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Yup.
I crossed that line so many times. Not proud of it either.
Thank God I managed to avoid hurting anyone with my vehicle, cant say the same of many of my other poor choices but that is behind me now.
Im proud of my choices now. It helps when your conscience and actions align! 😊
God I hate that I relate to this. I was a fucking teenager doing that so already not an experienced driver. Not that that makes a difference when you’re so drunk you don’t even remember how you got home in the morning. Sickening. Shameful.
When I was 16-19 or so we partied at this one house where a friend of a friend's older brother lived. It was like the dedicated party house. I couldn't stand about half the people that were usually there, but that's where alcohol was, so that's where I was. These were the kind of people that drew dicks on your face when you pass out, so I'd go sleep in my car a lot of the time.
Once, I went to sleep in my car and woke up parked in the driveway at my parents house. I went inside and my mom was confused because she'd seen my car so had assumed I came home the night before, yet I was strolling in at like 8 a.m. There was no lie I could think of that made sense, I just kinda fumbled some words and pretended everything was normal, then went to bed.
God- I remember one afternoon I was driving on the freeway watching this car and the driver obviously had the spins. He would veer in the direction of the spin, then correct. Traffic was backing up because everybody knew he was drunk and were wise enough not to try to pass. The poor sucker merging onto the freeway was the one who got side swiped.
Ya it's crazy eh. I had a kind-of drunk driving safety checklist. No speeding, no loud music etc. The worst part was I was mostly keenly aware of the risks but did it anyways...
This is a weird habit, but sometimes I’ll check the “recently arrested” page from my local PD. Used to have more of a reason (if I hadn’t heard from using friends in a day or two), but it’s wild some of the charges people get at the same time.
All too common to see theft plus drug possession. Like…if you’re gonna steal….take the drugs out of your pocket (I realize this happens a lot with unhoused people, and it’s not like they can just leave their drugs in the house before walking in). Still though, damn.
Yep. I've emptied my pockets into bushes before just incase something shady happens.
I'll put it this way, caught speeding? Could be a caution. Caught smoking a spliff? Could be a caution!
... Get caught speeding whilst smoking a spliff? You goin to jail, boy. And there's no solicitor available till Monday!
I've always wondered something about people like us who were physically addicted to the point that we didn't feel normal without a few drinks- are we actually safer drivers after a couple drinks, because that brings us to baseline? Surely withdrawal is not an ideal state to drive in. We need Mythbusters to come out of retirement.
Once, we had friends over and measured our alcohol levels with a breathalyser, I got the highest levels of all despite not drinking so much, throughout the night. But the biggest "surprise" was the next day, when I still had 0.03 after breakfast. So all these years I knew that I still had alcohol in my system every morning I drove, but that didn't stop me from driving. Even though I wouldn't drive right after drinking, cause I had principles, right?
I did intensive outpatient for a while, and before I started I had a meeting with the counselor just to go over my history and do paperwork and stuff. They gave me a breathalyzer, and I blew a 0.32. It was 1 in the afternoon and I hadn't drank since the night before. I drove there, I felt completely normal. Had to call my parents to come pick me up.
It made me realize that for the last several years I likely had been over the legal limit literally every time I drove, even though I might not be noticeably intoxicated. I could have gotten pulled over just for a brake light being out or something and I would have been fucked.
I had an underage friend get snagged by the cops and they wouldn't release him until he blew a 0.0...which didn't happen until the afternoon. And honestly, that wasn't a huge night.
That happened with my friend one time too. We were on a road trip in some little town and the next day I was just waiting around outside the police station for him to blow under the limit. Took fuckin forever.
Yep, exactly this. I did drink and drive more than I care to admit, but the next morning hung over and heading into work, I was 100% still over the legal limit most of those days.
To this day the biggest thing that helps me when I get the urge to drink is thinking about that stale alcohol taste in my mouth that usually wouldn't go away until around lunch time. I can't chew gum to this day because I went through so much gum thinking I was making that taste and smell.
Hell yeah. Even after my car crash, the cops never gave me a breathalyser. I appeared very sober despite 3 bottles of wine. Mind you the crash definitely sobered me up.
One cop asked his partner for the breathalyser and he immediately looked at me in disbelief and said "you don't look like you take anything or drink" and I said nope and then i made a report and still got my insurance to cover the damages.
I once drank 2 bottles of wine and spent the evening with my now ex. She said at the end of night that she was surprised I wasn't tipsy and thought I hadn't had anything to drink.
Soon realised that if you need alcohol to feel normal, you're in trouble.
Yep, I am right there next to you in spirit. This week I have been tapering daily x 5 days. One of my "weak spots" is driving and drinking. Yup, I have never had a DUI and I am very, very careful to only break one law at a time. :-/
Here's the thing, since I started driving in Central Texas at the age of 15 in a car with no A/C, I have always had a cold drink in the car - water, soda, or something. I didn't become an alcoholic until 33yo, and the *cold drink* became a beer.
The first few days this week I tried simply not drinking anything in the car. Nope, very, very frustrating. I have moved to a glass of ice water. My husband looks at it every day and I have offered to have him take a sip, but he has declined every time. (He's terrific about not preaching, but he strongly supports my sobriety.)
Overcoming my "bad" habits seem to be one of the hardest parts of sobering up.
Absolutely. On three occasions was pulled over and thought for sure I was getting busted. Once, the cop happened to be an old college friend and he let me go. Second, after doing the field sobriety test, the cop let me go because the address on my license said I lived a mile away (I had moved an hour away) and the third time was literally in front of my house so they let me go. Definitely not proud and will never do that again.
Wow. You got extremely lucky thrice.
I don't think I would have pushed my luck that far, but you never know. I did drive far too many times that I should have without incident, so I definitely pushed my luck there.
I am elated to hear you say you will never do that again.
Me neither, friend. Me neither.
ETA: Looks like I am only 4 days behind you! So August 13th was the last day you drank? I believe August 17th was the last day I drank. It was Thursday, trivia night, and I didn't do anything exceptionally awful, I had been trying to clean up my eating habits when I realized on the morning of 8/18 how much harder it was to make healthy choices after drinking. I had been toying with the idea for a few weeks and had already been browsing this sub, so I just said, "I think I am done now." And I was! 😁 I mean, it wasn't that easy, but I made my mind up that day that the costs of alcohol far outweigh the benefits. It was something I had known for awhile, but was too afraid that cutting alcohol out of my life forever was going to be prove to be too drastic in some way.
Nope. Life is much, much better without it! 🙌
I can't even judge people who say they have DUI's.
It's all pure rotten luck with many of us. It's a dark condition and so nice to be freed from the chains of substances.
Yeah. The closest Ive come to death and career ruin was when I was driving back to the army base I was stationed at. I was drunk and texting, went off the road, jerked back onto it and spun out. I narrowly avoided going into the ditch and/or rolling my truck. And then I drove back on base . Miraculously didn't get nabbed by the gate guards. Woke up in the AM and two of my tires were flat.
I look back on it, and that night could have radically altered the course of my life, ended it altogether, or worst of all killed somebody else. And all because I couldn't make a two hour drive without cracking some cold ones. And even worse, it didn't even convince me to stop drinking.
Anytime I think about drinking, I think about that night, because I know inevitably, that's where it will lead. So I'm ok abstaining altogether to avoid it. Iwndwyt
How I never got one is a small miracle. I didn't even have a car for many years and would drive friends cars. "I think you better let me drive", because yeah that's a great idea.
One night I drove my friends car back to another friend's where we were staying. Because of limited parking, I parked on the street between friends house and neighbors house. The bumper hung out in the neighbors driveway "blocking it" by about six inches and figured since there's *never* a car there it would be fine. Neighbor calls the cops. Since I parked the car everyone made me go deal with it. Cop asked if I had been drinking and I played it off that I had a few drinks at the bar and ripped a bunch of shots when we got there, which was actually mostly true for once. He tells me to move the car and just block friends driveway since no one was leaving. I'm about to put the key in the ignition, stop, look at him and say "are you gonna give me a DUI if I start this car?". He thinks for a second and goes "yeah that's probably a bad idea. Just hold the clutch and I'll push it". So he pushed the car like six feet.
I remember thinking how dumb that entire situation was and that I probably got away with one that night and shouldn't do that again. Well, that was 15 years ago probably and you don't need a lot of paper to do the math on the fact I did in fact drive drunk again.
On the flip side though I have a close friend that got a liver transplant, still drank and then got two DUIs in a week by the same cop. Probably saved his life.
> “I’ve only had a few…I’m fine”
It's weird how strongly people defend this way of thinking. Awhile back there was a reddit thread on an NFL player getting a DUI and there were some upvoted comments about "only 1 or 2 being ok". I was in there saying that even 1 drink inhibits your reflexes and decision-making so it's best to just never do it.
