Confessions of a recently sober non-caffeinated ex-smoker.

[Back]

Day 28. $362 saved. Mood: Focused

Today marks my 4th week, 28 days, of being nicotine free (not smoking) and limited caffeine intake. Also, it is my 10th day without alcohol.

For a man who has consumed approximately 1+1/2 packs of cigarettes, a 12 pack of beer more or less, a pot of coffee and 1 meal a day (optional) for the past 20 years... this is very significant.

Someone suggested I journal this so here it is.

[Cephalopod]

That's pretty impressive. Good job, keep it up.

A 12 pack of peer a day? Really?

[AnticorRifling]

Personally I wouldn't quit/cut them all at once. Just like dieting it means that a crash/relapse will be ugly and over the top.

Congrats though that's a lot of chemicals to stop all at once.

[Celephais]

Personally I wouldn't quit/cut them all at once. Just like dieting it means that a crash/relapse will be ugly and over the top.
Dude... don't pre-emptively destroy what could be the best thread ever created on the player's corner.

[AnticorRifling]

Hahaha sorry, I've just seen something like this before "I'm quiting booze, smokes, and soda"... I WILL KILL YOU FOR A FUCKING MT DEW!!!!!!!

[Zanagodly]

Polishing a 12 pack a day is something to behold. I drink a case on the weekend and a couple a night after work.

[Back]

Yeah, 12 pack a day, I shit you not. I would consume it between the hours of 6pm until I passed out during the weekdays because I worked until 5:30pm. The weekends... usually started out with a beer for breakfast.

And if any of you give me a hard time or neg rep I’m going to go out and buy a carton, a gallon of tequila, and a case of Redbull and come back here and really let you all have it!!!

[Parkbandit]

That's pretty impressive. Good job, keep it up.

A 12 pack of peer a day? Really?

I think that is the casual weekday amounts... Not his weekend amounts.

This journal does explain a great deal of posting history... though I'm saddened Backlash didn't give up his illegal drug usage, whippits, glue sniffing, ect...

[ElvenFury]

I'm disappointed in PB's lack of attention whore image.

[Parkbandit]

I'm disappointed in PB's lack of attention whore image.

You are just baiting me.. Because you have a new "Thank you Captain Obvious" pic you wanted to post.

After 8 years, calling Backlash an attention whore would be like proclaiming the sky is blue on a sunny day.

[Trouble]

Good luck! I also concur that doing all three at once wasn't the best idea but I hope it works out for you. My friend used the gum and as far as I know it worked for her for smoking. As far as beverages go, in my experience, it's more of just finding something to do with your free time. I find if I'm bored I'll drink more than if I'm busy. Caffeine's the easiest to give up IMO.

[WRoss]

Good job mate! Last year around this time I sobered up as well. It's good you're doing something about it. In my experience, around a month or two is going to be the toughest time, so just take it a day at time and you'll figure it out.

[Keller]

Good luck, Back.

Keep us updated.

[Archigeek]

Yeah finding something to do every night is going to be a big deal. I'm sure if you've lasted 4 weeks with the cigs and 10 days with the booze, you're probably already feeling wrestless. Go out and find something constructive to do, otherwise you'll just go back to feeding that other addiction: GS. Fix the house, find an organization to volunteer with, take up gardening or wood working... that sort of thing. If you can replace it all with something constructive you're miles ahead I think.

[Asha]

When I was bad on booze from about 5 yrs ago till a year ago, I drank about the same amount in one night or more if I just wanted to pass out but I had the next day or two sober and cig free each time from feeling guilty and physically bad.
I'm shocked you've been non stop like that. I'm really glad (not being funny) to know this though mate because it does explain a lot of actions.
As in my case I'm not saying it's an excuse, I think it's pretty sad and pathetic to be so dependent on garbage but it explains why you were sometimes a massive douche like myself.

When I used to play GS it was a huge reason to stay sober, same with WoW but when they're gone, nothing could stop me from being tempted to just go nuts and get wankered.
That's all over now. All dried up and healthy but it was tough.
I can imagine it is hard as hell for you.

If it helps at all, I took up healthy eating, gym and Aikido classes so I was hugely busy when not at work. I suggest those options.
I also found it helped to have a girlfriend but you have no chance there.

Good luck, mate.
Honestly.

[Kuyuk]

One must wonder what was the cause of the sudden urge to stop after 20 years?

Congrats though, keep it up.. just curious if you finally got a doctor to say "you're about to die if you keep this shit up" or if you knocked up someone (eek!) or what.

[CrystalTears]

He should quit the PC too so that his body goes into complete shock and his head caves in.

[Asha]

I can't believe he's still even alive after 20 years of it. To THAT extent.
His liver and lungs will be fucked. Daren't even think about the heart,

I'm thinking it could be what Kuyuk said. Not the knocked someone up part, obviously.

[Kuyuk]

I wasn't trying to be rude or mean or anything like that, just curious on what was the trigger of realization of it all - is all.

[Asha]

I getcha, mate. I totally think a Dr has most likely given him a srs heads up or something along those lines.

[TheEschaton]

I wanna know who the person was who suggested he journal it on the PC. To that person, I thank them profusely.

[Parkbandit]

I wanna know who the person was who suggested he journal it on the PC. To that person, I thank them profusely.

^^

Though, they should have had him post more in it. We're a support group and require him letting us know how to help!!

[Keller]

I wanna know who the person was who suggested he journal it on the PC. To that person, I thank them profusely.

They obviously were not aware of the number of asshats that fester here, waiting for anyone to show vulnerability.

[Nieninque]

They obviously were not aware of the number of asshats that fester here, waiting for anyone to show vulnerability.

STFU FAG

[Asha]

They obviously were not aware of the number of asshats that fester here, waiting for anyone to show vulnerability.

Showing vulnerability doesn't get you pwnt here, it's the constant show of being a dick and doing nothing about it that tires and aggravates.
These forums are harsh, that's a given.
But they can be fair and it's rare that a one off show of vulnerability will result in an ass kicking.

[Parkbandit]

They obviously were not aware of the number of asshats that fester here, waiting for anyone to show vulnerability.

Seriously. Some people can be absolute pieces of shit here:



I don't believe for one second that you actually give a shit about her. Otherwise, none of the above would have happened.



Sean has no one to blame but himself. He stole his daughter's youth and innocence to get drunk with his loser friends in some shit hole bar and watch college football.



Sean has pretty much shown over the past year that he gives two shits about anyone in his life but himself. I can understand how someone might get fed up with it.


Of alllllllllll of the bullshit you've posted in your brief tenure as the PC jester, this has GOT to be the best.

This is the gold standard. I only hope that in the years to come you can top it.

Please try.

[Keller]

Seriously. Some people can be absolute pieces of shit here:

Are you too dumb to see the difference, or just trolling?

[AnticorRifling]

Name calling, that's a paddlin'

Makin fun of my shoes, that's a paddlin'

Getting a paddlin', that's a paddlin'

[NocturnalRob]

Good luck, man. I'm trying the sober thing too for the month of April. Hope it works out for you.

[4a6c1]

You will think about cigarettes every single day for the first year. Sometimes twice a day. I did. :-/

Second year is pie. Meaning irrational and interesting. Not as in...apple. But apple is good too.

[Parkbandit]

Are you too dumb to see the difference, or just trolling?

Just pointing out that you should practice what you preach.. But we both know that will never happen. It's a "feature" of the common, everyday Progressive.

[Keller]

Just pointing out that you should practice what you preach.. But we both know that will never happen. It's a "feature" of the common, everyday Progressive.


I take it, from your inability to respond to a simple question, that you're too dumb to understand the difference. You could have just said that.

[AnticorRifling]

Holy shit can you two manage to not complete man love douche up one thread with your pent up sexual feelings towards each other?

[ElvenFury]

http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/0907/bromance-bro-gay-eye-contact-demotivational-poster-1247457597.jpg

[CrystalTears]

I'm trying to figure out if I should be grossed out or totally turned on by that picture.

I think I'll look at it a little longer...

[AnticorRifling]

1) You're an idiot

2) No you're an idiot I'll use more words now what?!

1) Shit, you're now stupid, here's a bunch of words!!!

2) Bitch you're stupid, words, words, words.

1) Picture

2) Counter picture

1) Can't answer a question not related to anything? Typical.

2) Typical you'd expect an answer, here's my own question to you about nothing related to fuck all. Typical to you.

etc. fuckin etc. Just butt sex each other and be done with it.

[Parkbandit]

Holy shit can you two manage to not complete man love douche up one thread with your pent up sexual feelings towards each other?

That might be from his viewpoint, but certainly not mine. I don't have any sexual feelings towards any man... something I have told you repeatedly over the years.. but you just don't understand.

No Anticor.. I don't want to see if I can get my tabard to match my mount.

No Anticor.. I don't want to talk about meat.

No Anticor.. I don't want to talk about how those shoulders make your ass look fat.

No Anticor.. I don't think innervating Sinax is the same as intercourse with Sinax.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

12 pack a day and lots of nicotine for 20 years?

If you're still in the food/restaurant industry and doing this, I commend you. There were days that I came home and the only thing I wanted was one or five shots of jack and a quiet room to myself.

[4a6c1]

I'm trying to figure out if I should be grossed out or totally turned on by that picture.

I think I'll look at it a little longer...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!


I caught you liking gay porn. Just cherishing the moment. Ok bai.

[4a6c1]

That might be from his viewpoint, but certainly not mine. I don't have any sexual feelings towards any man... something I have told you repeatedly over the years.. but you just don't understand.

No Anticor.. I don't want to see if I can get my tabard to match my mount.

No Anticor.. I don't want to talk about meat.

No Anticor.. I don't want to talk about how those shoulders make your ass look fat.

No Anticor.. I don't think innervating Sinax is the same as intercourse with Sinax.


That might be from his viewpoint, but certainly not mine. I don't have any sexual feelings towards any man... something I have told you repeatedly over the years.. but you just don't understand.

No Anticor.. I don't want to see if I can get my tabard to match my mount.

No Anticor.. I don't want to talk about meat.

No Anticor.. I don't want to talk about how those shoulders make your ass look fat.

No Anticor.. I don't think innervating Sinax is the same as intercourse with Sinax.

Everything is funnier squared.

[BigWorm]

12 pack a day and lots of nicotine for 20 years?

If you're still in the food/restaurant industry and doing this, I commend you. There were days that I came home and the only thing I wanted was one or five shots of jack and a quiet room to myself.

Yeah and my experience was that there is a lot of substance abuse by people in the industry as well. It's easier to rationalize that hey I only drink a few beers after work, this guys smoke crack all day so I can't be doing that badly!

[AnticorRifling]

Best.....bot.....ever.

[Celephais]

Thanks for sharing!!!

Drug Rehab (http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=drug+rehab&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=25bac56246434a91)
Hahahha

[Clove]

Day 28. $362 saved. Mood: Focused

Today marks my 4th week, 28 days, of being nicotine free (not smoking) and limited caffeine intake. Also, it is my 10th day without alcohol.

For a man who has consumed approximately 1+1/2 packs of cigarettes, a 12 pack of beer more or less, a pot of coffee and 1 meal a day (optional) for the past 20 years... this is very significant.

Someone suggested I journal this so here it is.The original April Fool.

[Back]

Day 30. $412 saved. Mood: Productive

Wow. I want to thank everyone for the support. I certainly did not come here for it and even more so did not expect it. :)

I’ll try to get to the questions as I get the time. Really focused on work at the moment.



Why quit now?

No doctor has told me to quit. I am healthy as a horse. So why is this healthy bachelor, never married, no kids, with a good job and a nice condo in DC quitting smoking and drinking? My psyche is at the breaking point.

Its hard to articulate... but years and years of denial, pretending there is nothing wrong with passing out drunk every night, waking up hung over full of despair and dread, vowing with all conviction to change during the day, then throwing all of that out the window by 6pm to chain smoke and drink until I passed out again is just mentally taxing. Physically as well but somehow I managed to not ruin my liver or lungs.

I thought I was living my life carefree and happy-go-lucky. What I was really doing was living in complete denial that I need alcohol like a crack addict needs crack. It is that bad.

Right now, instead of thinking that I quit smoking or drinking, I look at it as I quit being an idiot.

Much much more to come.

[Celephais]

I see you didn't quit your narrative approach to posting.

[Kuyuk]

Why quit now?

No doctor has told me to quit. I am healthy as a horse.

... passing out drunk every night, waking up hung over

...by 6pm to chain smoke and drink until I passed out again is just mentally taxing. Physically as well but somehow I managed to not ruin my liver or lungs.

...I need alcohol like a crack addict needs crack. It is that bad.


I'm not sure that qualifies as "healthy as a horse"

Unless ....
http://api.ning.com/files/kD1xxDgkjpgaYJ7Y7sO2cEx3vpAlP9R4S0yvI9RFBue1Z-oyg7eJeF9iYUhWmuRSm9Fu5AuEdVOsat-0gnV31D4BXeWyTWxW/OldHorse.jpg

Glad you've stopped, but do not be in denial in the fact that you were not healthy before.

[Celephais]

Yeah have you even been to a doctor? When was the last time you had a checkup?

