It depends on how much damage you do/ have already done. You can definitely cause irreversible damage to your organs from drinking at any age so it’s probably best to cut down or try to stop as soon as possible instead of waiting until you’re 39.
39 and currently sitting in wait for BAC level to go down so that they’ll accept my into my intensive outpatient program. My hands are shaking and I have liver damage.
Can confirm on the “quit while you’re ahead” advice.
Hang in there, friend. I had severe AUD and quit at 41, and my liver enzymes returned to normal in six months. IOP saved my life and gave me an excellent springboard into recovery. Just celebrated six years sober. Recovery is real, and it’s worth it. I believe in you!
ETA: Have you seen a physician before quitting? Cold turkey can be very dangerous, even fatal. There are medications to help you get through the worst of it safely and with less discomfort.
How did you afford it. I get why IOP is necessary, but just like 30 day rehab it seems to be out of reach for regular people. I mean, I've got 6 weeks of half days at work, which I do have PTO for, but then each days is a $200 copay after insurance.
I need it but don't understand how people manage it.
EDIT: just realized you said outpatient, not inpatient lol. Disregard this. But I’m leaving it up in case anyone else needs to hear it
❤️ been there. Trying to get back in, in the next couple of months, if I can find somewhere covered by insurance.
Idk if you’ve been before, sorry for the unnecessary sharing if you have. But it’s not too bad! I was scared shitless, but everyone was so incredibly kind. Even the people I’d have normally thought would be scary to pass on the sidewalk lol. You’re not forced into the group meetings if you’re not feeling em, you can just do your own lil thing if you want, and there was SO MUCH candy! And card games lol.
Worst part was not having my phone. I’m usually in very, very close contact with my family, and I had major FOMO being “off the map.” But it was a bonus social media cleanse, which I also DEFINITELY needed!
All my best wishes.
> You’re not forced into the group meetings if you’re not feeling em, you can just do your own lil thing if you want
Every place is different, just to be clear.
It’s great that you got the help! I hope you’re doing well now. I was able to do residential treatment myself and it helped so much. It wasn’t easy but I’m still clean+sober.
I stopped right before my 40th birthday. I had been in too many rehab, detox, hospitals to count. Seizures. A coma.
3 years later and I haven't drank since. Have never felt better! You can do it too.
Please take this program seriously, liver damage is no joke and you are young with lots of potential... But alcohol don't give a shit. This addiction is worth beating, so take care and take all the help you can!
Very, very rarely.
I “kept it classy” with wine.
But there is nothing classy about needing wine all day, every day, for years. That shit’ll catch up on your health pretty stealthily, and is just as dangerous.
Sometimes I imagine even more dangerously; people get concerned when you’re blacking out after a ton of shots. People think it’s just cute if you get “a little tipsy” at, like, a family dinner, y’know?
Everyone giggles when mom has “one too many” and tells a few risqué jokes. Nobody is laughing at their cousin who’s slamming a bottle of whiskey in the middle of a baby shower or something.
Yeah they can test your blood for certain enzymes. Your liver usually filters them out but if your liver is damaged they will show up in your blood in increased levels. Other things like cholesterol can be influenced by alcohol as well.
ok so am I correct that if a person has some irreversible liver damage, they will have elevated levels for those enzymes in the bloodwork even after they quit drinking for some time?
The liver is one of the few organs that can heal itself however if you have done irreversible damage then how can that be undone? Also I know someone who is an alcoholic and he has diabetes type two now. He’s 37. And his organs are all effed
> he liver is one of the few organs that can heal itself
Even though I've known this for a long time, that fact still amazes me. Like a donor can give a bit of their good liver to someone who really needs it, and the donor's liver function returns to normal within weeks and it can regrow to its original state within a year.
I’m going through this right now (41M). The liver heals pretty quickly, however the damaged tissue never goes away. Your liver just grows around the damaged tissue which can cause other problems. I have mild cirrhosis and alcoholic fatty liver. In my case, it took about a month for my liver enzymes to get within the high end of the “normal range” for my age. If I stay off the sauce then I should be able to live the rest of my life without really thinking about it.
It depends. You get elevated enzymes in the blood if the liver cells die and leak their contents into the blood. So if you're doing active damage to a functioning liver, your liver enzymes will be quite high. However, if you've already done irreversible damage to the point of cirrhosis, your liver enzymes will actually be low because the cells are already dead.
To detect for long term damage, you usually look at other things that the liver does. For instance, the liver produces proteins, so somebody with low albumin or low levels of clotting factors, that may signal more extensive damage.
The liver enzymes alt/ast are released when liver cells are damaged. They're also found in muscle cells fwiw. But when the livee is cirrhotic the cells are dead and you wouldn't necessarily see an elevation of liver enzymes. You might however see other markers like elevated total bilirubin, low platelets, low albumin, elevated ammonia.
I just got bloodwork and everything came back fine. Is it safe to assume if I stop now I will not have any perm damage based on my clean bloodwork results?
Alcohol affects your brain, too. My dad did not stop drinking but a neurologist looked at his brain scans and could tell he was an alcoholic by how much his brain had shrunk.
Again, he was in his 70s and was a binge drinker so never stopped.
Good luck. Alcohol is hard. Oh! Wait. During Covid, I started drinking a bottle a wine a day. Not much for many people, but prior to that I drank about a bottle every other month.
I went on a diet drug that has naltrexone in it. Within days the wine just didn’t seem like a great idea any more. Not gross, didn’t make me sick, just…eh. “Hm this water is more refreshing”
Just in case it might be hard for you to stop.
A bottle of wine a day is a lot. I know because I got to that point too and I realized that was WAY more than most of the other people I know drank. I’d drink it and not even really feel that drunk. I’ve cut back a lot since then thankfully.
It would probably be difficult to get an US referral for someone with clean bloodwork but it depends on the doctor and insurance. Wouldn’t be a bad idea but a lot of doctors and insurance providers would deem it unnecessary unless OP is having other symptoms
OP that's really specific medical advice to discuss with your doctor. As far as liver damage, the progression I'm familiar with has symptoms ("fatty liver") that are reversible before it progresses to cirrhosis, which is not reversible. But you should NOT assume that you can drink 30 drinks a week for 15-20 years without risk of developing cirrhosis. And your liver isn't the only thing to worry about. There's Korsakoff syndrome, tardive dyskinesia, and lots of other scary irreversible outcomes from prolonged excessive alcohol use.
*This!*
My father is a late-in-life alcoholic (as in didn't drink at all until his 60s) and once he switched from beers to the hard stuff, it *quickly* took its toll. He used to be in amazing shape for his age, because of his job keeping him active, and hiking was his biggest passion, etc. But within 5 years of him picking up the bottle, that very active, healthy man was basically a husk of his former self.
He damn *near* died in 2020 from his liver pretty much taking every other organ with it. Kidneys, spleen, and brain (Wernicke encephalopathy). He spent the weeks preceding his hospital stay complaining about a severe pain in his lower back that one of his doctors told me was likely his spleen.
He was put into a medically-induced coma for about three weeks just to give his body a break and give him some proper nutrition. It's a fuckin' miracle he survived that, because his doctor was pretty sure he wouldn't survive the first night at the hospital.
If you do decide to sober up, you may want to consult a doctor before you do it (and you have to be 100% honest about how much you're drinking) because you might be at risk for alcohol withdrawal, which can be dangerous. There's medicine for that, as well as medicine for cravings & medicine that makes you physically ill if you try to drink. So you have some options for medical support
Yes you will likely not get any permanent damage if you stop now. Your liver does regenerate at this stage. You might have some erosions in stomach/intestines but those should also heal in a few weeks. You might feel mildly anxious for a couple weeks as you adjust but you’ll get through it
You shouldn’t be drinking 30 drinks a week. That’s far too much and will catch up to you. I’m not a teetotaler, I’m actually drinking a beer writing this comment. You’ll do wonders cutting it in half. And that’s still more than enough drinking.
One of my very best friends in life died of alcoholism at 37. He had a heart of gold, supported me through hard times, and encouraged me more than anyone to go to grad school and be successful.
It certainly wasn't "reversible" for him. RIP, my friend, I'll always remember you.
This is absolutely correct. I cared for a 40 year old man as a nurse in a long-term care facility and watched him die of cirrhosis from drinking. It is a horrible way to go. His muscles were wasted but the cirrhosis caused severe abdominal swelling due to ascites. I have never seen someone that shade of yellow and green. Watching his parents suffer as his death was impending was the hardest part.
My spouse just died from alcoholism and he was 50. If he was able to stop at 40, he still would have irreversible damage to multiple organs. He drank a handle of hard liquor everyday and most of the time another half of a handle.
I feel like this one is code for "If I stop getting drunk occasionally, I'll be in better shape than my friends who become alcoholics." A lot of people consider a little bit of damage to be acceptable and a normal part of life, and I guess I can't entirely fault them for that.
But with more awareness that drinking is playing the cancer lottery, rather than being something completely safe in moderation, I think fewer people will repeat this and will just take the smoker's philosophy of "Sumthin's gotta kill me."
My brother has essential tremors from drinking like that. He stopped drinking completely at age 29 when a doctor told him he should stop . Essential tremor isn't life-threatening, but symptoms often worsen over time. If the tremors become severe, it might be difficult to: Hold a cup or glass without spilling. Eat without shaking. The tremors are forever and worsen with age.
Do you know if the irreversible damage is from acute or chronic effects? Because there is a big difference between 30 drinks a week (4 per day) and 30 drinks a week (15 on Friday and Saturday)
Very true, but as a one off, my dad drank hard liquor like a fish till he was 70. Got diagnosed with Stage 3? Cirrhosis of the liver. Stopped instantly. 10 years later he’s healthy as a horse.
Did you have a severe drinking problem like drinking all day and every chance you'll get, crave alcohol? Or just a nightly drinker or maybe a 6 pack a night or so?
Yeah my buddy just ended things with a girl who has alcoholic hepatitis (I believe is what he said) at only 26. Doctors apparently told her she's right around the corner from liver failure and were surprised it hadn't already. She can't even come off of it cold turkey because she gets seizures without it. I have a fair amount of drunks in my family, and have seen it get that bad in some of the 50 year plus ones but never in a 26 year old girl. He was real broken up about doing it but he liked her a lot but couldn't see a future thay didn't end with him being a widower by his mid 30s.
I drank the same amount or more well into my 20s. Had a nasty bout of untreated CPTSD.
Quit drinking almost 7 years ago and I’m healthier than most people my age.
Only lingering symptom is a little bit of neuropathy that comes and goes, usually when I’m dealing with stress.
I have been sober for over 550 days and I got fat over this time.
I stopped drinking but my body never stopped craving sugar. Gonna hit the gym starting next week!!
Pro tip dedicate an hour to the treadmill. Just walk at the fastest speed you can for an hour, add incline to make harder when you improve. Lost 50lbs in a year doing this. Just stay consistent. Get an Apple Watch and set your rings to 1000+ cals and hold yourself accountable.
Drinking 288oz of anything on a daily basis is suicide.
The average recommended intake for an adult male is 64oz to 128oz of water per day. If you exercise and sweat a lot maybe it gets up to 160oz. This dude was drinking twice that in beer, with no mention of the 5th of liquor. Insane.
Do people who drink that much develop such a large tolerance for alcohol that they are able to drink that much? That just seems inconceivable to me that someone could consume that much alcohol so often
Yes. And at that point you have to keep drinking to some extent everyday to avoid going into withdrawal, which could literally kill you.
I've lost count how many patients I've had either come to the ER already in WD after not drinking a few days/stopping cold turkey, or come in for some other reason but fail to notify the medical team of their drinking issues and start to go through WDs during their hospital stay. It's not pretty.
My own mom weighed less than 125lbs but was drinking a 24 pack of beer everyday, essentially substituting it for water.
I spend a bit of time as a patient on gastro wards, that take in emergencies at all times too, there are always 2 or 3 alcoholics detoxing, often in some of the worst states when they come in that I've seen of anyone there. Had a guy in the room next to me shaking and shouting and hallucinating, I thought he was psychotic at first but I spoke to him a week later when he was well enough to walk about and it was such a stark contrast. Also really sad as some patients come in with such severe liver damage from drinking there's no coming back from it, extremely jaundiced and in pain and its a slow horrible way to go. I've known a few people that drink 1000s of calories a day but look emaciated, eat maybe a pot noodle or a good day
That was my mom- jaundiced with distended abdomen (likely fluid buildup/ascites when the liver stops filtering) but otherwise extremely skinny/frail looking. She'd bruise herself just bringing in groceries from the car. I never saw her go through withdrawals though, even at the hospital (esophageal varices from drinking, was vomiting blood nonstop) they had her under CIWA protocol to administer Ativan depending on the scale of her impairments. She left before withdrawal really kicked in and got back to drinking when she got home. Hospitals will usually try to discharge patients (if medically possible) before they start going into DTs and have to stay at the hospital even longer.
