Discussion Alcohol and substances

[Don’tfallin]

What substances do you use? How does it help you?
Do you use alcohol and or substance as a stress/tension reduction strategy? Does this help you in the short term? Does it make things worse in the long term? Has this lead to alcohol and substance use issues? Has anyone received treatment or gone to rehab for this? Anyone here sober or abstinent?

For those taking benzos - are they prescribed for you? Do you take as directed?

For those that are sober - what triggers getting help/sober?

How long have you been sober?

How many time did you relapse if at all?

Are you happy now?

So what is substance use disorder or do I have it? According to the DSM 5

• "Substance-use disorders are patterns of symptoms resulting from the use of a substance that you continue to take, despite experiencing problems as a result.

DSM-5-TR Substance Use Disorder Criteria

Substance use disorders span a wide variety of problems arising from substance use, and cover 11 different criteria

1. Taking the substance in larger amounts or for longer than you're meant to
2. Wanting to cut down or stop using the substance but not managing to
3. Spending a lot of time getting, using, or recovering from use of the substance
4. Cravings and urges to use the substance
5. Not managing to do what you should at work, home, or school because of substance use
6. Continuing to use, even when it causes problems in relationships
7. Giving up important social, occupational, or recreational activities because of substance use
8. Using substances again and again, even when it puts you in danger
9. Continuing to use, even when you know you have a physical or psychological problem that could have been caused or made worse by the substance
10. Needing more of the substance to get the effect you want (tolerance)
11. Development of withdrawal symptoms, which can be relieved by taking more of the substance

Severity of Substance Use Disorders
The DSM-5-TR allows clinicians to specify how severe or how much of a problem the substance use disorder is, depending on how many symptoms are identified.

• Mild: Two or three symptoms indicate a mild substance use disorder
• Moderate: Four or five symptoms indicate a moderate substance use disorder.
• Severe: Six or more symptoms indicate a severe substance use disorder."

According to the DSM and my addictions doctors I meet the diagnostic criteria for severe substance use disorder for more than one substance. That was an eye opener for me. And while I don't want to be completly abstinent I was forced into a situation where I don't really have a choice. Some people on here know my story. If you want to know more please feel free to pm me and I would be happy to share.

 

[1up]

I use benzos, and they help me with my anxiety and sleep. I hope to eventually ween off of them because of their withdrawal symptoms. I believe it will make things worse in the long term because I will increasingly rely on them. No, I haven't received treatment for this.

 

[Mea Culpa]

I use marijuana for stress. I dont have anything currently prescribed. I dont have anything strong though so what I have only does so much.

 

[Dingusguy]

I drink a lot when I feel particularly stressed or sad, my poison of choice is honey mead. It's great but unfortunately I doubt it's helping me in any way, sure in the short term it does sometimes help me calm down, but definitely not healthy to be drinking to deal with your problems, especially not in large amounts. Which I unfortunately tend to drink too much whenever I start using it as a coping mechanism.

I am not in rehab, not have I gotten help for it, I don't consider myself an alcoholic since I don't feel the need to be drunk 24/7. I only do it when life gets me down particularly hard.

 

[InAgony]

I don't use alcohol or substances as a tension reduction strategy. I only drink alcohol at Christmas and on rare occasions, and very little then too. I don't use any other substances.

I've already caused permenant health problems through other lifestyle actions so I don't want any more through possibly starting to abuse alcohol or other substances.

 

[BluesRunTheGame]

Do you use alcohol and or substance as a stress/tension reduction strategy?

Most of my adult life.

Does this help you in the short term?

Yes.

Does it make things worse in the long term?

Yes.

Has this lead to alcohol and substance use issues?

Yes.

Has anyone received treatment or gone to rehab for this?

Yes.

Anyone here sober or abstinent?

Yes.

Sporadically recovering alcoholic.

 

[LittleJem]

i use cannabis and benzos - not on the same day. The cannabis makes me a bit more functional - able to get out of bed and less agitated. it is working less strongly than it used to - which might be a sky high tolerance or more likely because i'm on lots of meds - mirtazapine apparently can affect it though i don't know why and also a lot of lithium which i don't know if it affects cannabis. Then benzos on days i am not on cannabis. |But usually actually cannabis on the benzo days too....

jeez nothing is helping.

i don't think either the cannabis or the benzos are bad for me. They are how i survive.

