Karaoke Forums

sorry to hear about that shar.  unfortunately the good samaritans sometimes get the bad end of an alchohol situation.  in my case, i, the bartender, and other patrons police aclhohol intake.  several times one of the "good ole boys" has been ready to leave, but someone has intervened.  in fact, just a couple of nights ago, a fella tried to come in the bar already drunk.  one of the regluars knew him and convinced him to leave his truck and the regular took him home.  the rest of our regular crew paid the samaritan's tab for the evening.  it was the least we could do for helping keep the streets safer and keeping one of our friends out of jail or worse, the morgue.

_________________
All work and no play make Homer something something

I have to admit,  I'm lucky.. I lived.. After over ten times in detox, I quit drinking for the last time 1980.  Back when I drank and would drive (which was every morning, day and night)  there was no formal DUI law that existed. I'd get pulled over routinely by one of the nice local cops who apparently needed directions, and he'd ask me to escort him to Howard Johnson's for coffee. The cops all knew me. They actually liked me, even offered to put me up a night at their local crib.... I nicely deferred the kind offer. I was on friendly terms with most of them, but they knew I had an alcohol problem.  I also worked in a field where I got to know all the cops.

Compared to me though, Mr. Magoo would've qualified for a safe drivers insurance policy.. When I wasn't on the left lane hugging the quadruple solid lines, I was often leaning to one side of the car hoping my weight would keep the tilting road from dumping me into a lake that bordered the road (loads of night's I'd drive with the spins)... Luckily I never hurt anyone, never damaged anything except my own car...and I survived..  I didn't know it when I was ####-faced.. I was one of those proud drunks, yet I was also very young still. I'd insist that I was fine, reach to grab my car keys away from a friend insisting that I don't drive, this was routine... one time in the process of trying to insistently grab my key's from the hand of someone who pulled them away from me,  I not only missed the keys I was trying to grab, and the persons hand, but I stepped off've a ten foot balcony too....That's when I learned one advantage to being drunk was that when your body is really relaxed, and you fall onto a wet area with mulch, you don't break as easily because you don't tense up..I fell alot in those days when I was really relaxed too, started getting really good at it..got a few scratches, eventually black and blue marks that just seemed to appear instantly and for no reason, I remember a few times watching the bottle of southern comfort, (it was that towards the end or Chartreuse even Bacardi 151 straight) I recall looking at the bottle and not knowing I was drinking from it. I really didn't know why it was getting empty, didn't remember drinking from it though, I'd see bottles on the shelf appearing as though they were evaporating, Didn't recall getting up to reach for them, or drink anything from them.. I literally had no control or awareness of what I was doing.  That started the terrifying stage, Shifting from blackout to consciousness and back, I'd not remember being places, or doing things people were telling me about..It was as if I did in fact live two different identities..Yet the sober me, never really knew the drunk person, he emerged like a multiple personality :(   I got scared when I started blacking out for extended time periods. Seizure's were no picnic either... At least from the way I felt and where I came too... I didn't recall going into convulsions.

I had two choices, and I decided to live... Beat the odd's,  at 24 I was given until 27 tops to live, extensive liver damage, and other physical and mental deterioration. Only reason I kept upping the quanitity of alcohol, was to medicate for excessive stress and anxiety, and like alot of substances people use to do this, either tranq's or alcohol people habituate quickly to these substances, and become tolerant in a short time, ran into probs with tranq's too for that same reason. I never intended on becoming a drunk, seldom got drunk at parties initially, Just drank by myself so I could do what I feared doing, and deal with my feelings and sensations.. Liquid courage was why I needed the juice....Also relationship probs... etc...really anything that involved emotion. I never was good at dealing with emotion..

So, In my case, alcohol was potentially dangerous, almost did kill me, yet I own up to *ME* being apart of the combo that made things this way too....

Liquor is a tricky substance....How it makes a youngster feel, and the false bravato it often brings... can be really dangerous for a teenager filled with testosterone, and a new drivers license, yet someone who still isn't grounded, and overly aware of him/herself yet. Still has little life experience. Certainly not enough life to deal with great con artists like substances that befriend the addict, and do the eventually 180 degree turn, ripping him off completely... They never taught us just how tricky liquor can be when I was growing up...


Anyway, Bad things happened whereever I found liquor,  in my case less-so bars..At least they were prepared to deal with drunks... Most of what I accomplished as a late teen, early 20 year old was under the influence of some substance... It's amazing I was able to do what I did... I used alcohol to self-medicate for many years I suppose,  was a functioning drunk much of the time... and as a result ended up a cross-addict.

