Covid rant

Wow, this thread came up at a very interesting time for me. I am older than many that have stated their age in this thread. I went many years without drinking and when I did start again it was very seldom and always in social situations. Something changed in 2020 when the lockdowns happened. I started drinking a lot more. I wasn't drinking beer either. It has been all Tequila and Bourbon, straight, neat. I am almost embarrassed at how much of it I have put down in three years time. I am honestly surprised that my blood and liver numbers haven't showed some sign of it.

I had a major heath issue that got discovered the first week of February last year. It was serious enough that They found it on a Thursday afternoon and I was in surgery the following Tuesday. While I didn't think this affected me, it affected me greatly. My father died of this same issue and I thought I was in the clear since nothing had shown up and I have outlived him by almost 7 years now. One of my younger brothers has the same issue and he has been through two surgeries for it.

My wife has told me that I have depression. I didn't see it. I think I see it now. For me it has shown up as a lack of motivation. Things I used to love doing like getting out and playing my guitar in a band for live audiences just sound like a huge hassle for me now. My wife and I have neither had COVID that we know of. I am not sure how we have kept it away or even if we didn't and are the types of people that are asymptomatic. So I don't think that has been a factor.

Where this becomes a timely showing of this thread for me is that I made the decision that since we are starting a new year, I am going to try to force some changes to see if it helps, it sure can't hurt. Last weekend was the first weekend that I have not drank in 3 years. It was tough. I kept looking at the liquor cabinet and thinking I should pour something to sip on. I consciously stopped myself like 6 or 7 times each night. I honestly think I was feeling some withdrawal. It was kind of a craving for it. I also plan on trying to get outside more and do more things to get more movement in my day to get my energy and motivation back. So this thread touched something I am going through now. I have never had a real drinking issue so this is sort of new for me at an old age. It is time to squash it. Now you know more about me than many of my friends IRL.
 
JasonE said:
Wow, this thread came up at a very interesting time for me. I am older than many that have stated their age in this thread. I went many years without drinking and when I did start again it was very seldom and always in social situations. Something changed in 2020 when the lockdowns happened. I started drinking a lot more. I wasn't drinking beer either. It has been all Tequila and Bourbon, straight, neat. I am almost embarrassed at how much of it I have put down in three years time. I am honestly surprised that my blood and liver numbers haven't showed some sign of it.

I had a major heath issue that got discovered the first week of February last year. It was serious enough that They found it on a Thursday afternoon and I was in surgery the following Tuesday. While I didn't think this affected me, it affected me greatly. My father died of this same issue and I thought I was in the clear since nothing had shown up and I have outlived him by almost 7 years now. One of my younger brothers has the same issue and he has been through two surgeries for it.

My wife has told me that I have depression. I didn't see it. I think I see it now. For me it has shown up as a lack of motivation. Things I used to love doing like getting out and playing my guitar in a band for live audiences just sound like a huge hassle for me now. My wife and I have neither had COVID that we know of. I am not sure how we have kept it away or even if we didn't and are the types of people that are asymptomatic. So I don't think that has been a factor.

Where this becomes a timely showing of this thread for me is that I made the decision that since we are starting a new year, I am going to try to force some changes to see if it helps, it sure can't hurt. Last weekend was the first weekend that I have not drank in 3 years. It was tough. I kept looking at the liquor cabinet and thinking I should pour something to sip on. I consciously stopped myself like 6 or 7 times each night. I honestly think I was feeling some withdrawal. It was kind of a craving for it. I also plan on trying to get outside more and do more things to get more movement in my day to get my energy and motivation back. So this thread touched something I am going through now. I have never had a real drinking issue so this is sort of new for me at an old age. It is time to squash it. Now you know more about me than many of my friends IRL.
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I wish you all the best, man!!!

I’ve picked up and dropped more habits than I can count at this point, some major ones and a bunch of smaller ones, I’m always happy to share what worked for me for those looking to make some changes if you want to shoot me a DM!

Motivation was a major hurdle for me in 2023 and after years of resisting the idea of taking anything to change the chemistry of my brain (that wasn’t an illegal substance), I ended up taking a dopamine supplement (that’s mainly a bunch of vitamins) and it’s been life changing, with no hyperbole surrounding those two words. My MO for a long time was to get home from work, immediately put on PJ’s and crash on the couch. I had moved past the point of even feeling guilty about my lack of doing ANYTHING outside the bare minimum to survive. Life’s been a 180 since.

I made procrastination an art form over the last 3 years, the biggest way I’ve combatted that is when something pops up for me to do, I get up and do it before I can convince myself why I shouldn’t do it now. Because there’s never a good reason, I just let procrastination win. Before I made this habitual, I would have to trick myself with things like “I’m getting up to do this, but if I can think of one legit, good reason to not do it by the time I put my hands on it, I don’t have to do it” and again, there’s never a good reason, but giving myself that ‘out’, even if I knew it was BS, worked.
 