 

[touchingthevoid]

Psychedelics, dissociatives, benzos or alcohol. All depends on my mood. They mask the pain for a while but dont really help.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

nicotine , weed, sometime shrooms. When I intake media where the main Caracter smokes I want to smoke to feel like them. In the moment it helps. Usually this is at night. I almost always mix substances. Its helpful at shutting my mind up for the time being. That's the main reason I do it, to ease anxiety to remove my self from this world for the moment.

 

[schizochicken]

Although I haven't done any substances in a few months, the combination of stimulants(cocaine, MDMA), alcohol, and nicotine was my method of choice - it alllowed me to throw out any sort of tension or social inhibitions that i would have. It also ruined my life. My substance abuse was synonymous with my bipolar disorder - during mania, i would heavily drink and abuse stimulants to unwind and let loose in social settings. In hindsight, my drug use during these manic episodes put me in embarrassing situations and outcasted me further, as I was unaware of the social consequences of my behavior. I ruined relationships, people repelled and ditched me, and my energy scared away a lot of people. Now sitting here, in a dark depressive episode, I now realize how out of control I was, and how lonely and unliked i am today. I am actively suicidal.

 

[Don’tfallin]

I use benzos, and they help me with my anxiety and sleep. I hope to eventually ween off of them because of their withdrawal symptoms. I believe it will make things worse in the long term because I will increasingly rely on them. No, I haven't received treatment for this.

Hey Sun.

Yeah, that how I started off with benzos. And then it became daily thing And then the dose got higher. It's even worse if they are not prescribed for you because no one is tracking how much you are taking. I successfully weaned off of taking them daily but still struggle with abusing them.

 

[TheSpookyNameGuy]

[Alcoholic checking in.]

 

[davidtorez]

Vodka and amitriptyline . Does the trick. I've fucked up my brain beyond repair now, my memory is worse than an 80 year old

 

[Don’tfallin]

[Alcoholic checking in.]

Do you get withdrawal symptoms? How long have you been drinking for?

 

[sserafim]

I don't drink or use any substances. It's just not my thing. I do drink a lot of coffee though

 

[Don’tfallin]

I drink a lot when I feel particularly stressed or sad, my poison of choice is honey mead. It's great but unfortunately I doubt it's helping me in any way, sure in the short term it does sometimes help me calm down, but definitely not healthy to be drinking to deal with your problems, especially not in large amounts. Which I unfortunately tend to drink too much whenever I start using it as a coping mechanism.

I am not in rehab, not have I gotten help for it, I don't consider myself an alcoholic since I don't feel the need to be drunk 24/7. I only do it when life gets me down particularly hard.

What is honey mead?

Although I haven't done any substances in a few months, the combination of stimulants(cocaine, MDMA), alcohol, and nicotine was my method of choice - it alllowed me to throw out any sort of tension or social inhibitions that i would have. It also ruined my life. My substance abuse was synonymous with my bipolar disorder - during mania, i would heavily drink and abuse stimulants to unwind and let loose in social settings. In hindsight, my drug use during these manic episodes put me in embarrassing situations and outcasted me further, as I was unaware of the social consequences of my behavior. I ruined relationships, people repelled and ditched me, and my energy scared away a lot of people. Now sitting here, in a dark depressive episode, I now realize how out of control I was, and how lonely and unliked i am today. I am actively suicidal.

Hi Schizo,

I'm so sorry to hear this. Maybe some of this damage can be repaired. You have mentioned this before to me. You said you haven't used substances in a few months. That's a start right. People need to be understanding of mental health and substance use issues and how they can affect the actions and behaviours of the people affected. I really hope you can get through this dark period. You know that I am always hear for you.

I don't drink or use any substances. It's just not my thing. I do drink a lot of coffee though

Good for you. Keep it that way. :)

nicotine , weed, sometime shrooms. When I intake media where the main Caracter smokes I want to smoke to feel like them. In the moment it helps. Usually this is at night. I almost always mix substances. It's helpful at shutting my mind up for the time being. That's the main reason I do it, to ease anxiety to remove my self from this world for the moment.

