A Decade Without a Drink | Hacker News Reader

A Decade Without a Drink

eieio.games

34 pointsLorenDB11 comments

For seven-plus years, I was addicted to opioids and amphetamines. And then, sort of like OP, one day I just had enough of all that — and I stopped.[1]

That was two-and-a-half years ago, and my life has been enormously better since. I spent all day today skiing. I have no idea what I did three years ago today, but I doubt it was much more than a lot of heroin and methamphetamine. Four years ago today, same thing. Five years ago today, same thing. It doesn’t feel real, but it happened.

Just wanted to chime in with another voice saying that if you want to turn your life around, it’s possible.

[1] I take physician-prescribed buprenorphine every day, and I expect that to continue for the rest of my life.

I'm glad we have so many people willing to talk about their experiences. No shame. Just wanting everyone to get better. Thank you for sharing.

    Delerium tremens can kill you

True. They claimed my best friend's dad but it was a long path getting there. He was the most extreme alcoholic I ever knew, went into DTs many times.

Three anecdotes: Piles of steel schlitz cans taller than 8yo me, long conversations with the screen dot after turning off the b/w TV - and for reasons I still don't understand he preferred Listerine during his final years.

I've seen the Listerine thing on Native American Reservations quite often when I was younger. I was told it was because you could buy it even after hours but now that I'm thinking of it that might not be true. It was usually reserved only for the super desperate.

So, I decided to google it... seems like that's the most common reason. Accessible, cheap. Or back in the day it used to be cheap.

https://bluffsrehab.com/is-drinking-mouthwash-a-sign-of-alco...

In the post-COVID world we have, it may be easier to find a place that sells beer and wine late at night than a place that sells Listerine.

(Or at least around here in my part of the States, where things like grocery stores were commonly open 24/7 prior to spring of 2020 and now close no later than midnight...while the convenience store on the corner will still cheerfully sell a bottle of whatever until 1:00AM, and will resume selling at 5:30AM.)

I see the same thing here. Also mouthwash is more expensive now than it was when I was growing up. More than inflation can account for.

Edit: Found a really good discussion about it on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/alcoholism/comments/1cyuf2j/drinkin...

Noticed was the same author of the every UUID link that came up a few days ago. Very inspirational story as I'm struggling to quit alcohol as well. My addiction isn't anywhere near as bad as his level was but it's bad enough that I do want to change.

Hopefully someone else reads this and gets inspiration as well.

just want to send you some moral support.

I have more than two years of sobriety already, time flies incredibly fast.

if it will get hard, keep reminding yourself that even this worse feeling is still better than being drunk. at least it helped to me and then lows became much smaller over time.

it gets better!

Thank you for your kind words. I need to just get off my ass and get to an AA meeting already.

Thank you for sharing, you're words are inspirational. I need pushes like that to get me to try AA.

I struggle with marijuana addiction (well, disassociate addiction and MJ is my goto) and I have a huge amount of respect for folks that made it through addictions to hard drugs (I very much consider alcohol a hard drug). You make my plight seem manageable.

Tangentially - 'Infinite Jest' is an amazing portrail of addiction and mental health issues.

This article is really touching, for reasons that I'm not super clear on. I've never struggled with addiction -- at least, not in a traditional sense, but, reading this nearly brought me to tears several times.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com