Getting Sober

511 Words2 Pages

Getting Sober

To recognize that they have drinking problems, alcoholics have to be completely miserable and willing to change. When they get to this point, it is called their "bottom." There are "high bottom" and "low bottom" drunks, but it doesn't matter as long as they get sober. There are many different reasons why an alcoholic decides to get sober, but in my own case, I lost my self-esteem, I couldn't control my drinking, and my life became unmanageable.

The first thing that made me think about getting sober was that I lost my self-esteem. I always used to cut myself down in front of people and never knew how to accept compliments- sure signs of low self-esteem. The biggest symptom I had of low self-esteem was that I wasn't comfortable in my own skin or around people unless I was drunk because the only way I could stand myself was when I drank. I also never cared about my appearance, so I wouldn't wear make-up, fix my hair, or bathe regularly. Still, low self-esteem was something I would never have guessed I had-that is, until I thought about killing myself. Then I knew something might be wrong.

The second thing that made me want to get sober was the realization that I couldn't control my drinking-it had become a mental and physical obsession. Since my first drink at the age of twelve I couldn't go a day without a drink, and I could never have just one. By the age of seventeen I was used to drinking a case and a half of beer a day, and for the next two years I lived in a drunken fog. I could not go to school, work, or anywhere else outside my front door without a drink or the promise of one. I finally realized something had to be done when I couldn't get a drink one day and swallowing my own spit made me violently sick. I was forced to drink NyQuil to keep from throwing up because it was the only alcohol in the house.

But the main reason I got sober was that my life became unmanageable. The first thing that made me notice I was out of control was getting kicked out of high school two weeks before graduation.

Show More
Related

  • An Outsider’s View of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Meetings

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today, one out of every thirteen adults abuse alcohol or are alcoholics. That means nearly thirteen million Americans have a drinking problem. (www.niaaa.nih.gov) This topic offers a broad range of ideas to be researched within the psychological field. For this particular project, the topic of alcoholism and the psychological effects on people best fit the criteria. Alcoholism is defined as a disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on alcoholic beverages, leading to physical and psychological harm and impaired social and vocational functioning. (www.dictionary.com) Through this project, the most important information regarding personal experiences dealing with alcoholism will be revealed. Not only are statistics, like the facts mentioned before, important when dealing with an issue such as alcoholism, but personal accounts and information are often more powerful and influential evidence. Non-alcoholics should be allowed to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for research purposes.

    Read More

  • Bovine Spongiform Encephalophathy

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    Guyer, Ruth Levy, Ph.D. “Prions: Puzzling Infectious Proteins” National Institutes of Health Office of Science. 28 July 2006 < science.education.nih.gov/nihHTML/ose/snapshots/multimedia/ritn/prions/prions1.html>.

    Read More

  • Prion Disease Essay

    2380 Words  | 5 Pages

    TSEs or more commonly prion diseases are a group of invariably fatal neurodegenerative diseases that occur in humans and animals . This disease is caused by a protease –resistant protein (PrPsc) after misfolding of a host-encoded prion protein (PrP). TSEs can exist as genetic, infectious or sporadic forms. The diseases are characterized by dementia, ataxia and neuropathlogically due to loss of specific neurons in the brain. Other clinical features include persistent painful stimuli, dystonia, visual or cerebellar problems and gliosis (1).

    Read More

  • Prions Essay

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prions are the causative agents of a few rapidly progressive neurodegenerative diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or prion diseases. These are infectious isoforms of a host-encoded cellular protein known as the prion protein. Prion diseases affect humans and animals and are uniformly fatal in nature. [1]

    Read More

  • Recovery Essay

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    Overcoming an addiction to alcohol can be a long and bumpy road. Many people feel that it is impossible to overcome an alcohol addiction. Many people feel that is it easier to be an addict than to be a recovering addict. However, recovering from alcoholism is possible if one is ready to seek the help and support they need on their road to recovery. Recovery is taking the time to regain one’s normal mind, health and strength. Recovery is process. It takes time to stop the alcohol cravings and pressure to drink. For most, rehab and professional help is needed, while others can stop drinking on their own. Recovery never ends. After rehab, professional help or quitting on your own, many people still need help staying sober. A lot of time, recovering

    Read More

  • Benefits Of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

    773 Words  | 2 Pages

    I learned a lot from attending an AA meeting by listening to their stories, experiences, and how supportive the members are. People become alcoholics for many different reasons, such as having low

    Read More

  • Sobriety

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the American Heritage Dictionary, alcoholism is defined as "the compulsive consumption of and psychophysiological dependence on alcoholic beverages." It is a problem that can tear apart marriages and families, cause someone to lose his job, and many more negative results. In order to recover from this dependency a person must lose his desire for and dependence upon alcohol, continue to remain sober, and resolve all conflicts caused by the alcohol abuse. There are several alternatives an alcoholic has to rehabilitate himself. The best solution is a combination of individual therapy and a support group like Alcoholics Anonymous.