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

I still want to know if you're in the food industry still or not.

[Back]

I had a physical in '98 where the doctor told me my lung capacity was 110%.

I volunteered for a chantrix trial in '06 and they said everything was fine. They specifically checked my liver.

I rarely get colds or flu, every other year maybe. I have had no major illness save bronchitis in '96.

I know I could not have gone on forever like the way I have been. If anything I would probably have imploded all at once had I continued.

[Back]

I still want to know if you're in the food industry still or not.

Yes. GM now. I still taste our wines but I spit of course.

It got to the point, Nikki, where I was sneaking drinks at work. That was one of many many things that made me finally open my eyes.

[Guarrin]

Good job man, keep it up. Speaking from experience (I pulled the same stupid shit throughout college and while working my first job), it is not easy to quit, or healthy to continue. My liver was ready to revolt. So I quit smoking ( was up to 2 packs a day) and stopped drinking.

Bit of advice, if you do go out and end up having a few beers, don't reach for the smokes (this was the hardest thing for me not to do). If you do cave and have a beer or a smoke, don't just give up, just start over. It will just get easier.

[Kuyuk]

I had a physical in '98 where the doctor told me my lung capacity was 110%.


You realize that was more than a decade ago......

Just sayin'.. ;)

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

Yes. GM now. I still taste our wines but I spit of course.

It got to the point, Nikki, where I was sneaking drinks at work. That was one of many many things that made me finally open my eyes.

I fully understand.

Good job on figuring shit out and dealing with it. Rough industry. Keep your chin up.

[Celephais]

I had a physical in '98 where the doctor told me my lung capacity was 110%.
As Kuyuk said, >10 years ago. And your doctor was lying.


I volunteered for a chantrix trial in '06 and they said everything was fine. They specifically checked my liver.
They were concerned with their own markers for the trial, not with your overall health.


I rarely get colds or flu, every other year maybe. I have had no major illness save bronchitis in '96.

I know I could not have gone on forever like the way I have been. If anything I would probably have imploded all at once had I continued.
Yeah.. I'm sure you know that... and yes, it would all implode all at once, because that's the way these things work. The human body has an amazing capacity to heal yourself and if you're stopping it may just be in time, but it sounds like you haven't really accepted the fact you did some serious damage, you just don't think you did.

You're making a change to the way you're living, the way you're treating your body, you're making a good change, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to go get a checkup, be honest with your doctor, tell him about the booze, the smoking, the pot, whatever, and let him know you're cleaning up and want to stay healthy.

It's great you're doing this, but now's the perfect time to apply a bit of precaution.

[Gan]

And here I thought that the dumpster lady finally helped Back find God.

[Allereli]

Keeping track of the money you save is an awesome way to quit. Any plans for what you're going to do with it?

[Back]

Keeping track of the money you save is an awesome way to quit. Any plans for what you're going to do with it?

Haven’t really thought about it that way. Mainly the money that I had been spending on alcohol and cigarettes (plus eating out nearly every day) has been spent on every day things like groceries, clothes, PS3 games... you know. Stuff normal people spend money on.

Keeping track of my $25 or more per day expense is just another eye-opener.

[Back]

Day 33. $489 saved. Mood: Good.

Why everything at once?


Well, this is what happened. Originally I only vowed to finally quit smoking. My plan was to stop caffeine and alcohol as well so as not to be tempted to smoke.

After a week I decided to try a beer for lunch to see how I felt. It was actually quite relaxing. It took the edge off of the nicotine withdrawal. Later on that night I found that I could drink quite a bit without breaking down and smoking.

Drinking without smoking was different than when I smoked. For some reason, without smoking, I felt I was more alert and felt less drunk than when I did smoke. What ended up happening was is I drank more and blacked out sooner than usual.

So I quit what I thought was one of the hardest addictions to quit... only to find I was drinking myself to sleep every night again. Uh, hello?? Yeah, it was crystal clear to me that the alcohol addiction was worse than the nicotine.

This could not have gone down any other way for me. All or nothing.

[SHAFT]

nice job. giving up cigs is hard

[Asha]

(plus eating out nearly every day)

:lol:
(I had to. There was no way I couldn't)

[Back]

Day 34. $514 saved. Mood: Determined.

On quitting smoking...


I’ve read a few sites that give ideas/suggestions on setting up plans to quit smoking. A laundry list of things a person should do to make it easier to quit. Here is my particular list.

1. I smoked as much as I wanted the day before I quit. For me, getting a good night sleep and not smoking the next day helped me quit.

2. I stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol to reduce the habitual aspect of smoking.

3. I made sure I quit on my days off of work. For two days I pretty much slept as much as I could and watched TV/movies in a horizontal position under a blanket in a dark room. Being in that little bubble helped break the routine.

4. I gave in to any and all food cravings at any given time of day. Yes, I acted like a woman pregnant with triplets. Definitely stock up on any and all snacks you want. Gaining a few pounds isn’t as bad as coughing up blood on your deathbed.

5. To this day I still have my last pack with my last two cigarettes in it, with my lighter, on the counter next to the sliding glass door to the balcony on which I smoked. In a way I left them there as a test of my resolve. When you quit smoking you run into temptation on a daily basis. Every morning I see them there and remember that not only did I quit but I quit in the face of daily temptation making my resolve that much stronger. Or some bullshit like that...

6. Every once in a while throughout the day I step outside like I used to when I smoked. That little part of the smoking ritual I keep because its a great stress reliever. Getting away from everything, some solitude to think, fresh air, being out in the elements etc...

7. Find another oral fixation. Anything. I keep toothpicks in my wallet and packs of gum everywhere I frequent. I haven’t really needed them as much as I thought but they are there if I do.

8. This may be arguable and everyone has their own way but I did not use a patch or gum or vape. For me the nicotine dependency is what I need to get away from. It makes me dull, stupid and lazy.

[Back]

Day 36. $558 saved. Mood: Guilty.

I drank tonight.


I’m feeling guilty because I drank tonight. One half glass of wine over a two hour time period.

Why did I do it? It was a social crutch. Not for effect but appearance. I am taking French and joined a group via a website that meets in the area and speaks in French. I bought a glass of wine “to fit in”. Thats what I told myself.

I had no problem meeting new people and speaking a new language with them at all. No embarrassment, no shyness, no hesitation. For some reason I was compelled to hide my problem from them by having a glass of wine in my hand. There were other people there who did not drink and I didn’t even think twice about if they were hiding something or not. Thats my fucked up mentality about alcohol I guess.

I’m not drunk and do not plan on drinking any more now that I am home. But I can’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. It was not long before I found an excuse to drink. Then again, I am not drinking myself to sleep tonight.

[radamanthys]

Day 34. $514 saved. Mood: Determined.

On quitting smoking...


I’ve read a few sites that give ideas/suggestions on setting up plans to quit smoking. A laundry list of things a person should do to make it easier to quit. Here is my particular list.

1. I smoked as much as I wanted the day before I quit. For me, getting a good night sleep and not smoking the next day helped me quit.

2. I stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol to reduce the habitual aspect of smoking.

3. I made sure I quit on my days off of work. For two days I pretty much slept as much as I could and watched TV/movies in a horizontal position under a blanket in a dark room. Being in that little bubble helped break the routine.

4. I gave in to any and all food cravings at any given time of day. Yes, I acted like a woman pregnant with triplets. Definitely stock up on any and all snacks you want. Gaining a few pounds isn’t as bad as coughing up blood on your deathbed.

5. To this day I still have my last pack with my last two cigarettes in it, with my lighter, on the counter next to the sliding glass door to the balcony on which I smoked. In a way I left them there as a test of my resolve. When you quit smoking you run into temptation on a daily basis. Every morning I see them there and remember that not only did I quit but I quit in the face of daily temptation making my resolve that much stronger. Or some bullshit like that...

6. Every once in a while throughout the day I step outside like I used to when I smoked. That little part of the smoking ritual I keep because its a great stress reliever. Getting away from everything, some solitude to think, fresh air, being out in the elements etc...

7. Find another oral fixation. Anything. I keep toothpicks in my wallet and packs of gum everywhere I frequent. I haven’t really needed them as much as I thought but they are there if I do.

8. This may be arguable and everyone has their own way but I did not use a patch or gum or vape. For me the nicotine dependency is what I need to get away from. It makes me dull, stupid and lazy.

Celery. Negative calories. Stick shaped. Crunchy. Great for the oral fixation and 'hunger'. And it's tasty and you can pull out the little stringy bits for more oral fixation stuff.

I taped a cig to the dashboard of my car. Same thing as your pack by the door. It helped. Find a close friend or three and have a little party to celebrate when you ditch that stupid pack after a certain amount of time. Say, half a year or something.

If you're intent on teetotaling, reset your days. You can't have pride in your accomplishment if you know that it's a lie.

It's amazing how your view of things changes after you quit. A half a glass of wine goes from being "basically a sip" to a major ordeal.

I'd consider avoiding stressful situations: Heated political discussions with people as fervent as you (in both directions) and relationships.

Just a couple thoughts. Best of luck.

[Cephalopod]

Day 36. $558 saved. Mood: Guilty.

I drank tonight.



I wish we could drill this feeling into Sean2.

That said, sorry about the lapse... at least you recognized it was stupid.

Good job, mostly. Keep it up.

[Tea & Strumpets]

I'm smoking a cigarette right now, and it is delicious.

[pabstblueribbon]

Me too. Mmm... cancers.

[Celephais]

That said, sorry about the lapse... at least you recognized it was stupid.
That actually is a pretty good sign that you recognize it as a lapse, it'd be too easy to just say "it was only a drink, it doesn't count" and then just fail from there.

Sounds like you're doing pretty good (despite that, you've got the right attitude). Keep it up man... er not the one drink thing, keep up the attitude.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

I'm going to go ahead and go against what Cel and Nachos have said re: you having one glass of wine.

A shockingly high percentage of people are or were at one time problem drinkers- i.e. drink to excess when they are hugely stressed out/problems are going on thus they are self-medicating. Many times, the problem eventually rights itself and the excesses stop.

I don't believe that AA's 'abstinence only!' route is the only path back from that sort of thing, and I think there's a huge difference between problem drinking and being a raging, dysfunctional alcoholic (SotT style).

It is a good idea to continue abstaining, and reflecting on why you drink, but I don't think your lapse is something you should beat yourself up for.

Also, you might consider going to see a counselor to help sort of 'guide you back', at least as far as the alcohol goes. There are more and more out there that can specifically help you address the problem drinking, etc without shoving AA down your throat as if you're on par with the aforementioned trainwreck.

Good luck and keep up the good work (that is, being conscious of all this at all times).

[Celephais]

I don't think he needs to abstain forever, I don't agree w/ that approach either (because if it breaks, it breaks horribly). I just think that, 1. for someone who drank as much as he did it's too soon for him to start onto that slope, and 2. the reason he had that one drink, the need to fit in, if he acknowledge the fact that he had the drink as a failure of willpower, in order to fit in, it's possible it could have been a lot worse.

I think from the sound of it he's doing great, but he should hopefully (and it sounds like he is) learn from that, that he's got a ways to go on that road.

[Asha]

You'll prob find one drink is ok. It's after 2 you realize you can't function anymore that day without feeling groggy or sleepy and feel like you may as well get pissed.
I occasionally (once a couple of months) get wasted otherwise I'd never have been able to convince myself to try abstaining.
Lastly I don't think I'm wrong here in thinking you shouldn't take it so hard you had half a glass of wine on one single occasion. If you make a big deal about it then it becomes a big deal.
Relax. You're kicking ass.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

I don't think he needs to abstain forever, I don't agree w/ that approach either (because if it breaks, it breaks horribly). I just think that, 1. for someone who drank as much as he did it's too soon for him to start onto that slope, and 2. the reason he had that one drink, the need to fit in, if he acknowledge the fact that he had the drink as a failure of willpower, in order to fit in, it's possible it could have been a lot worse.

I think from the sound of it he's doing great, but he should hopefully (and it sounds like he is) learn from that, that he's got a ways to go on that road.

I think we've actually talked about this before, heh!

Anyway, yeah, this is my exact line of thinking, I was just not putting it out there in an articulate manner. YOU SHOULD BE USED TO SUCH THINGS.

[Stanley Burrell]

Mood: Guilty.

I’m feeling guilty because I drank tonight. One half glass of wine over a two hour time period.

There was a faux-Warclaidhm journal where it would always start with mood-of-the-day, and then move onto asinine bullshit. At least it was funny.

Look, if you drink half a glass of wine, with a bunch of French people, over the course of 2 hours, you should be head speaker for AA. You didn't suddenly start chugging all the alcoholic beverages within a 50-mile radius of France, D.C., then smoke a pack of cigarettes in three seconds while injecting heroine into your eyeballs.

You should feel about as guilty about that as you should for breathing the air. Everyone drinks alcohol. You shouldn't feel stupid aside from the fact that you were hanging out with a bunch of French people, unless you scored some fine Parisian vanilla ass.

[Back]

In reply to my drink... I suppose the guilt is more about how soon after I decided that alcohol was ruining my life that I found a way to get it back in. That I did not get drunk was a vast improvement over my usual behaviour. Typically I would have said “fuck it” and drank until I passed out.

