Posted by an alky CHer's perspective on April 28, 1999 at 22:44:02:
In Reply to: clusters and addicts and alcoholics posted by David Chalfant on April 27, 1999 at 17:24:20:
OK - everybody calm down
well known : 10%- 12% of the population are definitely "alcoholic", ie: drinking causes them problems (of any kind), and they continue to drink anyway
ergo one could expect 10% of CHers AT LEAST, to be the same
the fact that this is the only subject that turns the msg bd into a firefight is PROOF there are PLENTY of drunks among us
BUT - the old stereotype CH is proven to be PURE BALONEY (drinks, smokes,square jaw,bad skin,type A male, etc) and IS used as excuse to philosophically blow us off as CH patients - even the little kids and milk-skinned
in my case I had been drinking heavy a few years before CH;
CH started happening,I kept drinking
CH kept getting worse
went chronic for 2 or 3 years,
many many level 9s & 10s
then, 10 or 12 years or so into CH,
quit drinking altogether
after a couple years,
CH problem started getting a bit better
went back to episodic,
average attacks came down the scale a bit
now MANY years no booze at all
STILL have CH episodically -
maybe average 3-4 months total/year
overall, the CH problem is MUCH better than back in the boozy days, and the improvement was very clearly linked to putting the plug in the jug
the way I figure it-
1. chronic drinking (no matter WHAT you call it) absolutely reduces the body's ability to deal with other health issues - no exceptions ( and the best sign you DO have a problem is if you start getting defensive or angry with statements like that )
2. group experience with CH is that alcohol is absolutely an attack trigger and/or intensifier- whether it has anything to do with the overall disease or not
so only a real varsity grade dummy would even consider drinking while in a cluster period;
and believe me - if you need a drink so bad you will knowingly risk a CH attack for a drink you have TWO diseases on your hands, like it or not
3. when I quit drinking altogether, my health started to improve in general - mental & physical, in turn this made it much much easier to deal with the CH - and I DON'T CARE how that works - BETTER IS BETTER !
I'm not criticizing anybody here-
I spent many years pouring a toxic substance down my gullet myself
(why do you think they call it inTOXICated ?) -
and truly NEVER realized/could see it was the cause of most of my problems,
I TRULY believed the booze was a relief from the problems INCLUDING the burden of CH;
so now when I hear somebody adamantly insisting that their drinking causes them no problem, or is actually an answer to them - I only sigh in sympathy, and thank heavens I got past that somehow before it croaked me
think about this:
why not try knocking off the booze for a good long while, and see if the CH gets any better ?
drinking probably doesn't cause CH
but it sure as hell doesn't make it any better !
and, if the idea of stopping drinking for a while UPSETS you, then you DO have a drinking problem and ought to quit anyway -CH or not - sorry, but that's the corner we alkies ALWAYS end up painting ourselves into, and nobody's EVER come up with a valid way out of it