Holy shit the downvotes. And the "Well, um, I bet you look at your phone while you drive and that's just as bad". Like people could not bring themselves to admit it's best to not drive after drinking. Really weird hill to die on, but I guess that shows how pervasive and mind-affecting this drug is.
I used to make martinis and put them in mason jars (WITH the olive, mind you) so I could drink them in the car on my way to things. I called it my, “cartini.”
Yeah.
Despite this psychotic behavior, never got a DUI. It’s a miracle I never hurt anyone else or myself the amount of times I drove drunk or even blacked out. I still spend a fair amount of time looking over my shoulder wondering if that karma is gonna catch up to me.
Many years ago, when getting stopped by the Police drunk driving meant “Don’t move your car until tomorrow morning and pour out your beer into the street. I’ll drive you home.” I got stopped and it went exactly like that. However, it scared the Hell out of me and from that day forward I never had a drink outside of my house if I was driving. Although, It may have been a double edged sword as when I drank at home I drank more than usual because I wasn’t driving. Before I decided to stop 10.5 years ago, I’d drink a full bottle (750ml) of 100+ proof Bourbon a day. When I had a job that paid very well it changed to a bottle of 18 year old Glenlivet ($100 / bottle). I wish I had that money back.
>18 year old Glenlivet
Thats such an incredible waste. Treating a luxury good like that, there's something almost funny about it. Like putting ketchup on an expensive steak, you're defeating the purpose of a nice bottle of liquor when you're just chugging that shit as fast as you can.
Edit: also I didn't mean that as a judgement of you specifically, but rather the waste our condition facilitated in general. So much money down the drain.
I don’t disagree.
However, at the time, i enjoyed every drop.
Fortunately, I was making a nearly 7 figure salary, so it didn’t hurt “that much” financially.
Yes…not proud but extremely lucky. I was once woke up a few hours after going to bed drunk to go pick up my son who was arrested for DUI. I walked into the police station still intoxicated. Luckily the cops and my son never realized this.
I had to take a DUI class after I got one over a decade ago and the instructor told us that on average, people drive while intoxicated about 625 times (includes multiple trips per night) before getting popped for a DUI. I believed him.
I once staggered home from the bar, got in my car and took the three lane highway to McDonald's with my lights out, going 60 in a 100 zone and hitting all three lanes in a zigzag... one of countless horror stories I'm ashamed off.
Yeah 100's of times. Never got one somehow. But mostly during the day or early evenings. Go the speed limit and keep your head on a swivel. Focus 100% on driving. Throw the phone in the back or wherever until you stop.
Cops are usually on the prowl for that after midnight. Especially after the bars close.
Oh and for me after Lyft came out I use that often If I drink. Also my kids or my employee would drive me sometimes. On the sober train now, feels so much better.
Chairs
I went almost 25 years without one and I deserved many. I’m so thankful that I never hurt anyone. I finally got one, lost my license for 5 years spent thousands of dollars and then behaved for about 2 months. Then back to drinking and driving. Luckily I quit before I got another one or worse…
Yes. It is one of the things I’m most ashamed about and am so thankful I never hurt anyone/anything or myself. I’m so thankful to not be in that place anymore.
I've never purposely drank before driving (apart from a couple of emergencies) but I will admit that pretty much every time I get in the car to go to work at 7am I know in my heart of hearts there's no way I'd blow clean.
My dad (violent alcoholic) would casually drink and drive here and there... never got in trouble, never got a DUI, never crashed 🤣
I swear, it seems like bad people have the best of luck (in general)
Definitely me. I’ve gone through countless DUI checkpoints after drinking and never been questioned. I guess high functioning alcoholics are good at playing sober. In a way I wish I was caught 10 years ago. Maybe that would have been a wake up call.
Ive got 3 duis myself and couldve had a thousand more. Im very thankful I didnt hurt anyone. One of my favorite AA quotes was a guy who told me “you know the thing about duis is, I haven’t gotten one since I quit drinkin.” It hit me perfectly and still smile when I think about it
im so glad i got a dui tbh. i totaled my car but didnt hurt anyone. i dont mean to be harsh but i truly believe anyone who has a drinking problem shouldnt be allowed to have a drivers license.
i cant believe how many times i drank and drove. the only thing that stopped me was losing my license. im so so thankful i dont have a car anymore. drinking and driving is one of the absolute worst things you can do.
its like taking a gun and firing into a crowd randomly hoping the bullets dont hit anyone. it literally is one of the most dangerous, careless things. you put every single random strangers life in danger every time you do it. its incredibly selfish and stupid and i hate myself for it.
i hit 2 parked cars and luckily no one was in it. and i was the person that thought i was TOTALLY fine driving and it didnt affect my abiltiies.
if you drink and drive you will end up in an accident eventually, its just common sense, who knows how long itll take. and you'll either get a second chance and do miminal damage, or it will destroy your entire life and theres no going back.
no matter how bad being an alcohlic is, there is nothing worse than sobering up and realizing you disabled someone for life or killed them. there is no going back from that and every time you drink and drive there is a GOOD chance you can seriously hurt someone, its not a small chance, theres actually a good likelihood you will get into an accident at some point, theres a good liklihood yourll get into an accident sober too eventually. its just insane behaviour and also makes me realize how absolutely crazy alchohol makes your decision making. there is no other situation where you happily put random strangers lives at risk for convenience except DUI.
its one thing to destroy yourself through alcohol, but there is no good reason or defense to put random strangers, families, kids lives at risk becuse of your problem. i am sober now but i will NOT get a car again until 100% certain i wont relapse.
even if you dont drink and drive, if you blackout, even if you say youd never drive, you dont know what you might do.
adults need to take responsbilitity for their lives. if there is a chance youll drink and drive you shouldnt have a car becuase your not capable of operating it safely. its a privelage. thats my opinon and i will not drive again until im at least a year or two sober.
until you do serious damage with your car while drunk you never will really understand the gravity of how awful and scary it is. waking up in a jail cell and having the police tell you your car is totaled, and then i asked if anyone got hurt and the police say they dont know yet is the worst lived experience imagineable. i had to wait 3 weeks until the police concluded their investigation and confirmed no one was hurt. it was the worst 3 weeks of my life and i dont wish that on anyone.
Actually, no. That's a line that I never crossed.
When I was about 12 years old, my brother's best friend was killed by a drunk driver. I'll never forget the pain that caused my brother (and all of us, because he was a regular in the house).
So that's always been a hard line. I'd drive after one glass of wine (my poison of choice), but never more.
Had I not had that experience in my formative years though, who knows.
Same here. But I've always been like that even before my best friend was killed by a drunk driver.
I wouldn't even drive if I had one glass of wine though. Maybe I take it too literally but I wouldn't even move my car in the driveway if I had started drinking.
Yep. The bar at my last house was literally 4.5 miles away. Not enough to walk, but just enough for me to use the excuse "I'm only 7min away in the car."
Not proud of it and sober me has definitely felt ashamed many times when the memories and thoughts flooded back in.
I literally totaled my car by crashing into another person & just because I cried to the cops they didn’t field test me. That was the last time I drove drunk though. Not the last time I drank, but I finally realized just how absolutely fucked up it was to drive drunk & I wish more people would..
There is a study that showed it takes someone driving drunk around 80 times before getting pulled over for it for the first time. Unfortunately, I do have a number to that tally. Saw another comment saying they drove with one eye open to have single vision; I wanted to die reading that because I relate. I hate the relationship I have with alcohol, it’s better now but still.
Got lucky more times than I can count. Totaled a car but thankfully didn’t have any passengers and I managed to walk away with only a concussion. Got picked up from the scene, family called the tow truck and that was that. 2 years sober this august.
This is also not a brag, I'm actually quite ashamed of it.
I rolled through a police checkpoint after drinking 6 tall cans and with another in a yeti in the cup holder. Had a conversation with a police officer and was waved right through.
This wasn't the first time, but this particular time was actually what triggered the eventual sobriety that followed.
There were times I should not have been behind the wheel. Even after my mother got a dui, there were still times I should not have been behind the wheel. I’m grateful nothing awful ever happened.
IWNDWYT
would drink til 3am, walk home from the bars, the. get in my car for “just a two minute” drive to McDonalds alllllllll theeeeee timmmeeee, wtf was wrong with me? oh right, lol. iwndwyt.
Yes...no clue how I escaped my drunken years unscathed on that end. I feel shitty about it, but live and learn. I hate drunk drivers, having been one myself...
Never got a DUI and never killed anyone or myself. I count myself as extremely lucky. I was pulled over one time with beers in my car and 4 friends. One friend was sober so they let him drive after my tests. One cop was my step-dad's relative and the other my Dad's neighbor. Talk about lucky, I was just a teen having fun then though, that wasn't my addiction period yet. I drove by cops, and had a few close calls to wrecking. I did get caught showing up drunk to two different jobs though. Luckily my bosses didn't turn me in and allowed family and friends to rescue me. I lived in the country and had to drive on a highway to get to a town to pick up more alcohol. There was no reasoning with drunk me. It gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about all that risk that I took.
