Something I've always noticed and am going through now. Sometimes I'll drink too much the night before and be concerned about a hangover the next morning. Morning comes, and almost always my first thought is "gee I feel like shit but actually this is way less bad then I was expecting" this misplaced optimism gets washed away at an indeterminate length of time later when a wave of awful nausea crescendos to a peak of crappiness before gradually receding leading me to think "maybe that was the worst of it" only for the cycle to repeat.
This happens even when the hangover is not one severe enough to have caused vomiting. Feeling sick from drinking too much I understand, but I wonder what's physically happening during the peak of these waves that's not happening during the troughs.
I quit drinking been clean for a year and a half, I just turned 31, at this age the hangovers are just too overwhelming for me to tough them out anymore. And quite honestly after completely quitting and seeing the upside I highly recommend to all my fellow comrades here.
Now I am no saint, I love weed and psychedelics but after extensive research I find those to be a lot more better for me recreationally and yes therapeutically. But to each their own.
I wish I never drank honestly I threw away my 20s, wasted time, destroyed the only long term relationship I ever had, and it was a gateway to harder drugs like cocaine. Which was the first thing I quit after battling a crazy addiction to it. Scarface level shit.
What truly terrifies me is now that I've quit my once close family members would rather feel something is wrong with me for not drinking and preferring psychedelics over alcohol. Even when they say out loud that they support me their actions say otherwise.
If anyone is trying to quit drink my DMs are open to share my experience
Thank you it's been a hard journey, I found that the 2 weeks to 2 month mark was the hardest that's when I can truly say I experienced physical withdrawals. I would get headaches when I saw alcohol or others drinking at parties I would get headaches.
When I quit coke, I was told there would be physical withdrawals but I experienced more psychological ones than anything which is what scares me about alcohol. I felt this deep calling to return to it, I still the thought of the hangover really keeps me away at my age.
I agree 2 wks to 2 months was the toughest. I associated drinking with certain activities, and it was weird to do those without drinking. Then, other things i thought would be hard, weren't. Like parties, family gatherings etc. Thought everyone would say, "hey wheres your drink!". I think in retrospect i was the only one saying that shit.
I got pretty good at dealing with hangovers. I have an iron stomach and had a pretty good routine before bed and the next morning to get over it all as fast as possible. Guess that was sign enough it was time to stop.
I had the same thing I had a hangover kit that I would follow to make the hangover less harsh it was right around the time I quit too
I'm happy you had a safe environment around your family mine would prefer I "loosen" up by drinking, in fact quitting made me realize that there was a lot of toxic dynamics within my family that need to be addressed, I never realized drinking was a form of tolerating it. I'm naturally extroverted so I thought parties and dancing was gonna be different, it was an adjustment but I still like to be outgoing and boogie, I just had to do it without alcohol, I find good substitutions in weed or psychedelics though as my tool to unwind when I need it
One of the devilish features of the enjoyment of alcohol is that it likens itself to excess. You tend to drink it in a social setting and that setting makes it more fun to drink and then the drinking makes the actual social occasion more fun in turn. It also, obviously, feels good while you're drinking it and getting drunk, which tends to make you want to drink even more of it because you're enjoying the experience so much. On top of that, obviously, it makes you drunk, and as you probably know, being drunk doesn't tend to make for very good decision making so thoughts like "you might be enjoying this a lot, but you should stop now, then you won't be sick tomorrow" tend to give way to "nah I feel fine right now, so it'll definitely be a good idea to have another and definitely won't be a terrible idea come tomorrow. Also, that's tomorrow's problem anyway".
Have a hangover enough times in your life and this dynamic happens less often since even the drunk happy version of me remembers somehow the deeply unpleasant experience of a hangover from last time and stops before it's too late but unfortunately, every now and then the lesson has to be re-learned.
While it's cool to show concern for someone who might need to hear some words of encouragement for getting help (well, minus the scare tactics of a dead relative story), you seem to have conflated this poster's description of the 'pattern' a night out drinking can take with a 'pattern' of problem drinking every day, or far too often at least.
What they described is perfectly familiar to me, someone who drank to a level of bad hangover on occasion when I was young and having dumb fun with friends. As I got older, that type of fun got less important and the amount I drink came down to a drink or two, rarely, when I can afford a nice whisky or something.
Basically, someone recognising how a night of social drinking can turn into a hangover isn't necessarily the cry for help you seem to have read it as
