AIBU to drink as much as I do

[anotherusernameblah]

I have changed name blah blah blah

I work really hard. Really hard. I am well compensated. I earn c. £300 K a year. I enjoy my work. I love it.

I also have a 1 year old and a 3 year old. I am married. And most nights I drink at least a bottle of wine. And I love it. It allows me to tune out and turn off from my ludicrously busy life. Most days I can't stop to go to the toilet. That's not just a throw away example of a supposedly busy person. I actually can't take 1-2 minutes to go to the toilet. I don't eat during the day. I just try and juggle and keep body and soul together until the work day ends.

And then I have a drink.

But I can see that I am dependent. And I can't seem to stop it. I have no intention of drip feeding. I'll answer any questions etc. but I wonder AIBU or is this just a reasonable trade off for the business I do.

*expensive hobbies

Can't name check everyone. But this really has been a wake up call. Thank you all.

I'm going to find the dry Jan thread and get started.

OP, I noticed that you said you drink at least a bottle of wine each night. Is it signifiantly more? Is it a high proof wine?
I'm going to suggest you have a word with your gp as well, because I think you might find withdrawal a little bit difficult physically. Your body has got used to quite a lot of alcohol.

Sorry op, you said at least a bottle of wine most nights. Don't want to misquote you

"Can't tell you the amount of nights I have sworn never to drink again…."

This says it all really.

What kind of support can you access to help you with the drinking?

There was a really interesting little article by Dr Mark Porter in The Times (the paywall is such a shame in these sort of circs) talking abou drinking. It basically said that while the NHS limits were quite right, doctors kept in their heads another threshold - for women iirc it was 30 units / weeks - beyond which it was a question of when not if you would irretrievably damage your liver. If a bottle of wine is 9 units you are having 63 units a week - twice that. I really would go to your GP and ask for a checkup. You have children; you don't want your partner to be in Howard's position (I'm so very sorry, Howard ) - and if damage has already happened, you need to know what you're dealing with. For your children's sake, if not yours.

Re the job - I think a lot of people who make bad health choices try to find something unusual about themselves to explain why other people are not doing what they are doing...

Good luck, OP, there are two long-running threads in Relationships as well that you might want to take a look at: Brave Babes (for people who want to give up drinking or drink more moderately) and Dry (for people who want to give up). You're certainly not alone in being a busy, high-achieving woman who has fallen into using drink as a crutch.

Can I just add that not eating all day is no good for alcohol cravings - I find that if my blood sugar is low, the wine goes down far far too easily and feels even better when it hits the spot.

how's things, OP ?