[ramonesfreak]

My parents didn’t drink. I had my first drink when I was 13 and drank as often as a teenager could until I turned 21. When I turned 16 my friends designated me as the driver when we went anywhere because I was the best drunk driver of the bunch. When I turned 21 I started drinking every day and this continued until I was about 48. During the week I would drink 2 bottles of wine after work every night. On weekends, I would drink from Friday night until Sunday. I would have 6 beers in me by 9am on a Saturday morning. I was smoking 2 packs per day from age 13.

I eventually quite smoking when I was 45 and for reasons I don’t understand, about 3 years ago the desire to drink just disappeared. I first noticed that I would open a beer and it would take me half the day to finish it. Eventually I just stopped going to the store to buy any alcohol. I can’t remember the last time I brought alcohol into the house. I have had friends/ family die from alcohol abuse and many friends quit and go AA or simply ruin their lives. I managed to survive in a very challenging career hungover for most of my adult working life but my health suffered. Thankfully never had any legal trouble or destroyed any relationships.

Thankfully this is all behind me, for now. I don’t claim to have quit forever and have no intention of not having a beer with dinner etc if I want one, but my days of behaving like a maniac* are over

* I always knew I blacked out often but when my now wife moved in here and started telling me what I had done like running around the front yard in my underwear, or she would come home from the hairdresser and find me passed out in my man cave thinking I was dead……the reality of what I was doing became more clear. When you drink alone for 30 years you don’t even think about these things