Anyone drink 4-5 bottles of wine per week and how is your health ?

[fartoobig]

Mid forties. Just wondering g if it impacts you? I enjoy wine as it brings me back to when I was really happy.
I am Going through immense stress and sadness now.
No hangovers but feel mildly better on days where I haven't had wine the night before .

Maybe she just told you that.

I write reports on people's health for agencies like the DVLA, there is usually a section for them to fill in themselves. I am constantly astounded about how many people consider themselves " in good health" when looking at their medicL records would suggest anything but.

I used to drink that in my 20s and early 30s, and I would have classed myself as a heavy/problem drinker. I now drink a fraction of that and it's still too much (for me). Any more than one glass and I feel shit the next day. Am currently having a month off booze and although I will miss it as I love a cold glass of wine, my body will thank me

I drank significantly more than that when I was drinking. No long term health effects (as far as I know at this point), but I’m much happier and have much more energy now that I don’t drink. There are lots of people who are AF now and lots of other drink options.

If you can cut back to once or twice a week, that’s certainly better. But I definitely wasn’t a bottle of wine once or twice a week person! It had to be all or nothing. I’ve found lots of support for stopping. And actually it’s incredibly common that women decide to quit around peri/menopause.

There's a great book called Alcohol Explained. Goes into the detail of what alcohol does to your body including your brain. Much of it we never learn before alcohol is introduced to our lives - if we did l, I doubt many of us would start...

As a PP said, since I gave up alcohol there's nothing that I miss from it. It is freedom, honestly I hope you're ok and that the things causing you stress abate.

My exhusband drank that much every week . His body got so used to it he could behave as if he was entirely sober. He needed to drink more and more to get the high. He ended up unable to manage without it. He had to have his gall bladder removed because of excruciating pancreatitis. He became an alcoholic. He has lost our marriage and the 2 children from it. He has lost his second marriage and the child from it

Thanks to one and all for your replies.
Sobering information for want of a better word.
I am a single mother withthree children with different special needs .

My husband traded me in for a younger model because he had no interest in our life but remained the gross sex pest he always was.
Definitely one less stressor but horribly humiliating, lonely and overwhelming at best. He is not involved in our childrens lives.

I am trapped. I have no support but great friends.

I work full time. It's my saviour. I am home
From four everyday . Dread the evenings.
I can't go out or do anything unless it involves major planning , so I have my old friend with me, my wine.

I get a sense of happiness when I have my first glass. I visibly relax and get excited about things . My mood improves immeasurably . I feel warm and normal and funny and interesting again.

The world and the future looks bright.
I then watch something on tv or have texts with friend. The old me is back.
I dont believe it's an addiction per se. It is a bad bad habit that brings me great joy temporarily. I stop for three or four nights and then have wine for the next four or five maybe . A couple of nights off it here and there. At night only .

I sleep so well afterwards but I too am three stone overweight... I've nothing to lose . Or so I thought
.
I've no great interest on style or beauty anymore and was once lovely and attractive.
I still groom well and dress well. None of my friends or colleagues know my dirty habit .

So this evening I went out and bought six two litres of sparkling water and my favourite cordial and am here with a lovely drink and an expensive facial oil in that I used to keep for special occasions.
This thread has taught me that I am only going one way with this and dying is not an option.
I have nobody to mind my children .
Thanks folks .

So sorry you're sad OP, I'm sending huge hugs but please remember that alcohol is a depressant, that initial buzz will leave you with a sad and empty feeling the next day whether you realise it or not.

I come from a family of alcoholics, functioning ones.

My Nan used to drink a bottle of wine a night and literally woke up jaundiced one morning and found it difficult to wee. She went to A&E and she was diagnosed with cirrhosis, after 3 days in hospital, they told my Grandad and her children/grandchildren to make the most of spending time with her at visits as she wouldn't see the month out. She did. She never touched a drink again and lived another 15 years. She was 53 when that happened.

