How does alcoholism kill people
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I have a good friend who had a brother who died of alcoholism. He was in a bad car crash out of high school street racing and ended up with a chronic back issue that made it difficult for him to function. He turned to alcohol to cope and it just got worse and worse. He couldn't keep a job because of it, then would drink because he lost the job.
I went with my friend to his brother's house to check on him, what we found still shocks me today. The house was beyond horrible. One bedroom upstairs was used as the trash dump and was 4 feet deep of pizza boxes, empty beer cans, and hundreds of plastic liter bottles of whiskey. That is not an exaggeration either, I am 6'3" tall and it was up past my belt line!!
In addition to this mess, there had to be a 100 trucker bombs in the pile as well. The brother was found passed out in the hallway outside the door to the dump. He spent 2 weeks in the hospital with liver failure, but he survived. Two years later, he ended up back in the hospital and he didn't survive.
The really scary part is that he was a functional alcoholic. He was drinking 3 liters of whiskey per day and who know's how much beer yet maintained both a day job at an oil change shop and a girlfriend who was just as messed up as he had become. The only ones who really knew how bad he had become was his family, but they couldn't seem to help. In fact, his mother continued to send him money, knowing full well that it was going to be spent on alcohol, but she did anyway.
I spoke to him a few times, he knew he had a major problem, but he never could put a stop to it. The tougher life got, the more he drank and the more he drank, the tougher life became. Even on his death bed, he asked for bottle of Vodka...there was no going back.
I went with my friend to his brother's house to check on him, what we found still shocks me today. The house was beyond horrible. One bedroom upstairs was used as the trash dump and was 4 feet deep of pizza boxes, empty beer cans, and hundreds of plastic liter bottles of whiskey. That is not an exaggeration either, I am 6'3" tall and it was up past my belt line!!
In addition to this mess, there had to be a 100 trucker bombs in the pile as well. The brother was found passed out in the hallway outside the door to the dump. He spent 2 weeks in the hospital with liver failure, but he survived. Two years later, he ended up back in the hospital and he didn't survive.
The really scary part is that he was a functional alcoholic. He was drinking 3 liters of whiskey per day and who know's how much beer yet maintained both a day job at an oil change shop and a girlfriend who was just as messed up as he had become. The only ones who really knew how bad he had become was his family, but they couldn't seem to help. In fact, his mother continued to send him money, knowing full well that it was going to be spent on alcohol, but she did anyway.
I spoke to him a few times, he knew he had a major problem, but he never could put a stop to it. The tougher life got, the more he drank and the more he drank, the tougher life became. Even on his death bed, he asked for bottle of Vodka...there was no going back.
Guitarteach
Doctor of Teleocity
We lost our bandmate to it. His liver and its life sustaining function was destroyed.
Evil drug.. just too profitable.
Evil drug.. just too profitable.
Thoughts and prayers for all affected.
Very sorry for your loss and your friend's suffering.
TD is right about the sweet spot, there's really nothing like it (that I've ever experienced) but the costs are immense and "the spot" vanishes pretty quick, and the destruction to the human body starts immediately; brain, liver, heart, GI tract, saw a guy bleed to death from ruptured esophagus erosion from long term alcohol abuse, that was an eye opener.
Like any addictive substance just don't do it.
Praying for comfort and peace for all impacted by your friend's illness. Please don't be angry or disappointed with your friend, alcohol hooks many with it's barbed wire lure with the very first drink, and it has destroyed thousands of legions of our best, brightest and most loved.
Sober now since July 2013. Pray for me too, please; there's a store with alcohol for sale on almost every corner.
Very sorry for your loss and your friend's suffering.
TD is right about the sweet spot, there's really nothing like it (that I've ever experienced) but the costs are immense and "the spot" vanishes pretty quick, and the destruction to the human body starts immediately; brain, liver, heart, GI tract, saw a guy bleed to death from ruptured esophagus erosion from long term alcohol abuse, that was an eye opener.
Like any addictive substance just don't do it.
Praying for comfort and peace for all impacted by your friend's illness. Please don't be angry or disappointed with your friend, alcohol hooks many with it's barbed wire lure with the very first drink, and it has destroyed thousands of legions of our best, brightest and most loved.
Sober now since July 2013. Pray for me too, please; there's a store with alcohol for sale on almost every corner.
Your a cheery lad, my kinda guy cuts straight to the chase.