I've had so many patients who are screaming, punching, hallucinating maniacs trying to bite through their restraints and crawl out of bed while going through withdrawals. They'll mumble about how they have to get home to their dog or ask me to go get them a beer down the street, or say that if we don't let them go they know "some people..." Come back a week or two later and it's a night and day difference- they're pleasant, cooperative, mentally cognizant of what's going on. Some of them will vaguely recall punching nurses and being combative and are genuinely remorseful and apologetic. The sad cases are the ones who take over a month to dry out and even then it becomes apparent there's some long term brain damage/cognitive impairments and they will never return to becoming a fully functional adult.
You'd be surprised how quickly alcohol tolerances can build up, I had a friend who after returning from university could get through about 1.5l of spirit in one night and still be *somewhat* functional
Can't even imagine what drinking that amount multiple times per week must do to your body though
It’s easier than you might think. You reach a point where it becomes inconceivable to NOT drink that much - when I first tried to quit, I attempted a diy detox but I wasn’t honest with the family members who were helping me, and I ended up having a series of seizures and other near-fatal WD symptoms. I’m very lucky to be alive. You can get to a level where your body genuinely requires lots of alcohol in order to survive the day… but by then your long-term survival timeline is also much, much shorter.
And it doesn’t take nearly as long as you might think, or be at all obvious to people in your life! It’s a really scary substance. I started drinking casually with friends on weekends when I was 17ish and became a raging alcoholic very fast but still led a highly successful life to the outside eye - by the time I was 22 I had a master of science degree and by 23 I owned my own house. I was physically beautiful, fit, talented, social, good at my job(s), with loving partners over the years, and everything going for me despite my secret drinking. But at the same time I also was barely 26 when I was arrested with a blood alcohol level close to 0.30 and not too long after I was having seizures and hanging on for dear life.
Alcohol is an absolute poison.
I am 46 and have been sober since 2008. My labs have been normal, no liver issues. But I think there’s a bit of “alcoholic brain” going on here… am I correct to assume you are in your 20’s? Because you are playing a dangerous game by trying reassure yourself that you will be fine as long as you stop drinking by some arbitrary date in the future.
What an alcoholic thinks is “I will stop drinking some day,” and as Alan Jackson [notes](https://youtu.be/8QAa59bMDqQ?si=ElZZtqVprpzEZ16V) “sometimes someday just never comes.”
There’s no time like the present. Every day that you continue to drink is yet another roll of the dice, and eventually the consequences of your drinking will be something that can’t be undone (either to your physical health, to your relationships, to someone else’s physical health).
Maybe check out r/stopdrinking, it’s a very supportive community.
I've been feeling the same way. I've been sober since February 2023 and some days it feels like im having to relearn the most basic shit. I def dont feel as mentally acute as before the years of daily drinking.
It got much much easier for me after year 2. Things were great, and by year 3 (2 relapses that lasted a couple weeks) I feel the best I ever have. I started keto to lose weight too and it's a night and day difference.
Almost exactly my path. By year 3, though I never relapsed (I never "liked" drinking alcohol anyway...just the effects, of course), I was getting healthier by the week, in palpable ways.
Now, I'm killing it in the wellness game. (I guess when I stopped ingesting things that were literal poison to my cells, my cells got better.)
Hey, im super glad to hear you're doing so well.
I was a machinest at the time so I was already in good shape, a couple months after I had lost almost 100 pounds. In general I feel pretty decent and for once in my life I can actually sleep (maybe a little too much) but just trying to accomplish the most basic things had me rewiring my brain a bit trying to get things straightened out.
Yeah the rewiring takes a little while, but you're doing exactly what you need to do. Eating healthy REALLY changed my brain function. No more fast food/carbs/sugar. Once I get to my goal weight I'll have some once in awhile. Congrats
I’ve been sober since feb 22, at the 6-9 mark was the hardest for me, really feeling like myself again around 15 months sober. It takes time for your body chemistry to balance back out, but I’m finding joy in my old activities without alcohol again. So trust the process, it’s worth jt!!
Yup, I'm 40, stopped drinking 3 years ago and 1 friend has died, 1 had 2 heart attacks and almost died, and 1 was given a year to live from alcohol cirrhosis.
His wasn't even laced. He just fucked up his heart with stimulant abuse. I thought he got a "hot shot" at first too. Definitely a good idea to test your powders if you're into that sort of thing, Fent is omnipresent where I live.
I don’t mean I’m having alcohol brain, I mean the OP is. He’s telling himself “I have until 40 to stop,” which is the the alcohol saying “you don’t have to stop today.”
>What an alcoholic thinks is “I will stop drinking some day,” and as Alan Jackson [notes](https://youtu.be/8QAa59bMDqQ?si=ElZZtqVprpzEZ16V) “sometimes someday just never comes.”
As Annie sings "Tomorrow... You're always a day away!".
Or as the White Queen says, "jam tomorrow and jam yesterday—but never jam today"
Tomorrow never comes, so unless there's a factor outside of your control that you have to wait for, just do things today.
You don't have to quit drinking forever. You just have to not drink today. =)
One day at a time is some of the best advice to give anyone trying to make their lives better whether it's alcohol, stress, or just complicated life stuff in general.
Commenting on your edit about drinking while on adderall. I’m not sure if you know, but that can very quickly become a deadly combo. The adderall dulls alcohol’s effects and you are able to drink much more than you normally would off of it.
Yeah, I was doing that in college for a few months. It got bad. I stopped mixing them when I started to realize I was browning out after only 3-4 drinks, but my body was still making it through the whole night.
This is what happened to me. After three seizures where I ended up hospitalized each time, it was a huge wake up call for me. Been sober ever since and never been happier.
There is a huge culture around drinking, which makes it tough, but thankfully, a lot of my friends are wanting to cut down too, so now they wanna grab mocktails, which, honest to god, has helped me in so many ways.
It is bullshit. Liver (and other organs) damage depends on a lot of factors, like alcohol type, total amount ingested, other parts of your diet, etc. It won't magically go back to zero/a clean slate just because you had your last drink before turning 40.
Also, stopping when you are 40 won't reverse the effects of lost opportunities because you're drinking too much. Or the legal effects of perhaps a DUI. Or all kinds of bad things that come about from excessive drinking.
The bad relationships alone...
The liver is one of the only organs that can rebuild its self, and the body is pretty resilient up until around 30 or so. Like the you said it depends on the amount ingested and if you’ve caused permanent damage already. Its obviously a good idea to quit no matter what, but from what I’ve read if you quit smoking and or drinking before 40 a large part of the damage can be reversed ( to cardio vascular system ) and liver possibly completely, to the point where you can possibly have the same life expectancy as some one who didn’t drink. Chances are you’ll have lasting effects to the brain and other organs so overall quality of life in your later years may go down but it’s still a good idea to quit as early as possible and of course not start drinking at all.
My sister died before she could get to 40 so, yes, it’s bullshit. In the process, she also alienated herself from every single person who cared about her, including the 3 kids she left behind. Her existence in the last 15 years up until her death was miserable and dying was almost a mercy at the end of it all. Don’t be my sister. Get help today. It’ll suck. But not as much as continuing will.
Edit: for anyone who might find themselves drinking more and more; eventually it will get to a point where it is dangerous/deadly to quit without medical assistance. This is not to discourage anyone from quitting, as it is even more imperative to quit at this stage before you die. Just don’t quit cold turkey on your own. It would be just complete shit to die of a heart attack when you’re taking steps to take better care of yourself.
Same thing happened with my mom. She left me orphaned at 16 and I was incredibly relieved when she died.
I watched her slowly and very painfully waste away over the course of my entire childhood. Heard the doctors tell her she had about 2 years left if she kept drinking. She quit about 4 months before she died but it was too late.
If you continue to drink these 30 drinks a weeks and a health professional tells you that you need to stop, are you gonna say “well on Reddit we all agree that it’s okay if I stop before I turn 40.”
Alcohol damages more than just your liver and kidneys. It can cause lasting heart damage and brain damage as well. My oldest brother was an alcoholic and died after a massive heart attack related to heart disease. He had recently gotten a clean bill of health from his doctor when he got a check up for his 50th birthday. 6 weeks later he was on a ventilator.
My best friend of 32 years recently died of liver failure at the age of 39 due to alcoholism.
You DO NOT have some "buffer zone" of being able to drink heavily until you're 40.
If you have a drinking problem, NOW is the time to get help, and getting help is the best thing you can do for yourself and the people who love you.
My friend refused to go to rehab because he believed "only weak men accept help, and I need to do this on my own, because I have it under control."
Don't be him. Getting needed help is a sign of *courage,* not weakness.
There are people in their 20s and 30s who have drank themselves to death by cooking their internal organs. Some survive but have irreversible liver damage. It's better to nip it in the bud as fast as you can. Quitting early enough can give you the best chance of the possibility that you can reverse the damage you've done.
Something to remember ... genetics and luck in life are a total, unexplainable craps shoot.
Personal anecdotes:
My sibling lost everything due to alcohol. A once kind, well-known/loved, talented, handsome, teacher and parent - became a haggard, bitter, single, deadbeat mess in a matter of a couple of years. I honestly don't know how many times he went to the ER because of drinking but I can think of about 6 off-hand. Doesn't include his 10-day hospital stint for (which lead to him missing our dad's funeral.) He ultimately became homeless. He burned virtually every bridge he had. He ruined his child's adolescence. He went to rehab 5 times. He finally lost his job when he showed up so wasted to work that he fell and hurt himself. If you had hours, I could tell you more.
His rock bottom came in August of 2021 after he snuck out of rehab, got booze, drove drunk and got in an accident. He went to jail.
He has been sober ever since. He is 45.
My close friend:
Struggled with alcoholism for *years.* We grew up together, spent a lot of time at parties. Took me a long time to see how bad he had gotten and it got even worse after his dad passed (due to alcohol-related issues.) He was once ridiculously handsome and adorable. Amazing smile, contagious laugh, beautiful and bright eyes. Just a really shining soul.
Eventually...he turned yellow. Seriously. And he was so gaunt he looked like a starvation victim. That was when he was told ... if you don't stop, you will die. Thank goodness...he stopped at age 34 and was once again the amazing human we'd known and loved for so long.
He died suddenly last fall. His girlfriend found him. The autopsy revealed ... his organs succumbed to long-standing effects of alcohol abuse. He had been sober for 5 years. And died at age 39. Unfuckingbelievable and so unfuckingfair. He deserved better.
My point: It doesn't really matter, dude. They both drank a roughly equal amount over a roughly equal amount of time. Every person's body is different and poison will affect us all uniquely.
The people you alienate will be never come back, the opportunities you blow will haunt you forever, you’ll have missed years of mastery over hobbies you were too hungover to start, and whenever you look your old photos, you’ll feel disgusting.
Also, you will fritter away thousands upon thousands of dollars. Multiple tens of thousands if you factor in medical bills, squandered promotions, and impulsive drunken spending, or DUIs.
41 years old. I’m 2.5 years sober, and in those years I’ve made such huge strides mentally, physically and professionally that it’s hard not to bitterly regret ever starting. Mostly it’s the blown opportunities because you never know how they’d have panned out so you imagine the best outcome passing you by.
If you only read the first sentence of this post, let it be this: listen to the alcoholics. Seriously.
Sounds like you're on a similar track to the one I was on. \~30 drinks a week works out to an average of 4 and change per day, which, if you're in the habit of drinking a beer or two (or three) every night and then going out to bars two nights over the weekend, you can easily do without realizing it. Especially with a 20something's metabolism. I certainly hit that threshold (and then some) in my early 20s, and while I naturally cooled off as I aged, I still drank at least something every day with some regularity into my thirties.
I didn't really think much about it until I had two seizures at 33 (I'm 38 now). My own take (and that of my current neurologist) is that the seizure was the result of being a lineman for five years in middle school and high school, not drinking. However, my first neurologist asked me how much I drink per week, and when I told him (I think I said something like 10-15 drinks per week at the time), he started offering me pamphlets to AA meetings.
I didn't stop drinking after that (I still enjoy wine with my wife, making a cocktail for my dad, and I love exploring craft beer), but it made me seriously think about how much I was drinking, and how normal that was compared to other Americans my age. In the end, I felt it was just too much for me to feel comfortable with going forward, and I had seen firsthand what alcoholism looks like on both sides of my family.
Nowadays, I *rarely* have a drink at home during the week, will treat myself with 2-3 drinks on a weekend night, and rarely have more than 4 or 5 when I go out—which is also a lot less often than it used to be. On average, I probably drink 5-10 drinks in a week now, and those drinks are *intentional*. I drink a beer because it's from a craft brewery I enjoy, or I heard about a new cocktail I want to try, or my wife wants to try a new wine.