My Mum WAS functioning up until about 4 months ago. She's 54 this year and her muscles started getting weak last year, she's gone from working and driving to barely being able to walk up stairs, not working and has given up driving. It's muscle wastage from the alcohol. She won't give up. She insists she hasn't got a problem although she drinks a bottle of vodka every night and has done since i was tiny.

My Uncle got so bad that they sectioned him and he drank the alcohol sanitiser and he went blind.

I barely touch it, as you can probably imagine I have quite a lot of trauma from when I was younger and going through all this. I did the partying in my late teens and early 20s but now, I probably have 3 or 4 drinks a year. If that. What I do know is, when I was going out drinking with friends, I'd suffer terribly the next day with my anxiety and feeling down.

Please consider cutting back or giving up, there is a lot of support out there ♥️

'So this evening I went out and bought six two litres of sparkling water and my favourite cordial and am here with a lovely drink and an expensive facial oil in that I used to keep for special occasions.'

Well done you. That is a HUGE step in the direction of better health, better sleep, proper rest and really taking care of yourself.

You may need to replace the wine with something else to look forward to in the evenings. Some ideas might be a nightly bath, some good books, new TV shows or films to get stuck into, doing an online yoga or stretch session, or anything else that might appeal and that really gives you a break and a rest. What a huge amount you have been dealing with recently x

I feel so proud of you OP! Reading your last paragraph really made me well up and your children will always need you. I'm gutted at age 29, I know my Mum won't make it another 5 years due to her drinking. It fills me with sadness.

You probably can't see it but your ex Husband sounds like an absolutely disgusting man and you and your children deserve better/are better without him! More fool him, you sound like a lovely person.

Are there any kind of respite charities that could help you with the children? I can't imagine how hard it is to look after 3 disabled children on my own.

I hope that you start to see that you're worth SO much more than drinking yourself into an early grave, look after yourself xx

I'd never put my dbro as an alcoholic but he probably drank every day, pubs etc.
He died of liver failure last year, mid 50s. Literally went in 10 days.

Sorry to hear this, you have got a to of crap on your plate to deal with. Your ex is a cretin but you know that - best rid. It is hard when you are in the thick of it, but it will change - it is impossible for anything to stay the same.

If you can I really, really recommend seeking out some form of group support in your community. There are many types, peer support groups for mental health (they will have no criteria for joining, they will not ask for any type of history and will be set up as a non judgmental safe space), women’s groups, some groups just get together for coffee and a chat. Sport in Mind are great, if they have groups near you - again very welcoming, non judgmental and safe spaces sometimes sessions are frew or around a quid. I can’t tell you the difference doing something like this can make - there is no stigma and i guarantee you will meet some lovely people. Have a look at therapy or counseling - you can access NHS talking therapies without a GP referral, you just request it online via the talking therapies website.

Really hope you start to move forwards without depending on alcohol, you can do it.

I was drinking that much in lockdown if not more. It just seemed normal to have a couple of glasses with dinner then finish the bottle in front of the telly with some snacks! Every night.

I had a wake up call as got ill, found I had gallstones and the gallstones scan showed liver damage.

I had some marks on my liver in the scan which they thought were scarring, or fibrosis.

I then was told to stop drinking and lose weight.

I stopped completely, took up running and lost 3 stone.

I had to wait almost 6 months for a fibroscan to find out the extent of the damage. Pretty much the worse 6 months ever.

In that time, I made huge lifestyle changes so by the time I got to my fibroscan my liver had actually completely recovered and thee were no signs of fibrosis.

The consultant thought the original scan was showing inflammation from alcohol. Stopping drinking was the best thing I've done for my health.

I wish I had realised earlier how good it feels to be fit, strong and not totally hung over all the time.

By the way, my gallstones pain also resolved due to the changes and I've been signed off by both my liver and gastro consultants.

Good luck

I can hear your pain, OP, in your message and can understand that the wine feels like a little bit of escape - as you say, you get your old self back. I used to be the same way, probably drank even more than you, and for many of the same reasons. But all it really did was create anxiety, make me lose motivation and bring on all kinds of random health problems.