In one sense its a huge step forward in knowing my limits and changing my attitude and behaviour. On the other hand, like Cel said, its dangerously soon after quitting. Time will tell.

I do know one thing... that while I felt a bit guilty I also felt tremendous relief that I did not revert back to my pathetic alcoholic ways.

[Back]

Day 40 without nicotine. Day 4 without alcohol.
$658 saved. Mood: Empowered.

Changing habits.


So my habits have changed rather than gone away. It is like my focus has shifted from one habit to another in some cases.

Instead of having an endless cup of black coffee in my hand during my sober hours I now have a cup of black decaf in the morning and green tea all day. Black decaf still wakes me up. After years of drinking coffee in the morning the smell, the warm cup in my hand and the taste all get me into wake up mode without needing caffeine.

I’ve been drinking green tea during the day and found its a great replacement for coffee. It has caffeine but at a much lower level than a Columbian roast coffee. Plus the green tea has antioxidants and that can’t hurt.

Another habitual change is that I now have a dental hygiene fixation. Ok, look, its not like when I was drinking and smoking that I ignored my teeth... I brushed once a day at the very least, sometimes twice though admittedly I did not floss often. My teeth are not in bad condition and I have no cavities. I used to have mint gum with me at all times for social encounters.

Since I quit smoking I have been brushing three times a day, flossing twice a day and rinsing with a hydrogen peroxide wash then a regular mouthwash twice daily. I have toothpicks in my wallet if I don’t have a toothbrush handy after eating.

In fact, now that I am not waking up hungover at the last minute with only 5 minutes to shower before I need to get to work I have been spending significantly more time grooming before I leave the house. Again, its not like I ran out of the house unwashed in mismatched dirty clothes before I quit drinking and smoking... just that I now have the luxury of taking care of the subtle details.

I have to say... all of this is doing wonders for my confidence level. I walk out of the house refreshed, looking my best, feeling my best without a sliver of regret from the night before. Yeah, I’m a baller.

[Back]

Day 46 without nicotine. Day 10 without alcohol.
$800 saved. Mood: Fucked.

Depression.

Well I’ve known for a long time that I suffer from depression. I think it relates back to my lonely latchkey childhood. I know all that is in the past, I cannot change it and its not my fault etc.

I am getting bouts of depression where I can’t think of anything in my life to look forward to or be happy about. The best I have been able to come up with lately is “well, at least I have all my limbs” or some other “it could be worse” scenario thats supposed to make me feel better about how bad my life sucks.

When I get into this state I know what can take the edge off. Getting drunk. Pound a few beers and all the worries go away. It does not matter that there is nothing to look forward to, except for the next beer, because I can feel good right now. Throughout my drinking career, yes I call it a career I am that fucking good at it, I have always known that no matter how bad I feel about anything a few (many) beers will make me feel better.

So now I am having to cope without that crutch and it sucks. Usually it happens at night on the way home after a particularly frustrating day at work. No one has called me, no one is at home, I don’t want to go home but I have nothing else to do. When I was drinking this would be the point where I would go to a bar for a couple of hours then grab a six pack and go home drink and play playstation or watch tv until I passed out.

Now I get home early, make dinner, do something around the house like laundry or something, check email and facebook and pc and shit. Then later some PS3 and tv to fall asleep to. Yeah, its a normal night for a normal person, but to someone who has been partying his ass off for years, its a brain numbing night in the world of the mundane!

The good news is that the depression wears off in a few hours. Its just a little twilight window that opens up every week or so. And I know the solution is not to get drunk. It can be weathered out easily and I am finding other ways to cope.

If I have anything to feel good about its that finally after all these years my intellect and will power are calling the shots rather than my hedonist chemically dependent body.

[Cephalopod]

You know what's fun? Crystal meth.

[Parkbandit]

Day 46 without nicotine. Day 10 without alcohol.
$800 saved. Mood: Fucked.

Depression.

Well I’ve known for a long time that I suffer from depression. I think it relates back to my lonely latchkey childhood. I know all that is in the past, I cannot change it and its not my fault etc.

I am getting bouts of depression where I can’t think of anything in my life to look forward to or be happy about. The best I have been able to come up with lately is “well, at least I have all my limbs” or some other “it could be worse” scenario thats supposed to make me feel better about how bad my life sucks.

When I get into this state I know what can take the edge off. Getting drunk. Pound a few beers and all the worries go away. It does not matter that there is nothing to look forward to, except for the next beer, because I can feel good right now. Throughout my drinking career, yes I call it a career I am that fucking good at it, I have always known that no matter how bad I feel about anything a few (many) beers will make me feel better.

So now I am having to cope without that crutch and it sucks. Usually it happens at night on the way home after a particularly frustrating day at work. No one has called me, no one is at home, I don’t want to go home but I have nothing else to do. When I was drinking this would be the point where I would go to a bar for a couple of hours then grab a six pack and go home drink and play playstation or watch tv until I passed out.

Now I get home early, make dinner, do something around the house like laundry or something, check email and facebook and pc and shit. Then later some PS3 and tv to fall asleep to. Yeah, its a normal night for a normal person, but to someone who has been partying his ass off for years, its a brain numbing night in the world of the mundane!

The good news is that the depression wears off in a few hours. Its just a little twilight window that opens up every week or so. And I know the solution is not to get drunk. It can be weathered out easily and I am finding other ways to cope.

If I have anything to feel good about its that finally after all these years my intellect and will power are calling the shots rather than my hedonist chemically dependent body.

Nothing a bottle of Jack and a pack of unfiltered Camels can't fix:

http://images.paraorkut.com/img/pics/glitters/j/jack_daniels-9205.gif

http://www.planetperplex.com/img/camel.jpg

[Back]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnpofBtijF8

[Hulkein]

Congrats Back! Regarding your depression post, why not throw in a trip to the gym when feeling depressed on the way home? Feel good when getting the blood flowing and maybe hit it off with some good looking elliptical-loving woman.

Serious question: what the hell would your shit be like when you drank 12 beers a day with no real meals? When I drink 12 beers I dread the inevitable dump the next day. Luckily I only do that rarely nowadays. Can't imagine what it would be like if I drank like that every day.

[Back]

Congrats Back! Regarding your depression post, why not throw in a trip to the gym when feeling depressed on the way home? Feel good when getting the blood flowing and maybe hit it off with some good looking elliptical-loving woman.

Thanks. Yep, thats in the plan. These first few months I plan on eating whatever I want so as to stay relatively sane. Then switch it up to include exercise and healthier snacks. Thats the plan anyway. I could probably live off green tea at the moment but I need to feed the creature something to keep it quiet.

I have not gained much weight... the amount of calories I take in now are roughly equivalent to what I was taking in with 12 or more beers.


Serious question: what the hell would your shit be like when you drank 12 beers a day with no real meals? When I drink 12 beers I dread the inevitable dump the next day. Luckily I only do that rarely nowadays. Can't imagine what it would be like if I drank like that every day.

Think Exxon Valdez, basically.

[Hulkein]

Thanks. Yep, thats in the plan. These first few months I plan on eating whatever I want so as to stay relatively sane. Then switch it up to include exercise and healthier snacks. Thats the plan anyway. I could probably live off green tea at the moment but I need to feed the creature something to keep it quiet.

I have not gained much weight... the amount of calories I take in now are roughly equivalent to what I was taking in with 12 or more beers.



Think Exxon Valdez, basically.

Hahaha, that is hysterically descriptive.

I think you should start exercising now. Keep eating whatever you want. The goal doesn't have to be to look amazing right away; it is just good for the spirit to exercise. Forget about trying to get a six pack. You'll feel so much better just by getting the heart going.

[radamanthys]

Hahaha, that is hysterically descriptive.

I think you should start exercising now. Keep eating whatever you want. The goal doesn't have to be to look amazing right away; it is just good for the spirit to exercise. Forget about trying to get a six pack. You'll feel so much better just by getting the heart going.

Agreed². Martial Arts does it for me these days... there's enough to remember that it can keep your mind busy in off-moments, too. Especially when you take three different arts, heh.

[Asha]

Martial arts is an awesome distraction.
It's like the gym (which you should add to your day also) but with a sense of community and friendship, which I think you'd appreciate and will give you that place to go when you need somewhere PLUS during the day you can take your mind off the mundane or threatening by going through your kata's or new techniques in your mind.

[Cephalopod]

Have some soup.

http://i.imgur.com/V9BaO.jpg

[Back]

Have some soup.

Awesome. I bet Warhol would have appreciated that.

[fuller077]

Hearings in criminal and quasi criminal matters (http://www.davidmcsteen.com.au)
Have you been charged with a drink driving or traffic offence? I specialise in these areas and have over 24 years experience in general criminal practice.

[Gan]

Awesome bot.

[Back]

Day 56 without nicotine. Day 20 without alcohol. Mild caffeine from green tea. $1050 saved. Mood: Fucking furious.

I wanted to post but ten million bullshit things popped up that need my attention because my fucking dipshit employees can’t handle anything on their own.

[Clove]

I wanted to post but ten million bullshit things popped up that need my attention because my fucking dipshit employees can’t handle anything on their own.PB?!?

[Parkbandit]

PB?!?

I don't get it.

[Keller]

I don't get it.

Here, let me get some crayons and draw a picture so you might underst . . . I don't get it either.

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

Day 56 without nicotine. Day 20 without alcohol. Mild caffeine from green tea. $1050 saved. Mood: Fucking furious.

I wanted to post but ten million bullshit things popped up that need my attention because my fucking dipshit employees can’t handle anything on their own.

When it rains, it pours. Those days are the worst. Remember it's just one day though.

[Clove]

I don't get it.Backlash?!

[Parkbandit]

Backlash?!

Warclaidhm?

(I still don't get it..)

[Back]

Ok so where was I? Ah...

Day 56 without nicotine. Day 20 without alcohol. Mild caffeine from green tea. $1050 saved. Mood: Philosophical.


Almost 2 months by any measure without smoking. Thoughts of lighting up automatically entered my mind after every meal for the first month and a half. Now that is slowly abating. The auto-urges are fewer and further between. I smoked for 20+ years and the longest I went without smoking in one stretch was three months.

The moments of anxiety, frustration and anger being exacerbated by withdrawal have receded as well. Every once in a while I get a day like today where for about an hour I want to punch everyone I see in the face but like the urge to smoke they are fewer and further between.

At this point I am as about as close to living chemical free as the day I was born. Thing is though I am having some issues. Mostly that I am out of energy all the time. Another thing is some of my joints are aching like my shoulders and hands. I am eating and re-hydrating on a normal schedule, sleeping regularly and sleeping well. I can concentrate on my tasks with no problem. My mood has been fairly even keel. As soon as my health insurance kicks in I’ll get a thorough physical with the entire battery of tests and see if there is anything wrong or lacking in my system.

I think that I tend to lean on my having given up these chemical addictions as a success in and of itself and while it is a great accomplishment it is not enough in terms of rehabilitating into a healthier overall lifestyle.

Quitting is only the first hurdle.

[AnticorRifling]

I'm going to bet you had the joint/muscle aches before but didn't feel them thanks to the hooch.

Flaxseed oil do it now!

[Cephalopod]

What kinda stuff are you eating for meals?

The energy/soreness could probably be adjusted by a better diet and consistent exercise routine.

Good job sticking with it, though.

[Back]

I'm going to bet you had the joint/muscle aches before but didn't feel them thanks to the hooch.

Flaxseed oil do it now!

That thought had crossed my mind...

Now that I’m not running a constant .05 I can feel everything.

[Gibreficul]

nice job. giving up cigs is hard

Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it 1000 times. -Mark Twain



5. To this day I still have my last pack with my last two cigarettes in it, with my lighter, on the counter next to the sliding glass door to the balcony on which I smoked. In a way I left them there as a test of my resolve. When you quit smoking you run into temptation on a daily basis. Every morning I see them there and remember that not only did I quit but I quit in the face of daily temptation making my resolve that much stronger. Or some bullshit like that...
.

The single cigarette in the pack helped when I quit. A crazy night at the bar managed to get me to quit quitting.


I'm smoking a cigarette right now, and it is delicious.

I agree, and disgusting at the same time. HMMMMM. <cough>

[Clove]

Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it 1000 times. -Mark Twain

I can resist anything but temptation - Oscar Wilde


The single cigarette in the pack helped when I quit. A crazy night at the bar managed to get me to quit quitting.For what it's worth I smoked for 18 years and quit a few times unsuccessfully before finally ditching them over 6 years ago.

I tried a bunch of different headgames with myself to deal with the psychological temptation after the nicotine left my system (like keeping a single cigarette and lighter in a pack etc). Ultimately I came to the conclusion that the temptation came not just from habit, but from a genuine need for a serious, effective stress-relief outlet. That became the crux of the biscuit for me, finding an effective stress-relief activity that wasn't going to kill me and not only that, one that could be engaged in on-the-fly in 5 to 15 minutes from just about anywhere (i.e. the typical cigarette break).

