jaundiced, bloated, dying, enormously obese self in the mirror and poured himself another scotch

 

[santacruzin]

Glad you stopped Subway!

 

[Autoprax]

it's so much worse than "carried away"...the phenomenon of "craving" is barely understood, and it's power literally cannot be understood by non-alcoholics, that's why, in general, we don't talk to normies about it because unless you've been there, you cannot fathom how powerful that drive for another drink is. Why else would people literally drink themselves to DEATH, instead of just, you know, scaling back a bit LMAO. You think my Uncle, who was a 400 pound bloated whale of a drunk towards the end (he was a star athlete in high school), leaking and dying, would look in the mirror and see his yellowed skin, his jaundiced eyes, his massive bloated body and think "gee I better scale back a bit, things are getting carried away"

No, he looked at his jaundiced, bloated, dying, enormously obese self in the mirror and poured himself another scotch

That has got to make it easier to quit.

See, you are helping me understand.

Like a said, that capacity to crave something intensely is a super power that just needs to be
channeled.

I crave nothing. Everything is a chore.

Alcoholics should all be doing saunas and ice baths and deadlifts.

That is the closest I got to a drug like high.

 

[santacruzin]

Then you are not an addict and you dont understand .

 

[Subway]

yeah it made it so much easier to quit he was dead at 43. if only he knew he should have channeled his super power and take more ice baths

At his funeral, his coffin was so heavy it had to rolled down the church aisle on a gurney, not carried. The gurney stopped for a few minutes just as it passed me. I siting on the aisle seat in the pew. all of a sudden pink embalming fluid and who knows what else started POURING out of the coffin. Not dripping. full on cataract of pink blood/plasma/formaldehyde coming out of the coffin and spreading out over the floor and under our feet

 

[Subway]

Probably one of the many reasons I do not drink today. My sister told me, just a few months before I quit, that she wanted her kids to have an uncle subway, not an uncle Greg…may he rip. That resonated with me, a big part of the process to finally make the difficult and terrifying and wonderful change. So his death, while tragic on so many levels I won’t get into, like what fueled his alcoholism etc. his death helped save my life.

all of a sudden, 43 didn’t seem that far away, especially the way I drank. May not have made 40

 

[kelpcutter]

Alcoholism is no joke. More than a few family and friends have been crushed by their addictions. Some made it through to the other side, not by waking up walking away, but by fighting everyday to slay the demon.