Advise on helping with alcoholism

[Hoosierman]

I know this an old post but I have a little experience in this area. My late father was a mean alcoholic, and he drank almost everyday for at least 40 years, the hard stuff too. We fought a lot, sometimes it would get violent. Eventually we put it passed us and unfortunately he passed away a few years ago. That said, the important thing I took from his sad state was that when I considered every heartbreak, every hardship, every trauma, every disappointment that man lived through, well, suddenly it made sense that the only way he knew how to drown his blues was to take to the bottle. I mean, his parents downright blamed him for the death of his younger brother when he was just five, he had to carry that survivors guilt for his entire life.

I say it's important to understand the source of it all and to look at the big picture. What do a lot of alcoholics have in common? A lot of them feel like ghosts in a system that doesn't want them.

OP, any progress after a few years?

 

[Eddo Rogue]

I didnt see this post until it was bumped just now, and figured to mention my one year dry just passed on 2/1/2026. After 14 years of pretty much daily heavy drinking, my body and mind couldn't do it anymore. Detox was tough, but I got help, and it really helped.

Same thing, drowning trauma....which I never acknowledged, because any time I did, it turned into a pissing contest....so I just wrote it off as being normal, everyone has been through shit, moreso than me.

Kinda why I been MIA around here..been doing a lot of cleaning up, and work.

I don't have much advice to give other that detoxing sucks but it gets better. Dealing with the past and reality sucks, but is better than not trying to drink it away. It eventually doesn't work anymore. I never thought I'd want or be able to quit drinking, but did.

 

[Hoosierman]

I didnt see this post until it was bumped just now, and figured to mention my one year dry just passed on 2/1/2026. After 14 years of pretty much daily heavy drinking, my body and mind couldn't do it anymore. Detox was tough, but I got help, and it really helped.

Same thing, drowning trauma....which I never acknowledged, because any time I did, it turned into a pissing contest....so I just wrote it off as being normal, everyone has been through shit, moreso than me.

Kinda why I been MIA around here..been doing a lot of cleaning up, and work.

I don't have much advice to give other that detoxing sucks but it gets better. Dealing with the past and reality sucks, but is better than not trying to drink it away. It eventually doesn't work anymore. I never thought I'd want or be able to quit drinking, but did.

Well right now your liver ought to be thanking you for that decision too.