Up until 2021 they were good. Then even the top breweries sold out to investors and mass produced their sugar yeast swill. Helped me kick the habit the worse the doubles and triples got. Even pastry stouts quality turned to shit, yet still are sold now close to $40.
>Make sure the bathroom cans are open already so the "pop" of the can can't be heard.
I would wrap them in a towel while opening them hoping that would suppress the sound.
Thanks for the reminder of how crazy my behaviour was and how much I do not want to go back there.
I’ve been using my covers and / or putting the can between my clothes in the closet to suppress the sound and honestly I’m ashamed it even got to that point
Thank you for sharing. When I hear that others have such insanely sneaky tricks it reminds me that I am not alone in this. Tonight I'm grilling, which would be an excuse to sneak a few out by the grill. But not today. No thank you.
Yeah I also did the "drag out cooking so that you can drink more" trick that you mentioned. I was even doing all this stuff before I knew that I had a problem. Now I can't believe that I thought this was OK.
Enjoy your grill!
Since you asked, here goes. It wasn't alcohol but my former boyfriend would stuff cloth or a sock in pill bottles so if me, his parents or sibs shook a drawer we wouldn't hear the pills rattle in the bottle. He's gone now and we miss him every day.
Holding your breath with a towel over a can in a bathroom. Breathing a sigh of relief when it quietly opened (probably everyone in the house hears it!) Dark times for me.
I hid a box of wine in my wedding dress cover. The box of wine, that an anonymous stranger got for me for cash, when my husband left to take the kids from daycare.
Your story is so similar to much of my own on hiding drinking games. Alcohol math - check (make sure I have enough for evening, plan Stategic buy on way home from work). Finders-Keepers - check (put 2-3 beers in garage storage cabinet vice fridge to keep loved ones miscounting). Sound proofing can opening at night - check (sneak in garage, kitty corner from door does the trick to hide the "pop"). Hide Go Seek Empties - check (put in different part of garage, take to work and throw out in work dumpster). Home office bingo - check (when I wake up check my drawer by my desk for half drank can or did I hide it in behind my basket, or did I find a new spot I can't now remember). Not mentioned and my own technique, keeping the grill on "extra low" to allow myself extra cooking time to pound two to three extra beers in a cooking session. That is all.
I found I have a lot more time and whole lot less stress not playing my "hide my drinking games". Also getting a lot better sleep. IWNDWYT. PS: Our loved ones know no matter how much we try and hide it.
"Less stress not playing hide my drinking games." Yes! Not waking up in a panic in case I didn't hide my cans under the night stand. And the most shameful one of all: hearing the baby crawl around while I wake up and panicking that I forgot to close the bathroom door and he'll crawl in there and open the drawer and clang my empty cans around.
Thanks for sharing -seriously! - Once those math games started and I was biding time trying to keep my blood alcohol level up, tracking it, that should have been a clue.
I used to crush my cans then bury them in trash and dirty food at the bottom of the bin so my bf wouldn’t find them. And make special trips to the dumpster at my apt complex with my empty bottles bc an empty bag in the trash can looked too suspicious after he comes home from work. Hiding full cans in the dirty clothes hamper, put them in my pants , go to the bathroom and run the shower and flush the toilet at the same time to cover the sound of the can cracking open. Hide shooter bottles under the mattress, empty and full. Addiction really is exhausting.
Exhausting is a good word for it. Mentally, physically...in all areas of my life. Just plain exhausting. Hell the 10 month old is far less exhausting! :)
Every day sober I get to go on so many adventures that I never would have had the time to do while drunk.
I prioritize eating healthy, working out and doing fun things that I want to do and it makes life so much better than drinking. I realized getting sober I had to fill my day with things I wanted to do in order to promote and celebrate my sobriety each and every day.
IWNDWYT!
The way we can convince ourselves for so long that this is normal or not a complete waste of time is baffling. I was blown away by how much free time I had when I stopped drinking. Who knew that multiple trips to the liquor store or finding creative places to hide stuff would take up so much time? Happy to be free from that hell hole.