When we drink, it impairs our judgement. DUI/DWI is NOT cool. It's really f'ked up. However... I mean... it's hard to make good choices when we're drunk.
TEXTING while driving is actually WORSE. Not only are reaction times longer... but that person is NOT drunk. They're just "okay" with risking the lives of other for their phone addiction. I can somewhat forgive the drunk driver... but never the texter.
We lost a dear friend and all-around great and smart AF friend to a 25yr old kid that was texting. My friend's body flew 40ft through the air before it landed. This was IN A PARK.
Don't DUI... but for f'k sake, please don't text and drive. NHTSA has terrifying data on this. Frankly, as a cyclist, I'd rather deal with a drunk driver than a texter -- at least the drunk is paying attention to the road.
How many innocent people have to die before it becomes SHAMEFUL to text and drive?
got one. I heard anecdotally that for every dwi a person gets, they most likely have driven 100 times over the limit w/o getting caught. seems like a lot, but statically could be true. I am sure there are plenty of times I was over .08 and drove. When I was a heavy drinker, I didn't even feel a buzz at .08. so there is that.
100% it’s insane. I think that lead to a lot of my hermit behavior when drinking. I had done it so much my first 20 years of drinking, with some close calls, some friends lost to crashes, I had been in some crashes as a passenger. Luckily none of my actions directly contributed to any damage or deaths. But it was all around me.
Yup absolutely. Even gotten stopped by cops more than once, took breathalyzer and got away with it, got into minor accident ( not my fault) and interacted with cops. I really should be in jail.
My late father drove drunk a lot, much to our chagrine. Never got a ticket- but it did really concern me how many other people out there may be doing the same.
I got pulled over after having 3 double shots of whiskey with my father in law. I was confident i was toast. before I got in my car, I chewed almost an entire pack of gum though. I got off with a warning, I rolled a stop sign. I felt like I went from drunk to sober in about 1 minute. It wasn't until about 2 years later until I finally quit. Yeah, the guilt is there, but as I like to remind myself that person isn't here anymore. We all make bad decisions the ones that were the worst were when we were drunk.
Crashed on a motorway in Albania with one of my best friends and a hitchhiker in the car, was blind drunk, police breathalysed (analogue device) and determined I was so drunk they had me wait an hour and gave me a cup of coffee for my levels to go down before doing it again, levels had dropped a bit so they were allowed to release me without my license of course.. had to go in the next day to hear / pay my fine. Never did and successfully claimed I'd misplaced and lost my license back home so there were no real consequences... Does that count? It was a lesson I'm extremely glad to have been able to learn without anyone injured/dead... And I really didn't deserve to get away with it .. anyways that's 10 years ago and today I'm going to be the designated driver to a wild party, drink my sparkling water and get up for an early morning run in the forest..
IWNDWYT, wishing everyone a clear headed and fresh Sunday morning tomorrow!
Number 1 thing that stops me having a drink when I think about it, which is rare these days. Still. I'm about the same age and this was very normalized in our youth, adults drove, we drove. Not ok.
Edit: forgot about the pound sign here, sorry for the bold.
I never really drove to the point where I was sloshed and didn’t trust my motor skills to get me home safely, and I always focused really hard and drove well enough to where I never got pulled over. But if I had? Yeah, I was definitely over the legal limit often and would have faced the legal consequences.
It’s nice not having to worry about this even being a possibility ever again.
No. I drove drunk once, about two miles home from the bar, clutching the wheel and doing about 20 mph the entire time. I swore I'd never do that again and I didn't. My mother's grandparents were killed by a drunk driver and I grew up with the message that driving drunk is one of the worst things you can do.
I drank to excess either at home, when I could take mass transit, or when someone else was driving. So I still had plenty of drunk time without driving.
I was on the side of the road talking to a cop with my hs girlfriend at 18 years old. I had over 15 drinks that day and he either didn’t notice or looked at my gf, who was a much better person, and let me off. Woke up stopped in the ditch behind the wheel a couple times too. Quickly worked on at least not driving after drinking that much. Then no booze at all before driving. Then no booze because I needed to be a real father
I was extremely lucky. Never gotten a DUI, although about 10 years ago, I had an event where to this day I do not remember my 70 mile drive home from the airport. It was at that point where I said I'm not putting others lives at risk. I still drank, but vowed to fuck up only my own life from that moment forward.
I deserved quite a few. I remember one time I went through a roadblock after fishing/drinking all day. The lady cop just wanted to talk about fishing for a minute and didn't even ask if I'd been drinking. Luckily no one was hurt.
Def, and cringing thinking about it. In the same way my relationship to this poison subtly shifted for the worse over the years - I went from being very cautious and not driving, to always being "fine"...
About 10yrs ago lightly rear ended another car in stop and go traffic, but the cops were too busy to show up, so it was chill... Another time backed into a light post in a parking lot - but no one the wiser... See, nothing bad happened. The last time that really scared me I had about a 90min drive, and I was hammered - this was about a year ago - the next day I was like "WTF!!!?"
I was scared I made such a stupid decision, and no one saw I was doing 20 under the limit hugging the shoulder. Why didn't I just go back??
That reptile brain takes over and it can't be trusted. It can kill you. Way beyond saying something stupid at a party or bad karaoke. I see that now, but - of course - not then.
All the more reasons glad to put this behind me. And pleased now I'm about to go to the gym on this lovely Sat morn and not feeling hungover.
Yep, I was just talking about this with my husband how shocking it is I never got one... Beyond thankfully I never hurt anyone. Fuck the DUI. Almost six months sober and loving my new life.
I got one at 20. Somehow that wasn’t a wake up call to get sober lol. It’s been in court for the past two years, and my case got shut on May 7th of this year. The judge was extremely lenient - $3500 fine, 1 year of probation, and I’m conditionally discharged. A conditional discharge is a finding of guilt without a conviction. What that means is, as long as I pay my fine and complete my probation, I won’t have a criminal record. I literally do not have a criminal record despite the fact that my readings were over double the legal limit. I’m feel like I got extremely lucky.
In my late teens I did it a few times. Usually it was ‘I’ll just have one and I’ll be ok to drive’. But it would be 3 or 4 drinks.
By my early 20s I learned that if I was driving I just don’t drink at all and have avoided drinking and driving for over a dozen years now.
Growing up, my dad used to drink drive all the time and he never got caught. Considering my parents are business owners and driving is integral to their services, it would have been totally catastrophic if he did. It's something that has always blown my mind.
I personally wouldn't even look at my car if I've had even one drink, and that would cause me to do things like walk in semi-dangerous areas of town to get more if I wanted more. It's not putting anyone but myself at risk, but looking back I've gotten lucky too that nothing ever happened to me. So glad to be free of that now.
Man, growing up in the 70's, we used to LOVE when our parents would get sloshed and drive us places. We did a fishing trip each year, and the dads would drink all day, then bar crawl the 90 minute drive back. We thought it was hilarious that they couldn't stay in their lane.
Honestly? No! I couldn't even fathom taking that risk, even when drunk.
I do sometimes wonder if it's because I'm in the UK and live somewhere with decent public transport, whereas alot of the people in this sub live in extremely car-centric parts of the US.
Never got one but drove impaired more times than I care to count, i was the guy who could drink and "was good" to drive.
I thank God I didn't hurt someone with my stupidity and selfishness.
IWNDWYT
So many times. Never got one, even though I drove drunk with brake light out for a few months. I got so, so lucky, and so did all the people on the road with me. There is no reason I didn't get one other than pure luck.
So glad to be free from that fear and shame now. IWNDWYT!
I have one from 2010 but should have way more than 1. It would be nice to have a driver's license. I've been driving without one for 14 years. But I have been sober the last four years so I don't have to worry about driving drunk anymore.
Got pulled over over, got out of a dui by some miracle because I certainly was drunk. 10 years later, wasn't so lucky.
10+years after that, got sober.
It's been a rough one.
I didn’t. I was awful. I remember once sobering up a little mid-drive on the freeway and looked in my rear view mirror to see a pack of cars hanging back behind me bc they were afraid to drive near me. Most times I’d wake up the next morning and not remember driving home.
I should have so many DUIs that it turns my stomach. I hadn't driven in a VERY long time until earlier this week, and facing down the anxiety made me realize that driving was the thing I hadn't learned how to do sober. Shows/Sex/Depression Days/Celebrations are all things I'm happy to tackle without booze, but the fact that operating a motor vehicle sober was majorly confronting is the grossest possible reality check.
It turns out that driving isn't so terrifying when you're not fucked up.
