Jazz hands

Several times a week I walk along the seafront where I live and drink copious amounts of rum. I talk to imaginary friends and have a good old time. I'm slowly killing myself. I'm one of the last big drinkers. 

Parents
  • I worry about you sometimes, I really do. It sounds like you're struggling a bit with things. Is there anyone that can help you? Or as someone else suggested, talk with us, we are happy to help and support you as best we can.

  • I'm on the ropes but haven't given up yet. (Why did I have to use that metaphor? A) Metaphors are too commonplace and B) I hate boxing!)

    There's no one I can think of offline who can help. 

    After 3 days drinking back-to-back I'm sober today. Baking three potatoes in the oven to have for lunch. Just brushed my teeth to get the alcohol scent and flavour out too. 

    I won't drink for the rest of the week now, it's the weekend when I'm likely to feel the temptation strongly again.

  • Have you tried talking to your GP to ask them to refer you on to a service that can help you? There's a service around here called Open Road they probably have similar in most Areas, where they will help people who have non-addiction drug and alcohol problems. They use alternative therapies such as acupuncture and would support you and help you to help yourself with finding ways to overcome your issues with drinking Alcohol.

    I'm glad that you're sober today. Hope you enjoyed the baked potatoes? 

    Are you able to do something else at the weekend to distract yourself from wanting to drink?

  • The reaction to foods for me is severe. I didn't know that was what clean eating meant but yeah I do that. I cook almost everything from scratch. I read every last ingredient on whatever I buy too. I'm careful in that way.

    Hope the Beaver Scout event goes well for you tonight.

  • It must be really difficult to find foods that are safe to eat if you have a lot of allergies. How severely do you get the allergic reaction? Have you tried clean eating? Where you cook everything from scratch, then you know exactly what you're putting into whatever it is that you're cooking. I'm sure that there must be some websites with recipe ideas for people suffering from various types of food intolerances.

    There's some really weird diet fads out there. How on earth can eating only one thing per meal be healthy? As I said before, I just stick to clean eating then I can eat the variety of food across the different food groups but without all the processed junk. Food optimisation is what it's called, you learn how to eat food that is the most useful to your body so that you're getting the most nutrition out of everything that you eat rather than just eating stodge for the sake of eating.

    I think it's quite common for people to use drinking as a social crutch in this country, especially among Autistic people where maybe it's easier and less stress inducing to socialize when drunk. It's probably better to learn social skills though, then you might feel more confident in social situations without feeling the need to drink so much? I've used it as an 'anti-depressant' myself in the past, it is counterproductive but it blocks things out doesn't it, you don't think about whatever is bothering you so much when you're drunk.

    Aw good luck with learning the rest of Nothing else matters. I guess it would be sensible to memorise the songs if your going to be busking. You may need to remember quite a few of them too? Thank you for the advice regarding getting my guitar adjusted to make it easier for me to play.

    I'd better go as I have to be up at the Scout Campsite in a couple of hours as we are holding a Beaver Scout Sleepover tonight. Hopefully it runs without incident, it should do with the amount of effort and paperwork that I've put into it.

    Hope you have a good weekend

  • Well hopefully it doesn't go beyond aniseed for you!

    Yep the food sensitivities have scarred me, there's no escaping them. They affect a lot. I don't go on holiday unless it's a self-catering apartment or hotel room with a kitchen so I can control all my food. Perhaps there's a way I could eat a daily caloric fulfilment without cooking, not figured that out yet though. 

    You might be right about the Keto diet not being safe long term. So far it's new so there's no well established evidence yet. There's all sorts of weird eating habits out there though. I found a video on YouTube about 10 people who eat only one thing for every meal, and this has been normal for them for years. For one person it was tinned spaghetti, for another cheese, for someone else pizza. 

    The drinking out is a social crutch, sometimes I've used it as an antidepressant too (even though that's illogical). It's hard to live drug free in Britain. There was a news report only yesterday about how we take more (I won't name the drug for fear of breaking rules but you might guess what it is) and drink more during binge sessions here than anywhere else in the world, I believe. I don't fully understand the reasons but clearly there's something about our culture that drives people to it. But I don't want to be just another statistic. You shouldn't let stats rule your life, I suppose.

    I can play all the chords for Nothing Else Matters but I haven't memorised it at all yet. That's something I've never actually done. I play from a book and I need to learn to memorise songs soon, otherwise I'd look a bit odd busking from a book. I sing along with it too.

    It's not easy learning music. I stank at the guitar until I got a luthier to do his wizardly handiwork on it. They adjust it to make it all feel easier to use and sound better. It was like a different instrument afterwards. Just thought I'd mention it in case you didn't know about that side of things, in case you wanted to get the guitar out of the loft. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious to you.

