It’s ruining my life. And the irony is it’s the only way to dissociate from bad things. At least it seems like that’s the only way. Feels like the snake that eats its own tail.

Edit: thank you all for the good advice and support. It means a lot. I love my comrades. Care-Comrade

  • Pentacat [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    I agree with the Soros foot soldier. Rehab can help. If you can’t afford it or can’t get it covered, your county should have a department of mental health. Call them and find out what services are available.

    Depending on how much you drink and how long you have been drinking, quitting without medical supervision can be dangerous. If you have a doctor, talk to them. Like the above, if you have a county, talk to them.

    You’re most likely self-medicating and it could help to get something that allows you to function, such as something you can get from a psychiatrist.

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      Yeah I forgot to add based upon how much you drink I would advise stopping without consulting a doctor as you could get the DTs and or seizures. Hence why I mentioned rehab because you might need medical assistance to quit.

  • GnastyGnuts [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    In my experience as well as several people I’ve known, it actually can work to start by substituting your alcohol consumption with a different, less destructive drug like weed for example, replace your drinking habit with smoking weed, then ween off the weed (smoking all the time is still bad for you, but it’s less bad than drinking and easier / safer to quit).

    • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      I smoke cigars and I’ve heard from people who were able to quit drinking, and others who actually quit cigarettes, by smoking cigars.

      I haven’t done either myself and I don’t know at what stage of addiction either group was at but just want to mention it. Does seem like some people successfully sub out their addictions for milder things that can be less destructive and constant, which is kinda wild when you think about it.

  • StalinStan [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    Drinking is known to be very difficult to quit. There are in my mind three or four steps that seem to work. 1. Depending on your level of dependency you will likely need medical support as withdraws can actually cause probelms that need to be treated. 2. Figuring out the underlying untreated issue that let alcohol dependency become a problem and get treatment for that. 3. Start smoking a bunch of weed.

  • CommunistBear [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    In my experience the biggest factors for me to stop drinking were figuring out why I was drinking in the first place and actually wanting to stop. For a while I knew “I should probably stop” but didn’t actually have the desire to. Once I got to the point of “Oh shit, I seriously need to stop” it became a lot easier for me to stop because I knew serious consequences were right around the corner if I kept it up. I’m still working on my mental issues pertaining to why I drank in the first place but it’s gotten easier to deal with once I stopped drinking and actually started addressing the problems.

  • JamesConeZone [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    Agree with other people here. Stopping cold turkey can be incredibly dangerous, so rehab is very helpful if that’s an option. If it’s not, AA is a helpful starting point to build community. I don’t like all the God stuff, but the community aspect of AA can be helpful. You will need to also address various bits of trauma or mental health to get at the root of why you are drinking and build healthier coping mechanisms. A psychiatrist would be a good start here as others said.

  • Robert_Kennedy_Jr [xe/xem, xey/xem]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    This doesn’t work for everyone but you could try kratom if it’s legal where you are, taking a dose in the morning and after work almost completely kills my urge to drink. People do say it can become addictive so take that with a grain of salt but I’ve never had that issue, and it’s a lot easier on my bank account than alcohol if you order it online.

        • ratboy [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          5 months ago

          It might be a matter of slowly dosing and titrating up, and once you get those opiate like effects that’s probably when it becomes addictive. I do now one person who got very addicted. Like you said your mileage may vary though. I wanted the opiate high from it but always got sick on even small doses so never got there

          • Robert_Kennedy_Jr [xe/xem, xey/xem]@hexbear.net
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            5 months ago

            Yeah I know a guy that said he was straight hooked and if you have issues with abusing pain killers then I would recommend against it, I just personally never had those issues even after dosing a couple times a day for most of a year. There seems to be a real cutoff point where I get a lot of positives from it until I increase the dosage and then I’m nauseous/drowsy.

    • Ithorian [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      I second everything you said. I’ve taken kratom for almost a decade and even when I stopped for a month or so at a time I’ve only had withdraw from it once and even then it wasn’t as bad as caffeine withdraw.

  • odmroz [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    Rehab, preferably medical? if you’re at risk for withdrawal. After, some kind of outpatient or AA or SMART Recovery (popular AA alternative) involvement. Watch out, some dud rehab/ outpatient operations out there.

  • LeylaLove [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    Yeah, alcohol is really like that. At some level, being an alcoholic feels like the right choice. The world around us is terrible and it feels like there’s no end. Fixing my life these past few months has been far more expensive than my $1 double shots ever were. I was able to quit fentanyl and kpins relatively easily, that was expensive and not everybody around me was doing it but alcohol? 4 years and counting at this point. You don’t get ads for snorting fent. There aren’t readily available dens to go shoot up in. But it’s never hard to find people to drink with, and you always have enough change to get at least a few shots. You can’t always change enough in a day to make yourself stop drinking. The most important step is fighting this voice. This is justification for the addiction to continue. Even if it’s a cheap rush, it’s eating your soul. It’s slowly leaning more and more into alcohol. What it makes of you. What it takes from you. How dishonest it makes you with yourself.

    I got into outpatient rehab through a local place that works through the department of mental health. Even helped me apply for medicaid. Getting in for mental health services was a good idea, and has helped quite a bit. I relapse less and less as time goes on. Just a little longer between drinks than last time yk? I get weekly therapy now and that’s been great. I still need to start going to groups, but they even have someone specifically for finding the right groups for you to go to, will even give you rides to them. They’re called a sobriety coach, and having that has been pretty cool so far.

    And figure out why you drink. For me, I have a million different reasons. Stressful home life, self medication, boredom, a need for dissociation from the world, a need to make my already existing dissociation bearable. Then start working towards those things. Stopped medicating myself and let the doctors do it. Of course I still research quite a bit into what they give me, but I’m not trying to handle it myself anymore. As far as boredom goes, I’ve been getting into Pokemon Showdown more recently. Doing mentally active things to fill the time so my mind drifts to drinking less. Probably helps that I’m a way better player when I’m not drunk.

  • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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    5 months ago

    Mutual aid societies do work. AA, Smart Recovery, whatever sounds better to you. Get to a meeting and raise your hand and ask for help.

  • Spongebobsquarejuche [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    I usually hit a point where I can’t take it any more.

    Buy an epic amount of soda water. Since I drink beer.

    Drink the sodas and take edibles as needed.

    Start reconnecting with family as now I have time to talk.

    Lasts about a year and a half. Forget about my problem.

    Go on vacation, drink again. Do that for three years.

    Hit a point where I can’t take it anymore.