The saddest "drank himself to death story that's personal, is I watched a friend drink and drink and drink it destroyed any and all self esteem and dropped him in a hole of unbridled depression years, before it actually started to have the other physical effects , well the brain is and organ , yeah. He died in a mental institution. That's a story I wish I 'd never witnessed, it won't have been so bad, though very tragic, but I loved him like a brother, now that hurts.
NWinther
Friend of Leo's
Back when I was a young man, I worked at a hospital in the summers as an orderly and as a cleaner.
On a monday morning we had to fetch corpse in the cooler, an old cop who was hospitalised due to excess drinking, he had died a few days earlier, so we carted him to the autopsy room, have seen a few of those by that time.
He got dissected as they usually do, his liver was a black charred monstrosity, his brain had sereval light grey spots where the tissue was dissolved....and so on.
Well he died because he drank the hand sanitizer bottle outside his room.....but he had been drinking for decades before that.
Everyday he drank large quantities of alcohol.
In plain language he had dissolved/burned himself to death over decades.
It simply destroys everything.
Ever since that experience I stopped drinking alcohol every weekend, we where young and life was in high gear, and we partied hard.
After that experience not so much.
On a monday morning we had to fetch corpse in the cooler, an old cop who was hospitalised due to excess drinking, he had died a few days earlier, so we carted him to the autopsy room, have seen a few of those by that time.
He got dissected as they usually do, his liver was a black charred monstrosity, his brain had sereval light grey spots where the tissue was dissolved....and so on.
Well he died because he drank the hand sanitizer bottle outside his room.....but he had been drinking for decades before that.
Everyday he drank large quantities of alcohol.
In plain language he had dissolved/burned himself to death over decades.
It simply destroys everything.
Ever since that experience I stopped drinking alcohol every weekend, we where young and life was in high gear, and we partied hard.
After that experience not so much.
I became a heavy alcoholic pretty quickly at a young age, went on for a decade, I'm three years sober. I grew up in a scary house and was running from trauma, a lot of people seek a sense of warmth and comfort from a bottle because they it's the first place they've ever found it, and it can be hard to convince them in their heart of hearts that with effort they can find it elsewhere
In my experience it is better to encourage alcoholics with the benefits of not drinking, than it is to discourage them from drinking with the negative effects of drinking. The former might inspire them when they think of it later, the latter will just make them resentful--in their mind it is not as if the world has ever given them a better alternative. At least in my experience
In my experience it is better to encourage alcoholics with the benefits of not drinking, than it is to discourage them from drinking with the negative effects of drinking. The former might inspire them when they think of it later, the latter will just make them resentful--in their mind it is not as if the world has ever given them a better alternative. At least in my experience
Maybe time has exaggerated the memory but his skin was confrontingly yellowish in the final days.
Vices. They’re all just ways to check out. Puff puff pass.
Im truly sorry about your friend.
Spox
Tele-Holic
My two closest friends are both drinkers, one to the extent that he was my main drinking buddy in the last few years when my own drinking was completely out of control. I quit twenty five years ago next month but he never quit and it has got worse over those twenty five years. He is a grafter, a functioning alcoholic whom I have never known to be out of work for any more than a few weeks and in the same job for the last fifteen years. He works long shifts but I believe he has long been at the stage of a constant level of alcohol needing to be in the bloodstream. He also chain smokes weed and when I visit him I sometimes watch him black out pretty much in mid sentence and re animate between fifteen and twenty minutes later. He is one of lifes genuine good guys, kind, articulate and smart, I am one of the few holdouts, most of his friends have cut him loose and he has replaced them with other drunks. I have tried to gently coax him into taking the same road which I did and at first he was interested but then just said he was too far gone, earlier this year he told me that human beings are only supposed to live to thirty five, that is what we are built for and that he expects to be dead in the next two years. I haven't had a reply to any texts to him for three weeks and fear the worst.
The other friend is also a functioning alcoholic but not as far gone as the other one and is one of the ones who cut him out. I have had more success with coaxing this one into moderating his drinking from four nights a week, he told me that he had taken it down to two then one but when I last saw him he told me that it has gone back up. Whilst visiting him last month he took an epileptic seizure and told me that he has started taking them regularly the day after a drinking session.
As I said I try to encourage anyone with addiction problems to overcome it but at the end of the day, at least in my own experience, the only person who can truly help them is themselves, they need to have the willpower to cease taking what is harming them but some kind of support structure could be helpful. I just stopped dead, I was prescribed those pills to stop an alcoholic drinking but just took one then never took any more and never attended any meetings etc. What I did find was that I ramped up my intake of caffeine and weed as a crutch, I counted one day and found that I was drinking nineteen mugs of filter coffee a day, and I had been smoking weed all day every day throughout the alcoholism and after and I quit caffeine and weed three years after I quit alcohol, I was having palpitations whilst watching TV at 5am unable to sleep because of all of the caffeine in my system. Now I am a hoarder, guitars etc, but the only things this harms are my wallet, my self esteem and my dating prospects.