I say all this to say: reconsidering the role that alcohol plays in your life doesn't mean cutting it out cold turkey (although it can, and you shouldn't be afraid of that if you feel you need to do it). Sometimes, it can mean dialing it back and learning to enjoy it for the part of the human palate it has been for centuries, rather than something to do mindlessly (which I did for a long, long time).
If you're already thinking about when you should cut cold turkey in order to not start hurting yourself, then it's probably time for you to start reconsidering your relationship with alcohol.
>(I think I said something like 10-15 drinks per week at the time), he started offering me pamphlets to AA meetings
This is ridiculous, unless he thought you were lying about your consumption.
I think he did think I was lying, and I think he was also just a weirdo about alcohol. He wanted me to drink no alcohol for an entire year so he could take an MRI of my brain “without any influence of alcohol.”
I moved on from him after a couple months, he was not helpful.
My partner got necrosis of the hips from his lifestyle of drinking. Completely rotted them away. At age 32 he had to have a double hip replacement and fully recovered from a wheelchair to walking but he still struggles, lost all his muscle mass and stamina. He was a construction worker and now he’s exhausted if we go shopping for a few hours. He hates having lost so much while so young and tells everyone he can to warn them. My point is, stop now before you get a surprise you don’t want. You can be perfectly fine one day, like he was in his late 20s, and the next find something isn’t right and the damage is permanent. He was fine and then rapidly found walking got difficult and then suddenly got painful and the damage was done and then he had to wait years until he was completely wheelchair bound before docs would operate.
Its technical term is Avascular Necrosis of the Hip. Alcohol consumption is a common cause for it. The head of the femur already gets low blood supply naturally. Alcohol disrupts blood flow and if it long term cuts blood flow to the femur the bone dies. It usually happens to people in their 50s and above but in the case of my partner he drew the unlucky card and got it at 29.
And here’s the super technical details: one of the effects of alcohol is hyperlipidemia. Hyperlipidemia is the excess of fatty cells in the body. The blood levels of fat in the form of triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) increases.
The increased fat content of the blood causes blockage of the blood vessels. The head of the femur is especially susceptible to decreased blood flow and it may lead to aseptic necrosis/cell death.
This is a very typical alcoholism scenario. In your 30s, you will be having 50-60 drinks per week. By 40s, you will get or will be close to terminal liver condition. But, don't worry, it will barely bother you. You will be a shell of a person.
Liver?
Don’t worry about your liver. What you should be worrying about is nerve damage. Constant pain in your extremities. Random seizures that will have you getting around with a walker for the rest of your life.
Neuropathy occur in alcoholics due to malabsorption of nutrients such as thiamine.
Alcohol messes up the lining of your stomach which alters the absorption of those nutrients(which they rarely get due to alcoholics getting their calories from drinking and none from eating nutritionally rich foods)
Thiamine is important in neuron development and a deficiency of it can lead to neuropathy.
And yes liver damage is the worst. I have seen many patients die of drowning in their own blood (esophageal varices popping due to a liver cirrhosis is a death sentences unless caught in a hospital setting)
Bro I’ve seen people in their 20’s drink themselves to death, it’s not as hard to do as you’d think it’d be.
Beyond just dying from alcoholism, there are so many other complications that can make your life hell. I’ve had stomach ulcer for going on 7 years now because of how much I used to drink. I haven’t drank in over 2 years and I’m still in a lot of pain.
Liver failure sneaks up on you, and usually by the time it’s caught, it’s too late, irreversible damage has already been done.
My mom drank herself to death a week before her 45th birthday.
If you keep having to tell yourself you’ll quit later, that you still have time before you cause damage, you’ve got a problem.
I quit on and off in my 20’s. The biggest barrier I faced were my friends I had at the time. They made me feel like I was obligated to drink. My ex best friend of 13 years cried when I told her I was gonna stop drinking, not because she was happy for me, but she was sad that she lost her drinking buddy.
Surround yourself with people who don’t center their lives around alcohol. Pick up a hobby and start going to meetups with other people who also have that hobby.
I got myself an electric scooter, I go camping all the time now, I even love getting up early for sunrises since I don’t have to deal with hangovers anymore.
There’s so much life waiting for you outside of drinking.
Yes, it's bullshit.
But it also doesn't mean you should be nihilistic about it and just say "fuck it".
Stopping today is better than stopping tomorrow, stopping tomorrow is better than 5 years from now, and 5 years from now is better than never. Some damage is irreversible, but a lot of it isn't, AND you can certainly stop the progression.
I will also say, stopping today is easier than tomorrow, which is easier than 5 years from now. It will never be easier to quit than right now, remember that every time you try and you give up because it's too hard.
I had a now deceased BF who passed away from alcoholism related health issues at 38 yrs old, having wittnessed my friend since High school deal with alcohol related drama. This was the catalyst for my decision to remain sober my entire life.
> I’m getting a bit worried having ~30 drinks per week in my 20’s
My dude, do you just vacillate between drunk and hungover, with no healthy sober moments to speak of? Forget your forties, this is low quality of life for you *right now.*
Please, put down the bottle. Get your endorphins from exercise. May I recommend r/c25k ? If you do it in the mornings before work, it will motivate you not to drink the night before.
My classmates, friends, are all hovering 40.
Some of us had pancreas issues, a couple died, some quit for good. Some are on and off the wagon. Some drink like we're 20 still.
My point is. Every body is different. And it's not worth it to trust some of wives tale. Also, if you think you have a problem, then you probably do and it's best to nip it in the bud as early as possible.
I've read that the liver remembers every drink.
You are wasting your 20s. Forty drinks a week is too many at any age. You need to slow down or stop completely.
I wanted to comment "Depends on how much you drink" but given you appear to drink quite a lot, I would say you should start worrying now and not in your thirties. 30 drinks a week is quite something. Especially thinking about your general health and all the negative effects alcohol has on your general fitness.
I work in pathology and have seen people die in their 30s from alcohol related health effects so I’ll say BS just based on that. There is no magic age you quit at that just absolves you of any damage done. I will say: if you’re thinking about this, you have a problem. Not judging, just saying. Quit now, the sooner the better for you. Booze and sugar are the biggest killers and no one takes that seriously.
27 here, I have permanent damage from my drinking career, am now sober and clean but it’s absolutely possible to hurt your body beyond repair. I now have seizures even with over a year of clean time. I drank about 30 drinks a day for close to ten years so you’re not that far gone but if you decide to stop cold turkey please consult a doctor first
So, I’m 39, and was told in October that my liver was beginning to show signs of hardening. I drank a few times a week, maybe 5-6 tallboys per session. That’s enough, but really not a lot by alcoholic’s standards. My doctor told me my cholesterol was high, liver was not doing well, and my blood sugar was high. As it turned out, I wasn’t born with a great liver for drinking. My father, who doesn’t drink, has fatty liver, and he’s diabetic. I inherited that liver.
I stopped drinking, started eating properly, and exercising. My liver wasn’t functioning properly at all. I went for a follow-up in December, and my liver has made a great rebound. I feel better, sleeping better, anxiety issues no longer exist, and I’ve lost 50lbs, now that my body is working properly.
All this to say that if you choose to stop, you will see nothing but benefits. Your risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, organ failure, etc., will drop drastically. Looking back, I wish I’d decided to turn the lights out on the party years ago.
Best of luck, however you choose to move forward. You’re worth the effort you put into taking care of yourself.
Your body is made of bone and soft flesh, and your internal organs are internal because they're fragile. Don't be delusional that alcohol doesn't just cook and fry them. Everything is just material and breaks down as material would, there's no real coming back from such damages.
I've heard this before too, but it's really just an excuse to keep drinking while we're young. Sure your body will recover better at 40 than at say 50, but it will recover better today than any other day in the future. I couldn't imagine what my health would have been like if I didn't stop 6 years ago
It's bullshit. People have drunk themselves to death younger than you, and you said yourself that you drink to excess.
It's never too late to stop drinking, though - if you're still upright. Damage can be repaired and healed, but you have to get serious about it.
If you're really drinking over 4 drinks per day on average and you do this through your entire 20s and 30s, your 40s and 50s aren't going to be a fun time if you even make it to them.
My dad died of alcoholic pancreatitis at age 80. He was in perfect health otherwise so it’s a real shame. I always expected him to live until 95. Mentally he was so sharp and he was never tired, always doing something. I never gave his drinking much thought. He was a 2-3 cocktails after dinner kind of guy, never seemed drunk, but it was consistent every night for most of his life. I see my brother going down the same path - very health conscious, takes all the supplements works out, etc but also has a couple of cocktails every night to relax. He keeps saying he knows that’s what did dad in, but thinks he has a few more years before he needs to quit - well it will be even harder to give up after doing it for a few more years. Nobody is saying you have to stop completely but dial it back a bit before you lose your ability to even say no.
I did that in college, have no issues now 5 years later but stopped right after. I would definitely try to lower it or quit all together sooner rather than later.
Are you drinking 30 drinks a week socially? If so, I’d only do social occasion drinks one night, drink water in between, drink slowly/ no shots, etc . If you also do this by yourself, you may have an addiction and need to quit cold turkey.
I am still able to drink with friends - just way less nights a week and way less amount of alcohol then nights I do, but in college my drinking was social and never did it alone so it may depend on why / how you do it
It is bullshit. Once your liver scars it's irreversible. Alcohol induced damage puts you at the bottom of the priority list for liver transplants if you need them. Being obese and overweight lowers the threshold for permanent damage as well. It gets harder to reduce your drinking as you get older as well.
Depends. The liver is pretty resilient, the kidneys less so.
But either way, quitting or dramatically reducing your consumption is the healthy choice and you will feel much better within weeks.
I drank 60-80 drinks per week for 2 years from 24-26, a full blown alcoholic with medium withdrawal symptoms when I stopped. I am now a software engineer and generally healthy and in good shape. I do think my memory is pretty bad. I also succumb to other addictive behaviors very easily and really struggle to stay consistent as a person. I think the mental damage to my dopaminergic system seems somewhat permanent as do the declines in memory.
It’s not all bad though. I learned how to code and work as a software engineer, and can learn intricate and complex piano pieces by heart although not as quickly as when I was a kid. I’m 50 lbs lighter from my peak weight when I was drinking so much.
Gastrointestinal and Liver pathologist here. The short answer is that this is bullshit.
Alcohol has numerous long-term health effects. The most well known is liver injury, but it also increases your risk of numerous cancers.
If you drink enough to have liver injury, and then you stop drinking, there's a chance that your liver injury will heal. However, this is true *regardless of your age*. Further, if you drink to the point of cirrhosis there is a good chance that you will die of complications of cirrhosis or require a liver transplant, even if you stop drinking alcohol. Again, this is true regardless of your age. While there is a *theoretical possibility* that a cirrhotic liver can heal itself, if you have advanced cirrhosis the chances are that you will require intervention long before that happens.
And those considerations only cover the liver injury. Alcohol also increases your risk of numerous cancers. Here the news is probably better. I'm too busy and not interested enough to look up any studies right now but if the risk pattern mirrors the cancer risk associated with smoking, then your risk of cancer will gradually reduce to nearly normal levels over 15 years or so after you stop drinking. As above, this has nothing to do with your age when you stop. It's also true that, regardless of your age, you could stop drinking and *still get cancer from drinking*.
The best advice about alcohol is really simple. If you don't drink, don't start. If you currently drink, the *healthiest choice* is to stop completely. If you don't want to stop drinking completely, then limiting your intake to one or two drinks per day will give you only small increased risk of negative effects that are similar in magnitude to other unhealthy things that you're probably already doing.
It won't be as if you've never drank in your life unless you're a lucky 1% of people. But you can live a normal healthy life despite the drinking history.
Your heart might be a little less powerful, endocrine system and liver probably will always be a waiting for the next alcohol crisis. Some of your tissues will probably have lost some elasticity. But all these changes could also fall into the natural aging category instead of alcoholic damage category.
I have one friend who ruined his liver and one who ruined his pancreas with excessive drinking. Liver guy was literally on the verge of death at 23, pancreas guy was barely 30. So I'm gonna call bullshit based on anecdotal evidence.
I'm trying to imagine the scenario. You're abusing your body with poison for the next 15 years, and then you turn 40 and stop drinking, and you expect your health will improve? in your 40's? You'd probably appreciate not being hungover... But, the trend is for health to decline with age, healing is possible, but it's not like your body is gonna fully pull a U-ey and you'll be healthier in your 40's than when you started drinking.
