Hi Twin.  Well I'm sure no expert on this subject.  All I know is what I've seen in my hubby and in others in his family.  When I first met hubby, he seemed to be able to hold his liquor pretty well.  It wasn't a problem back then.  We'd go out, drink, have fun, no problem.  Then we got married and I began having problems with it.  I'd get upset, which in turn caused him to get upset, he'd drink more, the arguing/fights would start.  Ugh.  After I joined Al-Anon I worked on changing my reactions, and those almost daily arguments went to where I can count them on one hand over the past 2 and a half years.  Progress in a good way.  As for how his drinking affects him... well I did notice after he cut down some on his drinking, that after a while his tolerance level went backwards.  He was getting drunk on less.  Like he used to be able to drink a fifth with hardly any outside affect.... now that really is noticeable when he does.  The biggest thing I see is how it is affecting his mind.  He used to do computer programming consulting.  He can't do that anymore.  He can't concentrate long enough, remember things, etc.  He has more black outs these days.  He recently had an incident where he got drunk and broke (major spider web cracking) the windshield of a semi with his foot (he called me at the time so drunk I could barely understand him to tell me about it)... in the morning he called me again and said "you won't believe this sh*t..someone broke my window"... he didn't remember it at all.  When I told him of his phone call the night before he got real quiet then said "I'm losing my mind". 

I think progression might be different for each.  For some their body goes first, for others it may be their mind, for others maybe both at the same time.   I don't know.  Mine can still go up to a week without drinking, whereas for someone else that would put them right into detox and the dt's. 

I hope he gets into recovery soon, not ready to lose him anytime soon.

Luv, Kis

twinmom2 wrote:

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 Does age and length of time a person drinks cause the progression, and the person to want more alcohol?

********I don't believe age has much to do with it.  The length of time a person drinks or uses definately has a lot to do with it.  This disease progresses even if a person has stopped drinking/using.  That's why working a program of recovery is so important.  That's also why at times you'll see someone who has abstained from their drug of choice for years who hasn't worked any type of recovery program......when they start using again they pick up exactly where they left off in their disease.  That's because no true healing or recovery has taken place, just abstaining or soDriety.  (versus soBriety when a person is actually in recovery working a program)

You asked:

Is it building up a tolerance to the average quantity they used to drink that causes them to drink more to get the effects? 

*****This is definately another part of it.  You do build up a tolerance to whatever substance you are abusing.  In time you need to take more or drink more in order to get the same effect you're looking for. 

I could tell you stories about my husbands addiction and how it has progressed over the years but that would be sharing *his* ES&H.  Instead I'll share with you my personal experience with addiction.

When my last son was born two years ago yesterday I was sent home with a prescription of a narcotic pain medication called percocet.  I took it as prescribed.  At the time my husband had a friend who used to work with him and this main was addicted in the past to heroin and any other type of opiate (such as percocet)  Long story short he was hounding me for some of my pills.  I was really appalled by this at the time.  I told him how dare you ask me for something I need for pain from a ceserean surgery I just had for you to get high on??  I told him I didn't even understand how he could get high off these pills since I didn't feel anything from them such as that.  He told me.......When you are no longer in pain take two and THEN tell me what you think of them.

I've never been one to experiment much with drugs.  A few weeks after this conversation I remember being so frustrated with my husband/A and just having an all around bad day.  For some unGodly reason his friends words kept playing in my head about those pills.  I wasn't scaired to take them since they were prescribed for me and I had already taken them.  Foolishly I took two this day.  Well now I knew what his friend was talking about how they would affect me differently when I wasn't in pain.  Within a half hour of taking them I felt so great!  I had this fuzzy type feeling going on in my head, all my aches and pains were gone and I had a tremendous amount of energy.  

Shortly after my son was born my husband got injured at work and required surgery.  They sent him home with what else but a huge script of percocet.  This began my experience with addiction.  I started taking one 5 milligram pill every other night.  I considered this my *me time*.  My time to relax, watch a movie and just enjoy this feeling I got from them.

Here we are two years to the day later and I am now up to 60-70 milligrams a day.  That's how quickly and easily this disease can progress.

I would be happy to share more with you privately if you'd like to pm or email me at kathysctc@yahoo.com 

I hope this helps some.

