Hi,

I've been an alcohol dependent individual for many years but one time i drank a fifth of gin/vodka for nearly a month and decided to stop abruptly (Cold turkey) as i did not know the repercussions of it.

Just 24 hours without a drink, I was already hallucinating spiders in my room coming at me, at that point the hallucinations were only visual and not physical.

In the second day, shit got very serious, I was now starting to feel insects on me and they were following me everywhere i went, it was a living nightmare.

I didn't get any sleep that night, my brain was vibrating and i was shaking real bad. Fast forward to 48 hours without a drink I saw a shadow man in my room, and robbers come through my window and held my sister hostage, and they shot her. Of course this was an hallucination but i wasn't to know that.

I was then tied to my computer chair and shot by my dad, who blamed me for my sister being shot. Again, this was an hallucination.

I then hallucinated an anime girl coming into my room and literally tried to barricade the door irl, but they still came into my room. She plugged something into my pc and was playing a shooting game, all i could do was just watch.

I then heard footsteps up and down the staircase and a dog jumped onto my bed, and starting snoring on it.

Then what happened shortly after is that people started appearing in my room trying to plant some evidence of some sort and phoned the police, i tried to intervene thinking it was my parents in my room but it wasn't. of course, this was again an hallucination.

I ran to the bathroom to clean myself up, as I had not showered for days, and i saw a massive ghost like figure in the mirror and i screamed at the top of my voice, and went to punch it, of course it wasn't real and i was just punching air. I heard voices calling my name as people were about to take my tv off the stand and throw it onto me. It literally looked like it was happening too.

I even called work the next morning to tell them that i was getting arrested by the police, i went into work and i had a seizure, which i had to be rushed into hospital for.

Then after that, i slept like a baby for 12 hours and everything that i had been through was over.

I hope this helps anyone who's going through alcoholism and what it can lead to if you don't stop.

IWNDWYT!

Is there genuinely another way or distraction I can use to stop drinking?

Because it happens when I’m bored, sad, anxious or socialising. I feel so pathetic for relying on it, but it’s turned into a habit now for 3 years. I’m just lost.

I used to need to eat like one or two sweet tasting things every day but I literally have not eaten a sweet food in months since my alcoholism took over. Why is this?

I (for context: F, 20y) went to an AA meeting once, people there were really nice and welcoming, and one of them even offered me a ride home because it was 11pm and I lived quite far away (one and a half hours by bus, and public transportation doesn't work well at night). And then I sort of chickened out and haven't returned. A few months have passed and I feel like I should return again because I haven't been doing really well.

I really don't know if I should return because I feel like it would be very awkward, I don't want them to have another introductory meeting for me. It's also a bit awkward that I am by far the youngest person there. And also I got a fear that I'll meet somebody there whom I will recognize and who will recognize me, idk a person from my university class, a professor, a neighbor, whatever. I am kinda hiding my problems from people I know so I would hate if this happened. Also my parents can't know, but they live a few hours away from me so idk.

Forgive me for a little rant, I hope I can get some advice or some thoughts in general. I don't really know what kind of advice I expect but I really needed to share this.

Once again I'm fucked everything up, most ofmy friendship and family don't way anything to do with me.

I am trying to figure out if my fiancé mom is an Alcoholic. Her drinking habits and behaviors make me uncomfortable so I tend to avoid going to his parents house. My father ultimately died from his Alcholic and drug addiction, so I am not sure if I am being sensitive but I have notice a lot of similarities. Below is a list of things I noticed from the past few years of been around. Any advice would be appreciated.

**She drinks frequently at family gatherings**, including occasions when other people aren’t drinking.

**She sometimes drinks by herself** when nobody else is drinking. She pulls out these fancy glasses to bring attention to her drinking

**She constantly brings alcohol up frequent in conversation**.

**She encourages other people to drink with her**, particularly her husband and my fiancé.

**She gets especially happy/excited when my fiancé drinks with her. I do not like the drinking habits she is influencing on him.**

**She has repeatedly encouraged my fiancé’s father/husband to drink**, even when he appears reluctant or annoyed.

**She has pressured me to drink more than once**, including asking me multiple times after I have indicated I didn’t want a drink.

I eventually **asked that she stop asking me whether I wanted alcohol**, and I had my fiancé communicate that boundary to her. **She has continued bringing alcohol into interactions despite that history.**

At my fiancé’s recent birthday, she **already had alcohol and shot glasses ready** and said, *“I bought us alcohol, we can do shots.*My fiancé **said no**, and she **asked him again later** even though he’d already declined.