    Steel drums, that's ace. Slight smile They sound like paradise.

    Ha ha it would be funny in a way if you scared the children. Usually it's the kids who drive the parents nuts with their out of tune violins!

  • It must be an absolute pain to have lots of food sensitivities. I've never had any, although I seem to have acquired a recent sensitivity to aniseed, bizarrely.

    If you're only drinking when you're out I'm guessing it's more of a social crutch then?

    I'm not convinced that the Keto diet is actually that safe as a long term thing. The body does need carbohydrates for energy and it is much easier for our bodies to break down carbohydrates for energy than protein or fat, a lot easier. You might find that you feel very wiped out and lacking in energy if you go totally carb free. A high fat diet isn't good for the heart either.

    I've never been one for playing on computers or anything technological really. I've always been a massive reader though I don't get much time to read at the moment with my youngest two children still being very young and time consuming! Its good to read though, you can learn so much from reading.

    I love the song Nothing else matters, it's a good song to play on the acoustic guitar too. How far have you got with learning it? The Unforgiven is another good Metallica song to play on the acoustic guitar. I have my dad's old Acoustic guitar in my loft. I tried to learn to pay it a few years ago but I'm not suited to playing the guitar. I used to be really good on the steel drums way back in the 1980's and the recorder! Used to be ok on the Clarinet too. I wouldn't try to play now though, I'd probably end up scaring small children from the noise! 

    I think that there are a lot of people who are either incorrectly diagnosed with mental health illness when they're actually autistic or correctly diagnosed with mental health illnesses as a consequence of being autistic but no health professionals have recognised that they are autistic yet. I have at least a couple of friends who have mental health diagnoses but that I'm sure are actually autistic but they keep getting laughed off by their GP every time that they suggest the possibility of autism.

  • Oh I've got all kinds of sensitivities but gluten is the worst! I only drink when I'm out.

    Not sure exactly how safe the Keto diet is, I know a few famous celebrities are on it, one that springs to mind is Blake Lively, the actress. Halle Berry too. I think because you virtually eliminate carbs on it you need a lot of fat apparently. So as long as you get enough calories from fat it should be safe in my opinion.

    Yeah technology is scary now. I regret spending so much of my childhood playing the Mega Drive, SNES and Sony PlayStation. I admire people who spent their youth learning a musical instrument, reading etc. I got into all that a bit late, trying to catch up now. But then as you say everyone's trying to outdo each other in the business world, it could be robots running the show soon. Who knows what the future holds.

    I'm learning Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. I like it though it's a little challenging on the acoustic guitar, have to change the style a bit because it's an electric guitar song.

    There should be a re-examination of everyone with a mental health diagnosis IMO to screen for Autism. I've known one or two people with mental health diagnoses who I think are being let down by the system and would get more appropriate help if they were recognised as Autistic (unless I'm speculating inaccurately but I doubt it).

Reply
  • Oh I've got all kinds of sensitivities but gluten is the worst! I only drink when I'm out.

    Not sure exactly how safe the Keto diet is, I know a few famous celebrities are on it, one that springs to mind is Blake Lively, the actress. Halle Berry too. I think because you virtually eliminate carbs on it you need a lot of fat apparently. So as long as you get enough calories from fat it should be safe in my opinion.

    Yeah technology is scary now. I regret spending so much of my childhood playing the Mega Drive, SNES and Sony PlayStation. I admire people who spent their youth learning a musical instrument, reading etc. I got into all that a bit late, trying to catch up now. But then as you say everyone's trying to outdo each other in the business world, it could be robots running the show soon. Who knows what the future holds.

    I'm learning Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. I like it though it's a little challenging on the acoustic guitar, have to change the style a bit because it's an electric guitar song.

    There should be a re-examination of everyone with a mental health diagnosis IMO to screen for Autism. I've known one or two people with mental health diagnoses who I think are being let down by the system and would get more appropriate help if they were recognised as Autistic (unless I'm speculating inaccurately but I doubt it).

Children
  • The reaction to foods for me is severe. I didn't know that was what clean eating meant but yeah I do that. I cook almost everything from scratch. I read every last ingredient on whatever I buy too. I'm careful in that way.

    Hope the Beaver Scout event goes well for you tonight.

  • It must be really difficult to find foods that are safe to eat if you have a lot of allergies. How severely do you get the allergic reaction? Have you tried clean eating? Where you cook everything from scratch, then you know exactly what you're putting into whatever it is that you're cooking. I'm sure that there must be some websites with recipe ideas for people suffering from various types of food intolerances.