The other friend is also a functioning alcoholic but not as far gone as the other one and is one of the ones who cut him out. I have had more success with coaxing this one into moderating his drinking from four nights a week, he told me that he had taken it down to two then one but when I last saw him he told me that it has gone back up. Whilst visiting him last month he took an epileptic seizure and told me that he has started taking them regularly the day after a drinking session.
As I said I try to encourage anyone with addiction problems to overcome it but at the end of the day, at least in my own experience, the only person who can truly help them is themselves, they need to have the willpower to cease taking what is harming them but some kind of support structure could be helpful. I just stopped dead, I was prescribed those pills to stop an alcoholic drinking but just took one then never took any more and never attended any meetings etc. What I did find was that I ramped up my intake of caffeine and weed as a crutch, I counted one day and found that I was drinking nineteen mugs of filter coffee a day, and I had been smoking weed all day every day throughout the alcoholism and after and I quit caffeine and weed three years after I quit alcohol, I was having palpitations whilst watching TV at 5am unable to sleep because of all of the caffeine in my system. Now I am a hoarder, guitars etc, but the only things this harms are my wallet, my self esteem and my dating prospects.
PhoenixBill
Tele-Holic
I tried to figure out why I got hooked. Was it because it helped numb me to my pain? Was it because it helped me socialize and fit in? Was it because it felt good? Or all of these? Now I realize that drugs lured me in with false promises. You have so much fun when you use, the disease said. That soon changed to You’ll have more fun using than if you don’t! which soon changed to You can’t have fun unless you use! Which soon changed to You can’t live unless you use! Sprinkle in You’re not so bad! and You can quit anytime, you’re not hooked! Followed eventually by You can’t quit, it’s hopeless, don’t try changing.
I finally quit when the pain got too great, when I had a moment of clarity and realized that I needed to change. This bottom happened with a little assistance from Officer Friendly reading me my rights…changing my way of life wasn’t easy but the pain of changing was less than the pain of staying where I was. 12 step programs worked for me, but other folks have found a different path to sobriety.
I wish I knew a way to convince loved ones to quit. With my dear Veronica, I tried reasoning with her, praying for her, arguing and yelling at her, everything I could think of. She experienced life-threatening situations but still she couldn’t quit. She experienced great things clean, but the drugs called her back. One Saturday morning I woke up and went into the living room…she was lying on her back on the floor. Her body was already cold and stiff. I had 16 years sober at the time (now I have 27 years).
Her daughter had been addicted and lived on the streets, but had gotten clean for ten years and life was great; she got married, had a kid, and she got her Masters degree. But then a messy divorce led to a glass of wine for her, then the whole bottle, then vodka and other stuff. She knows all about her mom’s death, she went to the funeral (while she was clean). I wish to God I could figure out how to save her; I’m going to Al-Anon to help cope.
I finally quit when the pain got too great, when I had a moment of clarity and realized that I needed to change. This bottom happened with a little assistance from Officer Friendly reading me my rights…changing my way of life wasn’t easy but the pain of changing was less than the pain of staying where I was. 12 step programs worked for me, but other folks have found a different path to sobriety.
I wish I knew a way to convince loved ones to quit. With my dear Veronica, I tried reasoning with her, praying for her, arguing and yelling at her, everything I could think of. She experienced life-threatening situations but still she couldn’t quit. She experienced great things clean, but the drugs called her back. One Saturday morning I woke up and went into the living room…she was lying on her back on the floor. Her body was already cold and stiff. I had 16 years sober at the time (now I have 27 years).
Her daughter had been addicted and lived on the streets, but had gotten clean for ten years and life was great; she got married, had a kid, and she got her Masters degree. But then a messy divorce led to a glass of wine for her, then the whole bottle, then vodka and other stuff. She knows all about her mom’s death, she went to the funeral (while she was clean). I wish to God I could figure out how to save her; I’m going to Al-Anon to help cope.
I had one uncle die from kidney failure - complications from diabetes leading from a large alcohol consumtion
A cousin whose oesophagus ruptured, and he bled out. Large alcohol consumption
Another cousin, the previous cousins sister, went into a spiral when he died. She essentially starved herself to death.