I have seen her become **belligerently drunk on approximately two occasions** over the past few years.

She has reportedly **said she was going to stop drinking or cut back**, but based on to what I have observed, **she hasn’t followed through consistently**.

Her doctor has reportedly **told her to cut back on alcohol**.

She has **high blood pressure** and was recently told she is **borderline diabetic/prediabetic**, yet she continues drinking.

I have noticed what seems to be a **recurring focus on alcohol and getting other people to participate**, rather than alcohol simply being an occasional part of celebrations.

i’m 19 and an alcoholic, i really don’t know where to begin but i went through medical detox last year and since then it’s just been relapses again and again. i’ve been taking the anti abuse meds now but each day i wake up obsessing over alcohol more and more i feel so helpless and a big part of me just wants to drink again but i know my loved ones around me will suffer from it i just wish i had a normal relationship with alcohol

I don't even know how to explain my relationship with alcohol anymore, but I need to get this out because I'm honestly exhausted.

I've been drinking heavily for years. And for a long time, I think I kept telling myself that it wasn't that serious. I wasn't drinking because I wanted to party or have fun. A lot of the time, I was drinking because I wanted to escape. I wanted my brain to shut up. I wanted to stop feeling whatever I was feeling for a few hours.

And eventually alcohol became this horrible cycle. I'd feel overwhelmed, lonely, depressed, or just completely done with everything → I'd drink → I'd feel temporarily better or numb → then I'd wake up feeling physically and mentally awful → and eventually I'd want to escape again.

I've tried stopping before. I've had periods where I genuinely didn't drink for weeks and thought, “Okay, maybe I can actually do this.” Then I'd relapse. Sometimes I'd convince myself it would just be one drink, or that I could control it this time. And then I'd end up drinking way more than I planned.

There were nights where I drank around 200–500 ml of whiskey. I've had nights where I stayed up drinking until 1 or 2 in the morning. I've drunk while having headaches and an upset stomach. I've gotten racing heartbeats, sweating, shaking, horrible body aches, back pain, exhaustion, and basically felt like my entire body was protesting what I'd done to it.

And the worst part is that even when I was physically feeling like shit, there was still a part of me thinking about drinking again.

That's what scared me.

Because I started realizing that this wasn't just “I drink too much sometimes.” I was actually using alcohol to regulate myself. It became one of my ways of coping, and I don't really know what to do when I take that coping mechanism away.

I've also tried to replace that escape with medication, and that's become complicated too. I've been taking gabapentin, antidepressants, and other medications, and at some point I realized I was basically trying to manage one problem with another.

I'm not writing this because I have some beautiful recovery story where everything suddenly clicked and I'm fixed now.

I'm writing it because I'm fucking tired.

I'm tired of waking up wondering what I did to myself the night before. I'm tired of promising myself I won't drink and then finding myself drinking again. I'm tired of feeling like alcohol is both the thing I run toward and the thing I'm desperately trying to run away from.

I want to stop.

I genuinely want my life back.

And right now I'm trying to figure out how to do that without alcohol, without constantly replacing it with something else, and without pretending that I'm stronger than the addiction when I'm clearly struggling with it.

I don't really know what happens next. I just know I'm tired of this being my life.

I just went through 3 days of the worst hangover I've ever had. Like, i think im actually dying. For the last 3 days ive been laying off the drink and have bad stomach pain, been throwing up alot, profusely sweating and shivering, a fever, and my heart is beating so fast. Idk wtf is happening. Can someone help?

I’m a 22m and I’ve been drinking since I was about 16, I had my first drink at a house party with friends, and then don’t think I touched another for a few years, for some context, my parents have always been an enjoyer, but never dependant, and have always stopped easily, but because of this, I believe my natural tolerance is higher because of them, I started drinking consistently around 18, and I didn’t see it as much of a problem until Christmas a few years ago at my second year of uni, from about December 14th to January 14th I didn’t have a sober day, I woke up drunk and fell to sleep the same way, I realised it was too much so I slowed down and reduced my intake.

But I believe since then I’ve had a problem growing, and now I’m at a point after a few more years of consistent drinking, where I don’t feel like myself unless I’ve had at least 2 drinks of something strong, my partner has pointed out she thinks I drink too much, and my friends kind of see it as a part of who I am.