Few that knew me in my late teens, or early 20's would know me now, and vice-versa... Worlds of difference between the drunk I was,  and the dry drunk I now am.
Haven't touched a drop of that stuff since one deliberate wet binge around 1983..Had to do something I'd not otherwise have been able to do...

Dangerous dangerous stuff for some of us.. It comes off initially as a real close friend too.. Makes you feel warm, loving, emotional, and felt like the closest experience I had to love ever when I started hitting the bottle seriously... Until it did a switch, and I'd choke trying to down it to stop the shakes, and horror...as I'd puke it back up...the anxiety eventually got much worse even when drunk, seemed to happen overnight too,  the liquor no longer worked... It switched from the best sedative I'd ever had, to liquid nightmare..... seemed to happen overnight too...

Noone in my family (that I know of) has this illness,  took alot for the family, and especially for me to realize it was no longer just "the kid's getting drunk phase" that a normal person might go thru... 1980 I quit cold after well over 1 quart a day plus a few sixes of beer daily for two straight years every day... Really didn't have a tough time quitting the last time on my own....Probably stupid I dried out on my own, yet I survived,  I decided I was sick of it.... Sick of throwing up, headaches, and smelling like liquor and smokes... and sweating the stuff too... around ten times in the tank wasn't enough up until 1980 for some reason.... I guess I'm lucky to be around....Liquor was tougher than the "supposed" harder substances btw.... I never got addicted to smack..

I have no idea why I'm divulging this,  yet reading the topic tonight just got me thinking.. and I suppose I'm out've jokes for tonight..  I guess for some reason reading about people dying made me reflect back on how easy it is to die on this substance, just how potent it is for some of us that get addicted to it.  Also how tough it is for some to admit to themselves that they are addicted to it, it's scary... Many have died on this crap..... It's behind alot of domestic homicides, and suicides...

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Not in Malaysia.

_________________
I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

Malaysia's pretty modern though isn't it Jian ?  You have the Petrona's towers there, and it's also a huge resort area too ? Kind've a multinational area, at least the larger cities... Even culturally.. Don't know firsthand again..  just vaguely recollecting

_________________
Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I had two choices, and I decided to live... Beat the odd's,  at 24 I was given until 27 tops to live, extensive liver damage, and other physical and mental deterioration. Only reason I kept upping the quanitity of alcohol, was to medicate for excessive stress and anxiety

Steve, that sounds like a horrific ordeal, but you emerged magnificently. Your brain still works because you make alot of sense from what I read. I've recently heard that alcohol causes stress and anxiety to intensify, but that shouldn't be a new finding, it only makes sense that any kind of stimulant would eventually worsen the effects of anxiety.

Sharon, that is a sad story. The place I go to in PA. has a cut-off policy, but I've seen alot of people leave drunk, not sure if they were driving though.

I had a drunk driving incident when I was only 18 back in 1982. I just met my wife, then I met her brother. Her brother was a big-time drinker. Her brother and I decided to party one night. Back then, drinking and driving was common and a minor offense unless a driver caused death or injury. But, this was right about the time when MADD was established and the crack-down began.
We took off in my car and went to his girlfriend's pad. All I remember was drinking vodka straight from the bottle, then I woke up in a strange front yard of some apartment building. I jumped in my car to leave, but apparently, I was still pretty drunk. I had no idea where I was going. I was speeding and had an accident, but nobody was seriously injured. The accident happened just after I noticed the police in my rear-view mirror starting to chase me for speeding. I think that's what caused the accident. I was approaching a stoplight while looking in the mirror....and blam!!
The police witnessed the whole incident. Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured.
Anyhow, the courts really racked me up with this one. I almost went to prison for 2 years, and lost my license for a full 2 years...for a 1st offense!
Then, I lost my job when they found out, then I found out later that my wife(then girlfriend) was pregnant with our first child. It was a nightmare that I kept hoping I'd finally wake up from, but that took a long 2 years.  :(

Needless to say, when I finally turned 21, bar hopping was not even on my list of fun things to do. I was just thankful that I recovered from this fiasco and was able to move on with our lives.
Yeah, any other woman would've left me for sure, but my wife stayed...I owe her my life because I don't know where I would be today if I didn't have a positive goal to accomplish back then.

I will NOT drink and drive today, not just for the losses it could cause ME  , but because it's a matter of regard for others. This is not saying that I would never go out to dinner and have a beer with dinner, but even that makes me paranoid...someone could run into me, and then I would be the guilty party. It just makes sense to stay on the safe side. Whenever my wife and I go out to a bar, we take a cab....it's the only way to go....safely.

Bump

_________________
Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!