Making this post in an effort to reach out to any recovering/recovered alchies who put down the bottle in exchange for the iron. I have lifted on and off since I was 16 (going on 24 now) thanks to Veeky Forums, but for the vast majority of the past 3-4 years, I've been a daily drinking alcoholic. It has ranged from 8-16 drinks a night depending on severity of abuse at a given time.
Fully expecting the "just don't drink lol u degenerate" responses from the crowd on here who lack empathy or understanding of addiction, I don't mind. I would just like to hear from anyone who has suffered any sort of chronic drug abuse and found some salvation through lifting. I'd like to hear anything you have to say: suggestions, recommendations, struggles, personal stories, etc. I'm feeling disillusioned with alcohol right now, but I also know this is a passing feeling and my urges to drink will return. I guess I'm just looking for strength in the stories of others.
Not alcoholism, but cocaine. In my case it came down to choosing which I was going to pursue. In a sense, which did I love more. Quitting cocaine was a bitch and it took me years but lifting helped me greatly in the process. It came to the point that I couldn't pursue lifting if I kept doing coke, but I had gotten to the point that I love lifting enough to be willing to (VERY gradually) stop doing coke to focus on it.
At the end of the day the only way to be free of addiction is to pursue something with all of your heart that goes in direct opposition to it. It's hard, and you'll probably feel like you're failing. But if you keep at it, I'm certain that you'll make it out of this.
I believe in you, user. Good luck.
Logan Peterson
Thank you for the encouragement, user. A problem I have is this:
>At the end of the day the only way to be free of addiction is to pursue something with all of your heart that goes in direct opposition to it. My passions are writing and comedy, and I find that I feel much more expressive drunk than I do sober. Sober, I'll can a lot of shit I wrote while drunk, but drinking helps me get into a "flow state". Trouble is, I always overdo it. I guess all of the social pressures of drinking as a 23 year old and the fact that it is so popular among people who share my interests makes it really difficult. It's not like heroin or fent or some shit where I can just delete my dealer's phone number and walk away from the scene; it's pervasive.
Really do appreciate the words, though. I think I should get a gym membership tomorrow and go whether I drink or not, then decide for myself whether it would have been more satisfying/productive drunk or sober.
Michael Robinson
Ive been drinking a 12 pack of booze or more, or a bottle or more of liquor a day for the last 3 years (22 now). Last week I had my worst case of DTs that lasted over 72 hours, I was so sick I had to take almost a week off of work. Couldn't keep food or even water down, and my throat hurt from throwing up I couldnt eat without gagging. Once I started feeling not-so-sick back on Saturday I decided to hit the gym. Over the years I've been off and on with the gym, so no continuous progress but it's been a few months since I last got there. I have lost so much strength now. Tonight will be my first week since my last drink, and god damn I have been wanting to drink the last few nights. I'm trying to replace the feeling of being drunk with working out but damn its been hard for me.
Knowing I lost a lot of strength is both disheartening and enraging for me, but I know I can get back what I had. The thing that's kept me going the most, I think, is that I dont wanna be that sick again. Just sitting next to the toilet, waiting 30-60 minutes until more vomit came out. It was almost a living hell.
Anyway. I dunno where I was going for with this. Blogpost, I guess. Everyone has their own reasons for quitting, though. Sometimes you just gotta find it.
I had to pick up the 12 steps before I could put down the bottle. Lifting came after. If you truly are addicted then nothing will stop you from getting drunk, fear of losing gains won’t be enough because I’ll wager you’ve got far better reasons to stay sober yet here you are, drinking. The problem isn’t the alcohol, it’s you. The 12 steps will fix you up if you work them thoroughly, and with sobriety will come the dedication to stick to a workout regimen. Join AA, get a sponsor, and work the steps. This is what worked for me after trying everything else in the book and I’ve been sober since February of 2017.