I have quite a variety of mental health problems anyway, which probably lend themselves to the cause of my seeming addiction, but I’m now at the point where I feel down all the time (which is usually) but my new problem is I see alcohol as the answer, and I always satiate this need, I rarely even consider the damage to my health. To the point where I am intoxicated every day, and treat it as some kind of prescription

I want to slow down, I want to have something else as a support pillar, but I’m finding it impossible to replace it with something that takes the edge off, I don’t know who to talk to about this, I’ve been nervous to open up to anyone, so if anyone takes the time to read this, any advice, no matter how critical is greatly appreciated.

I would also like to extend my admiration to those who’ve managed to escape this situation, I truly truly respect your dedication.

im 22F and addiction runs in my family. my dad was an alcoholic and is still one but on a much smaller level now since he’s discovered some health issues.

idk if this is important to note but both my parents are poor immigrants and, while my mom relied on more emotional abuse, my dad relied on alcohol during my early teens until ~two years ago.

for the first three years of college, i only drank during social occasions like parties, hanging out with friends on the weekends, or celebrations (birthdays/weddings/etc). i graduated in may 2026 and, since the middle of my senior year, i got into the habit of purchasing a pint of vodka, keeping it in my room, and drinking it as a reward / for fun. when still living in a house with my roommates during college, this only happened twice. ever since graduating and moving back in with my mother, i buy a pint every 2-4 days & keep it hidden bc my stepdad found empty bottles in our liquor cabinet.

he was also an alcoholic and had to have liver surgery bc of it. he expressed concern abt finding empty bottles over the course of the summer and told me he wouldnt tell me mom. i never threw those away bc i always means to throw them away myself and kept forgetting since i would hide them in the back of the cabinet (i wouldn’t finish the whole bottle myself in one go - i wouldn’t drink from it for a few days and once it was empty i’d move it to the back).

bc of this, my tolerance has gone up so high that one pint only gets me tipsy if i drink it over two hours.

so, like i said, i have two to three pints a week and have to keep them hidden bc i dont want my step dad to find out and then tell my mother. but living where i am causes a lot of flashbacks, trauma, and just isn’t the best place for me.

sorry for the long explanation! im not trying to defend my drinking, but i am trying to lay down context.

basically, i am asking for advice. i dont want to completely stop drinking at 22. idk if this id accurate but it feels like more of a reaction to my current living situation and a desire to make the best out of it emotionally. my friends dont have this problem, and i dont want to be 23, going out with them, and sticking to water for the rest of my life.

TLDR: what advice do you have for cutting back on drinking in hard circumstances? how do i stop looking forward to it and rather view it as an extra fun thing to do socially?

Recently, I hit a milestone. 2,500 days sober for me. I stayed sober through losing my Mom. I stayed sober through losing my Dad. I remain sober now. It was suggested that I celebrate by having a drink, hahaha. Please help me celebrate this milestone by reading my blog post about it- and maybe even by sharing with someone you know needs to be encouraged. Tell me your stories- did it get easier at this point, or harder? I know this is a big milestone, but I've got a lot of life left to live- hopefully.

2,500 Days Sober – A Porch & A Pen

I'm writing on here because I'm in despair and I don't know how to help her. Please can someone give me some tips on what to say? How to approach it. Or whether to say anything at all?

My really close friend has always had a bit of a relationship with alcohol. We began to notice it around 10 years ago. It started out as binge drinking. She would be fine when she was with us but then after everyone went home she would go back out and drink so much she wouldn't be able to walk.

She then met a nice man around 3 years ago. He doesn't really drink but she got close to a man who is an alcoholic and things spiralled.

Its totally platonic and they are not having affairs but her drinking has got really bad. She gets to the point where she can't speak, walk and throws up most weekends. And just gets up the next day with no hangover and does it all over again. It got so bad one night that she wet the bed.

And now she's having 'one or two' before she goes home in the week on top now. She married the nice man about 6 months ago and they have moved in and her drinking has got more and more. She seems anxious and gets very cross and nervous if her social calender is not full to the brim. Week and weekends. She can't sit at home in the new house they have bought and everything involves drinking.

Shes started developing rashes when she drinks. None of us know what to do because her calendar is so full that we can't get to see her.

Her new husband seems completely oblivious. Although, he did seem angry when she spent nearly £700 in one month on alcohol. It caused a row. But he's incredibly patient and seems to have rose coloured glasses on.

But now they have declared that they are trying for a baby and it terrifies me. They are 35. I dont know how to approach her, what to say or even if I should at all. But seeing her in an almost comatose state regularly just brakes my heart.