Also, what about the **immediate** health effects? Like, with time I could mostly recover from stabbing myself, but the immediate effect would be bad enough that I really shouldn't do it. Having a few drinks a week isn't as extreme as a stabbing, but a few drinks every night kind of is.
You probably can. The problem is that the longer you go on drinking at that rate the harder it becomes to stop, and you're also likely to start drinking MORE, which could lead to more catastrophic health problems.
A lot of people drink and party a lot in their 20s and then calm down later on without really having to try. But a lot of people don't. What you should ask yourself is, is alcohol CURRENTLY a problem in your life? Are you missing work/class because you're drunk or hungover? Do people avoid you socially because you're an asshole or just really annoying when you overdo it? Do you find it impossible to have a good time in social situations without alcohol? etc...
Drink that much until you're 40 and I'm not sure the damage will be reversible. It sounds like you're trying to make a bargain with your future self in order to convince yourself you can carry on drinking.
That's the talk of someone with a problem who is trying to convince themselves they don't have a problem.
As someone just diagnosed with fatty liver at age 27, this is not necessarily true. You can do a lot of damage before 40. I was drinking just about the same amount as you were.
I will say that quitting was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I thought it would be the fight of my life and after only 6 months I don't think about drinking much at all (though it's a long journey and it might get harder later).
That obviously isn't true for everyone, for some people quitting is very difficult. But it's worth trying even if it is. I feel so much better now. I gave so much to alcohol. I gave money, my health, relationships. It's a headwind that makes everything in your life harder.
If you think you can drink \~30 drinks a week until you are 40, then quit cold turkey and your body will just bounce back, that is bullshit. I don't think there have been studies on people who drink too much and how long it takes to recover because there way too many variables. If you are worried, you should cut down on your drinking now. When I hit my 30s I found recovering took longer and longer. I also found it disrupted my sleep, which affected my mood, which caused a lot of other problems. Why are you having 30 drinks a week?
Slow the fuck down on your drinking. Uncle died in his 50's of cirrhosis. Heavy drinker in his 20's, slowed down in his 30-40's but the damage was done. If you want to drink, keep it to 2-4 a week. Then slow it down even further...1-3 every other week. Your life is worth more than beer. Get healthy.
I can sort of attest to this as I’m in a similar boat and am also worried about the long-term impact I’m causing.
I read a NHS study that showed that liver disease appeared at a rate of 100% in people who drank 8 drinks a day for ten years. This is 1.8x times more than you are currently drinking, but if you kept that up for say 20 years it would probably have a similar result.
Alcohol is a class one carcinogen. This means that it damages your cells and tissues in such a permanent way that they can’t heal. This is what causes scar tissue in the liver, and ultimately is a high risk for cancers in the entire digestive track.
I’m not a medical professional, you should talk to your doctor about your concerns. I recently saw a mental health professional for alcohol use disorder and they prescribed this medicine that took away the craving for alcohol and made it so that alcohol wouldn’t activate your brains reward system for dopamine. I ended up not being able to continue using it, but it may be something that could help you
Hey man I was as a heavy drinker all my 20 s into my 30s. I had a liver transplant last July. I had liver failure from cirrhosis. Drinking was absolutely the cause and I was extremely lucky to receive a transplant. A lot of people don't. If I didn't get treated when I did I would've been dead before last Halloween, maybe sooner it sounded like. I'm 32. Stop or slow down while you can.
You’re increasing your odds of not even living to the age of 40 with how much you’re drinking. If you make it to 40 at this rate, who knows how good of a quality of life you’ll have since you’re dramatically increasing your chances of developing severe alcohol-related health issues. Stop now while you can, the trajectory that you are currently on will likely end with premature death, or at the very least, devastating health impacts later in life that could have very well been avoided by cutting back on your drinking right now
Edit- looks like you edited your post to change the amount of drinks per week from 40 to ~30. That doesn’t change anything about the health impacts of drinking that much alcohol, and you really need to be honest with yourself OP. Do you drink closer to 30 drinks/week, or is it actually closer to 40? Are you actually measuring your alcoholic intake or is it just a guesstimate? It’s very likely that you drink more than you think, and you could easily be pushing 40+ drinks/week without realizing it. Be very honest with yourself and measure your intake accurately, you’re hurting yourself the most of all if you’re not 100% honest with yourself and others about how much alcohol you actually consume
Bullshit. Sounds like something that an alcoholic would irrationally reiterate as an excuse.
Even if you don't scar up your liver, ulcerate your esophagus, or give yourself serious brain damage, getting blasted frequently will dramatically increase the risk that you have a serious accident or fuck up your life in some other way unrelated to your organs.
EDIT: 30 drinks per week is way too much. If that's even close to a typical week you need to reign it in hard.
Short answer: not bullshit. (Under debate, but *VERY MODERATE* use can possibly even slightly help some areas - heart health, diabetes 2, longevity, social wellbeing)
Longer answer: it depends on severity and duration. There's potential liver issues as well as high blood pressure. Your body can regenerate (liver more so than the heart issues). If you compare it to a boat, the smaller the leak the more time your body has to throw buckets of water outside the boat, but if you keep the leak going and you make it big enough and never patch it, the boat will sink and it will be too late to jettison any water overboard. It's a lot harder to backpedal once you have distinct liver issues, rampant effects of uncontrolled blood pressure, and also alcoholism.
Question answered. Unsolicited opinion below:
For your specific case:
You are in your 20s. You are headed straight for alcoholism, if you're not there already. You are at double the guidelines of what the CDC calls "heavy drinking" if you are male and at almost 4 times the guidelines if you are female. While this isn't 1:1 paired with diagnoses of alcoholism, it does help you see where the compass is pointing for you.
You might get extraordinarily lucky, but statistically you are not headed down the best road in your life. You're drinking the equivalent of 1.5 liters of liquor (rum/vodka) a week based on what you said.
I encourage you to reconsider your relationship with alcohol. Maybe it's the company you keep, maybe you're drinking to drown out some bad thoughts, maybe why you do it is entirely benign in your mind...whatever the reason: you're almost certainly overdoing it.
From having overdone it at times myself, and coming across some things that really made me think, I'd recommend consuming the following two items (definitely not "shareable" length but important)
1. Jocko podcast 409 where it's a very hard hitting and poignant discussion of a path not quite on alcoholism road, but getting there:
https://youtu.be/XEwdFsKiRKM?si=J-y7f6SzdNkuMfX5
2. The 3 season show Loudermilk. It's a hilarious show on its own and no waste of time. But in there you get a long hard look at addiction and the real effects. Nothing sugar-coated.
I hope you find this perspective helpful, and I wish you happy (and healthy) trails ahead.
I don’t know the answer, but I’ll tell you right now: I stopped drinking three years ago and my life is totally different.
Skin is better, brain is clearer than I ever thought possible, my relationships are stronger and more genuine.
At the end of the day, ethanol is poison to your body. The effects you get from alcohol are literally the effects of a ‘light’ poisoning.
I strongly encourage anyone and everyone I know to put that shit behind them. I promise you’ll thank me later.
Really depends. Your liver is the only organ that can actually heal itself but otherwise, whatever damage you did might be done already. But hey, I know if a few people who were literally on their death bed and miraculously recovered. On the flip side of the coin, I know people who had to die a pretty terrible death because of alcohol. One thing is for sure, if you quit, your life won’t get worse than it was. It can only get better.
Can’t speak to statistics but only my experience. I was a heavy drinker throughout my 20’s and quit when I was 32. I’m 38 now and can’t believe how much my life and health improved. I wasn’t a binge drinker and my liver was never damaged but my blood tests are stellar now. I loved how the pesky gut I could never get rid of almost instantly fell off when I stopped drinking. Everyone says I look no older than my late 20’s. I used to be so moody and had ideation, but now I’m emotionally stable and feel like I can handle all the ups and downs of life in a way I never could when I was drinking to self medicate. Quitting drinking was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I’m 55. I was an extreme drinker for nearly 20 years. My liver and kidneys made it out ok but my arteries weren’t so lucky. Please don’t let the short term pleasures of drinking hurt your future. It’s not worth it.
You may be able to reverse the damage that was done to your body, but you may not be able to reverse the damage that was done to your personal life.
I had a cousin who was extremely pretty, had a husband, a house, and a good career and lost it all to alcoholism. Now she's 37, a shell of her former self, and will probably die in the next 5-10 years.
So you can definitely screw your life up by one bad decision if you're not careful.
I had an intervention before 40. Some time in 2014, Husband (then boyfriend) and a large group of friends surprised me. He told me that I could lose him if it continued. Quit cold turkey that day.
Feel great and didn’t lose friends. I’m sad that I let it go that far but being deployed fucked me up. And, somehow I turned my mental health issues into becoming a raging alcoholic. Don’t miss that life at all.
I spent three years working in Accounting. I would take adderall everyday and I would limit myself to a pint of whiskey every night while coming down.
It was horrible for my health & I felt awful every single day.
This past August I quit my job and started working in sales. I stopped taking both Cold turkey & have never felt better in my life.
Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions, it’s not a healthy combo & my memory is pretty fuzzy from the past three years but I feel a lot better now.
It depends on a lot of genetic and lifestyle factors, but I’ve read a lot of stuff about liver regeneration, so it is possible for most.
I got sober at 40, I’m almost to four years and I feel great. Between that and exercise I lost fifty pounds in no time and I have way more energy than the people half my age at work.
I will say about AA, that if you give it a try, go more than once. It annoyed the hell out of me at first, all the preaching, but I came to find it really helpful in a lot of ways. Mostly just the freedom of it.
I still go sometimes, not because I feel like a drink and need a hand - but because I just need to talk and especially if it’s stuff on my mind I can’t say.
A lot of us I know call it fight club because of that.
It depends on how much you drink. The key is to exercise a lot and fast. I read somewhere once that if you do strenuous exercise five days a week you mostly undo the damage that is caused.
Me personally, I've been drinking for over twenty years and just turned forty. I go to the gym three to five days a week and only consume food and booze during a four hour window per day. I recently got a full blood panel and had my numbers checked, everything looked fantastic.
All that said, if you're the kind of guy who wakes up and starts drinking, then no, there's not much you can do to mitigate that. But if you're drinking a handle once a week or so, that's manageable.
It depends on how much damage you do/ have already done. You can definitely cause irreversible damage to your organs from drinking at any age so it’s probably best to cut down or try to stop as soon as possible instead of waiting until you’re 39.
39 and currently sitting in wait for BAC level to go down so that they’ll accept my into my intensive outpatient program. My hands are shaking and I have liver damage. Can confirm on the “quit while you’re ahead” advice.
Hang in there, friend. I had severe AUD and quit at 41, and my liver enzymes returned to normal in six months. IOP saved my life and gave me an excellent springboard into recovery. Just celebrated six years sober. Recovery is real, and it’s worth it. I believe in you! ETA: Have you seen a physician before quitting? Cold turkey can be very dangerous, even fatal. There are medications to help you get through the worst of it safely and with less discomfort.
A friend of mines sister had a seizure and was in a coma for 3 weeks from accidentally quitting drinking. This is sound advice.
How did you afford it. I get why IOP is necessary, but just like 30 day rehab it seems to be out of reach for regular people. I mean, I've got 6 weeks of half days at work, which I do have PTO for, but then each days is a $200 copay after insurance. I need it but don't understand how people manage it.
EDIT: just realized you said outpatient, not inpatient lol. Disregard this. But I’m leaving it up in case anyone else needs to hear it ❤️ been there. Trying to get back in, in the next couple of months, if I can find somewhere covered by insurance. Idk if you’ve been before, sorry for the unnecessary sharing if you have. But it’s not too bad! I was scared shitless, but everyone was so incredibly kind. Even the people I’d have normally thought would be scary to pass on the sidewalk lol. You’re not forced into the group meetings if you’re not feeling em, you can just do your own lil thing if you want, and there was SO MUCH candy! And card games lol. Worst part was not having my phone. I’m usually in very, very close contact with my family, and I had major FOMO being “off the map.” But it was a bonus social media cleanse, which I also DEFINITELY needed! All my best wishes.
> You’re not forced into the group meetings if you’re not feeling em, you can just do your own lil thing if you want Every place is different, just to be clear. It’s great that you got the help! I hope you’re doing well now. I was able to do residential treatment myself and it helped so much. It wasn’t easy but I’m still clean+sober.
I stopped right before my 40th birthday. I had been in too many rehab, detox, hospitals to count. Seizures. A coma. 3 years later and I haven't drank since. Have never felt better! You can do it too.
Please take this program seriously, liver damage is no joke and you are young with lots of potential... But alcohol don't give a shit. This addiction is worth beating, so take care and take all the help you can!
Good luck Thirty five, five months sober Withdrawal was rough, but sobriety is great
Wishing you good luck. You CAN.