Haha, love being triggered by a movie or tv show. :) I always mix benzo and alcohol. Bad habit. Cannot drink without taking benzos.

 

[lostforever77]

Went a a year without having a drink. and before then it was like 5 years of drinking just socially. but lately I have had way to much, but part of that is just the stressful environment I am in, and some times I feel like its the difference between just laying in bed or at least being social unline. I do not have withdraw symptoms or anything like that...so I doubt I am an alcoholic. But is it good..no not at all..and honestly I can not wait to get out of here and make better choices.

 

[Don’tfallin]

Went a a year without having a drink. and before then it was like 5 years of drinking just socially. but lately I have had way to much, but part of that is just the stressful environment I am in, and some times I feel like its the difference between just laying in bed or at least being social unline. I do not have withdraw symptoms or anything like that...so I doubt I am an alcoholic. But is it good..no not at all..and honestly I can not wait to get out of here and make better choices.

You are so strong. you got this. You know you will get through this.

And let be honest. Sometimes you just need a drink to cope. I just let my situation go a little bit too far. So now I have to clean up a bit.

 

[lotheb_5drop]

I don't know if its that bad, but I drink half a bottle of 750 ml fireball every weekend in my room alone since it's cheap and not the worst going down.

 

[AresCohere]

I have an unpopular opinion ig but after what I saw this shit do to my extended family I'm never touching alcohol ever. When I CTB I want to at least still be a functional human and not what they have become.

Guess it's a genetic thing.

 

[Cakeisalie]

It's funny that I'm still trying to recover from the hangover as I write this, hours ago I was drunk, I mixed Xanax with beer, I don't remember how many pills I took or how many beers, I spent the whole afternoon lying down looking at the beach and the sky, I tried to get up but it felt like the earth's gravity had been increased 10 times, now it's time to hydrate with water and lots of coffee.

 

[wait.what]

I'm one of THOSE alcoholics…the small percentage of people who went over the cliff with their first sips of beer in high school. I've managed some reasonably long periods of abstinence since then, all during times I was semi-functional and not, you know, an aging NEET. I've never used alcohol normally though, and I know I never will.

These days booze makes me so spectacularly sick so quickly that my binges are fairly far apart. That's just as well, since detoxing at home can bring on seizures and brain damage, while rehab facilities seem to come in 2 varieties…private pay, posh, and ungodly expensive, or absolute screaming nightmare fuel. I've only fallen off the wagon once since last summer, which is pretty good for me.

I'm very allergic to weed. Anaphylaxis, twice. I absolutely hate dissociatives and hallucinogens. If I want to see shit that makes me want to crawl off the Empire State Building's observation deck, I'll just read social media. Stimulants make me panic; opioids somehow manage to make my depression worse.

Strangely, benzos of all things just do their goddamned job and then leave me alone. For years I really didn't believe all the negative press about them. I thought it was more "ONE TOKE AND YOU'RE HOOKED" nonsense like they used to push at us in the 80's. Then I met a lady who had been on a very modest dose of the things, and it was like someone had pried open her skull sutures and poured acid on her brain. Klonopin or whatever had gone full Jeffrey Dahmer on her. As you might imagine, she was pissed off.

Anyway, just goes to show you … something. IDK what, really.

Drugs are bad, m'kay?

 

[Cakeisalie]

Eu sou um DESSES alcoólatras... a pequena porcentagem de pessoas que caíram no precipício com seus primeiros goles de cerveja no ensino médio. Eu consegui alguns períodos razoavelmente longos de abstinência desde então, durante todos os tempos em que eu era semifuncional e não, você sabe, um NEET envelhecido. Porém, nunca usei álcool normalmente e sei que nunca usarei.

Hoje em dia, a bebida me deixa tão doente e tão rapidamente que minhas farras ficam bastante distantes. Isso é bom, já que a desintoxicação em casa pode causar convulsões e danos cerebrais, enquanto as instalações de reabilitação parecem vir em 2 variedades...pagamento privado, chique e terrivelmente caro, ou combustível de pesadelo absoluto. Só perdi o controle uma vez desde o verão passado, o que é muito bom para mim.

