how many of you are active alcoholics,addicts-and why,what were the circumstances?
443451
my mother was an alcoholic. I am not.\n\nIt can be hereditary. If NO ONE in your family has this disease, they may have began drinking at a very young age. \n\nI urge you to find them help. My mother died two weeks before my 13th birthday. She was 41 years old. She slipped in our bathtub and her she had a hemorage in her brain. This caused a stroke. She would have lived for all we know but because she had drank so much throughout her life her blood vessels had thinned out. When they had to put the feeding tube in they scratched the lining of her stomach. Because her blood vessels were so thinned out, her stomach filled up with blood and she died. \n\nAt the time she died she had been a 6 month RECOVERED alcoholic. \n\nIt is very dangerous. I hope maybe you can share my story with your children and show them the severity. It takes a lot of will power and many scare tactics for most people to over come this illness. They have to hit "rock bottom" before they can recover many times and no telling how severe that bottom can be.\n\nMy mother was a wonderful person, I never even caught on to her drinking problem until years after her death. Not all alcoholics are the "happy" type. I was fortunate to get the time I had with her. \n\nHer mother is still alive and the devestation that she has gone through due to loosing her daughter is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. I feel it was much worse than how I suffered and I would hate for you to end up in her position.\n\nPlease Take Care and I will pray for you and your family.
809613
I am a heroin addict.  I haven't used the stuff for 7 months or so now.  I was strung out  for 14 years.  I never considered quiting until presented with the choice of giving up anti-social behaviors, or accepting sanction...In my particular situation, the most difficult aspect was learning that while 'people' hated the idea that I was a junkie they turned out to prefer the me I presented while using...It is harder on the people who attributed anything they didn't like about me to my habit, and then discovered that Heroin or no, that is who I am.   \n\nIt wasn't what gave me identity - I wasn't 'just' a heroin addict, as I am not now, first and foremost,  a 'recovering addict'.  As for the happy ending part, my life isn't over yet, so...had I died from an OD I would have died in a state of graceful contentment (so that could be a happy ending), but I have been able to move on.  I find my happiness wherever I can.  It is our experiences that allow us to grow and while from the outside looking in most people would probably say that Heroin was a "low" point in my life...many of the strengths I now draw on came from being a junkie and as many have benefited by my Heroin use as have been compromised.
1133210
Got totally wasted one night.Got really drunk,stoned,popped a couple xanax.Wrecked my car.Got in 2 fights made a COMPLETE jackass out of myself.I was 36 years old and my mommy and daddy had to come get me because i was so drunk and my wife was scared to death i was going to die in a car wreck.And boy howdy did I ever lay into them!!!\n\n   Why am i glad I made this mistake?The next day I went to my 1st meeting of narcotics anonymous.Eighteen months later....I am still 100 percent clean and sober.I have a life now.I have hope now.I know what love is worth now.If I hadn't totally gotten f'd up that night I might still be getting 80 Percent of the way there today I might be dead.Thank God for one of the most shameful nights of my life!!!
677456
Sounds like you are a binge drinker. And yes that makes you an alcoholic. You need to go to AA.
842646
Its a difficult drug to come off of but I believe that people can be helped to fight it effectively ...I wont use the word cured as it is likely an addict will always have some addictive behaviours...;
643164
I was married to a man with bipolar for 12 years. Unfortunately, I had to finally leave him.  It started with figuring it out that he had a problem with alcohol.  I put him through rehab, and when he stopped the alcohol, that is when it became obvious that he was self-medicating to deal with the underlying mental illness.  It started out as depression, then severe depression and then progressed to the point that he could sleep for an entire weekend (other than eating and going to the bathroom). If we would force him to wake up, he would wake up enraged. He would scream, shout, kick in appliances, break things - we would have to call the police. Then he would disappear for hours and come back home like nothing happened. There were also other addictions and behaviors that were present. He would shoplift for no reason, became addicted to porn, chatting in porn chat rooms and eventually meeting up with the women for sex. He couldn't hold a job. He developed a severe dependence on Nyquil.  He had OCD behaviors like ironing his clothes ridiculously (even his shoe laces) and using an entire bar of soap when he showered.  OK, now my situation was one of the worse case scenarios, but just wanted to give you an example.  Bipolars are often really against getting help and taking meds too.  Often times, the meds don't even help much.  After a family intervention where we begged him to get help and he refused, I had to take my daugther and leave. My health was suffering and I would have been driven crazy eventually. It sure can be hard on a spouse. I hope your situation is nowhere near as bad as mine was.
904326
Alcoholism is an addiction. Most Alcoholics won't admit that they are alcoholics. They spend most of their time looking forward to their next drink.  That's why it's a disease. It takes over their ability to reason and their freewill.  Their body has to have that alcohol and their just not satisfied until they get it!!
398072
Yes my wife who's an alcoholic. I tried eveything and more to make her happy and nothing worked and it's left me heartbroken. I've sacrificed everything for her.
365775
Alcoholics Anonymous people are arrogant? I've always found the people that went through the twelve step program rather humbled by their experience. I'm genuinely surprised by your insight and can offer no explanation, I'm mystified.
