[Pops]

I'm an alcoholic. Have been since 16 or whenever I had that first beer and decided it made me the life of the party.

I fell down on occasion but generally functioned OK after some rough bouts as a teen. Did a stint in rehab in my 30's when it was fashionable, surprised the heck out of few people. Drinking had an effect on my family I've no doubt but the reason I went in was selfish, I felt personally unsatisfied with my life in general even though I had a good, creative job and good homelife. I figured I'd start there because I obviously met many of the criteria for admission to the club. I learned in rehab that I wasn't responsible for making sure the sun rose in the mornings, that was a relief and helped a little, not to stop drinking tho.

I also learned that the rehab I attended, and likely most others, are just for-profit AA meetings and I'm not much of a Higher Power guy. I resumed drinking after a couple years and continued as before to varying effect up until April fools day 2009 when I stopped, temporarily, so that I would have an easier time giving up smokes. A little later I wound up in the hospital after contracting T1.

Sober since then. I'm not sure abstinence is the only route, but moderation didn't work for me. Not sure whether or not I'd still be drinking had it not been for diabetes but hey, shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth!

Thanks for sharing MD.

* Diabetes is motivating because alcohol stops the liver from making sugar, combined with low blood sugar sorta feeling like a buzz to begin with and it's easy to get in trouble. The problem is passing out then having very low blood sugar which can cause seizures etc and that would be pretty bad for my wife to deal with.)