Barry’s Review Of Stop Drinking Expert
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your work. I have been watching many of your videos on youtube, and really appreciate the vast array of special topics you cover.
They are all quite applicable and practical for people trying to rid alcohol from their lives. Also, I can definitely tell you used to be a drinker because the things you say in your videos could only be understood by someone who went through it themselves.
My story with alcohol would be like many others. I am from southwest Iowa in the United States and grew up in a small town of about 6,000 people.
My drinking started in high school, with the first time being when my friend and I each stole a couple beers from our parents and tried drinking.
From there, it was viewed as a fun way to being a rebel.
I was a popular student in my class, one of the best athletes, and one of the top students academically. I was used to being successful and popular, at being the best, and viewed my new found interest in drinking as just another thing to be the best at.
My friends and I were quickly excelling at hosting large underage drinking parties at various places around town and out in the country.
While this was of course fun and thrilling for an adolescent, the drinking came along with its unfortunate side effects. My drinking at that stage would probably be classified as binge drinking and thrill-seeking.
I wrecked my pickup one night in high school on the way home, and the terribly gut-wrenching aspect of the incident was that I wrecked into a rural cemetery about 3 or 4 miles from my parent’s house.
It was a long, terrible night and will live with me forever.
I’ll never forget it.
I quit drinking for some time after that. It was not until going off to college that my heavy binge drinking started back up again.
I consistently drank 2 to 4 nights a week in college for four years. There were a few times I laid off for a week or two, but for the most part, it was consistent with binge drinking and social drinking.
After college, I again had trouble with alcohol. Two more incidents happened. One was after graduating from college, back in my hometown.
A few friends and I were out binge drinking and a physical altercation happened between my friends and a group of men from another town.
One of the men had a ring on his hand and happened to punch me a few times which caused a part of the end of my nose to be cut off.
It was a long, terrible night.
I demanded my friend take me home, my parents were awoken in the middle of the night to a scene of drunken stupidity and injury. My mother was crying, my dad took me to the hospital. It was terrible.
My friend, seeing the chaos and my mother crying, drove back to one of the adversaries’ houses which was only a few miles from my parent’s house (I didn’t know this at the time, but my friend was familiar with the person).
He ended up getting in another altercation where he was literally beat to an unrecognizable pulp. My mother called my father and me while we were on the way to the emergency room and said my friend had come back to my parent’s house and was now being tended to by my mother.
He had gotten blood all over the furniture and was in a terrible, drunken shape.
A drunken mess
He later had to have eye surgery on his eyes, because he had previously had laser eye surgery to correct his vision.
Unfortunately, the doctors could not use pain medicine during his surgery. he said it was the most terrible thing he had ever gone through… about a half a day of non-medicated laser surgery on his eyes.
I thought this episode would cure me of drinking. I had just graduated from college with excellent grades and had recently landed a great job.
I was actually set to fly to California that the next day, which was the reason for my friends and me to go out the night before and ‘celebrate’.
I vowed to my parents I would quit drinking and told myself I would as well.
Unfortunately, about 3 months later I was alone in my new apartment on a Saturday night and chose to go out drinking. (After watching your videos, I just wanted to ‘turn off that annoying, overworking voice inside my head’).
I got arrested for driving while intoxicated on the way home.
It was another bullet point on the growing list of episodes I had had with alcohol.
I was about 23 years old at this time.
Today I am 30. I have not had any major problems like the ones described above since then, but I have not yet kicked the alcohol habit.
I quit drinking for about 6 to 8 months after my driving arrest.
Since then, the drinking has been fairly consistent with periodic spans of ‘quitting drinking’. I slowly drifted back into my old habits of drinking while at social events (and typically overdoing it), and then started to add casual drinking at home as a new habit.
While I have not had run-ins with the law or other severe episodes to point to, I still find myself ashamed when I drink and especially when I drink ‘too much’.
I really think my years from about 21 to 30 could be classified as consistently wanting and trying to quit drinking, but never really stopping for good. I would stop for brief time periods, especially in the aftermath of some sort of tragedy.
Like I said, I am 30 years old now.
My drinking in the past year could be best described as:
Drinking at social events, with about 50% to 75% of the time drinking way too much and being hungover. Once I start, I find it difficult to stop.
Buying a 6 pack about 2 to 3 times per week, and drinking after work and on the weekends.
Buying a drink or two at dinner if my girlfriend and I are out on the town or on a date. This is a new one.
I believe it is because I have a great job and have the money to do so. I now will buy 1 or 2 nice drinks, say a martini, at a nice restaurant. Problem is, these drinks can cost anywhere from $6 to $10 each.
In the past year, I have overdone the drinking about 3 or 4 times such that I had a tremendous hangover the day after or even a few days after.
The binge drinking is less frequent but when it happens, it is like I got ran over by a truck. I am literally useless the next day and unable to cope with anything.
THE GOOD NEWS:
I have been watching your videos for about a week but had also been watching other videos prior to that as well. I am about 13 days from the last time I drank, and I feel great.
I am actually about 30 days in to ‘drinking less’ (trying to stop, but have a few beers on a family vacation, and then a binge night two weekends ago at my friend’s house where he and I drank way too much.).
So, in the last 30 days, I have stopped buying six packs and have stopped drinking at home completely, with the few instances being ‘social’ in nature where I have drunk.
I have started back with a class in my online master’s program in Economics, through Purdue. I am 100% convinced that my drinking has to stop in order for me to be successful in this endeavor.
I cannot afford to have a cloudy mind, and the time wasted drinking and then dealing with a hangover is simply not affordable with the time commitments I have from school and work.
Ready for success
This coursework is extremely rigorous and challenging and is testing my capabilities. The way I would describe it is that I am treating this as an athletic event or athletic preparation. My mind has to be functioning at top capacity for this to work, and I cannot afford to have alcohol dumbing me down and wasting my time.
Craig, your videos have been an excellent resource in pointing out new ways of thinking about alcohol, and also in confirming things I have already thought. Peer pressure is one of the biggest things I have always struggled with. If I had a dollar for every time I was pressured to drink, I would be rich.
My friends were literally concerned about me at various times because of my LACK of drinking and me refusing to drink with them, even though I was with them at a party!
Your videos are spot on. The peer pressure was relentless, my trying to stop was such a contrast to my past behavior (the leader of the drinkers), that they thought I needed help because I was NOT drinking.
So sad, so very sad.
Anyhow, thanks for all you do and I am going to keep watching. I am determined to shed alcohol completely from my life. I am 100% not ashamed to quit drinking. I have drunk enough in this lifetime for 10 people and have experienced all that “alcohol has to offer” and then some.
I want to be successful and make the most of this time I have on earth. I was blessed to be born into an amazing family, have above average intelligence and ability, and damn it I want to use my brain and not kill it! I also want to manage my fitness and treat my body with respect, not poison it with alcohol.
Alcohol has no place in my life and has nothing to offer for the things I am determined to accomplish.
Thanks, Craig
Bary (Name Changed
For more information on how to stop drinking with Craig’s help click here.