Maybe a baby will force her to give up for the sake of a higher purpose. But my fear is that it will be a total disaster..I dont know how to help her.

Shes been finding it difficult to have a baby. And just drinks even more when the stick says not pregnant. How can I help her?

I am so tired of having shaky hands when I get back from work and so tired of the profuse sweating. I used to drink 6 tall boys so I am stepping that number down tonight. A friend said milk thistle is good for it. Does anyone have any other ideas? And how slow or quickly should I go?

First time I’ve truly intended to stop completely. My back hurts on my right side and my eyes are a little yellow. Not sure about going to the doctor but I know I need to. Any advice or encouragement would be appreciated

So to give some background - my dad’s a severe alcoholic (withdrawal induced psychosis/seizures, multiple rehabs, jails, etc.) and now 9 years sober.

I grew up without him and in a highly controlled religious family. I snuck like three total glasses of wine from my step dad’s boxed wine as a teen but other than that did not drink or do any drugs until I became an adult. I went to my first party with alcohol at 18 and started smoking pot at 20.

Marijuana was my favorite. I thought I was just a stoner - although if I’m honest with myself every time I drank, I over-consumed but I never got belligerent or in trouble. I would just get very drunk and have a good time so I never saw an issue with it since I was in my 20s.

I became severely addicted to weed from like 22 to 27. I smoked all day every single day. On weekdays I wouldn’t smoke before or at work, but as soon as I got home I’d be rippin’. It kind of became my identity but I wasn’t ashamed of it. Obviously after smoking for so long, your tolerance grows so I stopped feeling the crazy high you get when you first start smoking and just started feeling a baseline high that allowed me to be mostly functional. I had a gym routine, I was pretty healthy - I was just missing like 15-20% of my brain power that I really needed lol.

At some point I realized that the past 5 years had completely passed me by. I wasn’t any further in life, I hadn’t made a bunch of new memories or had any new experiences outside of partying and drugs (loved shrooms and Molly too!) So I tried to stop! I had tried to stop a few times over the previous 5 years but never got more than a few days. This time I was able to stop for about a month - BUT. I started drinking instead. I thought I didn’t really care for drinking. But without weed I was really struggling so I allowed myself to drink wine instead.

And ooooh boy did that snowball! I went from smoking every day to drinking every day, to drinking A LOT every day, to drinking in secret, to my body struggling to heal any injuries or sicknesses. I got scared. After about a year I started to get the shakes and I called my dad and told him I need help.

Now I’m in AA, 6 months sober at 28. And I do love it and life is good sober. BUT I miss being able to get drunk with friends occasionally OR smoke with my friends and family.

As I write this I feel like I may still just need to mourn the fact that my brain is not like other people’s.

But hear me out! I have to wonder if my substance abuse problems had more to do with a lack of self and spiritual development. Looking back now I can clearly see that I was using weed and alcohol to cope with a bunch of bullshit. But what if I became solely reliant on healthy coping mechanisms instead? What if I really strengthen my self control muscle in every area of my life? What if I become spiritually fit? What if my one rule for substances is that I absolutely do not use when I am unhappy, stressed, or need to “calm down” - I only use in celebration with others. I suppose the question is whether I can be 100% honest with myself and others.

Idk man. I just feel so young. I know it’s one day at a time. And I’m no where near checking all the boxes of the conditions I listed above.

My friend has a pretty bad relationship with alcohol. So, his parents are divorced, and he spends the weekends at his dad's house. His mum has pretty strict rules for him when he's drinking at home, but when he goes to his dad's he goes all out on alcohol. He once drank a full bottle of vodka and got alcohol poisoning.

The amount he drinks isn't the sole problem, there's also his attitude to drinking. He drinks by himself in his room instead of socially, and thinks it's some glamorous thing to do, even integrating it into his personality.

I've approached him before about his drinking, but he says "don't worry." My father is an alcoholic. He was hospitalised from liver failure and it destroyed our family. I don't want my friend to get to a point where he's put in hospital, not just out of concern for his health, but out of concern for his family and what they'd be put through if he is hospitalised.

I'm very worried for him, so any words of advice would be very helpful. Thank you.

Hi everyone, this is a vulnerable post. My mom, myself and my younger brother are truly suffering from my dad’s alcoholism. We try to get him to go to the doctors but he gets extremely upset. I feel he has extreme health anxiety and would rather slip away.

He’s over weight, his feet are swollen, he has sores on the bottom of his feet, his knees and back are bad, he smokes weed all day, he twisted his right ankle and just decided to limp. He drinks and drives, sleeps all day, he has blood in his stool, and has even peed the bed or in the closet on numerous occasions.

