Mar 2018 *
I haven't touched alcohol in nearly 3 years. Not because I had a problem or anything. I just stopped liking it for a while. Something that has happened several times over the years, although never quite this long. As long as I have other things to get fucked up on, I feel like I could easily go another 3 years. I'm just not an alcohol kind of a guy. However, I was for a while there.
Back in 2003, I made a conscious decision to become a drinker. I mean a big drinker! My friends and I were coming off several long back-to-back acid/shroom/ecstasy binges, mainly because it all dried up. I can't describe how dull and dpressing life seems after something like that happens and then just abruptly ends. As I came to this decision, I started slow by having one beer every night with my pot. My friends and I started drinking beer whenever hanging out, eventually dropping that for Vodka. We experimented with all sorts of hard drink during Spring and Summer of '03, until one of us had the bright idea to buy some 151 proof Everclear. By this time, everyone's tolerances was actually capable of handing it. But goddamn, what a hangover!!
I must have had a half dozen shots of that shit. We started drinking Everclear together at least 3 or 4 nights a week. We also decided non-alcoholic beverages were no longer a suitable chaser. So, whenever we had 151, we chased it with something usually closer to 80 prooof, which is the standard hard alcohol level. I got to the point where I could take a good 12 shots of Everclear, along with whatever else, get sick, throw it up and then continue drinking. It's interesting how getting sick off alcohol isn't so bad if you're used to it. But then, you can only go on like that for so long.
One Sunday afternoon, my friend Chris came over, and, as usual, we aimed to do some serious drinking. We went and bought some Everclear and some 100 proof peppermind Schnapps for a chaser. We sat on my parents back porch on this cool, November afternoon and took shot after shot, awaiting our mutual friend, Jeremy, to show up and drink with us. This started around 4 or 4:30, and by 6 or so, I was pretty much done. I say this because, in one flash of a second, it went from being around 6 (I think) to nearly 2 am. I woke up in my bed, naked, confused and feeling sicker than a motherfuck, not knowing much but knowing something ain't right.
I guess I continued drinking longer than I remembered. Jeremy did finally come over, and as I was told later on in the week, I did a helluva lot of throwing up in the yard before passing out, waking up and throwing up more. I didn't just pass out, I was blacked out for all of it. Something that had never happened to me before this night ... So, back to 2 AM: After getting out of bed to throw up some more, I don't think I even went back to bed that night, as I stayed up, trying to figure out what exactly happened, while watching Return of The Living Dead which, luckily, was playing on tv. As I said, I was filled in later on but bits and pieces did resurface throughout the week
So, what I was told and what I sorta remember is that, not long after Jeremy came over, my vomiting started. After a while, I went and did some more throwing up in the bathroom until I decided to go to bed, completely unaware that I still had 2 guests over. I guess I was. I'm not really sure what I knew or didn't know. But, as I always do before bedtime, I got good and naked. Not sure if I tore my room apart before or after that, but that happened too.
I'm not sure how long I laid there. Could have been 30 minutes, could have been 5, but I guess I heard my friends outside having a good time. Well, never to be a stick in the mud, I got up to go back outside to join my pals. Yes, naked, and no, neither of my parents were home. I still have a very fuzzy memory of this, but as I opened the door to the garage, which is where the party was now being held, I remember hearing the words "WHAT THE FUCK!!!" come from Chris' mouth, as he laid eyes on my naked dick. Even blacked out, I had the common sense to turn around and go back to my room, or probably the bathroom to throw up again before passing out in there for a while.
I didn't feel right all week as I was a little shaken up by some bad alcohol poisoning and coming to the conclusion that I seriously needed to chill out. So, I made the decision to dry out for a while. Sucked cuz Thanksgiving was just a few days away, and some drinkin' would have hit the spot, but I know this was bad and needed to be taken seriously. I was back to drinking in a couple weeks but took it down a notch after that. Since then, I've had a couple drinking phases but have come to realize once and for all that I just don't like alcohol enough to be an alcoholic. If it didn't happen in '03, it just plain can't. However, if I had kept on doing what I was doing during tat year, I'd be dead, now.
So, what's your story?
Back in 2003, I made a conscious decision to become a drinker. I mean a big drinker! My friends and I were coming off several long back-to-back acid/shroom/ecstasy binges, mainly because it all dried up. I can't describe how dull and dpressing life seems after something like that happens and then just abruptly ends. As I came to this decision, I started slow by having one beer every night with my pot. My friends and I started drinking beer whenever hanging out, eventually dropping that for Vodka. We experimented with all sorts of hard drink during Spring and Summer of '03, until one of us had the bright idea to buy some 151 proof Everclear. By this time, everyone's tolerances was actually capable of handing it. But goddamn, what a hangover!!