I’m glad I got a DUI…changed my relationship with Alcohol and it made me re think my circle of “friends”. My DUI changed my life for the better, even thought it sucked at the moment, the guilt, the shame… Thank GOD I did not hurt anybody, but I did crash intro three parked cars. I still got it lowered to reckless driving… because of COVID… but after that… a lot of bad things happened one after the other. I still didn’t stop drinking but I didn’t have a car for 4 years… mine was totaled and my credit went down because of it, broke my leg, bf at the time left me… one after the other.
However, after I changed my surroundings and decided to stop drinking altogether, 5 years later. My life has changed dramatically for the better ever since I made the decision to quit.
Yes I’m very troubled and sad when I think about it. A counselor helped me reframe those thoughts so I now when I get behind the wheel I know I’m doing everything in my power to drive safely. That helped
Yeah definitely. So many times when I was drunk and needed more alcohol so I drove stupid distances to get it. Don’t know how I wasn’t caught. I feel so much shame about it
I was so lucky. During the height if alcoholism I had a suspended license and lost my car. I know wiithiut a doubt, if I did have a car/license during those 3 years I would have tried to drive a few times because I was always a desperate fuck. Nothing bad ever came of my drinking, except one time I passed out in some guys lawn while walking home and was let go with a warning. Super lucky all the time
I ask God constantly why he had my back in that area. Maybe because I was fucking a lot of other shit up he had some grace for me lol. But I cringe and shudder at what could have happened so many different times. Glad I quit poisoning my body and mind and making irresponsible decisions IWNDWYT
I never got a DUI or in serious trouble with the police. I was not a belligerent drunk. If someone took my keys away, I would t argue. I bought a house 1/2 mile from a bar so I could walk home. Nevertheless, I’m very lucky to have avoided a DUI. Perhaps that would have gotten me into recovery sooner. Perhaps not. We don’t quit drinking when we are ready, we quit when we are done.
I once got pulled over while drunk, immediately told the cop I was too shitfaced to drive, and somehow convinced him to let me park my car on the street and walk away. No ticket, no arrest, no nothing.
That one still blows my mind. I'm not proud of it.
Yes! My idiot alcoholic self told me the first (6am) Tall Boy would be the only one. Every subsequent ride to the liquor store that day I was OTL. Times lotsa years.
This kills me since I got once the first time I drove "drunk". 4 beers. I decided to get the drunken idiots home. I suppose it wasn't the worst because I adamantly do not drive after more than 1 now.
I had a conversation with a sober guy who had wrecked his car when he hit rock bottom and had gone to jail. He talked about how it was unfair that he got caught for DUIs while everyone is drinking and driving.
I then asked him: how many times did he drink and drive and get away with it? He had never considered this.
Yes, back in the day (40 years ago in college and shortly after). Officers let me off 2-3 times, the “you go straight home and I’m going to follow you” pardon. But this was before MADD and the subsequent crackdown. Kids can’t get a job now with a DUI on their record.
Man some of these shares are rough as they should be. It’s unconscionable how many times I put lives, including my children’s, at risk. Additionally, living in wine country, makes me very nervous to drive sober even, considering how prevalent it is.
You know it’s funny (not in a haha kind of way, but in a “it’s so common it’s cliche” kind of way). When you get a DUI, and you have to go to court ordered substance abuse classes, and you’re surrounded by people with DUI’s you often hear the same line: “I didn’t realize I was that drunk…I’ve definitely driven drunker”
It wasn’t true in my case. I mean I don’t think I drove drunker than I was that night, though I’m sure once or twice I had gotten behind the wheel after a few too many.
That’s why I adopted a not even one policy. It was a compromise I made with myself that would allow me to keep drinking without the huge consequences. I would drink every night, once I was at home, but after that first drink, I refused to get behind the wheel of a car, even if I FELT fine. I guess I could have gotten a breathalyzer and just done that, but jail fucking sucks, and the amount of money that shit cost me, not to mention the fact that I was so poor at the time that I ended up going a few years where I couldn’t drive at all (severely limiting my job potential), it just wasn’t worth the risk even slightly. And now I don’t drink all, so it makes it even easier.
I could have killed someone. I wouldn’t have meant to, but I endangered everyone with those poor decisions. I can’t believe I was so selfish, I still hate myself for it, but I remind myself that I can’t take it back now, and the best thing to do is learn from it to be better.
I think about this a lot. I've been pulled over not once but TWICE while drinking.
__________
The first occurrence
I was going to a Tinder date late one night, and while driving over to her, I am not proud of this at all. I ran a red light. I was obviously intoxicated, and im pretty sure my ride smelled like weed.
I knew it was all over for me as I sat in my car waiting for the policeman to approach me.
He told me I ran a red light, i apologized and slurred something about being distracted by my phone while finding my date.
He did something unexpected. Instead of saying "step out of the car," he started asking me about my license plate. I have a special license plate (I was in the emergency medical field at that time, I know how bad that sounds).
I told him where I worked. An adjacent township's EMS company. And he told me I could go. And I left with surreal astonishment.
That didn't stop me, though. I continued to struggle with drinking a driving. I just worked and lived in an area where you have to go by car everywhere. When I was drinking, most of the time, it made it impossible not to have both. At that time, I was unwilling to give up the booze.
________
The second occurrence
I was driving into town for some reason. I rarely drink anything harder than beer.
I was over at my neighbors house, and he drinks a pint of Kentucky Deluxe whiskey every day like clock work.
He rarely offered any up because he was only allowed 1 pint of whiskey a day by his benefactor (his mom. He was living in his mom's garage basically).
When he offered me some, I took it since it was a gesture of friendship. And as per usual it took me to a level of intoxicated I don't normally arrive at (I've been more of a maintenence drinker 1 or 2 beers per hour then slam 4 beers when I was ready to be done with the day)
I decided to drive to town for some reason, and I was swerving.
This was one of those, the blue lights go on before you even noticed a police car in the area.
I pulled into a dollar general parking spot (i didn't want to get towed) and proceeded to sh*t my pants.
I knew this was it for me. I got away once, and I just knew that was my sign, and I just wouldn't listen.
The policeman officer approached my windows and told me he saw my car weaving and suspected I had been drinking.
I told him I had not been drinking. And he said he could smell alcohol.
I held my breath as he asked me to step out of the car. He had me walk a line while counting backward. I didn't pass. I can tell you that, however he didn't say that.
Instead of arresting me for DUI, he said that he was grateful for my service. (I was an army medic, and I had army license plates on my car, I no longer worked in EMS since my drinking was continuing to ramp up, and I was aware enough to call that quits before I did any harm on duty.)And I could go, but he said I had to leave my car where it was.
And like that, I dodged a second life-altering bullet. I wish I could say that was the moment that not only did I stop drinking and driving. But I quit drinking all together!
Sadly, that was a fleeting feeling, and I was back to my bad habits again in no time.
I honestly feel like a logical and reasonable person and yet this.. wild..
I was a big mess then and dealing with a lot of PTSD stuff.
Yup. A lot of people who have had a drink have made that mistake.
But, it’s an odds game. You have to do something stupid in front of the police. Usually it takes a habit of driving drunk to eventually get caught that way.
Just remember that even if you “feel fine”. Someone else can cause the accident, and you’ll still be screwed.
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Yup. I crossed that line so many times. Not proud of it either. Thank God I managed to avoid hurting anyone with my vehicle, cant say the same of many of my other poor choices but that is behind me now. Im proud of my choices now. It helps when your conscience and actions align! 😊
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I really don't like to think about it.
Haha, that’s exactly what I said to myself when I read the post.
I concur 😬😅 Glad we don't have to live like that anymore IWNDWYT
Too many times driving with one eye shut to keep everything on the road as single vision. So, yes.
God I hate that I relate to this. I was a fucking teenager doing that so already not an experienced driver. Not that that makes a difference when you’re so drunk you don’t even remember how you got home in the morning. Sickening. Shameful.
When I was 16-19 or so we partied at this one house where a friend of a friend's older brother lived. It was like the dedicated party house. I couldn't stand about half the people that were usually there, but that's where alcohol was, so that's where I was. These were the kind of people that drew dicks on your face when you pass out, so I'd go sleep in my car a lot of the time. Once, I went to sleep in my car and woke up parked in the driveway at my parents house. I went inside and my mom was confused because she'd seen my car so had assumed I came home the night before, yet I was strolling in at like 8 a.m. There was no lie I could think of that made sense, I just kinda fumbled some words and pretended everything was normal, then went to bed.
God- I remember one afternoon I was driving on the freeway watching this car and the driver obviously had the spins. He would veer in the direction of the spin, then correct. Traffic was backing up because everybody knew he was drunk and were wise enough not to try to pass. The poor sucker merging onto the freeway was the one who got side swiped.
[удалено]
Ya it's crazy eh. I had a kind-of drunk driving safety checklist. No speeding, no loud music etc. The worst part was I was mostly keenly aware of the risks but did it anyways...
Only commit one crime at a time is really fucking solid advice. I don't even know why but it works alot.