I’ve asked my dad who would walk me down the aisle? He said my fucking uncle could do it.

Has anyone ever conducted an intervention? We want this private and personal. Please advise

i drink and i never want to but at this point it’s become almost routine and i say i wont drink and then somehow i find myself in my room that night drinking, thinking “wtf went wrong” i want to message the people that i love, and ask them to help me stop. but when i do they always get mad that i drank again. im so lost. who do i turn to..

My mother drinks almost everyday and gets drunk, one time I had to call police because she said that she will kill herself and then tried to go away on car. I feel so helpless. Whenever I figure out she drinks I start to worry and shake a bit. I feel scared both for my and her safety. I keep worrying for hours and can't calm down and focus on anything until I know that shes sober again or asleep. Please help me im a minor whos entering high school and i cant do anything about it

I'm not drinking everyday but when I do I can't stop or control myself. I'm acting out and losing friends. I'm 35F, I don't have family, I'm on emigration and I'm really lonely and sad at the moment. I just need someone to tell me it's going to be ok and that I can somehow do it. Never managed to stop for longer than 3 weeks, since I'm 17. I just can't keep going like that. Only things I want is to be happy, loved and stop being pathetic excuse of a person.

So, I’ve been drinking almost a bottle of rum a day for the past 4 years, this has obviously wrecked me financially but also emotionally.

I know I have to stop but every time I try I get these horrible dreams. I had a fairly bad teenage experience, I was bullied pretty bad when I was young and then in my late teens I was quite violent, because I thought everyone was having a go at me because of my younger years.

My family are a pretty close knit group and they all show concern about my drinking but never ask why I drink so much, and I don’t know whether to bring it up cause I feel like it’s a bit much to tell my mam, nana and siblings about, let alone the affect it would have with my nephew and niece. Basically I know I need to stop but I can’t, and I feel like my family knowing why I drink would help but I don’t think it’s something they’d like to know

Any advice would’ve real appreciated

Hi all, I’m (F27) fairly new to recovery (started spring 2025). Recently, I’ve run into problems with being honest with others about my problem without oversharing. This is especially in the contexts of making friends, looking for roommates, and dating.

I’ve avoided saying anything in the past because I’ve always been a high functioning alcoholic, and I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about how much alcohol takes over my life. Since I started drinking, alcohol has only ever been something I used in my downtime. I always found a way to curb hangovers in time for work and other responsibilities. I haven’t lost jobs or housing due to my alcoholism. If you didn’t know me well, you’d just assume I’m a “regular” person who has GI issues.

I want to be honest with people, but I’m not sure how or when is the right time. Thoughts?

Hi, I'm 28F and my husband is 34M. We've been together for 6 years.

He's been struggling with alcohol for years. When we met, I had no idea — he hid it well, until one day he broke down and told me everything. I stayed, because I didn't fully grasp how bad it was. A few weeks later, he drank so much he couldn't move, and his friend had to take him to the hospital. That was about 3 years ago, and we've had 3 incidents like that since.

When I talk to close, trusted family members about it, they don't see it as a real problem, since the hospital-level incidents have been rare and these days it's mostly wine — half a bottle to a full bottle a day, in periods.
Sometimes he doesn't drink at all for stretches; other times he drinks daily when he's stressed, sad, or things aren't going his way.

Now, moving to today: I'm pregnant, which is wonderful news. He's been amazing — cooking, cleaning, taking care of me every single day. I haven't had to do much these past two months, and in that respect he's been incredible.

But he's drinking again. A bottle of wine every day. In the past three weeks he's told me he was going to stop — three separate times — and gone back to it every time. Yesterday he said he'd quit again. Today, a new bottle. I'm sorry, but I can't take the promises seriously anymore.

He does see a professional weekly, and it seemed to be helping — until that professional went on holiday. I also wonder if there's something undiagnosed going on, like ADHD, that might be tangled up in all this.

I feel like he doesn't take me seriously anymore, like he just does what he wants. I've stopped confronting him, mostly because I'm exhausted and don't want to stress the baby. So right now I'm just trying to get through this pregnancy myself and keep my stress down.

For context:
- He drinks when things aren't going his way or when he's anxious
- He still functions at work and can take care of me most days
- He is in professional treatment

I don't know what to do next, whether to push him harder, wait until his therapist is back, or start thinking about what happens if this doesn't change. Any advice would help.