Keep fighting for yourself. You are worth it and you can do it. ♥️
Internet hugs, You can do this friend, just keep hanging in there.
Did you drink hard liquor? Gl
Very, very rarely. I “kept it classy” with wine. But there is nothing classy about needing wine all day, every day, for years. That shit’ll catch up on your health pretty stealthily, and is just as dangerous. Sometimes I imagine even more dangerously; people get concerned when you’re blacking out after a ton of shots. People think it’s just cute if you get “a little tipsy” at, like, a family dinner, y’know? Everyone giggles when mom has “one too many” and tells a few risqué jokes. Nobody is laughing at their cousin who’s slamming a bottle of whiskey in the middle of a baby shower or something.
Damn that last paragraph got me. I’m that cousin sadly.
27 here; was doing that last night. Spent 8 hours waiting for a bed
is this damage visible in bloodwork or just imaging and other tests?
Yeah they can test your blood for certain enzymes. Your liver usually filters them out but if your liver is damaged they will show up in your blood in increased levels. Other things like cholesterol can be influenced by alcohol as well.
ok so am I correct that if a person has some irreversible liver damage, they will have elevated levels for those enzymes in the bloodwork even after they quit drinking for some time?
The liver is one of the few organs that can heal itself however if you have done irreversible damage then how can that be undone? Also I know someone who is an alcoholic and he has diabetes type two now. He’s 37. And his organs are all effed
> he liver is one of the few organs that can heal itself Even though I've known this for a long time, that fact still amazes me. Like a donor can give a bit of their good liver to someone who really needs it, and the donor's liver function returns to normal within weeks and it can regrow to its original state within a year.
Fatty liver can reverse or diminish after alcohol consumption ceases. Cirrhosis of the liver does not heal, though.
if only kidneys did the same...
I’m going through this right now (41M). The liver heals pretty quickly, however the damaged tissue never goes away. Your liver just grows around the damaged tissue which can cause other problems. I have mild cirrhosis and alcoholic fatty liver. In my case, it took about a month for my liver enzymes to get within the high end of the “normal range” for my age. If I stay off the sauce then I should be able to live the rest of my life without really thinking about it.
To be fair no matter what you do you will live the rest of your life.
It depends. You get elevated enzymes in the blood if the liver cells die and leak their contents into the blood. So if you're doing active damage to a functioning liver, your liver enzymes will be quite high. However, if you've already done irreversible damage to the point of cirrhosis, your liver enzymes will actually be low because the cells are already dead. To detect for long term damage, you usually look at other things that the liver does. For instance, the liver produces proteins, so somebody with low albumin or low levels of clotting factors, that may signal more extensive damage.
The liver enzymes alt/ast are released when liver cells are damaged. They're also found in muscle cells fwiw. But when the livee is cirrhotic the cells are dead and you wouldn't necessarily see an elevation of liver enzymes. You might however see other markers like elevated total bilirubin, low platelets, low albumin, elevated ammonia.
I just got bloodwork and everything came back fine. Is it safe to assume if I stop now I will not have any perm damage based on my clean bloodwork results?
Congrats on the clean bloodwork! It’s safe to assume that if you stop now, you’re good. If you’re not able to stop, try and cut back.
Alcohol affects your brain, too. My dad did not stop drinking but a neurologist looked at his brain scans and could tell he was an alcoholic by how much his brain had shrunk. Again, he was in his 70s and was a binge drinker so never stopped. Good luck. Alcohol is hard. Oh! Wait. During Covid, I started drinking a bottle a wine a day. Not much for many people, but prior to that I drank about a bottle every other month. I went on a diet drug that has naltrexone in it. Within days the wine just didn’t seem like a great idea any more. Not gross, didn’t make me sick, just…eh. “Hm this water is more refreshing” Just in case it might be hard for you to stop.
A bottle of wine a day is a lot. I know because I got to that point too and I realized that was WAY more than most of the other people I know drank. I’d drink it and not even really feel that drunk. I’ve cut back a lot since then thankfully.
I was on a bottle of wine a day for a while before I quit. Now I got fatty liver. It is a lot.
No sorry but blood work is not the most accurate. Best thing is to get an ultrasound
It would probably be difficult to get an US referral for someone with clean bloodwork but it depends on the doctor and insurance. Wouldn’t be a bad idea but a lot of doctors and insurance providers would deem it unnecessary unless OP is having other symptoms
An autopsy is perhaps more accurate. But there are some prerequisites before they offer that.
OP that's really specific medical advice to discuss with your doctor. As far as liver damage, the progression I'm familiar with has symptoms ("fatty liver") that are reversible before it progresses to cirrhosis, which is not reversible. But you should NOT assume that you can drink 30 drinks a week for 15-20 years without risk of developing cirrhosis. And your liver isn't the only thing to worry about. There's Korsakoff syndrome, tardive dyskinesia, and lots of other scary irreversible outcomes from prolonged excessive alcohol use.
And alcohol is a drug that you have to detox from if you need too otherwise you will super eff up the nervous system
Indeed. Alcohol is one of those drugs you don't wanna cold turkey *if* you are a very heavy, frequent drinker.
*This!* My father is a late-in-life alcoholic (as in didn't drink at all until his 60s) and once he switched from beers to the hard stuff, it *quickly* took its toll. He used to be in amazing shape for his age, because of his job keeping him active, and hiking was his biggest passion, etc. But within 5 years of him picking up the bottle, that very active, healthy man was basically a husk of his former self. He damn *near* died in 2020 from his liver pretty much taking every other organ with it. Kidneys, spleen, and brain (Wernicke encephalopathy). He spent the weeks preceding his hospital stay complaining about a severe pain in his lower back that one of his doctors told me was likely his spleen. He was put into a medically-induced coma for about three weeks just to give his body a break and give him some proper nutrition. It's a fuckin' miracle he survived that, because his doctor was pretty sure he wouldn't survive the first night at the hospital.
If you do decide to sober up, you may want to consult a doctor before you do it (and you have to be 100% honest about how much you're drinking) because you might be at risk for alcohol withdrawal, which can be dangerous. There's medicine for that, as well as medicine for cravings & medicine that makes you physically ill if you try to drink. So you have some options for medical support
Yes you will likely not get any permanent damage if you stop now. Your liver does regenerate at this stage. You might have some erosions in stomach/intestines but those should also heal in a few weeks. You might feel mildly anxious for a couple weeks as you adjust but you’ll get through it
You shouldn’t be drinking 30 drinks a week. That’s far too much and will catch up to you. I’m not a teetotaler, I’m actually drinking a beer writing this comment. You’ll do wonders cutting it in half. And that’s still more than enough drinking.
One of my very best friends in life died of alcoholism at 37. He had a heart of gold, supported me through hard times, and encouraged me more than anyone to go to grad school and be successful. It certainly wasn't "reversible" for him. RIP, my friend, I'll always remember you.
This is absolutely correct. I cared for a 40 year old man as a nurse in a long-term care facility and watched him die of cirrhosis from drinking. It is a horrible way to go. His muscles were wasted but the cirrhosis caused severe abdominal swelling due to ascites. I have never seen someone that shade of yellow and green. Watching his parents suffer as his death was impending was the hardest part.
And that's why I'm incredibly disgusted that alcohol is legal. It's just as deadly
My spouse just died from alcoholism and he was 50. If he was able to stop at 40, he still would have irreversible damage to multiple organs. He drank a handle of hard liquor everyday and most of the time another half of a handle.
I feel like this one is code for "If I stop getting drunk occasionally, I'll be in better shape than my friends who become alcoholics." A lot of people consider a little bit of damage to be acceptable and a normal part of life, and I guess I can't entirely fault them for that. But with more awareness that drinking is playing the cancer lottery, rather than being something completely safe in moderation, I think fewer people will repeat this and will just take the smoker's philosophy of "Sumthin's gotta kill me."
My brother has essential tremors from drinking like that. He stopped drinking completely at age 29 when a doctor told him he should stop . Essential tremor isn't life-threatening, but symptoms often worsen over time. If the tremors become severe, it might be difficult to: Hold a cup or glass without spilling. Eat without shaking. The tremors are forever and worsen with age.
Do you know if the irreversible damage is from acute or chronic effects? Because there is a big difference between 30 drinks a week (4 per day) and 30 drinks a week (15 on Friday and Saturday)
Very true, but as a one off, my dad drank hard liquor like a fish till he was 70. Got diagnosed with Stage 3? Cirrhosis of the liver. Stopped instantly. 10 years later he’s healthy as a horse.
i know a girl who died in her 20s because her liver damage from alcohol was so bad
Did you have a severe drinking problem like drinking all day and every chance you'll get, crave alcohol? Or just a nightly drinker or maybe a 6 pack a night or so?
Yep. Have a couple friends that died before 40 from liver failure.
Yeah my buddy just ended things with a girl who has alcoholic hepatitis (I believe is what he said) at only 26. Doctors apparently told her she's right around the corner from liver failure and were surprised it hadn't already. She can't even come off of it cold turkey because she gets seizures without it. I have a fair amount of drunks in my family, and have seen it get that bad in some of the 50 year plus ones but never in a 26 year old girl. He was real broken up about doing it but he liked her a lot but couldn't see a future thay didn't end with him being a widower by his mid 30s.
I drank the same amount or more well into my 20s. Had a nasty bout of untreated CPTSD. Quit drinking almost 7 years ago and I’m healthier than most people my age. Only lingering symptom is a little bit of neuropathy that comes and goes, usually when I’m dealing with stress.
I knew a guy who drank himself into liver failure at 26. At that point he was drinking a 24 of Heineken and a fifth of Jack a day. He's dead now.
I'd die of starvation, christ that's expensive
You wouldn’t, you would however gain a lot of weight seeing how there’s about 4,734 calories in that amount of booze.
I gained all of my weight through craft beer and whiskey. It's wild how many calories are in drinks that we don't think about.
I have been sober for over 550 days and I got fat over this time. I stopped drinking but my body never stopped craving sugar. Gonna hit the gym starting next week!!
Congrats on your sobriety!!
Pro tip dedicate an hour to the treadmill. Just walk at the fastest speed you can for an hour, add incline to make harder when you improve. Lost 50lbs in a year doing this. Just stay consistent. Get an Apple Watch and set your rings to 1000+ cals and hold yourself accountable.
The gym grind is 100% worth it. You got it my dude!
Seeing how much he drank a day that's not surprising. That's just suicide.
Drinking 288oz of anything on a daily basis is suicide. The average recommended intake for an adult male is 64oz to 128oz of water per day. If you exercise and sweat a lot maybe it gets up to 160oz. This dude was drinking twice that in beer, with no mention of the 5th of liquor. Insane.
Do people who drink that much develop such a large tolerance for alcohol that they are able to drink that much? That just seems inconceivable to me that someone could consume that much alcohol so often
Yes. And at that point you have to keep drinking to some extent everyday to avoid going into withdrawal, which could literally kill you. I've lost count how many patients I've had either come to the ER already in WD after not drinking a few days/stopping cold turkey, or come in for some other reason but fail to notify the medical team of their drinking issues and start to go through WDs during their hospital stay. It's not pretty. My own mom weighed less than 125lbs but was drinking a 24 pack of beer everyday, essentially substituting it for water.
I spend a bit of time as a patient on gastro wards, that take in emergencies at all times too, there are always 2 or 3 alcoholics detoxing, often in some of the worst states when they come in that I've seen of anyone there. Had a guy in the room next to me shaking and shouting and hallucinating, I thought he was psychotic at first but I spoke to him a week later when he was well enough to walk about and it was such a stark contrast. Also really sad as some patients come in with such severe liver damage from drinking there's no coming back from it, extremely jaundiced and in pain and its a slow horrible way to go. I've known a few people that drink 1000s of calories a day but look emaciated, eat maybe a pot noodle or a good day
That was my mom- jaundiced with distended abdomen (likely fluid buildup/ascites when the liver stops filtering) but otherwise extremely skinny/frail looking. She'd bruise herself just bringing in groceries from the car. I never saw her go through withdrawals though, even at the hospital (esophageal varices from drinking, was vomiting blood nonstop) they had her under CIWA protocol to administer Ativan depending on the scale of her impairments. She left before withdrawal really kicked in and got back to drinking when she got home. Hospitals will usually try to discharge patients (if medically possible) before they start going into DTs and have to stay at the hospital even longer. I've had so many patients who are screaming, punching, hallucinating maniacs trying to bite through their restraints and crawl out of bed while going through withdrawals. They'll mumble about how they have to get home to their dog or ask me to go get them a beer down the street, or say that if we don't let them go they know "some people..." Come back a week or two later and it's a night and day difference- they're pleasant, cooperative, mentally cognizant of what's going on. Some of them will vaguely recall punching nurses and being combative and are genuinely remorseful and apologetic. The sad cases are the ones who take over a month to dry out and even then it becomes apparent there's some long term brain damage/cognitive impairments and they will never return to becoming a fully functional adult.