My mother (on the other side of the family) had a stroke and died.
It's a terrible drug.
A cousin whose oesophagus ruptured, and he bled out. Large alcohol consumption
Another cousin, the previous cousins sister, went into a spiral when he died. She essentially starved herself to death.
My mother (on the other side of the family) had a stroke and died.
It's a terrible drug.
Can’t pretend to have any deep medical knowledge, but a friend of mine died 2 months ago, with alcohol the major factor.
He had been a heavy drinker for at least 20 years, aggravated by stress/depression, where alcohol became the inevitable “solution “. He had some serious falls (due to alcohol, head injuries, various broken bones, at least one brain bleed.
Medical problems mounted up, liver, kidneys, blood pressure, generally everything failing. Marriage breakup, ended up homeless, living with various family members, rarely sober.
Eventually collapsed in the street & died. Death certificate said pulmonary embolism but he basically drank himself to death. That’s how it is.
The number of times he explained he wasn’t an alcoholic, had something or someone to blame, was going to get “sorted out”, were without number, but could never find a way back.
Makes me sad writing this.
He had been a heavy drinker for at least 20 years, aggravated by stress/depression, where alcohol became the inevitable “solution “. He had some serious falls (due to alcohol, head injuries, various broken bones, at least one brain bleed.
Medical problems mounted up, liver, kidneys, blood pressure, generally everything failing. Marriage breakup, ended up homeless, living with various family members, rarely sober.
Eventually collapsed in the street & died. Death certificate said pulmonary embolism but he basically drank himself to death. That’s how it is.
The number of times he explained he wasn’t an alcoholic, had something or someone to blame, was going to get “sorted out”, were without number, but could never find a way back.
Makes me sad writing this.
My father didn't strictly speaking die from alcoholism but the bottle helped making him disabled for the past 15 years of his life. He also made mine, my sisters and our mother's lives a proper hell.
Yep... friends of Lois.
I'm thinking of two people in our village who "advanced" to hardcore alcoholism. The process was the same with both of them. First, they were drinking a lot of beer (where I live, beer isn't even considered alcohol, it's one of the four main food groups along with bread, pork roast and potato dumplings), and became rotund and red-faced. Jolly, so too speak.
Then they pretty much stopped eating food, lived on beer and schnapps (where I live, Schnapps is hard stuff, 40+ percent). Over a short period of time, they lost all their weight, got skinny, aged 20 years, and now they're just living from the hard stuff.
Thing is, they function just fine. They both continue working like normal, socializing like normal, are perfectly friendly and seem to an outsider to be fit andhealthy. Well, fit, anyway. But they're actually pickled 24/7.
This is a pretty common scenario here, unfortunately. But these people seem to be impervious to illness, and DEATH takes his time coming for them.
Then they pretty much stopped eating food, lived on beer and schnapps (where I live, Schnapps is hard stuff, 40+ percent). Over a short period of time, they lost all their weight, got skinny, aged 20 years, and now they're just living from the hard stuff.
Thing is, they function just fine. They both continue working like normal, socializing like normal, are perfectly friendly and seem to an outsider to be fit and
This is a pretty common scenario here, unfortunately. But these people seem to be impervious to illness, and DEATH takes his time coming for them.
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Chester P Squier
Friend of Leo's
One of my wife's relatives was a woman who died a month before her 53rd birthday. This was three years ago. When we visited her in her last days, we noticed her yellow pallor. The woman's brother recently told my wife and me that his sister was an alcoholic. Like Chris Farley, she was a large person (actually, VERY large), but instead of beginning to drink in college, began after she had joined the work force. The brother told his mother that his sister was an alcoholic, but the mother did not believe him or accept the fact.
All of my deceased's organs were shutting down when she died, starting with the liver.
E5RSY
Doctor of Teleocity
Glad you got something out of it. I am a big fan of his work with sleep and I’m glad he also delves into other topics on his podcast. That one is a great explanation of what is going on chemically and physically. As for the social/relationship costs, a good companion viewing is an HBO doc from a few years back called “Risky Drinking”.
posttoastie
Friend of Leo's
Gabby beat his addition, but the damage was done. RIP
A drunk, irresponsible 21 year old ran a red light, and killed my dear friend and musical partner of 30+ years, Bill C, just over 7 years ago.
I got banged up, too.
He gets out in about 3 years.
I wonder if he will smarten up?
I got banged up, too.
He gets out in about 3 years.
I wonder if he will smarten up?
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