DrewJD82 said:
I wish you all the best, man!!!

I’ve picked up and dropped more habits than I can count at this point, some major ones and a bunch of smaller ones, I’m always happy to share what worked for me for those looking to make some changes if you want to shoot me a DM!

Motivation was a major hurdle for me in 2023 and after years of resisting the idea of taking anything to change the chemistry of my brain (that wasn’t an illegal substance), I ended up taking a dopamine supplement (that’s mainly a bunch of vitamins) and it’s been life changing, with no hyperbole surrounding those two words. My MO for a long time was to get home from work, immediately put on PJ’s and crash on the couch. I had moved past the point of even feeling guilty about my lack of doing ANYTHING outside the bare minimum to survive. Life’s been a 180 since.

I made procrastination an art form over the last 3 years, the biggest way I’ve combatted that is when something pops up for me to do, I get up and do it before I can convince myself why I shouldn’t do it now. Because there’s never a good reason, I just let procrastination win. Before I made this habitual, I would have to trick myself with things like “I’m getting up to do this, but if I can think of one legit, good reason to not do it by the time I put my hands on it, I don’t have to do it” and again, there’s never a good reason, but giving myself that ‘out’, even if I knew it was BS, worked.
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It has definitely far too easy to just do nothing. I have been working from home now for almost 4 years now. That makes it even easier. I have literally had periods of at least 2 months where I have never left my property. My wife has had to go into the office almost the whole time so she gets groceries and most anything else that needs to be picked up. Amazon delivers just about everything else.

My current approach is to kind of mentally kick my own ass a bit to get me moving. So far it is looking like it may work. I am getting a bit tired of how I have let some things go around the house so I am using that as motivation to fix things. I am the only one that can fix it so I may as well start doing it.
 
JasonE said:
It has definitely far too easy to just do nothing. I have been working from home now for almost 4 years now. That makes it even easier. I have literally had periods of at least 2 months where I have never left my property. My wife has had to go into the office almost the whole time so she gets groceries and most anything else that needs to be picked up. Amazon delivers just about everything else.

My current approach is to kind of mentally kick my own ass a bit to get me moving. So far it is looking like it may work. I am getting a bit tired of how I have let some things go around the house so I am using that as motivation to fix things. I am the only one that can fix it so I may as well start doing it.
Click to expand...

It definitely helps to start small and use the successes of the those small accomplishments to start fueling you for the bigger ones. I mean small, just washing the single dish and silverware after I finished eating instead of letting it sit in the sink overnight was what I started off with. Making sure my coffee pot was ready to go for the next morning, whatever little shit that would afford me some comforts to start my day off was a BIG step in the right direction.

Part of that comes with ignoring yourself when that voice pops in to tell you that celebrating something like setting an alarm on a coffee pot shouldn’t be something worth celebrating, I strongly recommend when that voice pop up, you grab it by the throat and slam it against a wall a few times to let it know who is in control!
 
DrewJD82 said:
It definitely helps to start small and use the successes of the those small accomplishments to start fueling you for the bigger ones. I mean small, just washing the single dish and silverware after I finished eating instead of letting it sit in the sink overnight was what I started off with. Making sure my coffee pot was ready to go for the next morning, whatever little shit that would afford me some comforts to start my day off was a BIG step in the right direction.

Part of that comes with ignoring yourself when that voice pops in to tell you that celebrating something like setting an alarm on a coffee pot shouldn’t be something worth celebrating, I strongly recommend when that voice pop up, you grab it by the throat and slam it against a wall a few times to let it know who is in control!
Click to expand...
I had to burn some PTO time up in November and December last year. I took on a few jobs around the house that needed done. My wife was at work so I was here alone. I seem to do better that way. If I am the only one here I am able to motivate myself to do some things. I am now trying to work on doing these things when she is home. She is always telling me to do what I want to do and not let her affect what I do. I don't know why her being home has affected me. It never used to.

I am thinking about taking on a couple more projects that should take the most of a day to do. I want to pull all of the stuff out of the closet I store most of my guitars in and go through all of it. I want to weed out stuff that has been in there for a long time that I am not using or maybe even forgot I own. I need to make room for a bunch of pedal boxes for pedals I bought last year. I think tearing it all apart and organizing things will be good.

I started building some pedals last fall. I have 4 more in the build process. I missed some components when I ordered them. I think I have everything now. I need to get back into those to see if I can finish them. That will take some time too. I was really into that when I started doing it.
 
I'm glad that people no longer have to be ashamed of mental health problems these days. It's actually no different to physical injuries - if you break your leg, it goes without saying that you can no longer walk without restrictions. It's the same if you break your mind, and in most cases there‘s treatment for it.
 
