For those of you who are attempting to explain what is or isn't a functional alcoholic, let me explain where you are wrong. A functional alcoholic is an alcoholic who is able to maintain their outside life, such as a job, home, family, and friendships, all while drinking heavily. Things like work and relationships are not negatively affected by the drinking. It has nothing to do with your health or sneak drinking or anything like that. All alcoholics will eventually
sneak drink; be it coming home or at the office and it is IMPOSSIBLE to drink high levels of alcohol and not have it negatively affect your body in some way shape or form.
I am a professional drinker. I have been 3 of the 4 phases of a drunk: functional, binge, and a full-fledged, all day, all night drinker but never homeless, because i was always able to maintain my job. I have been to 2, 28-day rehabs and 1, 8-month outpatient program, all to curb my drinking. For my last relapse, I almost died. Was literally on my death bed. And that is all I am going to admit to. All the rest, I would be foolish to discuss on here.
Last time, when I went to the outpatient program, I went on the antiabuse for 1 year. I am the kind of person who does not like puking nor do I like being sick. Which is kind of ironic seeing as how I was puking and sick 24/7 while in my heavy phase of drinking but once I got sober, feeling sick and puking was the last thing I wanted to do. But i had something a lot people who try to get off alcohol dont have: i almost died and i wanted to stay alive. Turns out, dying is a pretty good motivator even though the Dr. said my chances of returning or dying are huge. My odds of staying sober and alive are slim. So I never tried drinking at all while on it. Hell, I didn't have any food or use products that had alcohol in it for fear of getting sick but I needed all the help I could get. Have to drink a lot of water and eat a lot of foods with antioxidants because antiabuse ****s up your already damaged liver.
Alcohol is the strongest of all the known substances out there in the world as it is the only known substance that can affect 5 out of the 8 main neurotransmitters. Oddly enough, nicotine affects the other 3 which is why smoking and drinking go hand in hand. Anyways, there is another substance that effects 4 of the 8 main neurotransmitters and if memory serves correctly, I believe its called Wellbutrin, and it is also used to keep people off of alcohol.
Alcohol is also the most damaging of all the known substance to the body. It literally damages more organs than any other substance but society really only knows about the liver. So many cases of cancer are a result of heavy drinking because of its effects on the organs. From skin to teeth to eyes, which have nothing to do with drinking, alcohol causes so much damage internally that other organs begin to shut down. If the government was really interested in protecting the people from the effects of drugs, alcohol would be the number 1 substance to ban. Even though I have known the above for many years, my brain LOVES drinking enough alcohol to kill normal humans.
But the question of how much you (Rusty) are drinking is good news for you. Half a pint of vodka is what I was drinking every morning just so I can brush my teeth without puking and another half to get the shakes under control so I can type out an email but, I was drinking a LOT of vodka every day. To the medical world, the amount of alcohol you are drinking would be considered heavy, for to them, even 2 or 3 glasses of wine a day is heavy drinking and the amount keeps shrinking what is considered heavy drinking all the time.
To me, it sounds like you are on your way to becoming an alcoholic. So to get this under control without losing control, you need to begin to take care of your health. The first thing I would do is begin to take a lot of B vitamins, especially
B1. You need to repair the brain first and the
B vitamin groups are all brain food. Hell, i still take B vitamins every day and i take a good amount too. When the brain is functioning correctly, you can think through the process of drinking again and the B vitamins help the brain to think right.
A high-grade protein powder is also extremely important when getting sober. Find one that has a lot of amino acids because the amino acids are how the brain controls the levels of neurotransmitters.
Here and
here. Addicts have a chemical imbalance which is why we/they continue to seek out a way to alter those chemicals to make the person feel
normal.
I will not bad-mouth AA because even if it helps 1 dude stay sober, its working but AA is not for me. There are many other groups you can go to and I would go to them all until you find the right one. Never know, AA might be the one for you. Personally, I found 3 that I enjoyed: Refuge Recovery - a Buddhist approach to getting and staying sober, Life-Ring - a secular approach to getting and staying sober and, SMART Recovery - an educational approach to getting and staying sober. Personally, I enjoyed Refuge and SMART. I have read so much medical information about alcohol and addiction that I could get a job in the field. lol.
Refuge Recovery is very difficult to do while new to being sober as there is a lot of mediation involved and, when getting off alcohol, clearing the mind and sitting still is impossible and might not work until you are done with
Post Acute Withdrawl Syndrome - if you go through that phase or not but it usually happens for heavy drinkers. For me, I had it for almost a year and it sucked ass but I was so determined to stay sober that I tried the mediation every day after about 2 months of being sober and the B vitamins and amino acids help to get the brain through PAWS.
I have no idea if you are interested in staying off alcohol forever or just getting sober for a while but I know of numerous people who have 1 or 2 months every year where they lay off the sauce, just to keep it under control. For me, I cannot drink, at all. Yeah sure, I will be drinking like a 'normy' for a few weeks or months but it always catches up with me.
There is a really good documentary on alochol abuse called,
Pleasure Unwoven that can help explain a lot of what being an addict is. It might help. Anyways, good luck dude.