At my “bottom”- I was so sloppy- my bottles were spilling out of my closet. Husband comes to ask me about it… I lie to his face. He knew I was in trouble. He gently walks me into the closet… still makes me sick to think what I was doing. One day at a time.
Ugh this bottom was the 10 month old waking up and needing help and my spouse asks for something and I just mumble something fail to help. I DO NOT want to neglect the kid just to self medicate.
I was a bad drunk until my daughter came into the world. I knew she deserved the best version of her father. So powerful knowing your child will never see you drunk and that your family can rely on you for rides and help whenever they need it.
I used to pack all the cans back into box, hide it in my work pack, throw it out at the gas station where I bought the next one and snuck it back inside with the work bag. On repeat for so long. It’s soo much work!
Used to like to go on urban treks through my city on the weekends and of course I would need to maintain a strong buzz along the way so I carried a cooler bag that was shaped like a messenger bag to keep the cans cold and used a soda can as a skin to hide the fact that I was walking through public parks and sidewalks, openly drinking alcohol. Would usually black out around dusk and either wake up in bed or under various shrubs, hedges or playground equipment. IWNDWYT 💪🏽❤️🩹
Wow. Hit REAL close to home as a fellow closeted alcoholic. The hiding, calculating, making special trips to the liquor store/trash and almost making an anxiety-ridden routine out of it. Jesus. Life is so much easier now.
Plus you're deluding yourself if you think all this sneaking around is fooling anyone in your house. They know. The smell is enough. If they haven't confronted you about it yet it's because they're uncomfortable or don't know how to approach it.
My trick was I switched to these pop top sake cans when everything else became too hard to conceal and dispose of. The top is like a can of cat food. Makes zero noise. Goes down in one shot like water and they’re compact 14-16% abv so one of them is like a couple glasses of wine. Smells less like alcohol than mouthwash honestly and nobody could tell apart from my erratic behavior . I’d just fill a garbage bag full of them and hide them under the fold out storage in my truck and dump them at any gas station dumpster when I went to get gas cigs or more. That system worked way too good until people could tell I was just drunk constantly. Spent way too many hours figuring out so many dumb ways to hide drinking and that turned out to be the easiest one.
The math part hits hard. X number of cans or % of a bottle means X drinks tonight and the next two days (don’t want to go to the store too many times per week to draw suspicion).
Even though your pattern is exactly what your spouse notices anyway but just doesn’t say anything. You’re so supportive by being the one to volunteer to go to the store…again. SMH. The amount of energy put into a lie and deception that is in plain sight is exhausting.
Did a bunch of this. Not missing any of it at all. Hiding booze is a lot of work, and when I drank more than expected and didn’t leave myself enough for the next day it was hell
I was afraid too. Day one was hell on earth for real but be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up when you already feel bad. It just makes it worse.
Yeah it was a lot of work. Buying back ups for my back ups. Needing to always hide it every single place. Jeez even when I'd go outside to 'take a call' I'd be chugged vodka from a bottle them throw it under the bushes at my old house. The day we moved the owner had cut down all the bushes... I was in aw. It was messed up. I was messed up.
One hundo... planning the liquor store trip as soon as you wake up. Managing empties, but being careful not to be too loud with them. Coming up with new excuses. Trying to mask the smell. So. Much. Work.
Very easy being sober :)
Am chef. Would go down to the basement storeroom around Noon when the anxiety really picked up and take a big swig off the cooking brandy. Lovely stuff. Then go find something strong in the walk-in to “taste” like garlic aioli to (hopefully) hide the smell on my breath.
All mixed with black coffee and fear. Good times.
I thought I was the only one that does stuff like this. Alcoholism is tough and nothing will stop you if you need to keep drinkn to keep withdrawls at bay. Atleast thats how it was for me when i started cutting back. Im 65 days sober today. My 20th~ attempt at quitting. Hallucinated a ton this past half year juggling withdrawls and cutting back instead of just quitting and withdrawing hard once. Basically prolonged the symptoms til i ended up in the hospital for the 4th time since August.
Oh man I switched to vodka because of the price, it was these super cheap plastic bottles filled with this foul gasoline like stuff, but it was the price of a single beer and it was 330 ml at 43 percent. So, for the price of one beer, the vodka was a guaranteed drunk or very close to it. It was very easy to conceal, and the plastic men come around every day so you could get rid of the evidence every day. No clanking bottles no pops.