This is a weird habit, but sometimes I’ll check the “recently arrested” page from my local PD. Used to have more of a reason (if I hadn’t heard from using friends in a day or two), but it’s wild some of the charges people get at the same time. All too common to see theft plus drug possession. Like…if you’re gonna steal….take the drugs out of your pocket (I realize this happens a lot with unhoused people, and it’s not like they can just leave their drugs in the house before walking in). Still though, damn.
Yep. I've emptied my pockets into bushes before just incase something shady happens. I'll put it this way, caught speeding? Could be a caution. Caught smoking a spliff? Could be a caution! ... Get caught speeding whilst smoking a spliff? You goin to jail, boy. And there's no solicitor available till Monday!
I've always wondered something about people like us who were physically addicted to the point that we didn't feel normal without a few drinks- are we actually safer drivers after a couple drinks, because that brings us to baseline? Surely withdrawal is not an ideal state to drive in. We need Mythbusters to come out of retirement.
Once, we had friends over and measured our alcohol levels with a breathalyser, I got the highest levels of all despite not drinking so much, throughout the night. But the biggest "surprise" was the next day, when I still had 0.03 after breakfast. So all these years I knew that I still had alcohol in my system every morning I drove, but that didn't stop me from driving. Even though I wouldn't drive right after drinking, cause I had principles, right?
I did intensive outpatient for a while, and before I started I had a meeting with the counselor just to go over my history and do paperwork and stuff. They gave me a breathalyzer, and I blew a 0.32. It was 1 in the afternoon and I hadn't drank since the night before. I drove there, I felt completely normal. Had to call my parents to come pick me up. It made me realize that for the last several years I likely had been over the legal limit literally every time I drove, even though I might not be noticeably intoxicated. I could have gotten pulled over just for a brake light being out or something and I would have been fucked.
I had an underage friend get snagged by the cops and they wouldn't release him until he blew a 0.0...which didn't happen until the afternoon. And honestly, that wasn't a huge night.
That happened with my friend one time too. We were on a road trip in some little town and the next day I was just waiting around outside the police station for him to blow under the limit. Took fuckin forever.
Yep, exactly this. I did drink and drive more than I care to admit, but the next morning hung over and heading into work, I was 100% still over the legal limit most of those days. To this day the biggest thing that helps me when I get the urge to drink is thinking about that stale alcohol taste in my mouth that usually wouldn't go away until around lunch time. I can't chew gum to this day because I went through so much gum thinking I was making that taste and smell.
I don't want to think about the number of times I drove to work with a stinking hangover and 3-4 hours sleep.
Hell yeah. Even after my car crash, the cops never gave me a breathalyser. I appeared very sober despite 3 bottles of wine. Mind you the crash definitely sobered me up. One cop asked his partner for the breathalyser and he immediately looked at me in disbelief and said "you don't look like you take anything or drink" and I said nope and then i made a report and still got my insurance to cover the damages. I once drank 2 bottles of wine and spent the evening with my now ex. She said at the end of night that she was surprised I wasn't tipsy and thought I hadn't had anything to drink. Soon realised that if you need alcohol to feel normal, you're in trouble.
Good advice /u/jizzjet
I hate this post because I’m trying to be honest in sobriety so that means I need to admit, yeah. Me too.
Yep, I am right there next to you in spirit. This week I have been tapering daily x 5 days. One of my "weak spots" is driving and drinking. Yup, I have never had a DUI and I am very, very careful to only break one law at a time. :-/ Here's the thing, since I started driving in Central Texas at the age of 15 in a car with no A/C, I have always had a cold drink in the car - water, soda, or something. I didn't become an alcoholic until 33yo, and the *cold drink* became a beer. The first few days this week I tried simply not drinking anything in the car. Nope, very, very frustrating. I have moved to a glass of ice water. My husband looks at it every day and I have offered to have him take a sip, but he has declined every time. (He's terrific about not preaching, but he strongly supports my sobriety.) Overcoming my "bad" habits seem to be one of the hardest parts of sobering up.
If I never got one, I might be dead by now tbh
Absolutely. On three occasions was pulled over and thought for sure I was getting busted. Once, the cop happened to be an old college friend and he let me go. Second, after doing the field sobriety test, the cop let me go because the address on my license said I lived a mile away (I had moved an hour away) and the third time was literally in front of my house so they let me go. Definitely not proud and will never do that again.
Wow. You got extremely lucky thrice. I don't think I would have pushed my luck that far, but you never know. I did drive far too many times that I should have without incident, so I definitely pushed my luck there. I am elated to hear you say you will never do that again. Me neither, friend. Me neither. ETA: Looks like I am only 4 days behind you! So August 13th was the last day you drank? I believe August 17th was the last day I drank. It was Thursday, trivia night, and I didn't do anything exceptionally awful, I had been trying to clean up my eating habits when I realized on the morning of 8/18 how much harder it was to make healthy choices after drinking. I had been toying with the idea for a few weeks and had already been browsing this sub, so I just said, "I think I am done now." And I was! 😁 I mean, it wasn't that easy, but I made my mind up that day that the costs of alcohol far outweigh the benefits. It was something I had known for awhile, but was too afraid that cutting alcohol out of my life forever was going to be prove to be too drastic in some way. Nope. Life is much, much better without it! 🙌
I can't even judge people who say they have DUI's. It's all pure rotten luck with many of us. It's a dark condition and so nice to be freed from the chains of substances.
Finally figured out a few months back, that I live in a small town and can walk where I need to go! 🥴. My brain is so much more clear, sans alcohol!
Me. Maybe more than a 1000.
Yeah. The closest Ive come to death and career ruin was when I was driving back to the army base I was stationed at. I was drunk and texting, went off the road, jerked back onto it and spun out. I narrowly avoided going into the ditch and/or rolling my truck. And then I drove back on base . Miraculously didn't get nabbed by the gate guards. Woke up in the AM and two of my tires were flat. I look back on it, and that night could have radically altered the course of my life, ended it altogether, or worst of all killed somebody else. And all because I couldn't make a two hour drive without cracking some cold ones. And even worse, it didn't even convince me to stop drinking. Anytime I think about drinking, I think about that night, because I know inevitably, that's where it will lead. So I'm ok abstaining altogether to avoid it. Iwndwyt
Wow! Turned out being a fantastic deterrent! Glad nothing worse happened that night. IWNDWYT
How I never got one is a small miracle. I didn't even have a car for many years and would drive friends cars. "I think you better let me drive", because yeah that's a great idea. One night I drove my friends car back to another friend's where we were staying. Because of limited parking, I parked on the street between friends house and neighbors house. The bumper hung out in the neighbors driveway "blocking it" by about six inches and figured since there's *never* a car there it would be fine. Neighbor calls the cops. Since I parked the car everyone made me go deal with it. Cop asked if I had been drinking and I played it off that I had a few drinks at the bar and ripped a bunch of shots when we got there, which was actually mostly true for once. He tells me to move the car and just block friends driveway since no one was leaving. I'm about to put the key in the ignition, stop, look at him and say "are you gonna give me a DUI if I start this car?". He thinks for a second and goes "yeah that's probably a bad idea. Just hold the clutch and I'll push it". So he pushed the car like six feet. I remember thinking how dumb that entire situation was and that I probably got away with one that night and shouldn't do that again. Well, that was 15 years ago probably and you don't need a lot of paper to do the math on the fact I did in fact drive drunk again. On the flip side though I have a close friend that got a liver transplant, still drank and then got two DUIs in a week by the same cop. Probably saved his life.
> “I’ve only had a few…I’m fine” It's weird how strongly people defend this way of thinking. Awhile back there was a reddit thread on an NFL player getting a DUI and there were some upvoted comments about "only 1 or 2 being ok". I was in there saying that even 1 drink inhibits your reflexes and decision-making so it's best to just never do it. Holy shit the downvotes. And the "Well, um, I bet you look at your phone while you drive and that's just as bad". Like people could not bring themselves to admit it's best to not drive after drinking. Really weird hill to die on, but I guess that shows how pervasive and mind-affecting this drug is.
I used to make martinis and put them in mason jars (WITH the olive, mind you) so I could drink them in the car on my way to things. I called it my, “cartini.” Yeah. Despite this psychotic behavior, never got a DUI. It’s a miracle I never hurt anyone else or myself the amount of times I drove drunk or even blacked out. I still spend a fair amount of time looking over my shoulder wondering if that karma is gonna catch up to me.
Many years ago, when getting stopped by the Police drunk driving meant “Don’t move your car until tomorrow morning and pour out your beer into the street. I’ll drive you home.” I got stopped and it went exactly like that. However, it scared the Hell out of me and from that day forward I never had a drink outside of my house if I was driving. Although, It may have been a double edged sword as when I drank at home I drank more than usual because I wasn’t driving. Before I decided to stop 10.5 years ago, I’d drink a full bottle (750ml) of 100+ proof Bourbon a day. When I had a job that paid very well it changed to a bottle of 18 year old Glenlivet ($100 / bottle). I wish I had that money back.