Anthony Kelly
So I've always wondered, what would the effects be on the body if someone had like 8 to 10 shots of booze in a night every week maybe once or twice in that week? With how often people party on the weekends, I've been curious if they will be doing a lot of damage to themselves over the course of a few years or if their bodies would be able to shrug it off with little impact. Thanks!
It helps to have a person who cares about you, preferably a gf or wife. Have them support you in terms of being a sounding board for when you are reaching the point of too many and to have as someone who can shame the hell out of you for getting piss drunk. Shame and approval are powerful motivators, use them. The trick is finding that person who cares about you and more importantly, who you care about what they think of you. And if you are just trying to cut back, get buzzed and just go to bed. You will wake up feeling so much better both physically and mentally, knowing that you can set limits for yourself and follow them.
Jonathan Flores
Junkie here. 3 years on heroin, 4 on methadone.
If you've tried and failed many times I would check into inpatient. If you're in the USA there are many ways you can get financial help for it. Alcohol will really fuck up your gains, GI system, hormones, recovery etc. It's by far the dirtiest drug other than meth.
Good luck brother.
Ryder Lopez
OP here, thanks for all the replies.
My issue with AA is that I'm just not really a believer in a higher power. I don't think it is silly or uninformed to believe in one, and I myself might be slightly deistic... but I don't claim to know what form any higher power might take, and I deny the conventional religious systems (Abrahamic religions, Buddhism, Hindu traditions, etc.). So I really struggle in AA. I've found local groups that are very sympathetic/supporting of my views, but I feel like I can't progress in the step system.
Very true. I've been seeing my ex recently and I feel like I have to cut it off with her. I want the best for her, but she's more attached to me than I am to her, and I feel like the relationship doesn't encourage any personal growth in me.
I went to my mom's house across the country for three months and was sober for 80 consecutive days. I just immediately returned to the liquor when I came back. My concern with in-patient is that it's temporary; I will return to my current living environment, I will feel compelled to drink, I will have alcohol to buy less than three blocks away, etc.
Tyler Adams
>10 years alcoholism >8 years on and off heroine, prescription meds, various club drugs >1 year binge on nitrous oxide >26 Started reading a lot more, regular cardio, dropping lsd and switching to a balanced diet the last year or so. No real drive to party or poison myself anymore but I do still have a drink or two on the weekends if i'm around peers. I'm not against taking psychedelics but I don't really use them anymore either. Best way to get clean for me was to disassociate from friends i'd drink with. Staying home and reading or tripping alone in the woods on the weekends helped me work out a lot of my mental and emotional blocks. I admittedly don't really have any friends now and everyone I used to know still drinks or shoots heroine. Better to be alone than in the company of fools.
You need to change habits. You should start by having one day a week sober for a month. Then try 2. Maybe you will get off it completely, maybe you'll get it down to 3 days a week. Both I think would be a win.
Nathan Collins
I was an alcoholic for about a decade. For the longest time I was able to still function and get girls just because I was young and had a huge cock, but it eventually caught up with me. 6 months sober and going strong - you can do it too OP. The first 90 days are the hardest. Just never forget how bad it is for you and how much more you get out of life by not getting wasted.
>tfw being the eccentric drunk that can pick up just about any borderline alt-gril >tfw being the apathetic sober who hates anything that breathes How to deal with this feel?
James Davis
Used to drink 2.5 to 3 bottles of white wine a night before bed. Last time I quit it was the easiest thing in the world, this is after trying to quit several times in the past and it being hell. I chalk this up to my new job. The job was working nights, 6pm to 2am; my old drinking hours were about 5pm till about 10pm, so during peak cravings time I was distracted with work and too busy to drink. Rest of the time it was easy because I wasn't accustomed to drinking outside those hours so I didn't get cravings. Feels like I found the quitting alcohol cheat code to be honest.
Asher Rodriguez
The thing that worked for me was to stop buying it. If it wasn't in the house I couldn't drink it. And since I am lazy I could talk myself out of making a trip to buy more. The biggest hurdle was I would often just stop on my way home from work. But eventually I stopped.