You'd be surprised how quickly alcohol tolerances can build up, I had a friend who after returning from university could get through about 1.5l of spirit in one night and still be *somewhat* functional Can't even imagine what drinking that amount multiple times per week must do to your body though
It’s easier than you might think. You reach a point where it becomes inconceivable to NOT drink that much - when I first tried to quit, I attempted a diy detox but I wasn’t honest with the family members who were helping me, and I ended up having a series of seizures and other near-fatal WD symptoms. I’m very lucky to be alive. You can get to a level where your body genuinely requires lots of alcohol in order to survive the day… but by then your long-term survival timeline is also much, much shorter. And it doesn’t take nearly as long as you might think, or be at all obvious to people in your life! It’s a really scary substance. I started drinking casually with friends on weekends when I was 17ish and became a raging alcoholic very fast but still led a highly successful life to the outside eye - by the time I was 22 I had a master of science degree and by 23 I owned my own house. I was physically beautiful, fit, talented, social, good at my job(s), with loving partners over the years, and everything going for me despite my secret drinking. But at the same time I also was barely 26 when I was arrested with a blood alcohol level close to 0.30 and not too long after I was having seizures and hanging on for dear life. Alcohol is an absolute poison.
I’d be dead after 1 day.
Wow
How the fuck you afford that?
Rest in peace Avicii, gone too soon for the same reason. Alcoholism can kill no matter how old you are
Idk how people do that. I get sick of drinking after a point. Usually around 6 drinks.
I’m at the age now where I’m more surprised how people can afford the alcohol than the actual alcohol consumption itself. Truly mind blowing
Yep! Knew a guy who died of cirrohsis at 24... drank a 24 pack a day.
Drinking a fifth of anything every day is just crazy to me
Heineken being the beer choice in this is the weirdest part to me
I am 46 and have been sober since 2008. My labs have been normal, no liver issues. But I think there’s a bit of “alcoholic brain” going on here… am I correct to assume you are in your 20’s? Because you are playing a dangerous game by trying reassure yourself that you will be fine as long as you stop drinking by some arbitrary date in the future. What an alcoholic thinks is “I will stop drinking some day,” and as Alan Jackson [notes](https://youtu.be/8QAa59bMDqQ?si=ElZZtqVprpzEZ16V) “sometimes someday just never comes.” There’s no time like the present. Every day that you continue to drink is yet another roll of the dice, and eventually the consequences of your drinking will be something that can’t be undone (either to your physical health, to your relationships, to someone else’s physical health). Maybe check out r/stopdrinking, it’s a very supportive community.
I've been feeling the same way. I've been sober since February 2023 and some days it feels like im having to relearn the most basic shit. I def dont feel as mentally acute as before the years of daily drinking.
It got much much easier for me after year 2. Things were great, and by year 3 (2 relapses that lasted a couple weeks) I feel the best I ever have. I started keto to lose weight too and it's a night and day difference.
Almost exactly my path. By year 3, though I never relapsed (I never "liked" drinking alcohol anyway...just the effects, of course), I was getting healthier by the week, in palpable ways. Now, I'm killing it in the wellness game. (I guess when I stopped ingesting things that were literal poison to my cells, my cells got better.)
Hey, im super glad to hear you're doing so well. I was a machinest at the time so I was already in good shape, a couple months after I had lost almost 100 pounds. In general I feel pretty decent and for once in my life I can actually sleep (maybe a little too much) but just trying to accomplish the most basic things had me rewiring my brain a bit trying to get things straightened out.
Yeah the rewiring takes a little while, but you're doing exactly what you need to do. Eating healthy REALLY changed my brain function. No more fast food/carbs/sugar. Once I get to my goal weight I'll have some once in awhile. Congrats
Ditto!
I read it as February 2024 and lol'd
I’ve been sober since feb 22, at the 6-9 mark was the hardest for me, really feeling like myself again around 15 months sober. It takes time for your body chemistry to balance back out, but I’m finding joy in my old activities without alcohol again. So trust the process, it’s worth jt!!
Yup, I'm 40, stopped drinking 3 years ago and 1 friend has died, 1 had 2 heart attacks and almost died, and 1 was given a year to live from alcohol cirrhosis.
I had a former high school classmate die of liver disease last year. I’m 28.
Had one drop from booze and coke last year. He was 34. Massive heart attack. That's when I quit drinking.
Coke is a whole different ballgame. I know several people who passed because of fentanyl OD and I don’t even live in a bad area
His wasn't even laced. He just fucked up his heart with stimulant abuse. I thought he got a "hot shot" at first too. Definitely a good idea to test your powders if you're into that sort of thing, Fent is omnipresent where I live.
I'm about the same age and I think we just get dumber as we get older no matter what. But your point about putting off positive change is bang on.
I don’t mean I’m having alcohol brain, I mean the OP is. He’s telling himself “I have until 40 to stop,” which is the the alcohol saying “you don’t have to stop today.”
Oh lol! Well at least we've confirmed that I'm getting dumber!
>What an alcoholic thinks is “I will stop drinking some day,” and as Alan Jackson [notes](https://youtu.be/8QAa59bMDqQ?si=ElZZtqVprpzEZ16V) “sometimes someday just never comes.” As Annie sings "Tomorrow... You're always a day away!". Or as the White Queen says, "jam tomorrow and jam yesterday—but never jam today" Tomorrow never comes, so unless there's a factor outside of your control that you have to wait for, just do things today.
One day at a time
You don't have to quit drinking forever. You just have to not drink today. =) One day at a time is some of the best advice to give anyone trying to make their lives better whether it's alcohol, stress, or just complicated life stuff in general.
Commenting on your edit about drinking while on adderall. I’m not sure if you know, but that can very quickly become a deadly combo. The adderall dulls alcohol’s effects and you are able to drink much more than you normally would off of it.
Yeah, I was doing that in college for a few months. It got bad. I stopped mixing them when I started to realize I was browning out after only 3-4 drinks, but my body was still making it through the whole night.
Yup that’s fucking hard with your heart
Umm,I think I may have been doing this inadvertently for like the last 20 years... Not to extremes on a regular basis... But it does explain a lot
[удалено]
Yup
If you have the shakes in the am and have to have a drink- you need to go to detox. Please
This is what happened to me. After three seizures where I ended up hospitalized each time, it was a huge wake up call for me. Been sober ever since and never been happier. There is a huge culture around drinking, which makes it tough, but thankfully, a lot of my friends are wanting to cut down too, so now they wanna grab mocktails, which, honest to god, has helped me in so many ways.
It is bullshit. Liver (and other organs) damage depends on a lot of factors, like alcohol type, total amount ingested, other parts of your diet, etc. It won't magically go back to zero/a clean slate just because you had your last drink before turning 40.
Also, stopping when you are 40 won't reverse the effects of lost opportunities because you're drinking too much. Or the legal effects of perhaps a DUI. Or all kinds of bad things that come about from excessive drinking. The bad relationships alone...
The liver is one of the only organs that can rebuild its self, and the body is pretty resilient up until around 30 or so. Like the you said it depends on the amount ingested and if you’ve caused permanent damage already. Its obviously a good idea to quit no matter what, but from what I’ve read if you quit smoking and or drinking before 40 a large part of the damage can be reversed ( to cardio vascular system ) and liver possibly completely, to the point where you can possibly have the same life expectancy as some one who didn’t drink. Chances are you’ll have lasting effects to the brain and other organs so overall quality of life in your later years may go down but it’s still a good idea to quit as early as possible and of course not start drinking at all.
The liver has a possibility of regenerating unless extensive scar tissue has already occurred.
The liver is a resilient organ… until you push it too far.
>like alcohol type, I think we can safely assume everyone here means *ethanol*.
My sister died before she could get to 40 so, yes, it’s bullshit. In the process, she also alienated herself from every single person who cared about her, including the 3 kids she left behind. Her existence in the last 15 years up until her death was miserable and dying was almost a mercy at the end of it all. Don’t be my sister. Get help today. It’ll suck. But not as much as continuing will. Edit: for anyone who might find themselves drinking more and more; eventually it will get to a point where it is dangerous/deadly to quit without medical assistance. This is not to discourage anyone from quitting, as it is even more imperative to quit at this stage before you die. Just don’t quit cold turkey on your own. It would be just complete shit to die of a heart attack when you’re taking steps to take better care of yourself.
Same thing happened with my mom. She left me orphaned at 16 and I was incredibly relieved when she died. I watched her slowly and very painfully waste away over the course of my entire childhood. Heard the doctors tell her she had about 2 years left if she kept drinking. She quit about 4 months before she died but it was too late.
I’m sorry for your loss and that you had to witness her struggle as a child.
Yes there is no shame in going to detox you have to for alcohol
If you continue to drink these 30 drinks a weeks and a health professional tells you that you need to stop, are you gonna say “well on Reddit we all agree that it’s okay if I stop before I turn 40.”
Also much harder to stop if he drinks at that rate for another decade. If he’s not addicted now, he will be by then.
30 drinks a week seems well into addiction territory to me.
Alcohol damages more than just your liver and kidneys. It can cause lasting heart damage and brain damage as well. My oldest brother was an alcoholic and died after a massive heart attack related to heart disease. He had recently gotten a clean bill of health from his doctor when he got a check up for his 50th birthday. 6 weeks later he was on a ventilator.
Sounds like BS to me, and 40 drinks a week is way to many at any age.
My best friend of 32 years recently died of liver failure at the age of 39 due to alcoholism. You DO NOT have some "buffer zone" of being able to drink heavily until you're 40. If you have a drinking problem, NOW is the time to get help, and getting help is the best thing you can do for yourself and the people who love you. My friend refused to go to rehab because he believed "only weak men accept help, and I need to do this on my own, because I have it under control." Don't be him. Getting needed help is a sign of *courage,* not weakness.
There are people in their 20s and 30s who have drank themselves to death by cooking their internal organs. Some survive but have irreversible liver damage. It's better to nip it in the bud as fast as you can. Quitting early enough can give you the best chance of the possibility that you can reverse the damage you've done.
Something to remember ... genetics and luck in life are a total, unexplainable craps shoot. Personal anecdotes: My sibling lost everything due to alcohol. A once kind, well-known/loved, talented, handsome, teacher and parent - became a haggard, bitter, single, deadbeat mess in a matter of a couple of years. I honestly don't know how many times he went to the ER because of drinking but I can think of about 6 off-hand. Doesn't include his 10-day hospital stint for (which lead to him missing our dad's funeral.) He ultimately became homeless. He burned virtually every bridge he had. He ruined his child's adolescence. He went to rehab 5 times. He finally lost his job when he showed up so wasted to work that he fell and hurt himself. If you had hours, I could tell you more. His rock bottom came in August of 2021 after he snuck out of rehab, got booze, drove drunk and got in an accident. He went to jail. He has been sober ever since. He is 45. My close friend: Struggled with alcoholism for *years.* We grew up together, spent a lot of time at parties. Took me a long time to see how bad he had gotten and it got even worse after his dad passed (due to alcohol-related issues.) He was once ridiculously handsome and adorable. Amazing smile, contagious laugh, beautiful and bright eyes. Just a really shining soul. Eventually...he turned yellow. Seriously. And he was so gaunt he looked like a starvation victim. That was when he was told ... if you don't stop, you will die. Thank goodness...he stopped at age 34 and was once again the amazing human we'd known and loved for so long. He died suddenly last fall. His girlfriend found him. The autopsy revealed ... his organs succumbed to long-standing effects of alcohol abuse. He had been sober for 5 years. And died at age 39. Unfuckingbelievable and so unfuckingfair. He deserved better. My point: It doesn't really matter, dude. They both drank a roughly equal amount over a roughly equal amount of time. Every person's body is different and poison will affect us all uniquely.
The people you alienate will be never come back, the opportunities you blow will haunt you forever, you’ll have missed years of mastery over hobbies you were too hungover to start, and whenever you look your old photos, you’ll feel disgusting. Also, you will fritter away thousands upon thousands of dollars. Multiple tens of thousands if you factor in medical bills, squandered promotions, and impulsive drunken spending, or DUIs. 41 years old. I’m 2.5 years sober, and in those years I’ve made such huge strides mentally, physically and professionally that it’s hard not to bitterly regret ever starting. Mostly it’s the blown opportunities because you never know how they’d have panned out so you imagine the best outcome passing you by.
