Am I am alcoholic? Stomach pains, bloating, etc.

I know I drink too much but find it hard not to. I know the answer is to stop drinking but I don’t think I want too or can.  However I am not sure if I am now feeling bad effects from my drinking and if I should go to the Dr, and would therefore like some advice.
I drink about a quarter to half a bottle of vodka per night with diet coke (on weekends sometimes a full bottle or more, depending on company).  This has been going on for 6 years. With a short stint (1 year) of drinking during the day on most days.  Previous to my drinking I had a short stint (4 months) of crack cocaine use.  Previous to that I was a heroin addict for 8 years (mainly smoking it on foil, short stint of injecting). I smoke about 20-30 cigarettes per day.  I don’t eat healthy.  I drink around 3 cups of tea per day and 1 can of diet coke, all the rest is alcohol.
Now I have written it all down I know it sounds SO bad and I know your first message is going to be “stop drinking!” but is there anything else wrong with me?
My problems are as follows:  my stomach looks as if I am 5-6 months pregnant (even though I don’t eat the most healthy diet, the weight is all around the stomach and looks like a baby), pain in ribs on left hand side approx 5 days out of 7, trouble having a poo (having to take laxatives quite a lot and then have diarrhoea), lots of wind, stomach pain on most days, mood swings, recent period of 6 months of irregular periods (every 2 weeks), feeling tired/not sleeping.

Any advice gratefully received.  Thanks.

[narla]

First I won't tell you to stop drinking only you can make that decision.

You need to see a doctor and have a full blood work done,but you need to tell your doctor,so he knows exactly what to check for.Make sure you tell him everything,that's why they are there.
Good Luck

Denise

[Teetime4u]

With what you are describing it sounds a lot like an ulcer. I am not a doctor but I do have ulcers and what you are describing is the same thing I went through. You really need to get checked for this, its nothing to play with. I almost bled out from one. As far as your drinking only you can make that decision to stop but if you do have an ulcer, drinking is a really bad idea!! Good luck to you on what ever you do. And God Bless!

[rod44]

Well you said you "don’t think I want too or can" stop drinking, If you cant stop then you have a problem. You need to get help, take narla's advice & talk to your Family Doctor, be honest with them about your drinking & drug use.
you have misused/abused drugs & alcohol and your body is crying out enough.

Get help, this is not going to get better until you do.

[ibizan]

the distended belly u describe in relation to all the alcohol u describe u r consuming may be your liver telling you its had enough!A complete bloodwork panel with liver enzyme numbers will tell u the full story.Cirrohsis and pancreatitis brought on by heavy drinking is most painful as it progresses.

[Scott_Tanner]

Hi Nicky, I was drinking as much as 1/2 of a .75 Liter bottle of gin each night for years until two days ago when I quit. So far so good. Basically I just got tired of feeling like hell and decided to quit. I figure life is too short to spend every day trying to recover from hang over again and again and again.

Strangely enough I've always been into working out and a healthy diet despite my alcohol abuse. I used what I learned about diet to try to mitigate some of the damage I knew I must be doing to my body but I was only fooling myself. Still, I think that knowledge helped me the road to sobriety and I think some of what I learned my help you.

Out of all you had to say in your post one unstated fact jumped out at me. You must be dehydrated all the time. Drinking lots of water, like 8 big tumblers of water per day, may help you to feel better and may help relieve some of your constipation problems. Alcohol robs your body of water and your body need water to make bowel movements. So drink lots of water because your not getting it in the vodka. Your loosing it because of the vodka.

Along the way to making my decision to quit drinking I learned over the years I have some serious dietary issues. I'm gluten intolerant, lactose intolerant and allergic to eggs. These things only compounded how lousy and helpless I felt but I attributed it all to hang over from alcohol abuse.

Identifying these dietary issues and making the changes I needed to make to my diet actually helped to clear my head enough to take the next big step in dietary change - eliminating alcohol from my diet. Many people don't understand that food intolerance actually affect you mood and outlook on life. And my egg allergy would make me feel very irritable at times. Oh, dehydration will also make you feel irritable and even depressed, fyi.

I hope you find this information helpful. I hope I haven't overwhelmed you. But I believe that dealing with addition successfully requires considering more than the intoxicant itself. I believe that caring for your body is the same as caring for your mind.

God bless!

[myself_togo]

Dear Scott,

I am just browsing through all these blogs and web sites and by incident read your comment. Thank you for taking so much time and making such effort in responding. I think that you have given a very thoughtful, helpful and caring response.
I thank you on behalf of so many people that are concerned with this problem.

Unfortunately it comes down to the fact that drinking on long terms makes one feel lonely,  physically unfit, depressed etc. But it will not help to say :stop drinking. I think it helps a lot to reduce drinking gradually by realizing that it should be an occasional habbit.