Stretching and meditation worked well for me. The cigarette break was merely replaced with 5 or 10 minutes of either or both (depending on circumstances). A yoga class can reinforce the activity more by providing some structure and guidance to your stretches and meditations (and you end up with great scenery during class times, if nothing else).

[Back]

For what it's worth I smoked for 18 years and quit a few times unsuccessfully before finally ditching them over 6 years ago.

I tried a bunch of different headgames with myself to deal with the psychological temptation after the nicotine left my system (like keeping a single cigarette and lighter in a pack etc). Ultimately I came to the conclusion that the temptation came not just from habit, but from a genuine need for a serious, effective stress-relief outlet. That became the crux of the biscuit for me, finding an effective stress-relief activity that wasn't going to kill me and not only that, one that could be engaged in on-the-fly in 5 to 15 minutes from just about anywhere (i.e. the typical cigarette break).

Stretching and meditation worked well for me. The cigarette break was merely replaced with 5 or 10 minutes of either or both (depending on circumstances). A yoga class can reinforce the activity more by providing some structure and guidance to your stretches and meditations (and you end up with great scenery during class times, if nothing else).

Yeah. Quitting is one thing. Knowing why you did it in the first place and dealing with that is another. I’ve kept the habit of stepping away from everything and getting outside for some quiet me time to deal with stress. It actually works and I don’t miss the nicotine.

I confess I do miss the yummy smoke curling out of my nostrils but not enough to die a painful death over.

[Parkbandit]

I confess I do miss the yummy smoke curling out of my nostrils but not enough to die a painful death over.

There is seriously, nothing sexier.. and let's be honest, the total coolness of it certainly outweighs the supposed health "risks".

http://inlinethumb34.webshots.com/46241/2093844550091007266S500x500Q85.jpg

[Asha]

rofl

[Celephais]

I'm thinking about taking up smoking so I can learn to blow smoke rings, that's something I've always wanted to do. I also think the whole letting smoke billow out of your mouth and then sucking it up into your nose looks pretty badass, I'd like to do that too.

Once I get the hang of it with cigarettes I'll move onto getting myself a sweet pipe.

[Back]

I'm thinking about taking up smoking so I can learn to blow smoke rings, that's something I've always wanted to do. I also think the whole letting smoke billow out of your mouth and then sucking it up into your nose looks pretty badass, I'd like to do that too.

Once I get the hang of it with cigarettes I'll move onto getting myself a sweet pipe.

Its fun. You can do all that without inhaling.

I am not going to be one of those ex-smokers... you know, the “I used to smoke so I am telling you to quit” asshole hypocrites. If you want to smoke, go for it, enjoy it. Its your body, your money, your choice.

In fact, I myself will enjoy a good cigar at some point... not just yet but sometime in the future.

[Clove]

In fact, I myself will enjoy a good cigar at some point... not just yet but sometime in the future.And he's back.

[Celephais]

Its fun. You can do all that without inhaling.

I am not going to be one of those ex-smokers... you know, the “I used to smoke so I am telling you to quit” asshole hypocrites. If you want to smoke, go for it, enjoy it. Its your body, your money, your choice.

In fact, I myself will enjoy a good cigar at some point... not just yet but sometime in the future.
... guess I should have used italics, well not on the pipe part, I want a sweet pipe, cause they look badass, especially w/ a monocle, I just don't want to smoke. Is there a way to intentionally decrease your vision in just one eye?

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

... guess I should have used italics, well not on the pipe part, I want a sweet pipe, cause they look badass, especially w/ a monocle, I just don't want to smoke. Is there a way to intentionally decrease your vision in just one eye?

Masturbate furiously but only stroke/touch one side of your dick while doing so. It's in the bible or something, for swearz.

[Cephalopod]

This seemed like it belonged here...
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0ryvveeDZ1qb25dg.jpg

[Back]

Day 71. $1775 saved. Mood: Weak.

I drank 4 beers last night.

The past week and a half have been extremely busy at work. Not only was my AGM in Vegas for a week leaving me to pull a week of doubles (seven 12-14 hours days back to back) but we just did a private party, a fashion show and Mother’s Day in the last three days. I’m not doing this again. Too much work affected my work performance and attitude.

Anyway... been pretty down lately as well. Work takes my mind off of things but then I feel like I have no life, and I don’t really, so I’m constantly grumpy and down. I keep trying to think of things that will make me feel better... taking vitamins, drinking more water, exercise, getting a new job, moving to a new city, and so on but I know thats all a joke. I have to deal with the normal ups and downs of life.

I’m only 2 months into changing a lifestyle I lived for 20 years... its easy to forget that. My inner alcoholic is constantly whispering “go ahead, you’ve been good, you’ve worked hard, relax, treat yourself”. I know that voice all to well and it is the same voice that says “fuck it! lets go all out!” at the drop of a hat! Things could really suck. Whats the solution? Get fucked up! Things could be going really well. What then? Celebrate and get fucked up!

So at the end of shift last night I bought staff a drink on the house after what was one of our busiest weekends ever. It was a rare night where all of our patrons left early and all at the same time so it was just staff left to sit around the bar and blow off steam. It was absolutely the right thing to do. Staff were really excited to get a drink and sit with each other and cut up. A good bonding thing for us.

When I opened my beer my heart sank. Literally I felt fear at the prospect of drinking a beer. I did not have to drink this beer... I could have had a non-alc which we carry. But I was embarrassed I guess in front of the staff. Peer pressure? Well, we toasted and I got through about half of it by the time everyone was done and ready to move on. So it wasn’t so bad.

But then I stopped by the place across the street to see how their day/night/weekend went and ended up talking shop until 1:30am. I managed to drink 3 more beers just with them and they were trying to get me to drink more. I had to really say no and get the hell out of there. Made it home and went straight to bed. Woke up today feeling a slight hangover but mainly guilt.

I’ve been feeling so down lately my inner alcoholic has been saying “you may as well drink and feel better and then other people wouldn’t have to suffer your negativity and downer moods”. It didn’t help. I’m still miserable.

tldr: I drank a few beers and I’m still misrable.

[Asha]

I've said it before but the fact you could leave it at 4 means you're operating on a normal person level.
If you want to tear yourself to shreds about it then do. But you didn't behave like a drunk and get fucking wankered till 6am, even under the influence of 4 brews.
You might feel better believing you can have a nice time anyway you like to reward yourself for working hard. There's nothing wrong with socializing and being a gent and not getting wasted but being merry and loose.
tl;dr: Stop berating yourself. You're going to snap if you don't. Just keep it up as best you can and don't look back, Back.

[Back]

Great post. Lots to chew on. Thanks D.

[Sam]

Only drinking 3 beers by 1:30 AM while being encouraged to drink more is pretty commendable in my opinion.

[Parkbandit]

I heard the more you drink, the less miserable you are. You should try it (again)

[Back]

I heard the more you drink, the less miserable you are. You should try it (again)

Its true. And, if you really really drink a whole lot, then even people like you seem interesting!

WHABAM-N-SLAM!

[Parkbandit]

Its true. And, if you really really drink a whole lot, then even people like you seem interesting!

WHABAM-N-SLAM!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2lqbky-cSgg/SV86UYahvoI/AAAAAAAACag/3gyrFYJSq44/s400/drunk-fail.jpg

[Clove]

Only drinking 3 beers by 1:30 AM while being encouraged to drink more is pretty commendable in my opinion.But officer I ought to be commended the bitch was asking for a boot in the ass... but I only gave her five across the eyes...

[Clove]

Day 71. $1775 saved. Mood: Weak.

I drank 4 beers last night.Berating yourself for a failure is a waste of time and counterproductive. If you really feel that you ought not drink at all and you consider drinking 4 beers a failure of that goal. Admit it, move on. You missed a target, that's all.

[Asha]

That.

[Sean of the Thread]

Get a sponsor.

[Parkbandit]

Once you fall off the wagon, doesn't the day count start all over again?

[Keller]

Once you fall off the wagon, doesn't the day count start all over again?

He is counting the days since he last used nicotine.

[Parkbandit]

He is counting the days since he last used nicotine.

Oh.

Is there a wagon involved with that.. or maybe like a wheelbarrow?

[Stanley Burrell]

<<Backlash>>

You haven't had a single Red Bull since you started this ... Whatever?

P.S. Lie to me.

[Back]

<<Backlash>>

You haven't had a single Red Bull since you started this ... Whatever?

P.S. Lie to me.

Been drinking Three Leaf Green Tea with Jasmine. Go ahead. Laugh. Call me a fag. But I’ll live as long as Pai Mai!

[Asha]

That stuff is completely disgusting. That's worse than the strange German Brain Tea Czeska sent me.

[4a6c1]

Not doing caffeine Back?

Then I feel only slightly guilty suggesting my favorites: Bigelow Plantation Mint and Twinings Black Tea with mint.

I was getting twitchy at work and people were staring so I had to lay off the coffee. The tea is mild but still caffenated.

[Hulkein]

Hey, there's another positive to look at from your night of having four beers... You didn't smoke while socially drinking. Congrats on that.

[Stanley Burrell]

Been drinking Three Leaf Green Tea with Jasmine. Go ahead. Laugh. Call me a fag. But I’ll live as long as Pai Mai!

That's still ~20mgs of caffeine per tea (2.50mg per ounce.) But I mean, as long as you're not chugging down 12 bottles or cups of it a day, I guess it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

I dunno why you're using money as a gauge to say how well or poorly your activities as a somewhat-teetotaller have been. Why not just use the motivation "I'm doing this for myself. I'm a human being. I want to feel good about being the human being I am -- And maybe if I throw some exercise into the equation, I'll be more like Pai Mei," and what have you?

If the amount of money you save is your driving force, then I'd say go for it -- If it's somehow preventing you from being a sick human being, then do it. But long-term, if I were in your shoes, I'd rather end my day with the thought on my mind, "I did well today and I owe it strictly to my willpower and impulse control" and not "I did well today, and I owe it to some random amount of money."

Or something like that.

P.S. Never hang out with me, because once you start crying a river about how I should buy you a drink or give you alcohol, I'm going to cave.

[Asha]

I dunno why you're using money as a gauge to say how well or poorly your activities as a somewhat-teetotaller have been.

I thought that, But whatever works, right?

[Back]

Day 84 without nicotine. Day 7 without alcohol. Apprx. $2100 saved.

About the dollar amount thing... I dunno. It is beyond stupid how much I spent on my extra curricular activities and literally pissed down the drain. It gives weight to the gravity of my predicament. Sure, I could have found a cheaper way to get drunk and smoke if I had too, but to date I was running around a $25 tab a day average, $15 minimum.




I drank again. Last Friday. Someone had their last day party out at a tequila bar and invited me. I managed to have two shots of tequila and three beers before getting out. Slept horribly and woke up with a thick head. It wasn’t very enjoyable. In fact, my frame of mind at the moment is not letting me enjoy alcohol like I used to. I mean, I think the first beer was nice but everything after that was kinda forced.

I’ve had thoughts of going back to a very scaled down lifestyle... two drinks a day max and one day as much as I want. But this idea gives me great pause. It was not too long ago that I posted here about how I thought of my alcohol addiction like a crack addiction... and how many crack or heroin addicts say “Oh, I’m quitting, but every once in a while I’m going to do a gram”. At this point, in my eyes, me consuming alcohol is like me playing with dynamite. I seriously do not want to get back into old habits.

Two drinks a day is actually healthy for the average adult. Moderate drinkers live longer than abstainers. Great excuse.

One thing I have come to understand is the power alcohol has over myself, other people, and society in general and that it is something that should not be fucked with. Its power should be respected yet is easily abused.

All of this is crazy talk, I know. I’ve just forgotten the basics of responsible alcohol consumption. My alcohol inhibitors malfunctioned a long time ago and I’m trying to reassemble a context in which I can coexist with it on the most basic of levels. In other words: Is it possible for me to return to a normal lifestyle?

[radamanthys]

Day 84 without nicotine. Day 7 without alcohol. Apprx. $2100 saved.

About the dollar amount thing... I dunno. It is beyond stupid how much I spent on my extra curricular activities and literally pissed down the drain. It gives weight to the gravity of my predicament. Sure, I could have found a cheaper way to get drunk and smoke if I had too, but to date I was running around a $25 tab a day average, $15 minimum.




I drank again. Last Friday. Someone had their last day party out at a tequila bar and invited me. I managed to have two shots of tequila and three beers before getting out. Slept horribly and woke up with a thick head. It wasn’t very enjoyable. In fact, my frame of mind at the moment is not letting me enjoy alcohol like I used to. I mean, I think the first beer was nice but everything after that was kinda forced.

I’ve had thoughts of going back to a very scaled down lifestyle... two drinks a day max and one day as much as I want. But this idea gives me great pause. It was not too long ago that I posted here about how I thought of my alcohol addiction like a crack addiction... and how many crack or heroin addicts say “Oh, I’m quitting, but every once in a while I’m going to do a gram”. At this point, in my eyes, me consuming alcohol is like me playing with dynamite. I seriously do not want to get back into old habits.

Two drinks a day is actually healthy for the average adult. Moderate drinkers live longer than abstainers. Great excuse.