    Read More

  • RNA Interference in Biotechnology and Pharmacetics

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    Trafton, A. (2013, June 23). MIT News. Enhancing RNA Interference, pp. 1-2. Retrieved 12 16, 2013, from http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/enhancing-rna-interference-0623.html

    Read More

  • Alcoholism

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...s such as identification with or imitation of the alcoholic parent. It may also happen because of the social and family conditions that are thought to be associated with the development of alcoholism. These include family conflict, job insecurity, divorce, and social stigma. Being diagnosed with alcoholism has a major effect on the person personally. It cause them to change there way of thinking collectively. It changes their view of life and the things going on around them. In the alcoholics personal obstacles they usually have history and a pattern of use. They probably have gone through relapse and other associated problems. If the alcoholic started drinking in there secondary education(college) they may obtain deficits in their education. They may even obtain a learning disability or something of that nature. Because of this persons deficit they may not have the proper education or skills to obtain a high paying job. If the alcoholic is already in the workforce they tend to be in high paying positions that cause them to be over worked and highly stressed. They also they may choose to ignore the problem, do nothing, and hope it will either rectify itself or at least not worsen.

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects Of Alcoholism

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alcoholism is a mental illness that is very destructive not only to an individual that has it, but also to the people that surround him or her and the community. It is a “chronic disease, progressive, and often fatal”, according to James D. Torr, author of the book called Alcoholism (19). Alcohol, when consumed, causes the person to feel pleasure and other desired effects, because of the chemicals it contains. The continuation of consuming alcohol causes the brain and the body to develop tolerance or addiction which leads to alcohol dependence or alcoholism.

    Read More

  • HIV and AIDS: The Epidemic

    1638 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...trive to live normal lives. Scientists also struggle to create a vaccine to get rid of HIV permanently. It is an important live saving decision to practice safe sex or abstinence and also to avoid the using needles to inject drugs.

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects Of Drinking

    1630 Words  | 4 Pages

    First and foremost, alcoholism is hard to break due to the brain craving created by a drinking habit. According to Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, habit is created when there are a cue, a routine, and a reward that develop a craving that make people repeat the loop(49). The craving for drinking is generally cultivated by the short-term reward resulted from drinking. Most alcoholics believe that drinking can help them to escape from their hard times and forget their problems. Elizabeth

    Read More

  • Social Wasp Essay

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    These methods of sexual selection include both before and after mating, and has competition between two males, two females, or competition between both genders of wasps. One of the most obvious forms of sexual selection in social wasps is between females. This is simply that queens of a high rank have higher mating success (Baer 2014). This method of sexual selection follows the natural hierarchy of social wasps, where one wasp is “in charge” (the queen), while others simply do the work for the colony (the workers). The other forms of sexual selection include the male to male competition of territory establishment, where males fight for territories and mark those territories to attract queens, and competition of male ornaments, which is a competition between males to see which one has the best ornaments and a competition between females for them to pick the male with the best ornaments. The males with bigger, darker dorsal spots generally have a better chance of mating (Baer 2014). This causes sexual selection competition between males, who try to have the darkest dorsal spots, and between females, who try to pick males with the darkest dorsal

    Read More

  • Symptoms, Causes, and Effects of Alcoholism

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alcoholism is defined as a pattern of drinking in which harmful consequences result for the drinker, yet, they continue to drink. There are two types of drinkers. The first type, the casual or social drinker, drinks because they want to. They drink with a friend or with a group for pleasure and only on occasion. The other type, the compulsive drinker, drinks because they have to, despite the adverse effects that drinking has on their lives.

    Read More

  • Alcohol and Drug Abuse

    1345 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alcohol and drug abuse is one of biggest problems in United States today. It is not only a personal problem that dramatically affects individuals' lives, but is a major social problem that affects society as whole. "Drug and alcohol abuse", these phrases we hear daily on the radio, television or in discussions of social problem. But what do they mean or what do we think and understand by it? Most of us don't really view drug or alcohol use as a problem, if that includes your grandmother taking two aspirins when she has a headache or your friends having few beers or drinks on Saturday night. What we really mean is that some drugs or alcohol are being used by some people or in some situations constitute problem with which our society must deal. It becomes a real problem when using or I should say abusing drugs cause accidents, antisocial behavior, broken relationships, family instability, crime and violence, poverty, unsafe streets and highways, worker absenteeism and nonproductivity, and the most tragic one death. The situation in which the drug or alcohol uses accurse often makes all the difference. The clearest example is the drinking of alcohol, when individual begins to drink during the job, at school, or in the morning, we have evidence that indicates a potential drinking problem. If a person takes narcotic drug because he just wrecked his knee while his physician prescribed playing football and the drug, most of us would be not concerned. If, on the other hand, he took the same drug on his own just because he likes the way it makes him feel, then we should begin to worry about him developing dependence. Even use of illegal drugs are sometimes acceptable, but it also depends on situation, for example in some countries smoking marijuana is legal just like drinking alcohol in United States. Some subcultures even in United States that accept the use of illegal drugs may distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable situation, some college age groups might accept marijuana smoking at a party on weekends, but not just before going to a calculus class. Most of people would accept a fact that a bartender or a waiter who is working at a night club is having a beer or a drink on his break or that a landscape worker is having a cold beer with his lunch on a hot summer day. I'm not saying that it is "OK" but we wouldn't complain a...

    Read More

More about Getting Sober

Open Document