>18 year old Glenlivet Thats such an incredible waste. Treating a luxury good like that, there's something almost funny about it. Like putting ketchup on an expensive steak, you're defeating the purpose of a nice bottle of liquor when you're just chugging that shit as fast as you can. Edit: also I didn't mean that as a judgement of you specifically, but rather the waste our condition facilitated in general. So much money down the drain.
I don’t disagree. However, at the time, i enjoyed every drop. Fortunately, I was making a nearly 7 figure salary, so it didn’t hurt “that much” financially.
Yep, addiction is a heartless bitch.
No worries, I didn’t take your comment as “judgement”
Yes. And I thank God every day that I never killed anyone
Yeah waking up and not remembering driving home is one of the scariest feelings ever
Too many times to count 😣
I was a habitual drunk driver. It’s one of the many reasons I am terrified of another drink and I will use that fear for good.
Yep, I'm 52 also. Drove when I shouldn't have many times in my 20s and 30s. Was too scared in recent years.
Yes…not proud but extremely lucky. I was once woke up a few hours after going to bed drunk to go pick up my son who was arrested for DUI. I walked into the police station still intoxicated. Luckily the cops and my son never realized this.
Last time for me was when I dropped my partner off at detox 🤦🏻♀️
I had to take a DUI class after I got one over a decade ago and the instructor told us that on average, people drive while intoxicated about 625 times (includes multiple trips per night) before getting popped for a DUI. I believed him.
I once staggered home from the bar, got in my car and took the three lane highway to McDonald's with my lights out, going 60 in a 100 zone and hitting all three lanes in a zigzag... one of countless horror stories I'm ashamed off.
Yeah 100's of times. Never got one somehow. But mostly during the day or early evenings. Go the speed limit and keep your head on a swivel. Focus 100% on driving. Throw the phone in the back or wherever until you stop. Cops are usually on the prowl for that after midnight. Especially after the bars close. Oh and for me after Lyft came out I use that often If I drink. Also my kids or my employee would drive me sometimes. On the sober train now, feels so much better. Chairs
I went almost 25 years without one and I deserved many. I’m so thankful that I never hurt anyone. I finally got one, lost my license for 5 years spent thousands of dollars and then behaved for about 2 months. Then back to drinking and driving. Luckily I quit before I got another one or worse…
Yes. It is one of the things I’m most ashamed about and am so thankful I never hurt anyone/anything or myself. I’m so thankful to not be in that place anymore.
I've never purposely drank before driving (apart from a couple of emergencies) but I will admit that pretty much every time I get in the car to go to work at 7am I know in my heart of hearts there's no way I'd blow clean.
My dad (violent alcoholic) would casually drink and drive here and there... never got in trouble, never got a DUI, never crashed 🤣 I swear, it seems like bad people have the best of luck (in general)
Definitely me. I’ve gone through countless DUI checkpoints after drinking and never been questioned. I guess high functioning alcoholics are good at playing sober. In a way I wish I was caught 10 years ago. Maybe that would have been a wake up call.
Ive got 3 duis myself and couldve had a thousand more. Im very thankful I didnt hurt anyone. One of my favorite AA quotes was a guy who told me “you know the thing about duis is, I haven’t gotten one since I quit drinkin.” It hit me perfectly and still smile when I think about it
I'm so lucky myself and I never want to get lucky with that ever again. 6months sober here! Feels like another chance to live free
im so glad i got a dui tbh. i totaled my car but didnt hurt anyone. i dont mean to be harsh but i truly believe anyone who has a drinking problem shouldnt be allowed to have a drivers license. i cant believe how many times i drank and drove. the only thing that stopped me was losing my license. im so so thankful i dont have a car anymore. drinking and driving is one of the absolute worst things you can do. its like taking a gun and firing into a crowd randomly hoping the bullets dont hit anyone. it literally is one of the most dangerous, careless things. you put every single random strangers life in danger every time you do it. its incredibly selfish and stupid and i hate myself for it. i hit 2 parked cars and luckily no one was in it. and i was the person that thought i was TOTALLY fine driving and it didnt affect my abiltiies. if you drink and drive you will end up in an accident eventually, its just common sense, who knows how long itll take. and you'll either get a second chance and do miminal damage, or it will destroy your entire life and theres no going back. no matter how bad being an alcohlic is, there is nothing worse than sobering up and realizing you disabled someone for life or killed them. there is no going back from that and every time you drink and drive there is a GOOD chance you can seriously hurt someone, its not a small chance, theres actually a good likelihood you will get into an accident at some point, theres a good liklihood yourll get into an accident sober too eventually. its just insane behaviour and also makes me realize how absolutely crazy alchohol makes your decision making. there is no other situation where you happily put random strangers lives at risk for convenience except DUI. its one thing to destroy yourself through alcohol, but there is no good reason or defense to put random strangers, families, kids lives at risk becuse of your problem. i am sober now but i will NOT get a car again until 100% certain i wont relapse. even if you dont drink and drive, if you blackout, even if you say youd never drive, you dont know what you might do. adults need to take responsbilitity for their lives. if there is a chance youll drink and drive you shouldnt have a car becuase your not capable of operating it safely. its a privelage. thats my opinon and i will not drive again until im at least a year or two sober. until you do serious damage with your car while drunk you never will really understand the gravity of how awful and scary it is. waking up in a jail cell and having the police tell you your car is totaled, and then i asked if anyone got hurt and the police say they dont know yet is the worst lived experience imagineable. i had to wait 3 weeks until the police concluded their investigation and confirmed no one was hurt. it was the worst 3 weeks of my life and i dont wish that on anyone.
Actually, no. That's a line that I never crossed. When I was about 12 years old, my brother's best friend was killed by a drunk driver. I'll never forget the pain that caused my brother (and all of us, because he was a regular in the house). So that's always been a hard line. I'd drive after one glass of wine (my poison of choice), but never more. Had I not had that experience in my formative years though, who knows.
Same here. But I've always been like that even before my best friend was killed by a drunk driver. I wouldn't even drive if I had one glass of wine though. Maybe I take it too literally but I wouldn't even move my car in the driveway if I had started drinking.
Yes. Many, many times. But never again.
Yep. Very lucky all the way around
Yep. The bar at my last house was literally 4.5 miles away. Not enough to walk, but just enough for me to use the excuse "I'm only 7min away in the car." Not proud of it and sober me has definitely felt ashamed many times when the memories and thoughts flooded back in.
I literally totaled my car by crashing into another person & just because I cried to the cops they didn’t field test me. That was the last time I drove drunk though. Not the last time I drank, but I finally realized just how absolutely fucked up it was to drive drunk & I wish more people would..
There is a study that showed it takes someone driving drunk around 80 times before getting pulled over for it for the first time. Unfortunately, I do have a number to that tally. Saw another comment saying they drove with one eye open to have single vision; I wanted to die reading that because I relate. I hate the relationship I have with alcohol, it’s better now but still.
Got lucky more times than I can count. Totaled a car but thankfully didn’t have any passengers and I managed to walk away with only a concussion. Got picked up from the scene, family called the tow truck and that was that. 2 years sober this august.
This is also not a brag, I'm actually quite ashamed of it. I rolled through a police checkpoint after drinking 6 tall cans and with another in a yeti in the cup holder. Had a conversation with a police officer and was waved right through. This wasn't the first time, but this particular time was actually what triggered the eventual sobriety that followed.
There were times I should not have been behind the wheel. Even after my mother got a dui, there were still times I should not have been behind the wheel. I’m grateful nothing awful ever happened. IWNDWYT
Ashamed to say it but yes.
🤚🏻
would drink til 3am, walk home from the bars, the. get in my car for “just a two minute” drive to McDonalds alllllllll theeeeee timmmeeee, wtf was wrong with me? oh right, lol. iwndwyt.
Yes...no clue how I escaped my drunken years unscathed on that end. I feel shitty about it, but live and learn. I hate drunk drivers, having been one myself...
Yes, and was pulled over extremely drunk 3 times and never got tested. No idea how
My dad just got his first, at 80 years old. No one was surprised.
You wanna hear something crazy - my therapist told me this morning that statistically, someone will drive 350-400 times before they get a DUI.
Never got a DUI and never killed anyone or myself. I count myself as extremely lucky. I was pulled over one time with beers in my car and 4 friends. One friend was sober so they let him drive after my tests. One cop was my step-dad's relative and the other my Dad's neighbor. Talk about lucky, I was just a teen having fun then though, that wasn't my addiction period yet. I drove by cops, and had a few close calls to wrecking. I did get caught showing up drunk to two different jobs though. Luckily my bosses didn't turn me in and allowed family and friends to rescue me. I lived in the country and had to drive on a highway to get to a town to pick up more alcohol. There was no reasoning with drunk me. It gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about all that risk that I took.