279770
Walk into a room full of Addicts, or Alcloholics.  For every person there, the profile of dependance and addiction will be different. In a room full of 100 of these peope, there will be 100 different forms of disease. There is no such thing as classifying someone as being a "prospective" drug abuser.  \n\nAre there risk factors, yes. Are there genetic pre-dispositions, yes.  Are there personality traits, or disorders that can relate to potential for abuse or addiction, yes.  \n\nCan all of these issues be dealt with successfully, sometimes.  \n\nMy parents are both alcoholics. They also raised three successfull kids, never lied, cheated, stole, allways paid their bills, belong to a church, volunteer, and had very successfull careers.  Some of the greatest minds in history, as well as today, had problems of this nature.  \n\nSometimes the insanity that can come from abuse and a clouded mind leads people to do what we would consider outrageous or unacceptable things.  Those people need help, and have to learn how to be painfully honest with themselves.  It can be done, there is a way.  \n\nIt takes a lot of savy, reading, education, experience, etc, etc, to even begin to understand.  I say this because in reading responses to this question I have already seen how people can talk/act like an expert and in reality be completely ignorant, not realizing how much damage they can do with their words and false information.  \n\nIf you really want to learn more go to an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narotics Anonymous (NA), Alanon, Alateen.
907599
there was only one way for me.\ni had to completely remove myself from any situation or people who took drugs. i am very aware of the temptation and my lack of willpower to ''just say no'', so there was only one way out, and that was to literally leave ppl who i really loved as friends and all the good times behind. After about half a year my cravings were subsiding and i was thinking more clearly. i realised being a drug addict was no longer something i found cool or fun or normal in any way. I have just grown up and moved on. i dont regret my taking in the past but i am also convinved i dont want drugs to be a part of my present or future. \nI didnt go to rehab or therapy to help me quit,but if you feel you are unable to completely remove yourself from situations where there are drugs AND IT IS SO FUCKING HARD, I DONT DENY THIS then you should def get some help.\ni have been clean 10 months now and it truly does get easier with time. the beginning was hell,the middle made life seem like a vaccum of boredom and now i feel great!\nso please consider what iv written, i hope this doesnt sound preachy at all because that is not my intention. i just really want to help others who are going thru wat i did...\ngood luck!
29370
alcoholism runs in the family. My father was an alcoholic and so was his father. I was mentally affected because I didn't understand his behaviors while he was drunk. Dr. Jeckyl was probably an alcoholic. My father was a crying drunk who felt sorry for himself and cried tears in his beers. I am always careful when it comes to drugs and drinking because I live with the fear of knowing that I could probably slide into alcoholism without much effort.
645460
I just went through this same deal. She was drinking 10-12 beers a day and finally we took her in for dry-out. She's been sober for a year and a half now and just threw me out of the house because we have nothing in common anymore. She's "growing" as a person now. And I'm out in the cold after putting up with her drunkedness for years and helping her through the rehab.
1012988
I battled drug and alcohol addiction.  Not heroin, but addictions nonetheless.  I knew that the only way I was going to get off the merry-go-round was to remove myself from everything and everyone I knew.  I chose to go commercial fishing in Alaska.  I was at sea for 6-8 weeks at a time and the only time we docked, it was to offload and use the phone at the end of the dock.  That's all the further away I got from the boat.  Airfare, room, board, all company-paid.  I stayed up for 8 mos, amassing a nice, big bank account.  When I got home, I couldn't easily adapt to being back on land so left again 5 weeks later.  A new addiction, fishing.  And I never picked up the old ones again.  How this can help your daughter is:  she gains new perspective, opens her life to alternate ways of living, she'll work herself to exhaustion, she'll earn a great deal of money and she will be on a "dry boat".  No booze, no drugs, period.\n\nIt really, really worked for me.  I made different friends and met the man I would marry (these 15 years later, we are still).  \n\nOnce she understands that her destiny can be shifted by different decisions she makes, perhaps she'll be willing to harness her own power to move into her own future.  Her methadone is as much a crutch as her heroin was, though, admittedly, a better crutch.  At the end of the day though, a crutch is still the thing we lean on when we either cannot or will not walk on our own two feet.  \n\nAs a mother, I ache for you.  And I wish you all the peace and luck with your daughter.
723811
Drug addiction is a tragedy. A few of us do overcome it but the majority don't. Very sad for your friend. My sympathy.
139912
Ohhhhhh, prolly.\nI'm addicted to cigarettes, I curbed an addiction to alcohol once, when I realized I "need a beer" in order to release the stress of the moment.  I mainlined meth for a while.  I've always been a little boy-crazy, and was once addicted to love (I convinced myself that it was there many times before I realized that it was just what I desperately wanted and thought I needed), and yes, I think I'm probably addicted to Y!Answers now, too.  I sit here, and I'm so bored, and I have no questions in mind to post, and am so braindead that I can't even provide a good answer to anyone, and I know what I need to do around the house, but I can't peel myself away to do it, and next thing I know it's midnight.  Go figure.
876605
For me, eating is an addiction. I did it for lots of reasons, and for no reason, at lots of different times. When I wasn't eating I was thinking about eating, or how much I had eaten, or what diet to go on next, or how much and in what ways to exercize to get the weight off. I knew it was crazy, but I couldn't stop overeating for very long, if at all. I've tried so many diets, and most have worked for some period of time. I've tried many kinds of exercize on many different plans, and most worked for a time. But, for me, the addiction was still there, and until I dealt with that, nothing else could solve my problem. \nEveryone has different solutions, and I hope you find one that is perfect for you. My solution is Overeaters Anonymous. I don't have to pay to join, or sign a contract, or buy anything, and I can stay as long as I want or leave if I don't like it. I've lost 40 pounds and kept them off without any diets or exercize plans for over six years. I know so many people who are in Overeaters Anonymous and have kept off hundreds of pounds for over 20 years, and are at a healthy body size. Everything I hear in Overeaters Anonymous is just a suggestion and people told me to take what worked for me and leave the rest. I don't have to do, believe, or try anything, but I found when I put aside my huge cynicism, it actually did work. Whatever you choose to do, I really hope you find something that works for you.