Kathy

There are definately varying degrees to the progression and the physical result.
My A is kind of like Kis's. He started our with beer, progressed to vodka, lots of it, but then his liver (probably) wasn't able to tolerate it and he drank less, but got more drunk. He drank about a pint of vodka a day (after work) and would pass out for the night until the next morning. I hear people talking about drinking 5ths and it amazes me.
The liver hardens after time and cannot process the same amount of alcohol.
The man you spoke of probably didn't have Parkinsons or the DT's. It is just the result to the nervous system and brain of mega drinking.

I used to care for a man in a nursing home that was in his late 40's. He was in the Alszheimers unit with what they call "wet brain". He was truly out of it, wore diapers, could get physical, no thought process beyon a sentence. Very sad.

My own husband had bronchitis, for 3 days he didn't drink because he was sick. He started shaking and hallucinating on day 3..his body physically was screaming for the alcohol. All hell broke lose after that finally resulting in renal failure. His body reacted severely to not getting the alcohol it was used to.

The liver is an amazing organ and one of the few that can repair itself to a certain extent.

Christy

He made it through a month in the hospital is 62 days sober today :0

Hi Twinmom

This is a question that I grapple with also...

My husband seems to be some kind of superman as he drinks more than most people I have ever heard of and still manages to work numerous jobs and go to the gym daily.

He is a genius (literally) and thinks he has figured it all out.

He has done tons of research into alcoholism and has found out that most scientists think that 'wet brain" is caused by a vitamin B deficiency as the alcholic ceases to eat well and mostly just drink in the later stages.  So he makes sure to eat a super healthy diet to avoid that.

He has also done extensive research into protective herbs for the liver.

That man should truly be a case study...

He drives miles to far away stores to stock up on high alcohol content malt liquor.  What he buys has ten percent alcohol.  He can drink a GALLON of this in one morning (no exagerration, I used to count up the ounces in all of those bottles and convert before I learned to detach).  He would pass out, sleep for a few hours then wake up and drink ANOTHER gallon.  Then does it again the next day.  He stays totally drunk and out of comission most weekends.  He used to drink every single day after work too, but has recently skipped a few weekdays in his efforts to "please me" and work on the marriage.   He goes to the doctor and gets raving reviews...all blood work normal, cholesterol of a healthy teenager, blood pressure optimum...weight optimum...he is 6 foot 3 inches 199 pounds of pure solid muscle (remember, he works out daily for nearly two hours).

Well, whatever regimine he has used his genius to figure out is working great!

I don't really get into it, but to observe him he takes milk thistle everyday (supposed to protect the liver from damage due to drinking), a multivitamin, fish oil, and a B complex vitamin.

He drinks 2 quarts of pure water a day to avoid dehydration.

He eats a VERY healthy diet, no junk food at all.  He drinks a quart of water for breakfast, then for lunch has a can of salmon and some broccoli, then the healthy balanced dinner that I always make for us.  A side salad, usually some sort of fish, and homemade mashed potatoes with skins.  No eating in between meals and no junk or candy.

This is not some fad or health kick he is on, this is the way he ALWAYS takes care of himself. He does not ever lapse from this.  He may add things as he does more research, like the B complex vitamin, but never ever drops any of his good habits or lets them lapse.

He is around 40 and has been an extremely heavy drinker for 25 years, since early teens.  I have seen him go for YEARS drinking a 12 pack and a 1/2 of malt liqour every single day without fail, for nearly a decade and still do fine physically.

He is still doing great, able to hold down a full time job, besides a part time job.  These are all professional level "thought intensive" jobs.  He manages to do them alright.

To sum this up, this is still an experiment going on.  I thought when he started it that it was a bunch of bunk, but now am not so sure.  I thought for sure his heavy drinking would catch up with him, but so far it has not. 

He seems to be right, he seems to be able to drink almost anyone I have ever heard of under the table, still have perfect robust health, still stay motivated to be in perfect physical shape, and still maintain his very high profile jobs (he has been on the local news numerous times). 

So I suppose you could say that the progression of the disease depends on a lot of factors, like any other disease.  The overall health of a person matters, as does their daily health habits.  If someone already does not take care of themselves and is overweight and has a junky diet, well, drinking is certainly not going to make that situation better.  Especially as they get older and their health breaks down anyway.

Time will tell I guess, but so far my husband's experiment is working...

Isabela