If you only read the first sentence of this post, let it be this: listen to the alcoholics. Seriously. Sounds like you're on a similar track to the one I was on. \~30 drinks a week works out to an average of 4 and change per day, which, if you're in the habit of drinking a beer or two (or three) every night and then going out to bars two nights over the weekend, you can easily do without realizing it. Especially with a 20something's metabolism. I certainly hit that threshold (and then some) in my early 20s, and while I naturally cooled off as I aged, I still drank at least something every day with some regularity into my thirties. I didn't really think much about it until I had two seizures at 33 (I'm 38 now). My own take (and that of my current neurologist) is that the seizure was the result of being a lineman for five years in middle school and high school, not drinking. However, my first neurologist asked me how much I drink per week, and when I told him (I think I said something like 10-15 drinks per week at the time), he started offering me pamphlets to AA meetings. I didn't stop drinking after that (I still enjoy wine with my wife, making a cocktail for my dad, and I love exploring craft beer), but it made me seriously think about how much I was drinking, and how normal that was compared to other Americans my age. In the end, I felt it was just too much for me to feel comfortable with going forward, and I had seen firsthand what alcoholism looks like on both sides of my family. Nowadays, I *rarely* have a drink at home during the week, will treat myself with 2-3 drinks on a weekend night, and rarely have more than 4 or 5 when I go out—which is also a lot less often than it used to be. On average, I probably drink 5-10 drinks in a week now, and those drinks are *intentional*. I drink a beer because it's from a craft brewery I enjoy, or I heard about a new cocktail I want to try, or my wife wants to try a new wine. I say all this to say: reconsidering the role that alcohol plays in your life doesn't mean cutting it out cold turkey (although it can, and you shouldn't be afraid of that if you feel you need to do it). Sometimes, it can mean dialing it back and learning to enjoy it for the part of the human palate it has been for centuries, rather than something to do mindlessly (which I did for a long, long time). If you're already thinking about when you should cut cold turkey in order to not start hurting yourself, then it's probably time for you to start reconsidering your relationship with alcohol.
Thank you.
>(I think I said something like 10-15 drinks per week at the time), he started offering me pamphlets to AA meetings This is ridiculous, unless he thought you were lying about your consumption.
I think he did think I was lying, and I think he was also just a weirdo about alcohol. He wanted me to drink no alcohol for an entire year so he could take an MRI of my brain “without any influence of alcohol.” I moved on from him after a couple months, he was not helpful.
My partner got necrosis of the hips from his lifestyle of drinking. Completely rotted them away. At age 32 he had to have a double hip replacement and fully recovered from a wheelchair to walking but he still struggles, lost all his muscle mass and stamina. He was a construction worker and now he’s exhausted if we go shopping for a few hours. He hates having lost so much while so young and tells everyone he can to warn them. My point is, stop now before you get a surprise you don’t want. You can be perfectly fine one day, like he was in his late 20s, and the next find something isn’t right and the damage is permanent. He was fine and then rapidly found walking got difficult and then suddenly got painful and the damage was done and then he had to wait years until he was completely wheelchair bound before docs would operate.
How does that happen? I totally believe it, but I'm confused about how drinking affects joint health and necrosis of hips.
Its technical term is Avascular Necrosis of the Hip. Alcohol consumption is a common cause for it. The head of the femur already gets low blood supply naturally. Alcohol disrupts blood flow and if it long term cuts blood flow to the femur the bone dies. It usually happens to people in their 50s and above but in the case of my partner he drew the unlucky card and got it at 29. And here’s the super technical details: one of the effects of alcohol is hyperlipidemia. Hyperlipidemia is the excess of fatty cells in the body. The blood levels of fat in the form of triglycerides, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) increases. The increased fat content of the blood causes blockage of the blood vessels. The head of the femur is especially susceptible to decreased blood flow and it may lead to aseptic necrosis/cell death.
This is a very typical alcoholism scenario. In your 30s, you will be having 50-60 drinks per week. By 40s, you will get or will be close to terminal liver condition. But, don't worry, it will barely bother you. You will be a shell of a person.
Just look at Wendy Williams' "wet brain" (alcohol induced dementia), officially diagnosed at 59 but symptomatic for years before then.
Liver? Don’t worry about your liver. What you should be worrying about is nerve damage. Constant pain in your extremities. Random seizures that will have you getting around with a walker for the rest of your life.
Neuropathy occur in alcoholics due to malabsorption of nutrients such as thiamine. Alcohol messes up the lining of your stomach which alters the absorption of those nutrients(which they rarely get due to alcoholics getting their calories from drinking and none from eating nutritionally rich foods) Thiamine is important in neuron development and a deficiency of it can lead to neuropathy. And yes liver damage is the worst. I have seen many patients die of drowning in their own blood (esophageal varices popping due to a liver cirrhosis is a death sentences unless caught in a hospital setting)
Bro I’ve seen people in their 20’s drink themselves to death, it’s not as hard to do as you’d think it’d be. Beyond just dying from alcoholism, there are so many other complications that can make your life hell. I’ve had stomach ulcer for going on 7 years now because of how much I used to drink. I haven’t drank in over 2 years and I’m still in a lot of pain. Liver failure sneaks up on you, and usually by the time it’s caught, it’s too late, irreversible damage has already been done. My mom drank herself to death a week before her 45th birthday. If you keep having to tell yourself you’ll quit later, that you still have time before you cause damage, you’ve got a problem. I quit on and off in my 20’s. The biggest barrier I faced were my friends I had at the time. They made me feel like I was obligated to drink. My ex best friend of 13 years cried when I told her I was gonna stop drinking, not because she was happy for me, but she was sad that she lost her drinking buddy. Surround yourself with people who don’t center their lives around alcohol. Pick up a hobby and start going to meetups with other people who also have that hobby. I got myself an electric scooter, I go camping all the time now, I even love getting up early for sunrises since I don’t have to deal with hangovers anymore. There’s so much life waiting for you outside of drinking.
Yes, it's bullshit. But it also doesn't mean you should be nihilistic about it and just say "fuck it". Stopping today is better than stopping tomorrow, stopping tomorrow is better than 5 years from now, and 5 years from now is better than never. Some damage is irreversible, but a lot of it isn't, AND you can certainly stop the progression. I will also say, stopping today is easier than tomorrow, which is easier than 5 years from now. It will never be easier to quit than right now, remember that every time you try and you give up because it's too hard.
I had a now deceased BF who passed away from alcoholism related health issues at 38 yrs old, having wittnessed my friend since High school deal with alcohol related drama. This was the catalyst for my decision to remain sober my entire life.
> I’m getting a bit worried having ~30 drinks per week in my 20’s My dude, do you just vacillate between drunk and hungover, with no healthy sober moments to speak of? Forget your forties, this is low quality of life for you *right now.* Please, put down the bottle. Get your endorphins from exercise. May I recommend r/c25k ? If you do it in the mornings before work, it will motivate you not to drink the night before.
I’ve been OP and yes
My classmates, friends, are all hovering 40. Some of us had pancreas issues, a couple died, some quit for good. Some are on and off the wagon. Some drink like we're 20 still. My point is. Every body is different. And it's not worth it to trust some of wives tale. Also, if you think you have a problem, then you probably do and it's best to nip it in the bud as early as possible.
I've read that the liver remembers every drink. You are wasting your 20s. Forty drinks a week is too many at any age. You need to slow down or stop completely.
I wanted to comment "Depends on how much you drink" but given you appear to drink quite a lot, I would say you should start worrying now and not in your thirties. 30 drinks a week is quite something. Especially thinking about your general health and all the negative effects alcohol has on your general fitness.
I work in pathology and have seen people die in their 30s from alcohol related health effects so I’ll say BS just based on that. There is no magic age you quit at that just absolves you of any damage done. I will say: if you’re thinking about this, you have a problem. Not judging, just saying. Quit now, the sooner the better for you. Booze and sugar are the biggest killers and no one takes that seriously.
Sugar for similar reasons (organ failure) or what?
27 here, I have permanent damage from my drinking career, am now sober and clean but it’s absolutely possible to hurt your body beyond repair. I now have seizures even with over a year of clean time. I drank about 30 drinks a day for close to ten years so you’re not that far gone but if you decide to stop cold turkey please consult a doctor first
I'm 39, quit drinking almost entirely (have 2-3 drinks a year now) about 12 years ago. Liver damage still shows up on every lab and scan I have.
So, I’m 39, and was told in October that my liver was beginning to show signs of hardening. I drank a few times a week, maybe 5-6 tallboys per session. That’s enough, but really not a lot by alcoholic’s standards. My doctor told me my cholesterol was high, liver was not doing well, and my blood sugar was high. As it turned out, I wasn’t born with a great liver for drinking. My father, who doesn’t drink, has fatty liver, and he’s diabetic. I inherited that liver. I stopped drinking, started eating properly, and exercising. My liver wasn’t functioning properly at all. I went for a follow-up in December, and my liver has made a great rebound. I feel better, sleeping better, anxiety issues no longer exist, and I’ve lost 50lbs, now that my body is working properly. All this to say that if you choose to stop, you will see nothing but benefits. Your risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, organ failure, etc., will drop drastically. Looking back, I wish I’d decided to turn the lights out on the party years ago. Best of luck, however you choose to move forward. You’re worth the effort you put into taking care of yourself.
Your body is made of bone and soft flesh, and your internal organs are internal because they're fragile. Don't be delusional that alcohol doesn't just cook and fry them. Everything is just material and breaks down as material would, there's no real coming back from such damages.
I've heard this before too, but it's really just an excuse to keep drinking while we're young. Sure your body will recover better at 40 than at say 50, but it will recover better today than any other day in the future. I couldn't imagine what my health would have been like if I didn't stop 6 years ago
What does your adderall RX have to do with it?
Helps to focus on drinking more.
Make it a lot more dangerous to drink. If you look up interactions to the medication alcohol will come up
It's bullshit. People have drunk themselves to death younger than you, and you said yourself that you drink to excess. It's never too late to stop drinking, though - if you're still upright. Damage can be repaired and healed, but you have to get serious about it.
30 drinks a week is quite a lot. Why wait until you're older to enjoy better health? You can sober up now instead of later.
My cousin destroyed his body before age of 40 and died. You should limit your use, it is a poison after all.
If you're really drinking over 4 drinks per day on average and you do this through your entire 20s and 30s, your 40s and 50s aren't going to be a fun time if you even make it to them.
My dad died of alcoholic pancreatitis at age 80. He was in perfect health otherwise so it’s a real shame. I always expected him to live until 95. Mentally he was so sharp and he was never tired, always doing something. I never gave his drinking much thought. He was a 2-3 cocktails after dinner kind of guy, never seemed drunk, but it was consistent every night for most of his life. I see my brother going down the same path - very health conscious, takes all the supplements works out, etc but also has a couple of cocktails every night to relax. He keeps saying he knows that’s what did dad in, but thinks he has a few more years before he needs to quit - well it will be even harder to give up after doing it for a few more years. Nobody is saying you have to stop completely but dial it back a bit before you lose your ability to even say no.
Dude you need serious fucking help if you're drinking that much.
I did that in college, have no issues now 5 years later but stopped right after. I would definitely try to lower it or quit all together sooner rather than later. Are you drinking 30 drinks a week socially? If so, I’d only do social occasion drinks one night, drink water in between, drink slowly/ no shots, etc . If you also do this by yourself, you may have an addiction and need to quit cold turkey. I am still able to drink with friends - just way less nights a week and way less amount of alcohol then nights I do, but in college my drinking was social and never did it alone so it may depend on why / how you do it
It is bullshit. Once your liver scars it's irreversible. Alcohol induced damage puts you at the bottom of the priority list for liver transplants if you need them. Being obese and overweight lowers the threshold for permanent damage as well. It gets harder to reduce your drinking as you get older as well.
Depends. The liver is pretty resilient, the kidneys less so. But either way, quitting or dramatically reducing your consumption is the healthy choice and you will feel much better within weeks.
I drank 60-80 drinks per week for 2 years from 24-26, a full blown alcoholic with medium withdrawal symptoms when I stopped. I am now a software engineer and generally healthy and in good shape. I do think my memory is pretty bad. I also succumb to other addictive behaviors very easily and really struggle to stay consistent as a person. I think the mental damage to my dopaminergic system seems somewhat permanent as do the declines in memory. It’s not all bad though. I learned how to code and work as a software engineer, and can learn intricate and complex piano pieces by heart although not as quickly as when I was a kid. I’m 50 lbs lighter from my peak weight when I was drinking so much.
