acute deppresion and alcohol abuse

Hi Dave, I struggled for years with alcohol abuse, you're not alone, is there anything specific that triggers your drinking? do you have any professional support to help you with your drinking? I have fortnightly counselling still, despite being drug and alcohol free now, to help keep me that way, usually excessive drinking is triggered by a traumatic event in our lives, if you'd like to chat here or by private message at any time, feel free to chat to me :)

Hi Dave and welcome to the group.

Stumpy is right; you are not alone on this group. From my own my experience i was diagnosed with anxiety depression. I also have experience of alcohol abuse as my new partner was self medicating with alcohol. He was not only going through a marriage break up [pre me]  his ex was committing adultery but he had lost his job , he hadn't seen his children due to his ex not allowing him. They would arrange for him to visit them and then she would cancel or at last minute say that they were sleeping over at friends He had also been newly diagnosed with a terminal illiness which according to the doctors had been suffering from for about a year.

He was of the upbringing that 'real men just get on with it nor do they cry' .He had suffered a break down previously and had been in rehab but he was in denial as to how bad his drinking actually was . Last year he was charged with drink driving and was arrested . He was also on suicide observation as he had wanted to end it all.

He was admitted in to hospital twice due to his mental health.

It has taken him this for him to finally face his issues . He has only then acknowledged, accepted and embraced help ,along with a lot of self help. 

It has been a long ,hard road and like myself , he didn't believe that despite being told by others that there is light at the end of the tunnel but now accepts that there is.

He knew that alcohol wasn't his friend , it was his 'get out card' but only for a while. Thank goodness, he no longer buries his head .Yes, it is still hard especially at this time of year. His ex just prefers to focus on his drinking days instead of the cause of it. How anyone can not encourage their children to keep in contact with their terminally ill dad is beyond me.

He was /is a loving , caring man who happens to be ill; something that could have been treated ?avoided if he had faced up to it earlier. 

We are both proof that life can be so good again but you also have to help yourself to get you through it. I actually am a support worker for adults with learning difficulties. One of the gentlemen that I support is an alcoholic. He was the only sibling put in to care. He is a lovely man who sadly completely lacks self esteem ;he chooses to surround himself with bad influences. He has had so many opportunities given to him over the years but is still in denial about how ill he is. He can 'talk the talk' but when push comes to shove he just tells us what he thinks that we want to hear.

Until he accepts that he is ill then sadly , nothing will change for him. Don't be the same as the man that i support.

Always here to support /chat.

Be gentle on yourself and adopt the 2 steps forward, 3 steps backward.

Dig deep to identify what the cause of your issues are then you can really start to move forward to a better place.

Little by little, day by day.

Julie x