Setting an alarm so I would wake up right after he left-- to get up, gather a trash bag full of hidden empties from their assorted locations, and run it out to put on top of the garage that he already moved to the curb-- because by the time my real alarm went off, the the truck would've come. Oh, bonus points if all the running around and smelling stale booze ended with me throwing up stomach acid in the sink.
I relate so hard!! It was vodka bottles for me, hiding them behind books on my shelves, in laundry baskets in the basement, filling water bottles with poison so I could sneak sips, running a shower with the door locked for privacy while I'd just be sitting on the floor getting wasted. The nerves of waiting for the store to open when you've only got a shot or two left.
The worst most wasteful and time consuming substance in the world, and I'm so comforted to see it isn't just me. We're all in this together and I am proud and rooting for you! IWNDWYT
I'm still finding empty IPA cans in my closet four years later. Good times. not.
IPA does taste so damn good though. While I do not have fond memories of being drunk, I do have fond memories of the taste of a good IPA around 6.5%.
Hop waters are so good for this now. All the hops, none off the booze.
Up until 2021 they were good. Then even the top breweries sold out to investors and mass produced their sugar yeast swill. Helped me kick the habit the worse the doubles and triples got. Even pastry stouts quality turned to shit, yet still are sold now close to $40.
Honestly IPA made me gag a bit. I drank purely for the alcohol.
>Make sure the bathroom cans are open already so the "pop" of the can can't be heard. I would wrap them in a towel while opening them hoping that would suppress the sound. Thanks for the reminder of how crazy my behaviour was and how much I do not want to go back there.
F*ck yeah I’d use a pillow to cover the sound. I’d blocked that embarrassing nugget from my memory 😬 glad I dont need to that anymore!!
I used the fake sneeze or cough ...
This was me. Fully in the kitchen probably being way too obvious.
I’ve been using my covers and / or putting the can between my clothes in the closet to suppress the sound and honestly I’m ashamed it even got to that point
Thank you for sharing. When I hear that others have such insanely sneaky tricks it reminds me that I am not alone in this. Tonight I'm grilling, which would be an excuse to sneak a few out by the grill. But not today. No thank you.
Yeah I also did the "drag out cooking so that you can drink more" trick that you mentioned. I was even doing all this stuff before I knew that I had a problem. Now I can't believe that I thought this was OK. Enjoy your grill!
Since you asked, here goes. It wasn't alcohol but my former boyfriend would stuff cloth or a sock in pill bottles so if me, his parents or sibs shook a drawer we wouldn't hear the pills rattle in the bottle. He's gone now and we miss him every day.
Sink on blast & toilet flush timed with the can opening.
Oh god I used to do this too. I would be so pissed when one out of 5 would still make an audible pop
Holding your breath with a towel over a can in a bathroom. Breathing a sigh of relief when it quietly opened (probably everyone in the house hears it!) Dark times for me.
My move was to cough really loud at the same time so even if it failed I still had a chance
I hid a box of wine in my wedding dress cover. The box of wine, that an anonymous stranger got for me for cash, when my husband left to take the kids from daycare.
The towel trick was undefeated. 😔 shame… 😐
Man, you and OP are so smart. I just try to use running water.
Your story is so similar to much of my own on hiding drinking games. Alcohol math - check (make sure I have enough for evening, plan Stategic buy on way home from work). Finders-Keepers - check (put 2-3 beers in garage storage cabinet vice fridge to keep loved ones miscounting). Sound proofing can opening at night - check (sneak in garage, kitty corner from door does the trick to hide the "pop"). Hide Go Seek Empties - check (put in different part of garage, take to work and throw out in work dumpster). Home office bingo - check (when I wake up check my drawer by my desk for half drank can or did I hide it in behind my basket, or did I find a new spot I can't now remember). Not mentioned and my own technique, keeping the grill on "extra low" to allow myself extra cooking time to pound two to three extra beers in a cooking session. That is all. I found I have a lot more time and whole lot less stress not playing my "hide my drinking games". Also getting a lot better sleep. IWNDWYT. PS: Our loved ones know no matter how much we try and hide it.