JasonE said:
Where this becomes a timely showing of this thread for me is that I made the decision that since we are starting a new year, I am going to try to force some changes to see if it helps, it sure can't hurt. Last weekend was the first weekend that I have not drank in 3 years. It was tough. I kept looking at the liquor cabinet and thinking I should pour something to sip on. I consciously stopped myself like 6 or 7 times each night. I honestly think I was feeling some withdrawal.
Click to expand...
Make no mistake: withdrawal is exactly what you were feeling. Cautionary note: A few weeks ago, I was sharing health scare stories with a friend. He told me he had stopped drinking cold-turkey a little over a year ago. During the pandemic, he had worked his way up to a fifth of liquor a day, definitely a hard-core alcoholic level. Immediately after he quit, his blood pressure spiked - 220/110 - and his blood pressure medication stopped working. He checked into an ER, and it took several days before they could get his BP under control. If he'd had an aneurism, it probably would have ruptured. He's OK now, and he's been sober ever since.

Going cold-turkey from alcohol is more life-threatening than quitting heroin. Take it slowly, and pay close attention to everything you feel. It might be a good idea to monitor your BP if you aren't already.

My brush with eternity came last October 20: I had a heart attack. Fortunately for me, every possibly factor worked in my favor. I recognized what was happening, took a full-dose aspirin, and had my wife drive me to the nearest ER, which is one mile from the house. They rushed me into the examination room and glued EKG sensors to my chest. The ER physician read the EKG, told me I was having a heart attack, and called a cardiology team right away. I had an angiography scan and a stent inserted (through my wrist, not my groin) within less than an hour. I spent 24 hours in the ICU for observation and was discharged. I had not had major risk factors other than some family history. I'm not overweight, my normal diet is mostly heart-healthy, I walk between 2 and 3 miles a day, my drinking was moderate, and my BP had never been especially high. Now, every time I feel any kind of twinge in my chest, I wonder....
 
jay mitchell said:
Make no mistake: withdrawal is exactly what you were feeling. Cautionary note: A few weeks ago, I was sharing health scare stories with a friend. He told me he had stopped drinking cold-turkey a little over a year ago. During the pandemic, he had worked his way up to a fifth of liquor a day, definitely a hard-core alcoholic level. Immediately after he quit, his blood pressure spiked - 220/110 - and his blood pressure medication stopped working. He checked into an ER, and it took several days before they could get his BP under control. If he'd had an aneurism, it probably would have ruptured. He's OK now, and he's been sober ever since.

Going cold-turkey from alcohol is more life-threatening than quitting heroin. Take it slowly, and pay close attention to everything you feel. It might be a good idea to monitor your BP if you aren't already.

My brush with eternity came last October 20: I had a heart attack. Fortunately for me, every possibly factor worked in my favor. I recognized what was happening, took a full-dose aspirin, and had my wife drive me to the nearest ER, which is one mile from the house. They rushed me into the examination room and glued EKG sensors to my chest. The ER physician read the EKG, told me I was having a heart attack, and called a cardiology team right away. I had an angiography scan and a stent inserted (through my wrist, not my groin) within less than an hour. I spent 24 hours in the ICU for observation and was discharged. I had not had major risk factors other than some family history. I'm not overweight, my normal diet is mostly heart-healthy, I walk between 2 and 3 miles a day, my drinking was moderate, and my BP had never been especially high. Now, every time I feel any kind of twinge in my chest, I wonder....
Click to expand...
Thanks for that reply. I wouldn't have thought that stopping drinking would increase my BP or make my meds stop working.

I do check my BP every day. I have to for the issue I had. I keep an eye on it because it can go high. Mine is strange though, it is diastolic number that goes high on mine. I did notice a little increase for a couple of days but everything went back to where it has been after that. I have even had a couple of days where it was lower than normal. It would be great if it goes down with the removal of alcohol from my intake.
 
TheTrueZoltan! said:
I'm glad that people no longer have to be ashamed of mental health problems these days. It's actually no different to physical injuries - if you break your leg, it goes without saying that you can no longer walk without restrictions. It's the same if you break your mind, and in most cases there‘s treatment for it.
Click to expand...

Truth! :beer

And the chronic denial of it--that it is a thing, or can be a thing---is literally deadly and destructive.

Hope your case is mild, and you power through this. :hugitout
 
la szum said:
Haha! Yup. The loss of taste is one of the symptoms. Or so I hear. :LOL:
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Haha, I actually meant a different form of taste. :LOL:
BTW, is it normal for Covid breath to reek of potato peelings?
Season 3 Nbc GIF by The Office
 
Last edited:
TheTrueZoltan! said:
Haha, I actually meant a different form of taste. :LOL:
BTW, is it normal for Covid breath to reek of potato peelings?
Click to expand...

My only real lingering symptom was funky taste/smell. Not sure what it was.

It's gone now and dissipated in about 3 weeks time.

And I am peeling potatoes today for some soup. :LOL:
 
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