    There's some really weird diet fads out there. How on earth can eating only one thing per meal be healthy? As I said before, I just stick to clean eating then I can eat the variety of food across the different food groups but without all the processed junk. Food optimisation is what it's called, you learn how to eat food that is the most useful to your body so that you're getting the most nutrition out of everything that you eat rather than just eating stodge for the sake of eating.

    I think it's quite common for people to use drinking as a social crutch in this country, especially among Autistic people where maybe it's easier and less stress inducing to socialize when drunk. It's probably better to learn social skills though, then you might feel more confident in social situations without feeling the need to drink so much? I've used it as an 'anti-depressant' myself in the past, it is counterproductive but it blocks things out doesn't it, you don't think about whatever is bothering you so much when you're drunk.

    Aw good luck with learning the rest of Nothing else matters. I guess it would be sensible to memorise the songs if your going to be busking. You may need to remember quite a few of them too? Thank you for the advice regarding getting my guitar adjusted to make it easier for me to play.

    I'd better go as I have to be up at the Scout Campsite in a couple of hours as we are holding a Beaver Scout Sleepover tonight. Hopefully it runs without incident, it should do with the amount of effort and paperwork that I've put into it.

    Hope you have a good weekend

  • Well hopefully it doesn't go beyond aniseed for you!

    Yep the food sensitivities have scarred me, there's no escaping them. They affect a lot. I don't go on holiday unless it's a self-catering apartment or hotel room with a kitchen so I can control all my food. Perhaps there's a way I could eat a daily caloric fulfilment without cooking, not figured that out yet though. 

    You might be right about the Keto diet not being safe long term. So far it's new so there's no well established evidence yet. There's all sorts of weird eating habits out there though. I found a video on YouTube about 10 people who eat only one thing for every meal, and this has been normal for them for years. For one person it was tinned spaghetti, for another cheese, for someone else pizza. 

    The drinking out is a social crutch, sometimes I've used it as an antidepressant too (even though that's illogical). It's hard to live drug free in Britain. There was a news report only yesterday about how we take more (I won't name the drug for fear of breaking rules but you might guess what it is) and drink more during binge sessions here than anywhere else in the world, I believe. I don't fully understand the reasons but clearly there's something about our culture that drives people to it. But I don't want to be just another statistic. You shouldn't let stats rule your life, I suppose.

    I can play all the chords for Nothing Else Matters but I haven't memorised it at all yet. That's something I've never actually done. I play from a book and I need to learn to memorise songs soon, otherwise I'd look a bit odd busking from a book. I sing along with it too.

    It's not easy learning music. I stank at the guitar until I got a luthier to do his wizardly handiwork on it. They adjust it to make it all feel easier to use and sound better. It was like a different instrument afterwards. Just thought I'd mention it in case you didn't know about that side of things, in case you wanted to get the guitar out of the loft. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious to you.

    Steel drums, that's ace. Slight smile They sound like paradise.

    Ha ha it would be funny in a way if you scared the children. Usually it's the kids who drive the parents nuts with their out of tune violins!

  • It must be an absolute pain to have lots of food sensitivities. I've never had any, although I seem to have acquired a recent sensitivity to aniseed, bizarrely.

    If you're only drinking when you're out I'm guessing it's more of a social crutch then?

    I'm not convinced that the Keto diet is actually that safe as a long term thing. The body does need carbohydrates for energy and it is much easier for our bodies to break down carbohydrates for energy than protein or fat, a lot easier. You might find that you feel very wiped out and lacking in energy if you go totally carb free. A high fat diet isn't good for the heart either.

    I've never been one for playing on computers or anything technological really. I've always been a massive reader though I don't get much time to read at the moment with my youngest two children still being very young and time consuming! Its good to read though, you can learn so much from reading.

    I love the song Nothing else matters, it's a good song to play on the acoustic guitar too. How far have you got with learning it? The Unforgiven is another good Metallica song to play on the acoustic guitar. I have my dad's old Acoustic guitar in my loft. I tried to learn to pay it a few years ago but I'm not suited to playing the guitar. I used to be really good on the steel drums way back in the 1980's and the recorder! Used to be ok on the Clarinet too. I wouldn't try to play now though, I'd probably end up scaring small children from the noise! 

    I think that there are a lot of people who are either incorrectly diagnosed with mental health illness when they're actually autistic or correctly diagnosed with mental health illnesses as a consequence of being autistic but no health professionals have recognised that they are autistic yet. I have at least a couple of friends who have mental health diagnoses but that I'm sure are actually autistic but they keep getting laughed off by their GP every time that they suggest the possibility of autism.