Why Can’t I Stop Drinking Alcohol?
Posted: Friday, May 09, 2008
by Samantha James
You ask yourself Why can't I stop drinking alcohol? The answer is, you can't stop drinking because you have developed an addiction to alcohol. When you have an addiction to alcohol, you are no longer calling the shots. Alcohol is the new boss.
When you first started drinking, you associated having a few drinks with good times with your friends. But for those of us who have that special alcoholic mechanism in our brain, eventually the good time drinking is going to turn into constant, nightmare drinking. You are in a pattern of literally drinking against your will.
The Webster's definition of addiction is:
--compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.
So the hallmark symptom of addiction is compulsion. You have the mental and physical compulsion to drink, and this compulsion overrides your intellect, reason, self-discipline, and will. You have lost control over the situation. The drinking is now controlling you.
Very few alcoholics are able to stop drinking without some kind of help. As anyone with an alcohol addiction knows, even when you rally all of your inner resources and make a genuine and firm decision to stop drinking, it is just a matter of time before you pick up again. Addiction is a geniune form of bondage.
When you first started drinking, you associated having a few drinks with good times with your friends. But for those of us who have that special alcoholic mechanism in our brain, eventually the good time drinking is going to turn into constant, nightmare drinking. You are in a pattern of literally drinking against your will.
--compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.
So the hallmark symptom of addiction is compulsion. You have the mental and physical compulsion to drink, and this compulsion overrides your intellect, reason, self-discipline, and will. You have lost control over the situation. The drinking is now controlling you.
Very few alcoholics are able to stop drinking without some kind of help. As anyone with an alcohol addiction knows, even when you rally all of your inner resources and make a genuine and firm decision to stop drinking, it is just a matter of time before you pick up again. Addiction is a geniune form of bondage.
Your addiction ties you to alcohol. You start thinking about drinking very early in your day. If you have alcohol in the house it calls your name. If you run out you will go to great lengths to get that next drink. Does this sound familiar? An addiction to alcohol is the reason you just can't stop drinking.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)my name is tyler im 20 yrs old. im on probation but for some reason i cannot stop drinking, i got alot of friends willing any time to buy me some Drank, every day i buy beer, mostly steel reserve because its cheap and 8.1% but regardless i cant seem to stop.... i been thru so much $%&*@$%& and drinking drowns out any feelings i have.. idk what to do, i drink everyday and i kno it aint right , my family dealt wit addictions every man in my family and i dunno how to stop it. i tell my self every day im not guna drink yet every time i make the call and i get me some Drank.... been thru rehabs , serveed over 2 years in lock up and i just dunno what to do, Sum times i think ending it wuld be better then living wit this $%&*@$%&... i duno.. @#$%&* it though i guess . the therapy and groups and everything else aint helping i kno what i have to do but for some reason i just wont do it.. if u culd gimme some tips i wuld be very thankfull... O ya im drinking right now , but damn am i tired of this $%&*@$%&Dear Tyler:
It sounds like you have the genetic predisposition to drinking alcohol since the men in your family have all suffered from the same problem, but whether they got sober or not doesn't mean you can't.
You mentioned that your friends are more than happy to supply you with alcohol. You may want to consider, as difficult as this is, to distance yourself from the people who are helping you to stay sick.
Rehab doesn't work for many of us. You are far from alone there. And you certainly are not alone in your drinking problem there are so many people struggling with this right now.
Go to How I Stopped drinking and read the articles. You will find different options there. And no matter what, make it a rule to never to put yourself in the position to get into any kind of legal trouble again no matter what it takes. Its incredible how severely we compromise our standards when under the influence.
I stopped drinking about 15 years ago. After drinking several beers I had a motorcycle accident. When I told my shrink how much I was drinking she said I should go to AA and that I was an alcoholic. I stopped drinking that very day. What I found out is that I am a switch and not a dial. I had been trying to control my drinking and I couldn't do it. It was not possible for me to drink in moderation. I had to stop. It was easier to stop and impossible to control. I know my story is not going to be true with others, but that was how it went for me. Before I stopped I drank daily. I hid bottles in the house. I would say, "I'm not going to buy another bottle" while I drove directly to a liquor store. Stopping turned out to be a gift to me. I have a much better life now.At 21 I found myself in rehab as I was a teenage alcoholic. I am now 46 and have been sober for over half my life. I cannot say the same for the majority of my school friends who were my prtners in drinking. I did give 100% back in 1987. I was the life of the party, the popular girl to hang around back then. I had to learn all over how to become liked without alcohol as a crutch. I have collected more wonder and meaning friendships with both "nomal" people as well as the AA fellowship. Good luck to all who still suffer.I am a walking AA success story. Ps....I am not a religion pusher but rather believe in each individual finding their own form of God.
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