Jason Sanchez
Yes inpatient is temporary. What you need to do is come back to a completely different world. New apartment in a New town, new job, new girl, new friends. You have to get rid of any habit, any facet of your life that wasn't actively positive. Most people have nothing that's actively positive, let alone addicts
Chase Thomas
I used to drink a 5th of 80 proof almost daily, going through a half gallon every 2-3 days at my peak alcoholism. Had a lot of relapses trying to quit, but each time I do better and better and so I just keep trying. Just got done with about a 1 month binge and only drank roughly half a 5th each night, sometimes less. Before that made it about 2 months sober. I think I can make it past 3 months this time, and if I can do that I'll make it to a year, then for life. My advice is just keep at it and it you relapse don't sweat it, just try again when you're ready. I've slowly tapered off over the last year by doing that, to where I'm sober at least 90% of the time now. Now I just have to make it to 100%. Life is so much easier when you're not constantly in a state of either drunkenness or hangover recovery. Instead you wake up easy and sleep well. Find something to deal with your stress other than drugs or alcohol. Working out is good. Maybe clean your house, something like that. Find a video game you can really get in to if that's your thing. It's different for everyone, so just keep trying until you find something that works. Never give up.
Daniel Perry
This is totally fine in a healthy adult
Michael Hill
Do a heroic dose of mushrooms. I legit used to be a druggy fag and decided to try shrooms for the trip but ended up with a lingering feeling of anxiety towards all intoxicating substances
Chase Perry
>Do a heroic dose of mushrooms Never done this but I'm convinced it'd work. Even just smoking weed made me look at my life and realize how self destructive my drinking was
James Phillips
I had 5-10 drinks a night for a couple years back when i had a shitty job. Made a long post before about it but i just felt like shit in general and had no test either. And it fucks up all your neurotransmitters so you never gain pleasure from anything.
Within 3 weeks of quitting cold turkey it was like a new lease on life. Going strong now, i smoke weed sometimes and take phenibut but never feel any desire to drink.
Worth stopping completely imo. But i know that feel of wanting to get lost in a drunken stupor after a long shitty day at work.
Ryder Anderson
don't do 12 step programs, find one that doesn't force jesus so far up your ass that your breathe smells like bread and wine.
Leo Cox
I have very mild alcoholism in that I just enjoy beer/drinks but don't really inebriate myself. I stick to 2-3 beers with dinner or a glass or two of whiskey at night. I know it's a gains goblin but I have a hard time stopping.
Camden Brooks
I caught it early myself. I started drinking a glass of wine with my parents with lunch, once or twice per week, since I was 15. Then I started drinking a beer bottle on Sundays when I left for College at 18. Then I started drinking a beer can per day, plus some ciders. Then I started drinking a glass of wine during lunch and dinner. Then I started drinking liquor in the evening. Then I started drinking whiskey in the morning, wine with lunch and dinner, about a bottle per 2 days, and liquor in the evening. When I realized what I was doing, I just poured everything down the drain. Now, I just drink a small glass of wine per day. I don't think I ever became an alcoholic, but if I kept walking down that path... I cannot help, because the only alcoholics I know are still doing this. But both my parents, who were smokers and pretty heavy drinkers, cut it off decades ago, and their trick was to just... stop. My uncle and aunt have done the same, and we're talking about restaurant owners who'd chain smoke and drink like fishes all day.
TL;DR From my experience, the only option really is "just make the decision and stop", harsh as it sounds.
Carter Torres
Be me 20y Non alcoholic
But when I drink I get so fucked and unable to talk, I don't want to fuck up the night for my friends, I have 0 experience
Jaxon Anderson
I don't know, what works for me is that I don't like getting drunk, but really like beer. So what I do is drink like 2-3 2.9% beers a night and that's enough for me.
Isaiah Sullivan
Recovering alcoholic here. Pushed it as far to the limit as I could go: bottle of liquor spread throughout the day, drinking at work, drinking and driving, waiting in the morning for the store to open, hiding bottles, all of that shit.