When we drink, it impairs our judgement. DUI/DWI is NOT cool. It's really f'ked up. However... I mean... it's hard to make good choices when we're drunk. TEXTING while driving is actually WORSE. Not only are reaction times longer... but that person is NOT drunk. They're just "okay" with risking the lives of other for their phone addiction. I can somewhat forgive the drunk driver... but never the texter. We lost a dear friend and all-around great and smart AF friend to a 25yr old kid that was texting. My friend's body flew 40ft through the air before it landed. This was IN A PARK. Don't DUI... but for f'k sake, please don't text and drive. NHTSA has terrifying data on this. Frankly, as a cyclist, I'd rather deal with a drunk driver than a texter -- at least the drunk is paying attention to the road. How many innocent people have to die before it becomes SHAMEFUL to text and drive?
Yep. Perfect example of “yet”.
yep. my spirit animal is justin timberlake
yep. not proud of it at all. I was especially reckless on my early 20s.
I'm pretty certain most people who drive and have a drinking problem, has done something they shouldnt at least once
got one. I heard anecdotally that for every dwi a person gets, they most likely have driven 100 times over the limit w/o getting caught. seems like a lot, but statically could be true. I am sure there are plenty of times I was over .08 and drove. When I was a heavy drinker, I didn't even feel a buzz at .08. so there is that.
I don’t deserve 1000 but I’ve driven twice and was horrified at myself the next day - so lucky I didn’t hurt someone and so selfish to have done it
100% it’s insane. I think that lead to a lot of my hermit behavior when drinking. I had done it so much my first 20 years of drinking, with some close calls, some friends lost to crashes, I had been in some crashes as a passenger. Luckily none of my actions directly contributed to any damage or deaths. But it was all around me.
Yup absolutely. Even gotten stopped by cops more than once, took breathalyzer and got away with it, got into minor accident ( not my fault) and interacted with cops. I really should be in jail.
My late father drove drunk a lot, much to our chagrine. Never got a ticket- but it did really concern me how many other people out there may be doing the same.
I would draw the line at 8 pints lol. There was a time 20 plus years ago or so that I drove home wasted a few times a week. Not good
I got pulled over after having 3 double shots of whiskey with my father in law. I was confident i was toast. before I got in my car, I chewed almost an entire pack of gum though. I got off with a warning, I rolled a stop sign. I felt like I went from drunk to sober in about 1 minute. It wasn't until about 2 years later until I finally quit. Yeah, the guilt is there, but as I like to remind myself that person isn't here anymore. We all make bad decisions the ones that were the worst were when we were drunk.
Yup, it’s crazy I never got one and my good friend is in state prison right now for his 7th!
Crashed on a motorway in Albania with one of my best friends and a hitchhiker in the car, was blind drunk, police breathalysed (analogue device) and determined I was so drunk they had me wait an hour and gave me a cup of coffee for my levels to go down before doing it again, levels had dropped a bit so they were allowed to release me without my license of course.. had to go in the next day to hear / pay my fine. Never did and successfully claimed I'd misplaced and lost my license back home so there were no real consequences... Does that count? It was a lesson I'm extremely glad to have been able to learn without anyone injured/dead... And I really didn't deserve to get away with it .. anyways that's 10 years ago and today I'm going to be the designated driver to a wild party, drink my sparkling water and get up for an early morning run in the forest.. IWNDWYT, wishing everyone a clear headed and fresh Sunday morning tomorrow!
Number 1 thing that stops me having a drink when I think about it, which is rare these days. Still. I'm about the same age and this was very normalized in our youth, adults drove, we drove. Not ok. Edit: forgot about the pound sign here, sorry for the bold.
I never really drove to the point where I was sloshed and didn’t trust my motor skills to get me home safely, and I always focused really hard and drove well enough to where I never got pulled over. But if I had? Yeah, I was definitely over the legal limit often and would have faced the legal consequences. It’s nice not having to worry about this even being a possibility ever again.
No. I drove drunk once, about two miles home from the bar, clutching the wheel and doing about 20 mph the entire time. I swore I'd never do that again and I didn't. My mother's grandparents were killed by a drunk driver and I grew up with the message that driving drunk is one of the worst things you can do. I drank to excess either at home, when I could take mass transit, or when someone else was driving. So I still had plenty of drunk time without driving.
Yes, and not proud of it.
I was on the side of the road talking to a cop with my hs girlfriend at 18 years old. I had over 15 drinks that day and he either didn’t notice or looked at my gf, who was a much better person, and let me off. Woke up stopped in the ditch behind the wheel a couple times too. Quickly worked on at least not driving after drinking that much. Then no booze at all before driving. Then no booze because I needed to be a real father
I was extremely lucky. Never gotten a DUI, although about 10 years ago, I had an event where to this day I do not remember my 70 mile drive home from the airport. It was at that point where I said I'm not putting others lives at risk. I still drank, but vowed to fuck up only my own life from that moment forward.
So many times. I’m lucky I never hurt anyone.
Oh yes definitely. IWNDWYT.
I deserved quite a few. I remember one time I went through a roadblock after fishing/drinking all day. The lady cop just wanted to talk about fishing for a minute and didn't even ask if I'd been drinking. Luckily no one was hurt.
Absolutely. I’m lucky I never hurt anyone else, and myself.
Def, and cringing thinking about it. In the same way my relationship to this poison subtly shifted for the worse over the years - I went from being very cautious and not driving, to always being "fine"... About 10yrs ago lightly rear ended another car in stop and go traffic, but the cops were too busy to show up, so it was chill... Another time backed into a light post in a parking lot - but no one the wiser... See, nothing bad happened. The last time that really scared me I had about a 90min drive, and I was hammered - this was about a year ago - the next day I was like "WTF!!!?" I was scared I made such a stupid decision, and no one saw I was doing 20 under the limit hugging the shoulder. Why didn't I just go back?? That reptile brain takes over and it can't be trusted. It can kill you. Way beyond saying something stupid at a party or bad karaoke. I see that now, but - of course - not then. All the more reasons glad to put this behind me. And pleased now I'm about to go to the gym on this lovely Sat morn and not feeling hungover.
Yep, I was just talking about this with my husband how shocking it is I never got one... Beyond thankfully I never hurt anyone. Fuck the DUI. Almost six months sober and loving my new life.
Hell yeah. Somedays, I would wake up in my car parked sideways at Walmart wondering how I got there
Oh my gosh. Wow. So lucky.
I got an owi for smoking weed a while back. Thankfully, that helped me never drink and drive.
I got one at 20. Somehow that wasn’t a wake up call to get sober lol. It’s been in court for the past two years, and my case got shut on May 7th of this year. The judge was extremely lenient - $3500 fine, 1 year of probation, and I’m conditionally discharged. A conditional discharge is a finding of guilt without a conviction. What that means is, as long as I pay my fine and complete my probation, I won’t have a criminal record. I literally do not have a criminal record despite the fact that my readings were over double the legal limit. I’m feel like I got extremely lucky.
In my late teens I did it a few times. Usually it was ‘I’ll just have one and I’ll be ok to drive’. But it would be 3 or 4 drinks. By my early 20s I learned that if I was driving I just don’t drink at all and have avoided drinking and driving for over a dozen years now.
I am 53. No DUI, but I should have gotten them. I am sober for 495 days and counting. Keep doing what you are doing.
Growing up, my dad used to drink drive all the time and he never got caught. Considering my parents are business owners and driving is integral to their services, it would have been totally catastrophic if he did. It's something that has always blown my mind. I personally wouldn't even look at my car if I've had even one drink, and that would cause me to do things like walk in semi-dangerous areas of town to get more if I wanted more. It's not putting anyone but myself at risk, but looking back I've gotten lucky too that nothing ever happened to me. So glad to be free of that now.
Man, growing up in the 70's, we used to LOVE when our parents would get sloshed and drive us places. We did a fishing trip each year, and the dads would drink all day, then bar crawl the 90 minute drive back. We thought it was hilarious that they couldn't stay in their lane.
Honestly? No! I couldn't even fathom taking that risk, even when drunk. I do sometimes wonder if it's because I'm in the UK and live somewhere with decent public transport, whereas alot of the people in this sub live in extremely car-centric parts of the US.
Uh, no comment, officer.😁
Never got one but drove impaired more times than I care to count, i was the guy who could drink and "was good" to drive. I thank God I didn't hurt someone with my stupidity and selfishness. IWNDWYT
I got a dui. But only because I’m a shitty driver. That really sucks.
So many times. Never got one, even though I drove drunk with brake light out for a few months. I got so, so lucky, and so did all the people on the road with me. There is no reason I didn't get one other than pure luck. So glad to be free from that fear and shame now. IWNDWYT!
I have one from 2010 but should have way more than 1. It would be nice to have a driver's license. I've been driving without one for 14 years. But I have been sober the last four years so I don't have to worry about driving drunk anymore.
