Today’s topic is about my history with Alcohol consumption. This is another big problem I must overcome. I know that drinking alcohol is a big part of our society, but I am writing about alcohol abuse.

Like many people I began drinking a lot of alcohol in college. My freshman year I had a roommate who liked to host parties at his brother’s house and I came along because I wanted to be a part of something. My drink preference was always hard liquor, which I would drink like it was water. My lack of self-restraint and my inability to limit my consumption led me to abuse alcohol almost every time I drank.

Almost always I would feel miserable afterwards. My drinking was affecting my grades and my low grades led to late nights with lots of stress. I did not see how drinking was causing me all these problems at that time. I chose to transfer schools after two years so I could be closer to my family. I also hoped that the move would bring along a change in my life style and be a fresh start.

One of my hopes came true, and it was not the change in life style. Since I didn’t know anybody at the new school I chose to go out and meet people at the bars. By going out to bars I resumed my high consumption of alcohol and added something else. That something else was the bar tabs I had for my nights out.

Before I used to buy alcohol and go to parties which was not all too expensive. When I started going to bars I started paying $30-$60 a night for my own drinks. I did not like that for multiple reasons; 1) it was getting financially expensive to support that life style, and 2) I finally had something that showed me the monetary cost of my problem.

I started to go out less because of financial issues and once I dropped out of school I quit going out altogether. For the seven months that I was out of school I only drank at home and with little consumption. After those seven months, I realized I needed to go back to school to finish my degree. After enrolling back in school, and putting myself in the college environment, I started drinking again because bars were a familiar place for me.

Since I hadn’t gone out in a long time my tolerance to alcohol dropped drastically. My nights out I would spend $40-$100 on drinks. After an evening out, I would be very disappointed with myself for drinking. I was disappointed because I was trying to improve myself and I knew drinking was not helping. I chose to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, but to stop them both I needed to recognize my problems.

Realizing I had problems was not easy to accept, but I could not expect change if I kept feeding my problems. Since I recognized my problems, I have begun to work on fixing them by keeping myself away from bars. I also keep a low bank account balance so I don’t spend money I don’t have.

These are some of the things I do to improve myself and not abuse alcohol. I also think back at all the stupid stuff I have done while drinking.  I think about how many times I’ve regretted my behavior after I sobered up. Knowing all the stupid stuff I would do drunk and wanting a change has kept me focused overcoming this drinking problem.

*feel free to comment anything related to the topic.