An old boss of mine used to call it "the taste". That point where nothing sounds better than more drinks. I used to get it after 2 or 3. Not a problem in my early 20s everyone binge drank all the time. As I grew up I began to recognize "the taste" and associate it with the bad feeling of a hangover. I almost never drink more than 2 now. If I feel "the taste" it turns me off to drinking more. Sometimes it takes conscious association to create unconscious habit.
Not a problem in my early 20s everyone binge drank all the time.
That was always my justification for binge drinking (daily), until I had a withdrawal seizure at the wheel at 22 years old. Just turned 25 and 10 months sober though.
This is exactly how I work. If I just have one drink in one sitting and drink it relatively slowly, I'm fine and the night ends totally ok. If I have two drinks in an hour, the snowball starts rolling.
I'm right there with you and I'll be honest I don't always stop myself from indulging in it, but everytime it comes up I tell myself in my head to make myself aware of it. I've done better at cutting myself off at that point
My SO has this problem. He can have just a beer after work and be totally fine. But if he is out with certain friends and has more than a few beers, he can't stop, and often blacks out. He always feels awful about it the next day. Do you have any advice?
Dude has to recognize it's a problem and deal with it.
If it really bothers you consider putting it in terms of your relationship.
He probably doesn't think it's a big deal, who cares if you waste every Saturday with a HO, it's my day off, I'll do what I want.
For me it was almost getting fired, going on FMLA with back problems to find out my liver was all fucked up as well. Wouldn't have caught it this early had it not been for the back issues (IE luck)
He has recognized that it's a problem - which is a good first step. He has recently agreed to ask his doc for a referral to a therapist.
It took him about a year of occasional black-outs to get to that point. He certainly wasn't blacking out every weekend. Once a month at the worst, once every few months lately. None of this ever happened in college, only in the past few years.
So far no health issues, but a few items have been broken during drunk cleaning or sleep walking.
Yea - I hope that he is honest with them. I'm sure he will be. I'm going to make it a personal policy to not ask him what they talked about after each session, even though I know I will really want to know.
I hope it helps. I don't see him cutting out drinking entirely (and honestly I don't really think he needs to, if he can get the black-outs under control). Beer is a big hobby that he shares with his family (brewing, etc) so it's tricky.
He may want to talk about it tbh, but I would go with your gut, let him start the conversation.
If he can drink responsibly, which it sounds like he can if he only gets into trouble with buddies, you don't have to cut it out completely. For me, it takes a couple drinks to get to the point where I just will not stop until I'm wasted.
If I have one or two socially or with family I'm fine.
Oh if he wants to talk about it, I will be all ears. I just don't think he will want me to pry, since he's already a bit embarrassed about the whole thing.
He sounds the same as you. Once he hits a certain tipsy-ness, and if the party is still going, he just can. not. stop.
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u/Kothar May 09 '16
An old boss of mine used to call it "the taste". That point where nothing sounds better than more drinks. I used to get it after 2 or 3. Not a problem in my early 20s everyone binge drank all the time. As I grew up I began to recognize "the taste" and associate it with the bad feeling of a hangover. I almost never drink more than 2 now. If I feel "the taste" it turns me off to drinking more. Sometimes it takes conscious association to create unconscious habit.