One thing I have come to understand is the power alcohol has over myself, other people, and society in general and that it is something that should not be fucked with. Its power should be respected yet is easily abused.

All of this is crazy talk, I know. I’ve just forgotten the basics of responsible alcohol consumption. My alcohol inhibitors malfunctioned a long time ago and I’m trying to reassemble a context in which I can coexist with it on the most basic of levels. In other words: Is it possible for me to return to a normal lifestyle?

What's normal?

[Asha]

2 beers a day is not normal as such, more the limit before a person's health starts to be affected. Sadly you're not in their category as you've already been hammering yourself into the ground for a long time.
A beer here and there is fine. Whatever. But sticking to the limit or more than not, breaking it like you are, is not recommended since you have a problem with booze.

I'm saying this with a freezing cold Stella beside me because I've fallen into the typical 'boiling heatwave = booze' thing, we Brits seem to get.

If situations are showing up far too often for you, where you're supposed to drink then just opt out. It's clear it's causing you to worry and you don't need it so early in your new abstinence.
Good luck again. Remember to relax :)

[Clove]

I thought 2 beers a day was optimal for health...

[Keller]

I thought 2 beers a day was optimal for health...

It was either a glass of beer or a bottle of wine.

I usually go with the bottle of wine.

[Asha]

That's because your classy.

[AnticorRifling]

What if it's a box of wine?

[Back]

I’ve done my homework and it is 2 drinks a day maximum, any kind, for men. Red wine is best however.

[Clove]

What if it's a box of wine?That's only with fish in a bag.

[Methais]

I’ve done my homework and it is 2 drinks a day maximum, any kind, for men. Red wine is best however.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXt56MB-3vc

[Back]

What's normal?

Good question. After I typed all that and thought more on it I think the answer to your question is: treat alcohol consumption responsibly else you’ll get burnt.

Normal people have many rules regarding alcohol consumption. I’ve been living far too long without those rules.

[Parkbandit]

I’ve done my homework and it is 2 drinks a day maximum, any kind, for men. Red wine is best however.

Well.. if you've spent the last 5 years drinking a 12 pack a day.. you should be good to go for the next 30 years or so.

I have to wonder though.. are you trying to justify your wagon hopping by this?

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

I would guess most people do not drink two alcoholic beverages a day. I'd bet money it's more like 2 drinks a week, if not less.

[Asha]

I couldn't imagine just living with 2 a week. I've gone with no drink for a week by accident before but at least one day in the week I like to unwind with a pack of brews and xbox.

[Stanley Burrell]

Alright,

Pretend you aren't holding an alcoholic beverage (I'm not even gonna bother) in your current avatar:

The fuck is up with the scarf? They match the glasses in terms of hippy/emo-college hybrid.

Well, good luck.

[Asha]

He is right. The scarf is too far.

[Back]

That pic is from last winter and the scarf is a gift from my aunt, you pricks.

[Asha]

:rofl: Glad to be of service

[Tisket]

Backlash is the most narcissistic person on the PC. For the least reason, I might add. What is that now, like five avatars where he used a self photo?

The avatar where he is getting raped didn't last long I see. I saved it in case anyone ever wants to use it in a thread where he gets raped. Which happens on a regular basis:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/b1.jpg

[Parkbandit]

:rofl:

I'm not sure if he's narcissistic.. but he sure is an attention whore.

He is the winner of the 2010 Creepiest Avatar Ever award though.

[Back]

How many times do I have to say it... I’m an attention slut, not whore. Whores get paid. I do this for free.

[peam]

I would guess most people do not drink two alcoholic beverages a day. I'd bet money it's more like 2 drinks a week, if not less.

Some of us exist to bring up the average.

[Methais]

That pic is from last winter and the scarf is a gift from my aunt, you pricks.

You are so full of shit.

It's obviously Ben Stein circa 1986.

http://euvolution.com/futurist-transhuman-news-blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/e06d7_BenStein.jpg

[Hulkein]

Dry, red eyessss.

[4a6c1]

I really really really like that scarf. It looks comfy like, wrap my face in it and Praise Allah in a blizzard, comfy. Omfg I miss snow. Confirm my suspiciouns and tell me it is one of those 1/4 inch thick genuine wool, mum's mum scarves that you only wear when your neck is freezing, 0 degrees cold.

[LMingrone]

0 degrees cold.

That would make sense. But I doubt it's that cold indoors.

[Back]

I really really really like that scarf. It looks comfy like, wrap my face in it and Praise Allah in a blizzard, comfy. Omfg I miss snow. Confirm my suspiciouns and tell me it is one of those 1/4 inch thick genuine wool, mum's mum scarves that you only wear when your neck is freezing, 0 degrees cold.

Scratchy wool it is. A gift from my aunt supposedly the tartan colors of our Welsh surname.

[Back]

Day 91 without nicotine. Day 11 without alcohol. $2275 saved. Mood: Stoked.


Ok, technically I am three months without smoking. This matches my last non-smoking streak of three months back in 1988.

I’m feeling really good right now. After I quit initially up until a couple of weeks ago I was in a deep depression. Without my usual chemical avoidance techniques it was pretty bad. I did not want to go anywhere or see anybody or do anything. Thank god for junk food, On Demand and GS/Playstation.

So at the three month mark the urges are definitely waning. I do not get the reflexive desire to smoke after I eat. When I wake up I am grabbing a glass of water.

I am sensitive to the smell of smoke. I can smell it when people in the car in front of me are smoking... even on the freeway. Just went to the airport and was hit with the smell outside the arrival terminal. I can smell it on people now when I could not before. That is a positive reinforcement right there... I swear some of the people smell like they are locking themselves in a little room with no windows and smoking a whole pack! Like they literally crawled out of a sooty fireplace. I feel embarrassed for them.

I certainly do not miss the yellow fingers, the painful lungs, coughing up tar balls in the middle of the night, waking up with dried mucus on the pillowcase, the feeling of hopelessness at not being able to quit while pouring money down the drain, smelling like an ashtray, the ashes all over my car/desk, and so on.

But, I do miss smoking. The whole romanticized routine... the smoke, the flavor, the mellow buzz, the paraphernalia. There is a reason people smoke. Its enjoyable! Its relaxing. Hey, even Gandalf smoked.

So I decided to celebrate my accomplishment by smoking a good cigar! I’m going down to the smoke shop later today and buying a modestly priced cigar and any paraphernalia I need. Case, cutter, whatever... I can afford it.

Next week I am going to have my creature day. To celebrate my having been a good boy I’m going to grill up a ribeye, have a bottle of Bordeaux, and smoke a cigar with some friends.



Another interesting event of note: Last night I found a ziplock with a big green sticky bud in it on the floor of my bar. Gift from the universe? Nonsense! Dessert? Definitely.

[Methais]

That scarf will always trump everything in this thread.

[4a6c1]

I'm calling it the Mum's Mum Scarf.

[IorakeWarhammer]

the pothead is gonna be sad when he gets home :(

great job man keep it up. remember smoking nicotine closes your lungs. I went to the "body works" display with my wife at the Franklin institute. They have a real healthy lung and a few smokers lungs. the good lungs look like a sponge. The smokers lungs look like big blue/black volcanic rocks, you can actually see the color which correlates with how cigarette smoke looks under light, a kind of whitish blue vs "other" smoke which is more brownish..

forget the cigar - nicotine boost will make you crave hard, alcohol will knock out your inhibitions, you'll have a few good cigs then back to normal. fuck that.. keep going, and if you run hard, you'll continue to cough up black stuff.. TRUST ME

[Asha]

Dude. Back, seriously?
You have to stop rewarding yourself with booze and smokes no matter how expensive or small the amounts you'll knock back.
You know this, I'm sure.
When you enjoy the expensive smoke or Bordeaux, you're making reward receptors in your brain recognize the things you are avoiding as something it looks forward to, so you're going to be craving FOREVER.

I haven't checked if you've mentioned it but maybe you should stop thinking the problem is cigs and booze and think about seeing a doctor about relieving depression, mate.

[LMingrone]

Not everyone that drinks or smokes is doing it to cover up depression. Shit, my Grandma was a chain smoker, (3 packs a day on average) and drank and gambled till she was one day after her 100th birthday. She was as happy as anyone you've ever met. Willpower is an important stat.

I'm in no way recommending this, just giving the other side.

[Asha]

I get you. She sounds like an awesome woman btw :)
I'm just throwing it out there.

Also I'm thinking about starting a journal thread about my addiction to full fat butter.
It's taking over my fucking life.

[Nieninque]

Backlash is the most narcissistic person on the PC. For the least reason, I might add. What is that now, like five avatars where he used a self photo?

The avatar where he is getting raped didn't last long I see. I saved it in case anyone ever wants to use it in a thread where he gets raped. Which happens on a regular basis:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/b1.jpg

FIXED!

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh95/Auwyn/b1.jpg

[Back]

Dude. Back, seriously?
You have to stop rewarding yourself with booze and smokes no matter how expensive or small the amounts you'll knock back.
You know this, I'm sure.
When you enjoy the expensive smoke or Bordeaux, you're making reward receptors in your brain recognize the things you are avoiding as something it looks forward to, so you're going to be craving FOREVER.

I haven't checked if you've mentioned it but maybe you should stop thinking the problem is cigs and booze and think about seeing a doctor about relieving depression, mate.

Well, hmm. If it is a choice between some pharmaceutical chemical and me just letting off steam once in a while I would rather the latter. Ya know?

I hear what you are saying though, D. Its risky business for me to be going down that road. Having finally quit smoking I feel a bit cocky. Like if I can quit that my willpower is now finally under my control and I can do anything I want without fear of falling back into old habits.

The once a week “day of reveling” seems like a good balance to me. And when I say that I don’t mean drinking until passing out like I have done. Just having a day where I can eat what I want, smoke a cigar and have a few drinks. I’ve seen people live this way successfully and have confidence that I can make it work. If not, well then, back to the drawing board.

[IorakeWarhammer]

I really really really like that scarf. It looks comfy like, wrap my face in it and Praise Allah in a blizzard, comfy. Omfg I miss snow. Confirm my suspiciouns and tell me it is one of those 1/4 inch thick genuine wool, mum's mum scarves that you only wear when your neck is freezing, 0 degrees cold.

interesting comment there lol..

The Noble Qur'an - al-Baqarah 2:219

They ask you (O Muhammad ) concerning alcoholic drink and gambling. Say: "In them is a great sin, and (some) benefit for men, but the sin of them is greater than their benefit."


Hadith - Al-Tirmidhi #2776, Narrated Anas ibn Malik

Allah's Messenger cursed ten people in connection with wine: the wine-presser, the one who has it pressed, the one who drinks it, the one who conveys it, the one to whom it is conveyed, the one who serves it, the one who sells it, the one who benefits from the price paid for it, the one who buys it, and the one for whom it is bought.

Hadith - Abu Dawood, narrated Tariq ibn Suwayd or Suwayd ibn Tariq

Wa'il said: Tariq ibn Suwayd or Suwayd ibn Tariq asked the Prophet about wine, but he forbade it. He again asked him, but he forbade him. He said to him: Prophet of Allah, it is a medicine. The Prophet said: No it is a disease.


Hadith

Umm Salamah, the wife of the Prophet reports that he once said: "Allah has not placed a cure for your diseases in things that He has forbidden for you.'' (Reported by Baihaqi; Ibn Hibban considers this hadith to be sound.Bukhari has also related it on the authority of Ibn Mas'ud.)


Hadith - Abu Dawood; Sahih Bukhari

Abu ad-Darda reported that the Prophet said: "Allah has sent down both the malady and its remedy. For every disease He has created a cure. So seek medical treatment, but never with something the use of which Allah has prohibited.''

[Asha]

I read 'bukkake' in there at least three times.

[ViridianAsp]

Well, hmm. If it is a choice between some pharmaceutical chemical and me just letting off steam once in a while I would rather the latter. Ya know?

I hear what you are saying though, D. Its risky business for me to be going down that road. Having finally quit smoking I feel a bit cocky. Like if I can quit that my willpower is now finally under my control and I can do anything I want without fear of falling back into old habits.

The once a week “day of reveling” seems like a good balance to me. And when I say that I don’t mean drinking until passing out like I have done. Just having a day where I can eat what I want, smoke a cigar and have a few drinks. I’ve seen people live this way successfully and have confidence that I can make it work. If not, well then, back to the drawing board.


I think this "day of reveling" isn't a good balance. You are trying to quit this stuff, and right now you aren't at a point you can really control yourself, I'd say it might take you a few years.

If this day of reveling doesn't work, and you fall back into your old habits because of it, I think you might get discouraged and not try to quit the stuff again.

Personally, it sounds to me like you really haven't quit it, the fact that you are using one day and calling it balance means you still want it and still feel like you need it.

Don't do it, there is more to life than a alcohol and cigarettes. You don't need it to be happy and it sounds like you still think you do. Find something else instead of going back to the same thing in different forms.

[Back]

Grr. You, and D, are right. My addictive tendency started taking over and rationalizing ways for me to use again. I knew it all along. In fact I had restless sleep over it last night.