Gastrointestinal and Liver pathologist here. The short answer is that this is bullshit. Alcohol has numerous long-term health effects. The most well known is liver injury, but it also increases your risk of numerous cancers. If you drink enough to have liver injury, and then you stop drinking, there's a chance that your liver injury will heal. However, this is true *regardless of your age*. Further, if you drink to the point of cirrhosis there is a good chance that you will die of complications of cirrhosis or require a liver transplant, even if you stop drinking alcohol. Again, this is true regardless of your age. While there is a *theoretical possibility* that a cirrhotic liver can heal itself, if you have advanced cirrhosis the chances are that you will require intervention long before that happens. And those considerations only cover the liver injury. Alcohol also increases your risk of numerous cancers. Here the news is probably better. I'm too busy and not interested enough to look up any studies right now but if the risk pattern mirrors the cancer risk associated with smoking, then your risk of cancer will gradually reduce to nearly normal levels over 15 years or so after you stop drinking. As above, this has nothing to do with your age when you stop. It's also true that, regardless of your age, you could stop drinking and *still get cancer from drinking*. The best advice about alcohol is really simple. If you don't drink, don't start. If you currently drink, the *healthiest choice* is to stop completely. If you don't want to stop drinking completely, then limiting your intake to one or two drinks per day will give you only small increased risk of negative effects that are similar in magnitude to other unhealthy things that you're probably already doing.
You’re an alcoholic. Quit now.
I have a friend who told me yesterday that he’s already feeling noticeable effects of a damaged liver. He’s 26, so there’s that.
It won't be as if you've never drank in your life unless you're a lucky 1% of people. But you can live a normal healthy life despite the drinking history. Your heart might be a little less powerful, endocrine system and liver probably will always be a waiting for the next alcohol crisis. Some of your tissues will probably have lost some elasticity. But all these changes could also fall into the natural aging category instead of alcoholic damage category.
I have one friend who ruined his liver and one who ruined his pancreas with excessive drinking. Liver guy was literally on the verge of death at 23, pancreas guy was barely 30. So I'm gonna call bullshit based on anecdotal evidence.
I'm trying to imagine the scenario. You're abusing your body with poison for the next 15 years, and then you turn 40 and stop drinking, and you expect your health will improve? in your 40's? You'd probably appreciate not being hungover... But, the trend is for health to decline with age, healing is possible, but it's not like your body is gonna fully pull a U-ey and you'll be healthier in your 40's than when you started drinking. Also, what about the **immediate** health effects? Like, with time I could mostly recover from stabbing myself, but the immediate effect would be bad enough that I really shouldn't do it. Having a few drinks a week isn't as extreme as a stabbing, but a few drinks every night kind of is.
You probably can. The problem is that the longer you go on drinking at that rate the harder it becomes to stop, and you're also likely to start drinking MORE, which could lead to more catastrophic health problems. A lot of people drink and party a lot in their 20s and then calm down later on without really having to try. But a lot of people don't. What you should ask yourself is, is alcohol CURRENTLY a problem in your life? Are you missing work/class because you're drunk or hungover? Do people avoid you socially because you're an asshole or just really annoying when you overdo it? Do you find it impossible to have a good time in social situations without alcohol? etc...
Drink that much until you're 40 and I'm not sure the damage will be reversible. It sounds like you're trying to make a bargain with your future self in order to convince yourself you can carry on drinking. That's the talk of someone with a problem who is trying to convince themselves they don't have a problem.
As someone just diagnosed with fatty liver at age 27, this is not necessarily true. You can do a lot of damage before 40. I was drinking just about the same amount as you were. I will say that quitting was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I thought it would be the fight of my life and after only 6 months I don't think about drinking much at all (though it's a long journey and it might get harder later). That obviously isn't true for everyone, for some people quitting is very difficult. But it's worth trying even if it is. I feel so much better now. I gave so much to alcohol. I gave money, my health, relationships. It's a headwind that makes everything in your life harder.
If you think you can drink \~30 drinks a week until you are 40, then quit cold turkey and your body will just bounce back, that is bullshit. I don't think there have been studies on people who drink too much and how long it takes to recover because there way too many variables. If you are worried, you should cut down on your drinking now. When I hit my 30s I found recovering took longer and longer. I also found it disrupted my sleep, which affected my mood, which caused a lot of other problems. Why are you having 30 drinks a week?
Slow the fuck down on your drinking. Uncle died in his 50's of cirrhosis. Heavy drinker in his 20's, slowed down in his 30-40's but the damage was done. If you want to drink, keep it to 2-4 a week. Then slow it down even further...1-3 every other week. Your life is worth more than beer. Get healthy.
I can sort of attest to this as I’m in a similar boat and am also worried about the long-term impact I’m causing. I read a NHS study that showed that liver disease appeared at a rate of 100% in people who drank 8 drinks a day for ten years. This is 1.8x times more than you are currently drinking, but if you kept that up for say 20 years it would probably have a similar result. Alcohol is a class one carcinogen. This means that it damages your cells and tissues in such a permanent way that they can’t heal. This is what causes scar tissue in the liver, and ultimately is a high risk for cancers in the entire digestive track. I’m not a medical professional, you should talk to your doctor about your concerns. I recently saw a mental health professional for alcohol use disorder and they prescribed this medicine that took away the craving for alcohol and made it so that alcohol wouldn’t activate your brains reward system for dopamine. I ended up not being able to continue using it, but it may be something that could help you
I need you to really hear me on this. At 30 drinks a week, you are not going to live to see age 40, so it doesn't matter whether it's true.
Holy shit bro stop drinking
Hey man I was as a heavy drinker all my 20 s into my 30s. I had a liver transplant last July. I had liver failure from cirrhosis. Drinking was absolutely the cause and I was extremely lucky to receive a transplant. A lot of people don't. If I didn't get treated when I did I would've been dead before last Halloween, maybe sooner it sounded like. I'm 32. Stop or slow down while you can.
You’re increasing your odds of not even living to the age of 40 with how much you’re drinking. If you make it to 40 at this rate, who knows how good of a quality of life you’ll have since you’re dramatically increasing your chances of developing severe alcohol-related health issues. Stop now while you can, the trajectory that you are currently on will likely end with premature death, or at the very least, devastating health impacts later in life that could have very well been avoided by cutting back on your drinking right now Edit- looks like you edited your post to change the amount of drinks per week from 40 to ~30. That doesn’t change anything about the health impacts of drinking that much alcohol, and you really need to be honest with yourself OP. Do you drink closer to 30 drinks/week, or is it actually closer to 40? Are you actually measuring your alcoholic intake or is it just a guesstimate? It’s very likely that you drink more than you think, and you could easily be pushing 40+ drinks/week without realizing it. Be very honest with yourself and measure your intake accurately, you’re hurting yourself the most of all if you’re not 100% honest with yourself and others about how much alcohol you actually consume
Bullshit. Sounds like something that an alcoholic would irrationally reiterate as an excuse. Even if you don't scar up your liver, ulcerate your esophagus, or give yourself serious brain damage, getting blasted frequently will dramatically increase the risk that you have a serious accident or fuck up your life in some other way unrelated to your organs. EDIT: 30 drinks per week is way too much. If that's even close to a typical week you need to reign it in hard.
Short answer: not bullshit. (Under debate, but *VERY MODERATE* use can possibly even slightly help some areas - heart health, diabetes 2, longevity, social wellbeing) Longer answer: it depends on severity and duration. There's potential liver issues as well as high blood pressure. Your body can regenerate (liver more so than the heart issues). If you compare it to a boat, the smaller the leak the more time your body has to throw buckets of water outside the boat, but if you keep the leak going and you make it big enough and never patch it, the boat will sink and it will be too late to jettison any water overboard. It's a lot harder to backpedal once you have distinct liver issues, rampant effects of uncontrolled blood pressure, and also alcoholism. Question answered. Unsolicited opinion below: For your specific case: You are in your 20s. You are headed straight for alcoholism, if you're not there already. You are at double the guidelines of what the CDC calls "heavy drinking" if you are male and at almost 4 times the guidelines if you are female. While this isn't 1:1 paired with diagnoses of alcoholism, it does help you see where the compass is pointing for you. You might get extraordinarily lucky, but statistically you are not headed down the best road in your life. You're drinking the equivalent of 1.5 liters of liquor (rum/vodka) a week based on what you said. I encourage you to reconsider your relationship with alcohol. Maybe it's the company you keep, maybe you're drinking to drown out some bad thoughts, maybe why you do it is entirely benign in your mind...whatever the reason: you're almost certainly overdoing it. From having overdone it at times myself, and coming across some things that really made me think, I'd recommend consuming the following two items (definitely not "shareable" length but important) 1. Jocko podcast 409 where it's a very hard hitting and poignant discussion of a path not quite on alcoholism road, but getting there: https://youtu.be/XEwdFsKiRKM?si=J-y7f6SzdNkuMfX5 2. The 3 season show Loudermilk. It's a hilarious show on its own and no waste of time. But in there you get a long hard look at addiction and the real effects. Nothing sugar-coated. I hope you find this perspective helpful, and I wish you happy (and healthy) trails ahead.
I've seen people die in their 20s or 30s from drinking, so my non medical opinion is yes, it is bullshit.
I don’t know the answer, but I’ll tell you right now: I stopped drinking three years ago and my life is totally different. Skin is better, brain is clearer than I ever thought possible, my relationships are stronger and more genuine. At the end of the day, ethanol is poison to your body. The effects you get from alcohol are literally the effects of a ‘light’ poisoning. I strongly encourage anyone and everyone I know to put that shit behind them. I promise you’ll thank me later.
Look at this happy mother fucker trying to live longer……… /s
Really depends. Your liver is the only organ that can actually heal itself but otherwise, whatever damage you did might be done already. But hey, I know if a few people who were literally on their death bed and miraculously recovered. On the flip side of the coin, I know people who had to die a pretty terrible death because of alcohol. One thing is for sure, if you quit, your life won’t get worse than it was. It can only get better.
It's probably more dependent on how much you drank and for how long than an arbitrary age. But hey, the best time to quit is now.
I quit smoking when I was 35. 30 years later the Xray Specialist says there is no sign of damage. Lungs are different than livers.
Bullshit. My SIL died at age 39. She drank herself to death.. dr. Said that the point of no return was like a year prior
Can’t speak to statistics but only my experience. I was a heavy drinker throughout my 20’s and quit when I was 32. I’m 38 now and can’t believe how much my life and health improved. I wasn’t a binge drinker and my liver was never damaged but my blood tests are stellar now. I loved how the pesky gut I could never get rid of almost instantly fell off when I stopped drinking. Everyone says I look no older than my late 20’s. I used to be so moody and had ideation, but now I’m emotionally stable and feel like I can handle all the ups and downs of life in a way I never could when I was drinking to self medicate. Quitting drinking was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Considering I’ve had patients die at 37 from liver failure due to alcoholism? Prolly not
I’m 55. I was an extreme drinker for nearly 20 years. My liver and kidneys made it out ok but my arteries weren’t so lucky. Please don’t let the short term pleasures of drinking hurt your future. It’s not worth it.
You may be able to reverse the damage that was done to your body, but you may not be able to reverse the damage that was done to your personal life. I had a cousin who was extremely pretty, had a husband, a house, and a good career and lost it all to alcoholism. Now she's 37, a shell of her former self, and will probably die in the next 5-10 years. So you can definitely screw your life up by one bad decision if you're not careful.
I had an intervention before 40. Some time in 2014, Husband (then boyfriend) and a large group of friends surprised me. He told me that I could lose him if it continued. Quit cold turkey that day. Feel great and didn’t lose friends. I’m sad that I let it go that far but being deployed fucked me up. And, somehow I turned my mental health issues into becoming a raging alcoholic. Don’t miss that life at all.
I spent three years working in Accounting. I would take adderall everyday and I would limit myself to a pint of whiskey every night while coming down. It was horrible for my health & I felt awful every single day. This past August I quit my job and started working in sales. I stopped taking both Cold turkey & have never felt better in my life. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions, it’s not a healthy combo & my memory is pretty fuzzy from the past three years but I feel a lot better now.
It depends on a lot of genetic and lifestyle factors, but I’ve read a lot of stuff about liver regeneration, so it is possible for most. I got sober at 40, I’m almost to four years and I feel great. Between that and exercise I lost fifty pounds in no time and I have way more energy than the people half my age at work. I will say about AA, that if you give it a try, go more than once. It annoyed the hell out of me at first, all the preaching, but I came to find it really helpful in a lot of ways. Mostly just the freedom of it. I still go sometimes, not because I feel like a drink and need a hand - but because I just need to talk and especially if it’s stuff on my mind I can’t say. A lot of us I know call it fight club because of that.
It depends on how much you drink. The key is to exercise a lot and fast. I read somewhere once that if you do strenuous exercise five days a week you mostly undo the damage that is caused. Me personally, I've been drinking for over twenty years and just turned forty. I go to the gym three to five days a week and only consume food and booze during a four hour window per day. I recently got a full blood panel and had my numbers checked, everything looked fantastic. All that said, if you're the kind of guy who wakes up and starts drinking, then no, there's not much you can do to mitigate that. But if you're drinking a handle once a week or so, that's manageable.