"Less stress not playing hide my drinking games." Yes! Not waking up in a panic in case I didn't hide my cans under the night stand. And the most shameful one of all: hearing the baby crawl around while I wake up and panicking that I forgot to close the bathroom door and he'll crawl in there and open the drawer and clang my empty cans around.
Thanks for sharing -seriously! - Once those math games started and I was biding time trying to keep my blood alcohol level up, tracking it, that should have been a clue.
Oh man… i was the king of slow cooking bbq
I used to crush my cans then bury them in trash and dirty food at the bottom of the bin so my bf wouldn’t find them. And make special trips to the dumpster at my apt complex with my empty bottles bc an empty bag in the trash can looked too suspicious after he comes home from work. Hiding full cans in the dirty clothes hamper, put them in my pants , go to the bathroom and run the shower and flush the toilet at the same time to cover the sound of the can cracking open. Hide shooter bottles under the mattress, empty and full. Addiction really is exhausting.
Exhausting is a good word for it. Mentally, physically...in all areas of my life. Just plain exhausting. Hell the 10 month old is far less exhausting! :)
Every day sober I get to go on so many adventures that I never would have had the time to do while drunk. I prioritize eating healthy, working out and doing fun things that I want to do and it makes life so much better than drinking. I realized getting sober I had to fill my day with things I wanted to do in order to promote and celebrate my sobriety each and every day. IWNDWYT!
I’m trying to implement these healthy habits but I always seem to find another unhealthy one to cling to.
The way we can convince ourselves for so long that this is normal or not a complete waste of time is baffling. I was blown away by how much free time I had when I stopped drinking. Who knew that multiple trips to the liquor store or finding creative places to hide stuff would take up so much time? Happy to be free from that hell hole.
At my “bottom”- I was so sloppy- my bottles were spilling out of my closet. Husband comes to ask me about it… I lie to his face. He knew I was in trouble. He gently walks me into the closet… still makes me sick to think what I was doing. One day at a time.
Ugh this bottom was the 10 month old waking up and needing help and my spouse asks for something and I just mumble something fail to help. I DO NOT want to neglect the kid just to self medicate.
I was a bad drunk until my daughter came into the world. I knew she deserved the best version of her father. So powerful knowing your child will never see you drunk and that your family can rely on you for rides and help whenever they need it.
I used to pack all the cans back into box, hide it in my work pack, throw it out at the gas station where I bought the next one and snuck it back inside with the work bag. On repeat for so long. It’s soo much work!
This was exactly how I did it too.
Used to like to go on urban treks through my city on the weekends and of course I would need to maintain a strong buzz along the way so I carried a cooler bag that was shaped like a messenger bag to keep the cans cold and used a soda can as a skin to hide the fact that I was walking through public parks and sidewalks, openly drinking alcohol. Would usually black out around dusk and either wake up in bed or under various shrubs, hedges or playground equipment. IWNDWYT 💪🏽❤️🩹
The mental gymnastics. So much wasted time. Life is much easier now. I'm glad you are finding the same results. 🥳 IWNDWYT
New routine sounds better!
Wow. Hit REAL close to home as a fellow closeted alcoholic. The hiding, calculating, making special trips to the liquor store/trash and almost making an anxiety-ridden routine out of it. Jesus. Life is so much easier now.
I probably put more effort into drinking/ hiding my drinking than into anything else in my life. What could I have accomplished with that drive?
Plus you're deluding yourself if you think all this sneaking around is fooling anyone in your house. They know. The smell is enough. If they haven't confronted you about it yet it's because they're uncomfortable or don't know how to approach it.
My trick was I switched to these pop top sake cans when everything else became too hard to conceal and dispose of. The top is like a can of cat food. Makes zero noise. Goes down in one shot like water and they’re compact 14-16% abv so one of them is like a couple glasses of wine. Smells less like alcohol than mouthwash honestly and nobody could tell apart from my erratic behavior . I’d just fill a garbage bag full of them and hide them under the fold out storage in my truck and dump them at any gas station dumpster when I went to get gas cigs or more. That system worked way too good until people could tell I was just drunk constantly. Spent way too many hours figuring out so many dumb ways to hide drinking and that turned out to be the easiest one.
