You Can Stop Drinking Now

There is very little information that tells you what you can expect if you have a drinking problem and what the long term effects of alcoholism can be if you continue to drink.  Say for instance if you continue to drink for the next, 5, 10, or 15 years.  What happens?  A projection of the future years in the life of an alcoholic.

You find that you are addicted to alcohol.  Most will have to have it (whether you want to drink or not) and you need it every day.  So you drink every day as soon as your circumstances will allow it.  This kind of drinking is no longer to achieve that warm, pleasant feeling.  Once addicted to alcohol we find we are unable to stop drinking after having the first one.  So the majority of the time it’s a guaranteed drunk.

Let’s say you are in your 20′s or 30′s and you’ve become a daily drinker.  Maybe you went to college, maybe you didn’t.  Either way, if you aren’t there already and are drinking volume, you may be on your way to becoming unemployable unless you are one of the minority – a highly functioning alcoholic.

So the days pass.  Then the weeks, months, and years.  This has gone on much longer than you ever dreamt it would.  And you continually have a glass or bottle of alcohol in your hand.  You can’t afford to care too much about what people think or about how you’re spending your time because it’s just too painful.  So you drink and function the best way you can.  You try to feel good about the things you can still do, sometimes well.  But you know you are way below par.  Way below what you are capable of doing in your own opinion.  But you just can’t stop drinking.

This is the part many of us don’t seem to notice.  While we are spending our days drinking, everyone else is getting on with their lives and making progress.  A serious drinking problem is time consuming and almost all encompassing.  And while others in your life are making strides, you just keep falling behind.  How are you going to explain that big gap in your employment record to your next employer?  Can you still fulfill the job duties you used to perform before the drinking took over or have your skills diminished over time?

How are your relationships?  Do you have a significant other?  Not too many men and women can tolerate constant, ongoing drinking for long.  And an addiction to alcohol is difficult to hide when it’s up close and personal.  If you were married before the drinking really started you may still be married, the relationship on a string.

We don’t realize when we are under the influence how unentertaining we can be.  That and sometimes belligerent.  This doesn’t make for a lot of friends unless they happen to be in the same shape we are.

The never ending drinking cycle is a very real personal tragedy that happens to good people. And many times we are the last to realize how much alcohol has stolen from us and our lives.  Looking back at who we were before the drinking took over, seeing how far down we have come, and having a hard time believing it ourselves.

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