Here it goes... I have a drinking problem, there's no getting around that anymore. A serious one, it's all fun and games at my age of course, but I've been drinking my ass off on a regular basis since I was about 17, and it's been taking it's toll on my life steadily but surely since then. I have a genetic predisposition towards alcoholism, and it's run rampant in my family for a few generations. My grandfather drank like crazy, as did my father, who eventually died on a motorcycle drunk in 2003. Yes I should learn from my fathers mistake, but once you start digging your own hole its hard not to fall in. Also being prescribed enormous dosages of stimulants at 17 years of age hasn't helped my tendency towards depressants to take the edge off my meds, or help me sleep at night.

My family had a talk with me earlier, and friends have mentioned it before, but when you're in denial about something you tend to pretend you didn't hear it, or that it's not really happening to you. It doesn't help that a huge percentage of my friends drink, and so many American social outings seem to revolve around, the great social lubricator. So now at 21, I've got a serious head start on alcoholism, and in all seriousness need to do something about it to get it under control.

I'm looking for AA meetings in my area online, and wanted to know if anyone here had ever been to one, and if it was helpful. Or perhaps what to expect from the withdrawal symptoms, and ways to handle them.