Thanks for speaking up. Project “day of reveling” scrapped. Project “find ways to be happy without chemicals” back on track.

[Methais]

Grr. You, and D, are right. My addictive tendency started taking over and rationalizing ways for me to use again. I knew it all along. In fact I had restless sleep over it last night.

Thanks for speaking up. Project “day of reveling” scrapped. Project “find ways to be happy without chemicals” back on track.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h123/whitty876/SmokeWeed.jpg

And use one of these if you're worried about your lungs:
http://www.vaporizergiant.com/VOLCANO.jpg

[Back]

I always thought those M&M guys were pretty cool. Now I know why!

[Parkbandit]

Grr. You, and D, are right. My addictive tendency started taking over and rationalizing ways for me to use again. I knew it all along. In fact I had restless sleep over it last night.

Thanks for speaking up. Project “day of reveling” scrapped. Project “find ways to be happy without chemicals” back on track.

Don't listen to those pussies.. if you can handle a 12 pack of beer and two packs of cigs a day, you can certainly handle a measly bottle of wine and a nice cigar. You deserve it man, I say bottoms up and light em if you got em!

[Nieninque]

Grr. You, and D, are right. My addictive tendency started taking over and rationalizing ways for me to use again. I knew it all along. In fact I had restless sleep over it last night.

Thanks for speaking up. Project “day of reveling” scrapped. Project “find ways to be happy without chemicals” back on track.

Fuck, you're cured. Go have a beer.

[Asha]

Do some smack that way it'll all take care of itself.

[Nieninque]

I always quite fancied the idea of doing some opium

[Back]

Day 99 since the lifestyle change. Approximately $2300 saved. Mood: Bewildered.



So I smoked three cigars and had a few drinks last week. Heh.

On Memorial Day I just drove around places I hadn’t been. Spotted a cigar shop and bought one on a whim to have for the drive. Drove for hours through the countryside on a beautiful day. Followed some signs with grapes on them that lead to a local winery. :) Had a sample flight and a glass then hit the road home. Great relaxing day. Gave me time to think...

At this point I can’t believe the kind of life I was leading. Well, I can and I can’t. It has not been that long since I quit that lifestyle but the further along I go the more absurd it seems to me. When I was living it I viewed myself as a raconteur, a gentleman bad-boy, a well meaning kind hearted vagabond with a wicked adventurous streak. Saint by day, devil at night. In reality I was a cheap beer guzzling marlboro smoking red neck drunkard.

Well, a little of both. ;)

Its one thing to love life and live it to its fullest. Its quite another to use that as an excuse to hide from your problems, responsibilities and reality in general. Its also not easy to break that cycle once you are in it. You put off so much that after everything builds up for a while it seems incomprehensible that there is any other way out of the situation so you just keep wishing it away. Truth is though, as I have found, that once you break the cycle and weather through the downfall back to reality, its not so hard to pick up the pieces and carry on.

I’ve managed to get away fairly unscathed but I’ve alienated quite a few people dear to me. I have a few physical scars from drunken mishaps and a great number of shameful memories I have to live with... but nobody died, I have all my limbs intact, in fact I am in relatively good heath, gainfully employed, almost out of debt and feeling damn good.


Last Thursday I met an old friend from the drunk days for dinner at a new wine bar in DC that I wanted to try. Had a cigar on the drive down. We went to a dive bar first because the wine bar was packed. I had two PBR cans in two hours. Then we moved to the wine bar where I had a flight of Pinot Noir and one glass of dessert wine with dinner over two more hours. Had a cigar on the drive home and that was my night.

So far so good. I am definitely in a much better place right now.

[Asha]

So you drove while over the limit?

[Back]

Not at all. At no time since I have changed my lifestyle have I been over the legal limit while driving or otherwise.

[Gan]

http://votingfemale.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/obama-down-in-flames.jpg

[Asha]

Man they must have pretty relaxed limits out there. 2 beers at 5% and two wines I expect over 10%?
I would not let myself drive after those even if it was within the law.

[Back]

Man they must have pretty relaxed limits out there. 2 beers at 5% and two wines I expect over 10%?
I would not let myself drive after those even if it was within the law.

You have to factor body weight and time into the equation as well. The average person burns off a drink an hour. I had four drinks total from 7pm to 11pm. At most I only had one drink in me at any given time.

[Methais]

Smoking cigars doesn't make you an ex-smoker.

[Nieninque]

You have to factor body weight and time into the equation as well. The average person burns off a drink an hour. I had four drinks total from 7pm to 11pm. At most I only had one drink in me at any given time.

Wrong. You are an idiot...and you are far from average.

That was in no way a compliment, either.

[Back]

Smoking cigars doesn't make you an ex-smoker.

Ex-cigarette smoker. Smoking a cigar is a bit different but I don’t feel like belaboring the point.


Wrong. You are an idiot...and you are far from average.

That was in no way a compliment, either.

Never expected a compliment from you, Miss Crankypants. I do not care if you think I am wrong, or if you are wrong about me being wrong, but for the sake of other readers I strongly suggest they do their own research if they want to know the facts about alcohol consumption.

[Nieninque]

Only a fucking retard drunk would be able to convince himself and try and convince other people that he is safe to drive after four drinks.
Moron.
I just hope that when you wrap your car around a tree it is just you involved. God help anyone else who gets in your pig ignorant way.

[Parkbandit]

Oh come on.. if Lindsey Lohan can handle it, I'm sure Backlash can.

http://www.fugly.com/media/IMAGES/Random/lindsay_lohan_drunk_with_knives.jpg

[Back]

Only a fucking retard drunk would be able to convince himself and try and convince other people that he is safe to drive after four drinks.
Moron.
I just hope that when you wrap your car around a tree it is just you involved. God help anyone else who gets in your pig ignorant way.

The legal limit is .08% BAC (blood alcohol content). Even I think that is waaaay to much. .05 seems more reasonable or even .02 for that matter.

If someone were to drink four drinks in under an hour then they would be very close if not at .08 depending on their body type and if they were male or female.

One drink in your system is not going to even get you close to the legal limit. You’d have to be 4' tall 90lb woman to be that drunk after one drink.

[IorakeWarhammer]

Smoking opium is stupid if you smoke anything else because you can't feel your lungs. You'll smoke harder and feel amazing and then after 2 days your lungs will be bleeding and raw as hell.

[Nieninque]

Stupid fucking lush

[Gan]

http://forum.gsplayers.com/images/reputation/reputation_neg.gifConfessions of a... (http://forum.gsplayers.com/showthread.php?p=1115118#post1115118)06-06-2010 01:05PM You are dumb - Back

Don't you mean...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll102/learningtewfly/ganalon-olympics.jpg

[Junarra]

Nice job staying off both of those wagons.

What baffles me is why you'd post about it, except to get more negative attention so you can defend your "choices."

You're a fucking alcoholic nic-fiend. Accept it. You have no choice, and you're not sober or nicotine free because you couldn't get past even 90 days, dumbass, stop patting yourself on the back.

And I never really post here, but I followed this thread because I thought "Wow, that guy's actually going to DO it." Then I realized it's like rooting on Sean and thinking "Oh shit, I believed that again? Fucking gullible..."

Good luck with your life. Because you're going to fucking bloody well need it.

[Methais]

Ex-cigarette smoker. Smoking a cigar is a bit different but I don’t feel like belaboring the point.


The legal limit is .08% BAC (blood alcohol content). Even I think that is waaaay to much. .05 seems more reasonable or even .02 for that matter.

If someone were to drink four drinks in under an hour then they would be very close if not at .08 depending on their body type and if they were male or female.

One drink in your system is not going to even get you close to the legal limit. You’d have to be 4' tall 90lb woman to be that drunk after one drink.

So basically what you're saying is you're an ex-smoker that smokes cigars, and an ex drunk that still drinks?

I really don't care on way or another if you end up straightening out, and I have nothing against most drugs, tobacco or alcohol, but it really is pathetic watching you lie to yourself in order to feed yourself another drink or another smoke without feeling guilty, with the pathetic part being that you're so bad off you're able to believe your own lies.

Watching you reward yourself for quitting drinking by drinking would be kind of like BP patting themselves on the back today for the safety award they got 10 days before the oil rig blew up.

[Back]

So basically what you're saying is you're an ex-smoker that smokes cigars, and an ex drunk that still drinks?

Yep. For now anyway.

An ex-2 pack-a-day-cigarette smoker to a cigar-once-in-a-while smoker. An ex-12-pack-of-beer-a-day-alone drunk to a couple-of-drinks-a-week-social drinker.

Having finally broken a years long cycle that seemed impossible to break has given me a sense of empowerment. However as I’ve posted before my involvement with alcohol is like playing with dynamite and I still feel that way. The dangers of falling back into my old lifestyle are in the forefront of my mind and the absolute last thing I want to happen.

I switched over to green tea from black coffee as part of this whole plan. I found myself getting into the same habit with the tea as I was with the coffee. I started doubling up the tea bags to get a little more kick out of it. So... now I am back to decaf coffee with a tea every once in a while.

Anyway... I’m sure this all sounds like bullshit, it is I suppose. Posting about all of this here has been helpful though. In an odd way. Getting all this feedback is much appreciated. Thanks all.

[CrystalTears]

Well then at least be honest with everyone and yourself by saying that your goal was to cut down but never quit completely. Saying that you're an ex-smoker and an ex-drinker and still smoking and drinking no matter how casual is still smoking and drinking.

I agree with Methais, it's quite sad how you're fooling yourself into thinking that you've quit when you clearly haven't.

[Parkbandit]

Well then at least be honest with everyone and yourself by saying that your goal was to cut down but never quit completely. Saying that you're an ex-smoker and an ex-drinker and still smoking and drinking no matter how casual is still smoking and drinking.

I agree with Methais, it's quite sad how you're fooling yourself into thinking that you've quit when you clearly haven't.

What, you mean like this?


Day 28. $362 saved. Mood: Focused

Today marks my 4th week, 28 days, of being nicotine free (not smoking) and limited caffeine intake. Also, it is my 10th day without alcohol.


What step in AA is he now.. back to 1?

Oops, that's not it either, since Step 1 is admitting you have a problem.

[Hulkein]

Only a fucking retard drunk would be able to convince himself and try and convince other people that he is safe to drive after four drinks.
Moron.
I just hope that when you wrap your car around a tree it is just you involved. God help anyone else who gets in your pig ignorant way.

Uh, driving after four drinks over four hours for a man Backlash's size with dinner in the middle is most definitely UNDER the limit and legal (ie: safe enough according to our laws). I deal with DUI defendants every day. Stop talking out of your ass.

[Gan]

I think Backlash's size has already been established here on the PC...

:whistle:

[4a6c1]

When I was 13 I smoked a cigarrette and then bragged about it to all my friends.


























(Just sayin.)

[Gnomon]

Uh, driving after four drinks over four hours for a man Backlash's size with dinner in the middle is most definitely UNDER the limit and legal (ie: safe enough according to our laws). I deal with DUI defendants every day. Stop talking out of your ass.

It depends on the drinks. 1 unit per drink (small portions of weak booze) and no problem.

The glass sizes and booze strength I usually see served mean it is typically 2.5 units per drink, and 10 units would put most people over the limit even after 4 hours with a meal in the middle.

[Nieninque]

It depends on the drinks. 1 unit per drink (small portions of weak booze) and no problem.

The glass sizes and booze strength I usually see served mean it is typically 2.5 units per drink, and 10 units would put most people over the limit even after 4 hours with a meal in the middle.


Precisely, plus "dinner in the middle" is not a good thing, because it implies (as does Slacklash's account) that there was alcohol consumed beforehand i.e. alcohol on an empty stomach...having eaten being one of the mitigating factors in BAC and OMG OVER THE LIMIT!!!1111. The BAC is measured in units not in drinks and a drink is rarely the equivalent of a unit any more. Stronger drinks and larger measures all round.

Additionally, I was talking about being safe to drive rather than within the legal limit. The only safe amount of alcohol is zero, none, nada, zilch. There are too many variables in trying to work out how the alcohol will affect you and how long it will stay in your system. It also requires some level of honesty and objectivity, neither of which alcoholics have in abundance. I've always been intrigued as to why the same legal llimit is not applicable to pilots. Surely if it is safe, it is safe?

[fabiola7386]

Thanx for sharing

Drug Rehab (http://www.southcoastrecovery.com)

[Gan]

:rofl:

[Parkbandit]

Thanx for sharing

Drug Rehab (http://www.southcoastrecovery.com)

+rep for an awesome booty... er botty.

[Back]

Working in a restaurant I can tell you that our regular mixed drinks contain 1.5 oz. of spirits and our vodka or gin martinis contain 2 oz. of spirits. Our wines by the glass are a 6 oz. pour and all of our beers are 12 oz. bottles. Thats industry standard due to cost/profit margins, legal issues and genuine interest in the welfare of our customers.

A person who has three rum and cokes should not be more or less drunk than someone who has three glasses of wine or beer.

If you are getting more than what you pay for, stronger drinks or free drinks, there are two reasons. Either the bartender has an allowance to spend on drinks for his regulars to keep them coming back so they keep spending money or the bartender is dishonest and trying to get more tip out of you.