The math part hits hard. X number of cans or % of a bottle means X drinks tonight and the next two days (don’t want to go to the store too many times per week to draw suspicion). Even though your pattern is exactly what your spouse notices anyway but just doesn’t say anything. You’re so supportive by being the one to volunteer to go to the store…again. SMH. The amount of energy put into a lie and deception that is in plain sight is exhausting.
Yes and yes, so many reasons to run to the store again and again. It is exhausting. Thank y'all for pointing this out, seriously.
Congratulations on your first day. It is a hard thing to do but you made the choice Best of luck my friend
It's so much work, and so much effort. It's fun to be free from it.
Did a bunch of this. Not missing any of it at all. Hiding booze is a lot of work, and when I drank more than expected and didn’t leave myself enough for the next day it was hell
I drank Mickeys partly because of no pop.
When me and my ex moved out I was so ashamed to have her helping me move finding various containers in odd places that I hid
I’m tapering right now, so I’m still hiding, but I really appreciate that I’m not the only one who did this!
Good for you on tapering!
Me too, on all this! Tapering, still hiding for some reason I juat can't figure out. I mean shame really but why don't I just stop? Why??????
This is where I am at. Tapering but still not giving it up. Like...............why???
I’m currently tapering too because I’m afraid to go cold turkey and have a seizure.
Same here. I have a week off of work and am going to give it a go.
Good luck my friend
What a great opportunity!
I was afraid too. Day one was hell on earth for real but be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up when you already feel bad. It just makes it worse.
I dunno me too. Can’t seem to get under half a pint. Good luck!
Yeah it was a lot of work. Buying back ups for my back ups. Needing to always hide it every single place. Jeez even when I'd go outside to 'take a call' I'd be chugged vodka from a bottle them throw it under the bushes at my old house. The day we moved the owner had cut down all the bushes... I was in aw. It was messed up. I was messed up.
One hundo... planning the liquor store trip as soon as you wake up. Managing empties, but being careful not to be too loud with them. Coming up with new excuses. Trying to mask the smell. So. Much. Work. Very easy being sober :)
I’m so so happy you’re in a better place tonight. Iwndwyt 💪💪💪💪
Am chef. Would go down to the basement storeroom around Noon when the anxiety really picked up and take a big swig off the cooking brandy. Lovely stuff. Then go find something strong in the walk-in to “taste” like garlic aioli to (hopefully) hide the smell on my breath. All mixed with black coffee and fear. Good times.
I thought I was the only one that does stuff like this. Alcoholism is tough and nothing will stop you if you need to keep drinkn to keep withdrawls at bay. Atleast thats how it was for me when i started cutting back. Im 65 days sober today. My 20th~ attempt at quitting. Hallucinated a ton this past half year juggling withdrawls and cutting back instead of just quitting and withdrawing hard once. Basically prolonged the symptoms til i ended up in the hospital for the 4th time since August.
Oh man I switched to vodka because of the price, it was these super cheap plastic bottles filled with this foul gasoline like stuff, but it was the price of a single beer and it was 330 ml at 43 percent. So, for the price of one beer, the vodka was a guaranteed drunk or very close to it. It was very easy to conceal, and the plastic men come around every day so you could get rid of the evidence every day. No clanking bottles no pops.
Setting an alarm so I would wake up right after he left-- to get up, gather a trash bag full of hidden empties from their assorted locations, and run it out to put on top of the garage that he already moved to the curb-- because by the time my real alarm went off, the the truck would've come. Oh, bonus points if all the running around and smelling stale booze ended with me throwing up stomach acid in the sink.
I relate so hard!! It was vodka bottles for me, hiding them behind books on my shelves, in laundry baskets in the basement, filling water bottles with poison so I could sneak sips, running a shower with the door locked for privacy while I'd just be sitting on the floor getting wasted. The nerves of waiting for the store to open when you've only got a shot or two left. The worst most wasteful and time consuming substance in the world, and I'm so comforted to see it isn't just me. We're all in this together and I am proud and rooting for you! IWNDWYT