Very similar. I've known plenty of people where it overlaps. I used to judge the hard stuff addicts. I'd be like, "Well I might be a drunk, but at least I'm not on ____. How does that even happen? Who thinks picking that up at all is a good idea?"
Since I got sober several years back I realized a lot of them were self medicating just like me. For whatever reason their situation just presented a different option than booze and the addiction took hold just like mine.
Makes me feel grateful I didn't have a friend or circumstances or whatever that presented me hard drugs at a vulneranle point in my life. Booze wrecked my life enough. If I'd picked up harder stuff I'm sure I'd be dead.
What helped you get sober?
I think I've talked about it in this sub before. I reached a point where I knew it was no longer, "I've got to get this under control, " but, "I've got to never drink again." That was the biggest step. Accepting that there was for me no more days of, "Well I've had a rough week, I'm just gonna have a few drinks tonight to get through it, but I'm not getting blackout and I'm not gonna drink again for at least a week or so." Thar always led to a terrible bender. I had to accept that it was zero zero alcohol for me.
Then after i did it still took a while to get there. But every day i would spend a few minutes throughout my day thinking of all the bad that came from my drinking, really trying to relive painful or embarrassing moments in my mind that drinking brought and telling myself, "remember that alcohol will do this to you." And after a while when the urge for a drink came the first thing that came to mind were those bad memories I'd replayed to myself and it made it so much easier to say no.
Eventually I did it do much that it became not only easy to say no the idea of having a drink physically repulsed me.
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