What brought the need to quit home to me was when my GP said, 'it's not just your liver I'm worried about, it's your brain'. What alcohol can do to every organ of the body is frankly horrifying.

I ran up the stairs in my house today when I realised I'd forgotten something in my bedroom. I haven't had the energy/strength to do that in years, but now, effortlessly, I do.

You do have a lot on and a lot of shit. The thing is, and I couldn’t see it either when I was drinking, drink doesn’t help with any of that. It’s a trap and a fallacy. I had been in turmoil over my drinking for years, and one day I just had an epiphany that this was not a treat, or my friend, but it was self harm. And I stopped.

Do you still have shit to deal with when sober - yes. But drink doesn’t make the shit better. All that happens is you have the shit and the worry of drinking on top.

there is lots of support, Insta, here, quit lit, facebook, podcasts, and of course, AA. AA was not my thing but there’s no denying how amazing an organisation it is.

I've been drinking at least this amount and I know I need to stop. It's not that easy though. It's not just about stopping drinking alcohol. It's about all the other mental health issues that lead us to reach for the bottle of wine every night

I've been listening to loads of podcasts on my drive to and from work. I'm currently really enjoying sober stories with sassy sober mum. On the one I listened to today the person who was telling their story said how important it is to understand why you drink, and that really resonated with me.

I think that counselling would really help me to understand and deal with the reasons why I'm currently drinking so much. I'm considering having some sessions but it feels like such a big step.

Exercise and podcasts are definitely helping me. I went for a run tonight and I won't drink tonight. I'm going to get into my pyjamas soon and watch Race Across the World and get an early night. I am just taking one day at a time, that's all I feel I can do at the moment

I had a fairly colourful student life and early 20s with the partying…. And I simply cannot believe you are fully functional drinking that much wine each week. For the love of god, knock it back to a 4-5 glasses between Friday-Sunday (which is still a generous alcohol intake)

That’s all you have to do. Just don’t drink today. I couldn’t envisage 2 days without a drink but as of now I’ve had coming up for 2 years of todays. I don’t recognise that person filled with anxiety, hatred, self loathing, bitterness, guilt and shame sitting on the sofa pouring wine down my neck every night. It seems weird that was ever me.

Self medicating with alcohol may well be making your MH issues worse.

I was “lucky” in that my drinking was not borne of trauma or a need to escape or anything like that, not to say I never later used it for those things. It was just a habit to start which because alcohol is addictive became an addiction. My triggers were boredom when my kids were upstairs after I’d had a day of parenting which can be tough sometimes and my husband was working. I removed the triggers for drinking in the early days and sat in the kitchen building Lego and doing jigsaws!

Well done OP!! You're making a great choice for yourself.

There's a lovely thread on MN in the alcohol support of Talk, in the health category, that's for women who have chosen to become alcohol free. I haven't actually posted on it yet, ha, but I lurk on it because the women there are really supportive of one another. You might want to check it out.

I've struggled for years now with alcohol dependency. There have been periods of my life when I was drinking as much as you, or slightly more, or slightly less. And there have periods of my life when I've been sober, which I am now. And sobriety, once you settle into it, is just so much better in every way.

for everything you've been through. I hope you can find ways to take care of yourself and relax. The cordial and face oil sound like a great start.

I meant to say, the alcohol support section of Talk

Its too much and the reason you are drinking is really unhealthy. Could you look for some help with other ways of managing stress?

So sorry, OP, my bad for not reading the thread. Good for you. Can you get some counselling through your local IAPT service or GP? May be a place to get some extra support or ideas for yourself? Sounds really tough right now, might be nice to have someone neutral to talk to about it all.

Have you tried joining Frolo the single parents community? Nothing to do with drinking but maybe some great friendships and support for you - for instance lots of online evening meets you could attend

It is a lot to drink but I drank similar if not more during lockdown, some nights I'd clear two bottles

Good work tonight OP! You will not regret making the change!