It is not required, and I have no idea why, but there are classes for bartenders about alcohol handling that go into detail about the effects of alcohol on people and a bartenders/establishments responsibility when serving. Basically if you get someone drunk in your establishment and they go out and kill someone or hurt themselves in a car or just falling off the fricking curb the restaurant bears some legal responsibility.

As for my consumption I am pretty aware of my own states of inebriation. I’ve had a breathalyzer for the past 9 years and have measured my own alcohol levels enough to know how many drinks will do what.

I can tell you from experience that .08 BAC is pretty fucking buzzed. For me to get to .08 I have to drink a six pack in an hour. Different conditions affect you differently. I have felt impaired with a BAC of .02. Ultimately, you can stay within the realm of legality which keeps you out of trouble with the law, but if you feel impaired stay away from driving no matter what your BAC is.

Nien is absolutely 100% correct. BAC is one way to measure inebriation but the best way to avoid a DUI or killing anyone is to not drive. Period. End of story.

[Parkbandit]

http://www.posters.ws/images/419361/family_guy_i_m_not_drunk.jpg

[Daniel]

http://www.posters.ws/images/419361/family_guy_i_m_not_drunk.jpg

Rofl.

[Asha]

Thanx for sharing

Drug Rehab (http://www.southcoastrecovery.com)

HAHAHAH!!

[AnticorRifling]

Working in a restaurant I can tell you that our regular mixed drinks contain 1.5 oz. of spirits and our vodka or gin martinis contain 2 oz. of spirits. Our wines by the glass are a 6 oz. pour and all of our beers are 12 oz. bottles. Thats industry standard due to cost/profit margins, legal issues and genuine interest in the welfare of our customers.

A person who has three rum and cokes should not be more or less drunk than someone who has three glasses of wine or beer.

If you are getting more than what you pay for, stronger drinks or free drinks, there are two reasons. Either the bartender has an allowance to spend on drinks for his regulars to keep them coming back so they keep spending money or the bartender is dishonest and trying to get more tip out of you.

It is not required, and I have no idea why, but there are classes for bartenders about alcohol handling that go into detail about the effects of alcohol on people and a bartenders/establishments responsibility when serving. Basically if you get someone drunk in your establishment and they go out and kill someone or hurt themselves in a car or just falling off the fricking curb the restaurant bears some legal responsibility.

As for my consumption I am pretty aware of my own states of inebriation. I’ve had a breathalyzer for the past 9 years and have measured my own alcohol levels enough to know how many drinks will do what.

I can tell you from experience that .08 BAC is pretty fucking buzzed. For me to get to .08 I have to drink a six pack in an hour. Different conditions affect you differently. I have felt impaired with a BAC of .02. Ultimately, you can stay within the realm of legality which keeps you out of trouble with the law, but if you feel impaired stay away from driving no matter what your BAC is.

Nien is absolutely 100% correct. BAC is one way to measure inebriation but the best way to avoid a DUI or killing anyone is to not drive. Period. End of story.

I can't stress this enough:

You

Are

Retarded

[Methais]

Working in a restaurant I can tell you that our regular mixed drinks contain 1.5 oz. of spirits and our vodka or gin martinis contain 2 oz. of spirits. Our wines by the glass are a 6 oz. pour and all of our beers are 12 oz. bottles. Thats industry standard due to cost/profit margins, legal issues and genuine interest in the welfare of our customers.

A person who has three rum and cokes should not be more or less drunk than someone who has three glasses of wine or beer.

If you are getting more than what you pay for, stronger drinks or free drinks, there are two reasons. Either the bartender has an allowance to spend on drinks for his regulars to keep them coming back so they keep spending money or the bartender is dishonest and trying to get more tip out of you.

It is not required, and I have no idea why, but there are classes for bartenders about alcohol handling that go into detail about the effects of alcohol on people and a bartenders/establishments responsibility when serving. Basically if you get someone drunk in your establishment and they go out and kill someone or hurt themselves in a car or just falling off the fricking curb the restaurant bears some legal responsibility.

As for my consumption I am pretty aware of my own states of inebriation. I’ve had a breathalyzer for the past 9 years and have measured my own alcohol levels enough to know how many drinks will do what.

I can tell you from experience that .08 BAC is pretty fucking buzzed. For me to get to .08 I have to drink a six pack in an hour. Different conditions affect you differently. I have felt impaired with a BAC of .02. Ultimately, you can stay within the realm of legality which keeps you out of trouble with the law, but if you feel impaired stay away from driving no matter what your BAC is.

Nien is absolutely 100% correct. BAC is one way to measure inebriation but the best way to avoid a DUI or killing anyone is to not drive. Period. End of story.

Are you saying you drink purely for the taste now or something?

[g++]

It should only take 3 beers to get an average man a BAC of .08 why does it take you double?

[AnticorRifling]

Because he's HARDCORE EXTREME X UNLEASHED UNDERGROUND RAGE!!!!

[Daniel]

It should only take 3 beers to get an average man a BAC of .08 why does it take you double?

By man do you mean 13 year old girl? wtf?

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

This thread is like a car accident. I keep finding myself coming back to read the justifications and mocking, when I really have no interest in Backrash at all. I just can't look away :(

Nice whoring though, definitely got a few of us to pay attention to him.

[Asha]

Isn't Pabst like 5%. Maybe it's because over here we serve in pints but I'd not let myself drive after even 2 of those.
I'm not accusing or anything. As Anticor knows I'm a little girl :D

[4a6c1]

This thread is like a car accident. I keep finding myself coming back to read the justifications and mocking, when I really have no interest in Backrash at all. I just can't look away :(

Nice whoring though, definitely got a few of us to pay attention to him.

I feel guilty for reading the thread, being entertained and then losing interest when I realize that he has a psychological disorder that prevents him from making rational decisions or taking any sound advice from anyone.

I feel guilty for all that AT LEAST twice a week.

[AnticorRifling]

It comes in pints?!

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.massively.com/media/2009/03/comesinpints.jpg

[Back]

It should only take 3 beers to get an average man a BAC of .08 why does it take you double?

You have to factor in body weight, time, and if you eat or not. Check out this handy java BAC calculator provided by The University of Oklahoma Police Department. Also read the FAQ. It’s funny as hell.

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm

[Celephais]

You have to factor in body weight, time, and if you eat or not. Check out this handy java BAC calculator provided by The University of Oklahoma Police Department. Also read the FAQ. It’s funny as hell.

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm

So you weight 220?

[TheEschaton]

I set it to the max limits, and 1 hour, and that thing said a 240 pound man can drink FIVE gin and tonics in an hour before he reaches the .08 level. That seems retardedly off.

[TheEschaton]

BTW, that faq itself says what you eat doesn't matter:

That story has been around since before your grandparents were born. The only relation we've seen between what you eat before drinking and your drunkenness is that the more you drink, the more likely we are to find what you ate on your shirt, or on the floorboard of the patrol car.

[CrystalTears]

What you eat sure as hell does matter. All those nights of drinking at the clubs were better after stuffing our face at Denny's at 4 in the morning. :D

[Celephais]

What you eat sure as hell does matter. All those nights of drinking at the clubs were better after stuffing our face at Denny's at 4 in the morning. :D

Well it matters, but it won't effect the BAC. People seem to think it absorbs it, which it doesn't, food can influence the rate it gets into your bloodstream though (based on the fact your stomach is doing something), but not enough to offset drinks (some people react worse to sudden BAC level increases, so having food can help prevent that, still doesn't change the actual BAC).

... I don't have a source to site on this, I think it was told to me whilst I was drunk once.

[CrystalTears]

I never drove when I drank so I did not care. :drunk:

[Asha]

I was always told 'eating's cheating'.

[Methais]

I never drove when I drank so I did not care. :drunk:

Wouldn't it make more sense for that stick figure to be called "crystalmeth" instead of "drunk"?

[Methais]

100% on topic and totally worth the read:

http://www.drunkard.com/issues/10_06/images/andre-giant-hdr.jpg

Some amazing man or woman, past or present, who stands colossus-like atop the Big Keg, the ground below littered with crushed empties and the blacked-out carcasses of lesser beings? A verging demigod, whose prowess with a bottle leaves you shaking your head in pop-eyed adoration? Lots of us do.

In addition to their wrist-raising abilities, we deify great drinkers because they indulge their lust for intoxication while simultaneously operating at the peak of their powers in whatever their chosen profession. In other words, great drunks are also great writers, actors, athletes, scientists, statesmen, philosophers, and so on.

I have a favorite drunkard. He was an athlete—a professional wrestler in fact—but he was also a gifted entertainer and a true artist. His parents named him Andre Rene Rousimoff, but we knew him as The Eighth Wonder of the World, Andre the Giant.

For two decades, from the late 1960s through the mid 1980s, Andre the Giant was the highest paid professional wrestler in the business and a household name across the globe. Promoters fought tooth and nail to book Andre, as his presence on a card all but guaranteed a sell-out. Fans cheered his every move, and mobbed him on the street as if he were a great big Beatle.

For proof of his drawing power, look no further than Wrestlemania III in 1987. The main event was Andre vs. Hulk Hogan. The show drew the first million-dollar gate in wrestling history, set a pay-per-view record that lasted a decade, and set the all-time indoor attendance record for any live event ever—78,000+ butts in seats at the Pontiac Silver Dome in Detroit—destroying the previous record set by some rock band called the Rolling Stones. His rematch with Hogan two months later, broadcast live on NBC, attracted 33 million viewers, making it the most watched wrestling match ever.

119 BeersKnown to his friends simply as “Giant” or “Boss,” Andre was born on May 19th, 1946, in Grenoble, France, the child of Russian immigrants. Shortly after his birth, he was diagnosed with a rare glandular disease, acromegaly, which caused his body to over-produce growth hormones. As a result, Andre grew to a height of somewhere between 6’11” and 7’5” and a weight of over 500 pounds (his actual height and weight have been speculated about for decades—the business is notorious for inflating wrestlers’ statistics—but Andre’s illness sometimes made him slouch or bow his shoulders, so he might well have been the advertised 7’5”). He first wrestled as Andre the Butcher, but it was Vincent J. McMahon Sr., owner of New York’s World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), who christened him “Andre the Giant.”

While it can be argued that a miniscule handful of professional wrestlers matched Andre’s in-ring achievements (Gorgeous George back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, perhaps; Dusty Rhodes in the ‘70s, and Hulk Hogan, without a doubt, in the ‘80s), no other wrestler ever matched his exploits as a drunkard. In fact, no other human has ever matched Andre as a drinker. He is the zenith. He is the Mount Everest of inebriation.
As far as great drunkards go, there is Andre the Giant, and then there is everyone else.

The big man loved two things: wrestling and booze—mostly booze—and his appetites were of mythic proportion.

First, consider the number 7,000. It’s an important number, and a rather scary one considering its context, which is this—it has been estimated that Andre the Giant drank 7,000 calories worth of booze every day. The figure doesn’t include food. Just booze.

7,000 calories.

Every day.

I don’t know about you, but it makes my brain turn somersaults. Hell, it makes my brain perform an entire floor routine, complete with colored ribbons.

When Andre arrived in New York to begin his long working relationship with the McMahon family, his reputation as both a serious student of the nightlife and an extravagant spender was already a topic of speculation and wonder among East Coast wrestlers and promoters. Andre might make $15,000-$20,000 for a single appearance at Madison Square Garden, and a substantial amount of that went to settling the bar tabs he piled up as he boozed his way up and down Manhattan until sunrise. Andre’s generosity matched his size. He often invited a gang of fellow wrestlers along for the ride, as he disliked drinking alone, and picked up some truly staggering tabs. Andre was going to have a good time and went out of his way to make sure everyone else did too.

Worried about his headliner, Vince McMahon Sr. assigned a “handler” to the Giant—long-time wrestler, manager, and road agent, Arnold Skaaland, whose only job when Andre was in town was to keep him out of serious trouble and get him to the arena in time to wrestle. Skaaland was an old-school drinker in his own right, but Andre blew his mind. On one occasion he could only watch goggle-eyed as Andre went about demolishing a dozen or so quarts of beer as a “warm-up” for a match.

With Skaaland on the job, Vince Sr. knew Andre was in capable hands, but the promoter still worried about how the Giant would cope with the insane amount of travel required of a wrestling superstar. Andre loathed flying—no commercial airliner could accommodate such a massive man without resorting to the luggage compartment—and his opinion of most cars wasn’t much sunnier, because aspects of his disease caused intense pain in his knees, hips and lower back when he remained too long in a cramped position. When a tight schedule left a plane or car as the only option, Andre eased his discomfort by getting good and hammered.

Vince Sr. pondered the situation and arrived at a novel solution. He wanted to keep the big man happy, so he bought a trailer and had it customized just for Andre. With plenty of room to spread out and relax, Andre could now travel in a semblance of comfort, which allowed him to do some serious boozing. During trips Andre consumed beer at the incredible rate of a case every ninety minutes, with bottles of vodka or top-rate French wine thrown in for variety.