I must have had a half dozen shots of that shit. We started drinking Everclear together at least 3 or 4 nights a week. We also decided non-alcoholic beverages were no longer a suitable chaser. So, whenever we had 151, we chased it with something usually closer to 80 prooof, which is the standard hard alcohol level. I got to the point where I could take a good 12 shots of Everclear, along with whatever else, get sick, throw it up and then continue drinking. It's interesting how getting sick off alcohol isn't so bad if you're used to it. But then, you can only go on like that for so long.
One Sunday afternoon, my friend Chris came over, and, as usual, we aimed to do some serious drinking. We went and bought some Everclear and some 100 proof peppermind Schnapps for a chaser. We sat on my parents back porch on this cool, November afternoon and took shot after shot, awaiting our mutual friend, Jeremy, to show up and drink with us. This started around 4 or 4:30, and by 6 or so, I was pretty much done. I say this because, in one flash of a second, it went from being around 6 (I think) to nearly 2 am. I woke up in my bed, naked, confused and feeling sicker than a motherfuck, not knowing much but knowing something ain't right.
I guess I continued drinking longer than I remembered. Jeremy did finally come over, and as I was told later on in the week, I did a helluva lot of throwing up in the yard before passing out, waking up and throwing up more. I didn't just pass out, I was blacked out for all of it. Something that had never happened to me before this night ... So, back to 2 AM: After getting out of bed to throw up some more, I don't think I even went back to bed that night, as I stayed up, trying to figure out what exactly happened, while watching Return of The Living Dead which, luckily, was playing on tv. As I said, I was filled in later on but bits and pieces did resurface throughout the week
So, what I was told and what I sorta remember is that, not long after Jeremy came over, my vomiting started. After a while, I went and did some more throwing up in the bathroom until I decided to go to bed, completely unaware that I still had 2 guests over. I guess I was. I'm not really sure what I knew or didn't know. But, as I always do before bedtime, I got good and naked. Not sure if I tore my room apart before or after that, but that happened too.
I'm not sure how long I laid there. Could have been 30 minutes, could have been 5, but I guess I heard my friends outside having a good time. Well, never to be a stick in the mud, I got up to go back outside to join my pals. Yes, naked, and no, neither of my parents were home. I still have a very fuzzy memory of this, but as I opened the door to the garage, which is where the party was now being held, I remember hearing the words "WHAT THE FUCK!!!" come from Chris' mouth, as he laid eyes on my naked dick. Even blacked out, I had the common sense to turn around and go back to my room, or probably the bathroom to throw up again before passing out in there for a while.
I didn't feel right all week as I was a little shaken up by some bad alcohol poisoning and coming to the conclusion that I seriously needed to chill out. So, I made the decision to dry out for a while. Sucked cuz Thanksgiving was just a few days away, and some drinkin' would have hit the spot, but I know this was bad and needed to be taken seriously. I was back to drinking in a couple weeks but took it down a notch after that. Since then, I've had a couple drinking phases but have come to realize once and for all that I just don't like alcohol enough to be an alcoholic. If it didn't happen in '03, it just plain can't. However, if I had kept on doing what I was doing during tat year, I'd be dead, now.
So, what's your story?
The single worst experience was on the night of October 29th, 2011. The October 29th part sticks with me for obvious reasons and I know it was 2011 because I was planning to watch Scream 4 (it'd just come out on DVD earlier that month). My poison of choice that night: beer and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey. Already a couple drinks in before the movie and lacking experience with hard liquor, I don't think I was even halfway through the movie before I drank too much too fast and the puking started.
Made it to the bathroom and puked. Laid down to try sleeping it off only to sit up and spew puke through the air, most of it landing on my bedroom floor. Puked one more time in the bathroom after that before passing out in bed. Felt shitty enough to not drink beer again for a couple weeks and didn't go anywhere near hard liquor for several months.
Despite drinking heavily plenty of times since then, that was the last time alcohol made me puke, though I have woken up feeling queasy a few times. Guess I got better at pacing myself and now I'm down to usually only having a couple drinks a night. Not sure I'll ever stop drinking entirely. Consider stopping for a while sometimes, but if I do, it's never for more than a few days. Three years seems impossible.
Does that make me an alcoholic? Pretty sure I'm not. I've never resorted to drinking aftershave or something because I was desperate for a drink. At the same time however, I'm unwilling to make much effort to stop and I'm happy to admit that I enjoy drinking.