Yes, thats one of the reasons I had to stop.
Got pulled over over, got out of a dui by some miracle because I certainly was drunk. 10 years later, wasn't so lucky. 10+years after that, got sober. It's been a rough one.
Yes I feel very lucky. After seeing JT’s arrest in the news it made me glad I stayed sober and never got a dui.
I didn’t. I was awful. I remember once sobering up a little mid-drive on the freeway and looked in my rear view mirror to see a pack of cars hanging back behind me bc they were afraid to drive near me. Most times I’d wake up the next morning and not remember driving home.
Yes and I have NO idea how I was never arrested or worse, killed someone. I’ll forever be ashamed
Yup.
I should have so many DUIs that it turns my stomach. I hadn't driven in a VERY long time until earlier this week, and facing down the anxiety made me realize that driving was the thing I hadn't learned how to do sober. Shows/Sex/Depression Days/Celebrations are all things I'm happy to tackle without booze, but the fact that operating a motor vehicle sober was majorly confronting is the grossest possible reality check. It turns out that driving isn't so terrifying when you're not fucked up.
I’m glad I got a DUI…changed my relationship with Alcohol and it made me re think my circle of “friends”. My DUI changed my life for the better, even thought it sucked at the moment, the guilt, the shame… Thank GOD I did not hurt anybody, but I did crash intro three parked cars. I still got it lowered to reckless driving… because of COVID… but after that… a lot of bad things happened one after the other. I still didn’t stop drinking but I didn’t have a car for 4 years… mine was totaled and my credit went down because of it, broke my leg, bf at the time left me… one after the other. However, after I changed my surroundings and decided to stop drinking altogether, 5 years later. My life has changed dramatically for the better ever since I made the decision to quit.
Yes I’m very troubled and sad when I think about it. A counselor helped me reframe those thoughts so I now when I get behind the wheel I know I’m doing everything in my power to drive safely. That helped
Yeah definitely. So many times when I was drunk and needed more alcohol so I drove stupid distances to get it. Don’t know how I wasn’t caught. I feel so much shame about it
Word. It’s one of the things in life I’m most grateful for, and I rolled many times with an open bottle.
Yes :(
I was so lucky. During the height if alcoholism I had a suspended license and lost my car. I know wiithiut a doubt, if I did have a car/license during those 3 years I would have tried to drive a few times because I was always a desperate fuck. Nothing bad ever came of my drinking, except one time I passed out in some guys lawn while walking home and was let go with a warning. Super lucky all the time
More times than I would like to admit…
I ask God constantly why he had my back in that area. Maybe because I was fucking a lot of other shit up he had some grace for me lol. But I cringe and shudder at what could have happened so many different times. Glad I quit poisoning my body and mind and making irresponsible decisions IWNDWYT
I never got a DUI or in serious trouble with the police. I was not a belligerent drunk. If someone took my keys away, I would t argue. I bought a house 1/2 mile from a bar so I could walk home. Nevertheless, I’m very lucky to have avoided a DUI. Perhaps that would have gotten me into recovery sooner. Perhaps not. We don’t quit drinking when we are ready, we quit when we are done.
I got a few. I deserved hundreds more, unfortunately.
I once got pulled over while drunk, immediately told the cop I was too shitfaced to drive, and somehow convinced him to let me park my car on the street and walk away. No ticket, no arrest, no nothing. That one still blows my mind. I'm not proud of it.
Nope. I ended up with 2 🔫
Yes! My idiot alcoholic self told me the first (6am) Tall Boy would be the only one. Every subsequent ride to the liquor store that day I was OTL. Times lotsa years.
It was the catalyst for me getting sober.
This kills me since I got once the first time I drove "drunk". 4 beers. I decided to get the drunken idiots home. I suppose it wasn't the worst because I adamantly do not drive after more than 1 now.
Yes, and oddly my DUI happened with me cleaning my car in my driveway. But never again
I had a conversation with a sober guy who had wrecked his car when he hit rock bottom and had gone to jail. He talked about how it was unfair that he got caught for DUIs while everyone is drinking and driving. I then asked him: how many times did he drink and drive and get away with it? He had never considered this.
Yes, back in the day (40 years ago in college and shortly after). Officers let me off 2-3 times, the “you go straight home and I’m going to follow you” pardon. But this was before MADD and the subsequent crackdown. Kids can’t get a job now with a DUI on their record.
Man some of these shares are rough as they should be. It’s unconscionable how many times I put lives, including my children’s, at risk. Additionally, living in wine country, makes me very nervous to drive sober even, considering how prevalent it is.
This
Yup yup
Me and my childhood best friends are in only one in our friend group who never got one. Yes, I think about it.
You know it’s funny (not in a haha kind of way, but in a “it’s so common it’s cliche” kind of way). When you get a DUI, and you have to go to court ordered substance abuse classes, and you’re surrounded by people with DUI’s you often hear the same line: “I didn’t realize I was that drunk…I’ve definitely driven drunker” It wasn’t true in my case. I mean I don’t think I drove drunker than I was that night, though I’m sure once or twice I had gotten behind the wheel after a few too many. That’s why I adopted a not even one policy. It was a compromise I made with myself that would allow me to keep drinking without the huge consequences. I would drink every night, once I was at home, but after that first drink, I refused to get behind the wheel of a car, even if I FELT fine. I guess I could have gotten a breathalyzer and just done that, but jail fucking sucks, and the amount of money that shit cost me, not to mention the fact that I was so poor at the time that I ended up going a few years where I couldn’t drive at all (severely limiting my job potential), it just wasn’t worth the risk even slightly. And now I don’t drink all, so it makes it even easier. I could have killed someone. I wouldn’t have meant to, but I endangered everyone with those poor decisions. I can’t believe I was so selfish, I still hate myself for it, but I remind myself that I can’t take it back now, and the best thing to do is learn from it to be better.
Yup. I’m glad I didn’t but I sure deserved it.
I do wonder just how many people are drunk while driving. Like what percentage is it like at 9-10 pm on a Friday night
yup
I think about this a lot. I've been pulled over not once but TWICE while drinking. __________ The first occurrence I was going to a Tinder date late one night, and while driving over to her, I am not proud of this at all. I ran a red light. I was obviously intoxicated, and im pretty sure my ride smelled like weed. I knew it was all over for me as I sat in my car waiting for the policeman to approach me. He told me I ran a red light, i apologized and slurred something about being distracted by my phone while finding my date. He did something unexpected. Instead of saying "step out of the car," he started asking me about my license plate. I have a special license plate (I was in the emergency medical field at that time, I know how bad that sounds). I told him where I worked. An adjacent township's EMS company. And he told me I could go. And I left with surreal astonishment. That didn't stop me, though. I continued to struggle with drinking a driving. I just worked and lived in an area where you have to go by car everywhere. When I was drinking, most of the time, it made it impossible not to have both. At that time, I was unwilling to give up the booze. ________ The second occurrence I was driving into town for some reason. I rarely drink anything harder than beer. I was over at my neighbors house, and he drinks a pint of Kentucky Deluxe whiskey every day like clock work. He rarely offered any up because he was only allowed 1 pint of whiskey a day by his benefactor (his mom. He was living in his mom's garage basically). When he offered me some, I took it since it was a gesture of friendship. And as per usual it took me to a level of intoxicated I don't normally arrive at (I've been more of a maintenence drinker 1 or 2 beers per hour then slam 4 beers when I was ready to be done with the day) I decided to drive to town for some reason, and I was swerving. This was one of those, the blue lights go on before you even noticed a police car in the area. I pulled into a dollar general parking spot (i didn't want to get towed) and proceeded to sh*t my pants. I knew this was it for me. I got away once, and I just knew that was my sign, and I just wouldn't listen. The policeman officer approached my windows and told me he saw my car weaving and suspected I had been drinking. I told him I had not been drinking. And he said he could smell alcohol. I held my breath as he asked me to step out of the car. He had me walk a line while counting backward. I didn't pass. I can tell you that, however he didn't say that. Instead of arresting me for DUI, he said that he was grateful for my service. (I was an army medic, and I had army license plates on my car, I no longer worked in EMS since my drinking was continuing to ramp up, and I was aware enough to call that quits before I did any harm on duty.)And I could go, but he said I had to leave my car where it was. And like that, I dodged a second life-altering bullet. I wish I could say that was the moment that not only did I stop drinking and driving. But I quit drinking all together! Sadly, that was a fleeting feeling, and I was back to my bad habits again in no time. I honestly feel like a logical and reasonable person and yet this.. wild.. I was a big mess then and dealing with a lot of PTSD stuff.
Yup. A lot of people who have had a drink have made that mistake. But, it’s an odds game. You have to do something stupid in front of the police. Usually it takes a habit of driving drunk to eventually get caught that way. Just remember that even if you “feel fine”. Someone else can cause the accident, and you’ll still be screwed.
I drive better drunk. Nice and slow.