Sou muito alérgico a maconha. Anafilaxia, duas vezes. Eu absolutamente odeio dissociativos e alucinógenos. Se eu quiser ver alguma coisa que me dê vontade de rastejar para fora da plataforma de observação do Empire State Building, vou apenas ler as redes sociais. Os estimulantes me deixam em pânico; os opioides de alguma forma conseguem piorar minha depressão.

Estranhamente, os benzos, entre todas as coisas, simplesmente fazem seu maldito trabalho e depois me deixam em paz. Durante anos eu realmente não acreditei em toda a imprensa negativa sobre eles. Achei que era mais uma bobagem do tipo "UM TOKE AND YOU'RE HOOKED", como costumavam nos empurrar nos anos 80. Então conheci uma senhora que tomava uma dose muito modesta dessas coisas, e foi como se alguém tivesse aberto as suturas de seu crânio e derramado ácido em seu cérebro. Klonopin ou o que quer que fosse, Jeffrey Dahmer com ela. Como você pode imaginar, ela estava chateada.

De qualquer forma, só vou te mostrar... uma coisa. IDK o que, realmente.

Drogas são ruins, ok?

 

[Don’tfallin]

Most of my adult life.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Sporadically recovering alcoholic.

Thank you for sharing. Are relapses often and they hard to rebound from? Are you currently sober? Is it just alcohol or other substances as well?

Psychedelics, dissociatives, benzos or alcohol. All depends on my mood. They mask the pain for a while but dont really help.

I'm one of THOSE alcoholics…the small percentage of people who went over the cliff with their first sips of beer in high school. I've managed some reasonably long periods of abstinence since then, all during times I was semi-functional and not, you know, an aging NEET. I've never used alcohol normally though, and I know I never will.

These days booze makes me so spectacularly sick so quickly that my binges are fairly far apart. That's just as well, since detoxing at home can bring on seizures and brain damage, while rehab facilities seem to come in 2 varieties…private pay, posh, and ungodly expensive, or absolute screaming nightmare fuel. I've only fallen off the wagon once since last summer, which is pretty good for me.

I'm very allergic to weed. Anaphylaxis, twice. I absolutely hate dissociatives and hallucinogens. If I want to see shit that makes me want to crawl off the Empire State Building's observation deck, I'll just read social media. Stimulants make me panic; opioids somehow manage to make my depression worse.

Strangely, benzos of all things just do their goddamned job and then leave me alone. For years I really didn't believe all the negative press about them. I thought it was more "ONE TOKE AND YOU'RE HOOKED" nonsense like they used to push at us in the 80's. Then I met a lady who had been on a very modest dose of the things, and it was like someone had pried open her skull sutures and poured acid on her brain. Klonopin or whatever had gone full Jeffrey Dahmer on her. As you might imagine, she was pissed off.

Anyway, just goes to show you … something. IDK what, really.

Drugs are bad, m'kay?

Sorry to hear about your struggles with alcohol.

Did you ever use any Antabuse or any other meds in the preventions of your alcohol use disorder or anything for cravings?

Glad to hear you've only had one relapse since last summer!!! Keep going!!

I don't know if its that bad, but I drink half a bottle of 750 ml fireball every weekend in my room alone since it's cheap and not the worst going down.

Reminds me of myself. Except my drink of choice is gin. And it didn't stay at that level.

It's funny that I'm still trying to recover from the hangover as I write this, hours ago I was drunk, I mixed Xanax with beer, I don't remember how many pills I took or how many beers, I spent the whole afternoon lying down looking at the beach and the sky, I tried to get up but it felt like the earth's gravity had been increased 10 times, now it's time to hydrate with water and lots of coffee.

Can help but pick up a few funny stories along the way when mixing benzos with alcohol. Unfortunately sometimes you get some not so funny stories as well.

 

[Dingusguy]

What is honey mead?

Mead is like and old type of primitive "Wine" It's really simple to make in theory, you just need honey, yeast, water and patience and eventually you'll have mead. You can sweeten it to your liking too. Although I just order my mead online since I can't be fucked to wait for 4 months while it ferments xD

Plenty of different types of mead too. Such as strawberry, blueberry, apple, blackcurrant. Just about anything you can think of. It's great but it can be hard to get mead outside of Scandinavia as far as I know.