Honestly, my story of stopping isn't really remarkable. After yet another round of losing relationships and a job, I just stopped cold turkey (which is pretty dangerous in my case). And then started working out obsessively. I didn't go to AA, but I did post on some sober forums early on just to vent and shit.
I relapsed once after thinking I could handle "a couple of beers", but now I know better and just don't touch the stuff.
It's hard to recommend shit to people. The mantra of "one day at a time" is legitimate. I counted the days early on up until about day 60. Everyday I made a to-do list. Usually: gym, an hour of language learning, a post or two on one of the sober forums, and various other shit. Shit turned around very quickly for me, bro. It was very worth the change, but as you know, it doesn't even matter sometimes. You could be given all the money and power in the world and still drink.
Good luck.
Brody Edwards
Never understood people who drink during the day, and especially in the morning. Don't you have shit to do FFS? Even during my darkest deepest drinking days I couldn't concentrate enough to work after drinking anything
Jayden Lee
Probably not the best advice OP but I am a lifting alchie as well and I basically structured my drinking around my fitness to maximize gains and minimize damage, meaning no more whiskey and beer and heavy mixers. Light spirits like cheap vodka and lemonade, low calorie that'll get you fucked up quick. Ever clear works to. I still lift big and get to be a drunk. Best advice is to quit but I'm struggling to do that myself. I've made it so that I only have a few drinks on weekdays and mostly binge on weekends, but better then getting trashed every single day.
Gabriel Robinson
Well, it was a mindless office job where I was essentially just staring at the screen all day anyway. I was drinking liquor, not beer, which I found gave me a kind of energy boost both in productivity at work and socializing. I don't know, I still don't understand it personally.
Also, I had a very high tolerance, so I wasn't sloppy or "drunk" even until much later in the day. At a certain point, I was drinking just to avoid the withdrawal symptoms.
Chase Morales
Cheap whiskey has just as many calories as cheap vodka, dummy.
But, yes, this is awful advice since you're essentially replacing nutrition with ethanol.
Oliver Young
Wait youve been lifting for years and you want to battle your alcoholism but you dont even have a gym membership yet? Go fucking get one right now and start lifting, maybe even lift at the time you'd normally drink.
Isaac Scott
Your situation doesn't sound nearly as bad as others ive witnessed. The fact that you were able to go 80 days without booze is proof you are not fully addicted, you are just stuck in your habits. I think you should move to a new place, get new furniture or something and just reset your habits,your schedule and your life. The worst alcoholics I know would have secretly gotten blackout drunk every night at their mom's.
Ethan Kelly
Don’t be discouraged user! Remember that muscle comes back on at a rate way faster than normal due to the body’s memory of having that muscular mass. You’ll honestly be making gains like a roider until you get back to where you were before you stopped lifting- and putting on size quickly is probably one of the greatest feelings there is tbf
Blake Butler
First month is the hardest then you'll be okay for a few months Feeling more awake, more energy and happier. A few months later the sober glow will wear off and you're in for a fresh hell. You can't go backwards because you don't want to be stuck in the drunken limbo and you don't want to stay sober because everything goes from crisp and clear to pointy and sharp.
Good luck brah.
Jason Morales
Does alcohol really fuck your gainz hard? Ive been drinking every day (10-15 oz vodka) for years and just started lifting a couple weeks ago. How fucked am I bros?
At the very least it makes it hard to get enough protein without making yourself fat. Alcohol has a lot of kcals
Dominic Lewis
Alcoholic, 18 months sober because of going to AA and doing the steps, my life has got better.
The "higher power" thing does not have to be an organised religion. It's just about accepting that you are not the centre of the universe, you are not God and therefore there just might be a power greater than you in the universe. That's all that's required.
Ayden Flores
>I'm just not really a believer in a higher power. Russel Brand was talking about this on a recent episode of Joe Rogan. What I got from it was the higher power can be anything. It can be much more abstract than you're allowing it to be. It doesn't need to be a god. He wrote about about how he approached the 12 steps. Perhaps they would explain how to go through it without belief in a traditional god.
