My Grandfather died when I was in 5th grade. I don't know for certain if it was alcoholism or not but I know he was an alcoholic. I suspect there was some sort of cancer and add in the drinking, his liver was shot. I remember seeing him in the hospital once and the jaundice was clearly evident. At the funeral, he had wasted away so much that he was barely recognizable in the casket.

Anonymous wrote:This all sounds horrible.

How much alcohol, over how long a period, would someone have to drink to get to this point?

I worry about my own alcohol consumption sometimes. About two or three times a week I will have around 2 glasses of wine, sometimes 3 glasses. So, typically I'm drinking anywhere from 4-9 glasses a week.

My suggestion is to go to several Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Dont judge AA by your first meeting, just go as a visitor, and check out several different ones. They are all different, and you may hear some things you identify with, or not. Good Luck!

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I was surprised to see this thread bumped. As an update, MIL's boyfriend is still holding on. He's in the hospital quite frequently (in 2012, was in the hospital every month, sometimes twice or more) and is still on the liver transplant list.

I can't remember if I posted this earlier, but his son also somewhat recently died of a drug overdose, and his other son is also an addict. Very sad to see how it runs in the family.

It can take longer than you'd expect My uncle had liver failure, ascites, esophageal bleeding and was diagnosed as terminal, but it took several years for him to finally die.

You can damage or destroy your relationships through booze long before you inflict permanent physical damage on yourself. Dying of alcoholism isn't from drinking a few glasses of wine a day, it is drinking a couple of bottles a day.
This is an empirical question and there is good evidence on this. Moderate to heavy drinking increases your risk from certain cancers, but lowers cardiovascular risks. The tipping point is after more drinks than most on this board would consider acceptable.

OP here. I was surprised to see this thread bumped. As an update, MIL's boyfriend is still holding on. He's in the hospital quite frequently (in 2012, was in the hospital every month, sometimes twice or more) and is still on the liver transplant list.

I can't remember if I posted this earlier, but his son also somewhat recently died of a drug overdose, and his other son is also an addict. Very sad to see how it runs in the family.

Anonymous wrote:Not to hijack but I'm a drinker. I drank all the time, wouldn't consider myself an alcoholic just a heavy drinker that drank everyday. After watching the finale of Shameless and seeing Frank throwing up blood and reading this thread, I have been sober for 9 days and still counting

+1. I'm going to bookmark this thread. Thank you all who posted your stories.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to hijack but I'm a drinker. I drank all the time, wouldn't consider myself an alcoholic just a heavy drinker that drank everyday. After watching the finale of Shameless and seeing Frank throwing up blood and reading this thread, I have been sober for 9 days and still counting

Good. This thread has also made me think about my own drinking.

How much do you drink?

Nothing now but I drank like it was spring break at least 4 times a week. I would wake up sometimes hungover, would force a vomit, shower go to work come home start again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to hijack but I'm a drinker. I drank all the time, wouldn't consider myself an alcoholic just a heavy drinker that drank everyday. After watching the finale of Shameless and seeing Frank throwing up blood and reading this thread, I have been sober for 9 days and still counting

Good. This thread has also made me think about my own drinking.

How much do you drink?

Anonymous wrote:Not to hijack but I'm a drinker. I drank all the time, wouldn't consider myself an alcoholic just a heavy drinker that drank everyday. After watching the finale of Shameless and seeing Frank throwing up blood and reading this thread, I have been sober for 9 days and still counting

Good. This thread has also made me think about my own drinking.

My father died from alcoholism seven yrs ago and it still hurts to this day. ;(

Anyway, six months or so prior to his death, I think he KNEW he was dying. He became much more compassionate, loving and humble.

Then one day he got dressed and right before he walked out the door, he dropped dead. Just like that.

The medical examiner did an autopsy and his death certificate says he died of alcoholism. Not cirrhosis of the liver, but just plain alcoholism. He explained the body's organs are not designed to take in such a toxic amount of alcohol and that sooner or later one's organs simply dry out and die.

Anonymous wrote:It was a long time ago, but my dad died from alcoholism. The biggest thing I remember about the end is that he vomited a lot of blood and eventually started bleeding through every part of his body, including his pores. By that point, he was in the hospital and they would clean him up every few hours and let us come in for like two minutes then send us away again.

How horrible.

Not to hijack but I'm a drinker. I drank all the time, wouldn't consider myself an alcoholic just a heavy drinker that drank everyday. After watching the finale of Shameless and seeing Frank throwing up blood and reading this thread, I have been sober for 9 days and still counting

The alcoholics I've known have all spent their lives trying to injure others and when they finally died of it, after suffering from all the awful complications referenced here, they were not missed, not even by their families. A disgusting and degrading death, capping a lifetime of trying to make the people closest to them feel disgusting and degraded themselves.

Their entire legacy was leaving a sense of dull resentment in the people who had to suffer through what now seems like the ultimate in a thoroughly pointless existence.

Didn't some famous politician's dd die from alcoholism? I think he ran for vp but name escaping me..very sad

One of my dad's best childhood friends died of it. He had gone to the doctor and they told him he had cirrhosis and if he didn't stop drinking, he would die. Well, he withdrew from friends, and nobody heard from him for awhile. One day my grandmother found his name in the obituaries and called my dad to make sure the middle name was X. When my dad said it was, she told him his friend had died. He had begun drinking again and was eventually found dead in his apartment only after the neighbors noticed a stench. Work had noticed he hadn't come but didn't know anyone else to get in touch with, he lived alone, and had withdrawn from friends. He died alone and nobody even knew for a week. It's an awful way to die.