Sadly, the trailer wasn’t available outside the WWWF territory; Vince Sr. wasn’t about to do the competition any favors. Andre didn’t expect other promoters to pony up a trailer just for him, so he commissioned a customized Lincoln Continental. With the front seat now positioned about where the back seat would normally be, Andre had a little leg room. He carried his luggage and wrestling gear in the trunk and towed his necessities in a trailer. Lined with plastic tarps, the rickety trailer was filled with ice and cases of Budweiser tallboys. As he cruised the nation’s highways, Andre kept a case on the seat beside him, stopping only for food, more ice, and another case or two if he ran low.

As famous as Andre was in this country, he was even bigger in Japan. He spent a few months out of every year over there, where he was treated like a living god and pocketed five-figure payoffs for a single night’s work. That being said, Andre didn’t really like Japan. Everything was too small. Hotel beds were like bassinets and it was all but impossible for him to shower or go to the bathroom in their Lilliputian facilities. He was known to rip the door off his hotel bathroom and make use of the toilet by sitting sideways with his legs sticking out into the main room.
Getting from show to show presented its own problems. Japanese promoters preferred to transport the gaijin wrestlers by bus, vehicles which steadfastly refused to house giants. In order to placate their star import, promoters removed several rows of seats from the back of the bus, creating something of a private cabin for Andre, a place spacious enough for him to stretch out or catch a nap. Mostly, though, Andre used the space as a comfortable spot to do his drinking.

A very green rookie wrestler named Hulk Hogan toured Japan several times with Andre and witnessed the Giant’s alcohol consumption first hand. According to Hogan, Andre drank, at a minimum, a case of tall boys during each bus ride. When he finished a can Andre would belch, crush the can in his dinner-platter-sized hand, and bounce the empty off the back of Hogan’s head. Hogan learned to count each thunk, so he could anticipate when Andre was running low. Whenever the bus stopped, it was Hogan’s job to scamper off to the nearest store, buy as many cases of beer as he could carry, and make it back before the bus departed, a sight that never failed to make Andre roar his bassoon-like laugh.

On one tour, Andre’s Japanese sponsors rewarded him with a case of expensive plum wine. Andre settled down in the back of the bus and started drinking. Four hours later, the bus arrived at the next venue, and Andre was polishing off the last bottle of wine.

Sixteen bottles of wine in four hours is a considerable feat, but it gets better. Andre proceeded straight to the ring and wrestled three matches, including a twenty-man battle royal. The 16 bottles of plum wine had no discernible effect on Andre’s in-ring ability. By the end of the evening, Andre had sweated off the wine and found himself growing cranky. He dispatched Hogan for a few cases of beer. Hogan hurried to do as Andre asked, knowing from painful experience that a drunken Giant was a happy Giant, and a happy Giant was less likely to fracture some vital part of an opponent’s anatomy in a fit of grumpiness.

In 1977, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes wrestled Andre at Madison Square Garden. Afterwards, the old friends went out on the town. They adjourned to one of Andre’s favorite watering holes and took stools at the bar (Andre occupied two). Several hours and some 100 beers later (around 75 of them were Andre’s), they decided to head back to their hotel. Andre looked at taxis with the same scorn as most other conveyances and announced that he and Dusty would walk, which was problem because Dusty was having trouble maintaining a vertical position. Andre studied the situation, and a twinkling grin blossomed across his huge face. People who spent any time with the big man quickly learned to watch for that grin. It was a harbinger of danger. It meant that Andre was contemplating something risky, something with potential legal ramifications, but also, most assuredly, something fun.

A moment later, the two huge wrestlers attacked a pair of horse-drawn carriages. Dusty threw a handful of paper money at one driver while Andre hauled the other from his seat with one hand. While one driver cursed and the other scrabbled around on the ground collecting his windfall, Andre and Dusty thundered off in the carriages. They raced through the Manhattan streets, dodging cars and pedestrians for fifteen blocks before ditching the carriages and lathered horses a block from their hotel. By the time the cops arrived, Andre and Dusty were enjoying snifters of brandy in the hotel bar, appearing as innocent as angels. The next day, they main-evented another card at the Garden. Another sell-out. Two pros at the top of their games.

Another time, in the ‘70s, Andre was holding court at a beach-front bar in the Carolinas, boozing it up with fellow wrestlers Blackjack Mulligan, Dick Murdoch, and the inimitable Ric Flair. They’d been drinking with gusto for hours when Flair goaded Mulligan and Murdoch into some slap-boxing with Andre, who had poured over 60 beers down his gullet. One of the two “accidentally” sucker-punched Andre. The Giant became enraged, grabbed both Mulligan (6’5”, 250 lbs.) and Murdoch (6’3”, 240 lbs.) and dragged them into the ocean, one in each hand, where he proceeded to hold them under water. Flair intervened, and Andre released the men, assuring them he was only playing around. Murdoch and Mulligan, who had nearly drowned, weren’t so sure, but neither messed with Andre the Giant again. They also picked up the tab.

On another occasion, Andre was touring the Kansas City territory and went out for drinks after a show with Bobby Heenan and several other wrestlers. When the bartender hollered last call, Andre, slightly annoyed, announced that he didn’t care to leave. Rather than risk an altercation with his hulking customer, the bartender told Andre he could stay only if he was drinking, imagining, surely, that he would soon be rid of the big fella. Andre thanked the man, and proceeded to order 40 vodka tonics. He sat there drinking them, one after another, finishing the last at just after five in the morning.

When ill health forced Andre to largely quit wrestling in the late ‘80s, he accepted the role of Fezzik in Rob Reiner’s movie The Princess Bride. Everyone on the set loved the big man, with the possible exception of Reiner himself. Ever the sociable fellow, he kept fellow cast members Mandy Patinkin and Carey Elwes out night after night, drinking and otherwise goofing around. The actors were incapable of matching Andre’s intake, but certainly gave it a serious try. As a result, they often showed up on set still loaded or suffering from the sort of hangovers that make death seem a pleasant alternative. Reiner tried to get Andre to leave the actors alone, but Andre could only be Andre, and the other cast members continued to pay the price.

The shooting schedule required Andre to be in England for about a month. When his part wrapped, Andre checked out of his suite at the Hyatt in London and flew back to his ranch in North Carolina. His bar bill for the month-long stay?

Just a shade over $40,000.

Now, if everything I’ve described so far isn’t proof enough that Andre the Giant was the greatest drunkard who ever lived, these last two stories should set my claim in granite.

You won’t find it in the Guinness Book of World Records, but Andre the Giant holds the world record for the largest number of beers consumed in a single sitting. These were standard 12-ounce bottles of beer, nothing fancy, but during a six-hour period Andre drank 119 of them. It was one of the few times Andre got drunk enough to pass out, which he did in a hallway at his hotel. His companions, quite drunk themselves, couldn’t move the big man. Fearing trouble with cops, they stole a piano cover from the lounge and draped it over Andre’s inert form. He slept peacefully until morning, unmolested by anyone. Perhaps the hotel people thought he was a piece of furniture.

Think about it: 119 beers in six hours. That’s a beer every three minutes, non stop. That’s beyond epic. It’s beyond the ken of mortal men. It’s god-like.

Giants are not made long for this world, and toward the end of his life injuries and health problems caused by the acromegaly caught up with Andre. It became difficult just to walk, let alone wrestle, so he retired to his North Carolina ranch to drink wine and watch the countryside. He declined myriad requests for a comeback, despite promises of lavish payoffs. He was simply in too much pain to perform at the level he demanded of himself. Then he received a call from Vince McMahon Jr.

McMahon was in the midst of taking his WWF promotion national. He’d scored big-time with his Wrestlemania events on pay-per-view, and as Wrestlemania III approached, Vince Jr. was hot to make it the biggest thing yet. To make that happen, he needed Andre the Giant.

Andre was in France visiting his ailing father when the call came. He thanked Vince Jr. but said there was no way he could get back in a ring, even though he very much wanted to. Not willing to give up, Vince Jr. flew to France to speak with Andre in person. He took Andre to see doctors specializing in back and knee maladies. Radical back surgery was proposed. If successful, the procedure would lessen Andre’s pain and perhaps make it possible for him to get in the ring for Wrestlemania. If Andre was game, Vince Jr. agreed to pay for the entire cost of the surgery.

The time arrived, and the anesthesiologist was frantic. He had never put a person of Andre’s size under the gas before and had no idea how much to use. Various experts were brought in but no solution presented itself until one of the doctors asked Andre if he was a drinker. Andre responded that, yes, he’d been known to tip a glass from time to time. The doctor then wanted to know how much Andre drank and how much it took to get him drunk.

“Well,” rumbled the Giant, “It usually takes two liters of vodka just to make me feel warm inside.”

And thus was a solution found. The gas-passer was able to extrapolate a correct mixture for Andre by analyzing his alcohol intake. It was a medical breakthrough, and the system is still used to this day.

Five months later, Andre the Giant wrestled a “body-slam” match against Hulk Hogan and brought down the house.

Two liters of vodka. Warm and fuzzy. Side by side like that, the two sentences hardly make any sense. For most of us, two liters of vodka means a one-way ticket to Blackout Island aboard the good ship Regurgitania.

After Wrestlemania, Andre retired for good. His beloved father died in 1993 and Andre returned to France to be with his family. He was still there when, on January 26th, 1993, Andre died in his sleep of heart failure at the age of 47.

The key to Andre the Giant is this — even as a youth he knew that his disease would dramatically shorten his life. He knew there was no cure, and lived every day with the understanding that death could shamble around the very next corner. Knowledge of this sort can darken a life.

It did not darken Andre’s.

He chose instead to pack his days with as much insane, drunken fun as they could hold. Instead of languishing in the darkness, he chose to walk in the sun.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again now. Andre the Giant was an inspiration. I would pay a fortune for the opportunity to go back in time 30 years to watch such a master practice his craft, in the ring and at the bar.

Andre the Giant was the very embodiment of what being a drunkard is all about.
—Richard English

(Note: The Author is indebted to the works of Brian Solomon, Ric Flair, Terry Funk, “Superstar” Billy Graham, Dave Meltzer, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, and Hulk Hogan.)

http://www.drunkard.com/issues/10_06/10_06_andre_giant.html

[Asha]

:) :heart: Andre.

[AnticorRifling]

I always love reading that.

[Asha]

That match in 87 was one of the most pwne things I've ever seen on TV. Hulk won iirc but it didn't matter in the least.
Man I remember everything about that entire day because of that match.

[Celephais]

119 beers, 6 hours... that is a 4x speed power hour, 6 back to back... drinking a power day in 6 hours.

[g++]

Those online calculators are rarely going to give the same results as actual breathalyzers. I have several friends with breathalyzers in their car and Im a fairly heavy drinker who has taken my share of breathalyzers in college and if your expecting to drink 5 beers over 2 hours get pulled over and blow a .04 prepare to be the most shocked person in county jail when you find out those calculators dont really work.

[Back]

So an update. Been doing very well for a while. Drinking socially and never too much... until this last week. :( Fell off the wagon and started bringing something home to night cap with. Waking up hung over and feeling dread, despair, and doom.

No cigarettes... but I have had quite a few cigars. Enough so to make me feel like a smoker again and I do not want to be a smoker any longer.

The good news is that it was only two nights in a row and not nearly as much alcohol as I was used to consuming on a daily basis.

A little reality check. Back on the path.

[peam]

GOOD JOB SUCKING AT LIFE YOU COCK-SUCKING LIB

[Back]

I thought you stopped drinking because you realized you were on the road to ruin. How's that working out?

I’ll answer this here. During this time last year I quit smoking, drinking alcohol and caffeine all at once. You yourself posted two things that stood out as good advice. Know thyself and maybe quitting everything at once was a bad idea. Well, it was. So, take that for what it is and let the flames commence.

The good news is I went a year without caffeine or cigarettes. I’ve gained about 25 pounds but being free from the slavery of nicotine is so amazingly awesome.

[AnticorRifling]

So start drinking soda and quit drinking booze.

[AnticorRifling]

I can't stress this enough:

You

Are

Retarded

Best post in this thread, no question.

[NocturnalRob]

Best post in this thread, no question.
That's because you erased the bot post:

Thanks for sharing!!!
Drug Rehab (http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=drug+rehab&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=25bac56246434a91)

[AnticorRifling]

Yeah that bot was awesome. Too bad he had to die.


I went back and read a lot of this thread again. The PC is awesome.

[Warriorbird]

That's because you erased the bot post:

Helpful bot is helpful!

[NocturnalRob]

Yeah that bot was awesome. Too bad he had to die.
I don't know why, but this made me laugh hysterically. Perhaps because I have decided that I know exactly how you said it--nonchalant and incredibly blasé.

[Stanley Burrell]

So an update. Been doing very well for a while. Drinking socially and never too much... until this last week. :( Fell off the wagon and started bringing something home to night cap with. Waking up hung over and feeling dread, despair, and doom.

No cigarettes... but I have had quite a few cigars. Enough so to make me feel like a smoker again and I do not want to be a smoker any longer.

The good news is that it was only two nights in a row and not nearly as much alcohol as I was used to consuming on a daily basis.

A little reality check. Back on the path.

How 'bout some ether?

[Back]

There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.

[Asha]

Hilarity