quix - MS symptoms vs alcoholism

[wadeheather]

OK, folks, here's the honesty that I have forbidden to emerge = I twitch, I jerk, I tingle.  I love rum.  I started drinking to try to escape the headaches that I couldn't escape for two years. The headaches stopped. Then I just wanted to sleep. No matter what, my friend Bacardi has helped.  I'm a little scared that everything that I have been trying to escape has been self inflicted.  I can't blame the sleep disorders on rum. I can, however, be scared that I have hurt myself. I've never admitted anything, but my husband has noted my dependency since the headaches began. Am I an alcoholic, or am I simply trying to escape the pain of something else???? Some beast that takes over my body, whether it be sleep or neurological I don't know. No matter what, I want to be a pirate in my next life.....(only if Johnny Depp is still captain jack!!)

[Quixotic1]

That took a lot of courage to admit.  And you know that I can't answer your question.  Chronic alcohol use poisons the brain.  It can cause all sorts of neurological problems, including sleep disorders.  The only way to ever tell how much is the alcohol and how much is a different neurological  problem is to remove one of the variables.  Yes, this would mean giving up the friend that is also your greatest enemy.

You suspect that you are an alcoholic.  If you feel you need the rum, you are dependent.  But, the answer does not have to be one or the other.  You may, indeed, have a serious neurological problem that is right there beside the alcohol.  You must seek help for this, because the alcohol alone - over time - will seriously damage your cognitive function.  In medicine we call it a "booze lobotomy."

Your husband has seen the dependency.  Would he support you through this?  I know how frightening it is to deliberately take away the very thing you use to escape pain, but, if you don't things will slide downward from here on out.

We have faced this beast repeatedly in my family and still are.  I know a little of what you are going through.

I want to be a lake otter.

Quix

[supermum_ms]

Only you can really answer that question, but i think if your asking your self that question, the probabilities may be weighted in that direction, sorry to say it but i dont think someone who doesn't drink every day would ever have the thought.

My brother is an alcoholic, he's very open about it, cant stop drinking and he's paying the health price now he's almost 50. He started drinking and smoking pot to try and slow down his thinking, always was a deep thinker and once a thought hit his mind he would be consumed by it until it was replaced by something else. He does have Apserger syndrome and its not uncommon for men his age with Asperger that have never had understanding for their differences to society to self medicate with alcohol or drugs.

My advise would be to stop drinking anyway, stop before the alcohol damages your brain and any other organ it wants to damage. If you cant get through a day with out drinking then you'll know you need help with it. I cant speak with experience, i'm not a drinker, one glass on special occations is about it for me, hard to look at alcohol as not being a danger to your health when i see what its done to my brother.

Take care.....JJ