Ryder Reyes
I was a bit unclear: Brand wrote a book that may interest you. He's a bit of a meme but it sounds like he's really gotten his shit together.
Bentley Johnson
>The "higher power" thing does not have to be an organised religion. It's just about accepting that you are not the centre of the universe, you are not God and therefore there just might be a power greater than you in the universe. That's all that's required. Why is it required though? I'll happily admit my existence is fragile and insignificant at the scale of the universe, but what does that change exactly?
Jaxson Smith
Yeah, when people first start going to AA. They choose GOD as their higher power, but in this case GOD = Group Of Drunks!!!
Your higher power can be a fucking Lamp post if that's what you want. It's more about getting a bit of humility into your life, and that starts to come once you accept that that you are not God.
I appreciate the existence of AA for the fact that there are so many meetings at so many times of the day, every day in pretty much any city. So it's great for support.
However I do think it needs a modernizing. If you look at older people who sobered up, they preach a lot of things that just aren't going to speak to young addicts. And I think that's mostly because they come off as disempowered, "alcoholism is a disease" types, and yeah also tend to be highly religious. It scares younger people off who would do better just to be around some people who they can shoot the shit with without any mention of prostrating yourself before some greater power.
Mason Peterson
It just requires a shift in perspective, an acceptance that you are not omnipotent. That you can't control other people, you can only control yourself, your thoughts and your reactions.
Many people that end up in AA were control freaks, getting a higher power starts to give you a bit of humility.
Jeremiah Sanders
Resentments are probably the number one cause of relapses. When you start to get a bit humility and realize that can't control shit. Then you just let other people get on with their lives and stop trying to control them and the likely hood of getting a resentment reduces.
Isaiah Thomas
i drank 2 plastic handles of whiskey a week for about a year
lifted for years before starting, kept lifting every day during
about a month sober now
it didn't really mess with my gains as my diet was almost perfect the entire time, but it did make me fatter and less motivated to get to the gym
alot of times i'd do half assed workouts just to get through it and go home and drink
i stopped drinking and started cutting
i miss the buzz but it changed once you hit that alcoholic point is just wasnt a fun buzz anymore and became a money hog
Well, I would recommend you to switch to some non-destructive GABAergic drug like Phenibut or something and start lifting and fade out the Phenibut.
Other option is to stop drinking start lifting and take semaks in the morning ans selank in the evening. Both are russian nootropics and are used for treating alcoholism and boost recovery in recovering addicts. It's on the russian list of essential drugs.
Maybe combine the two options if you make it or not depends if you really want it. It won't be enjoyable even after the WD, thats why you started drinking, so just accept that and start building good things, because you need to be the change you want to see in the world.
Ex heroin user, ive got my drinking down to 2 strong (7-9%) largers a night. The past week has been a slip up in terms of the alcohol, which meant my diet slipped up, no lasting damage but i feel the shame.
A part of fitness is discipline, slowly set yourself realistic goals, 6 drinks a night, then 4, then , 2. Don't come off too quickly mate, ive had seizures before from alcohol and benzos.
I hope you make the right choice, you wont gain as hard whilst drinking and itll drag you down in other aspects, including diet, and itll expose you to risky behaviours and dull your potential.
Nathaniel Rodriguez
I am about to hop off methadone after years of heroin, 60% of the people in an NA group i attend arent religious, EVERYONE i speak to swears by the 12 steps and sings its praises, im going again this saturday, the higher power could be anything, the universe, society, im not religious , your higher power could be your best potential self.
Im going to detox (2 weeks) then rehab (8-10weeks) every expert i have spoken to has said that rehab gives you lifelong tools to deal with life, if anyone is that bad please seek NA meetings(much better than AA)
Either way lifting takes up time. Free time is an addicts worst nightmare, i know your feels user, just remember, we are all going to make it.
