Is it wrong to only want to work and drink?

[RandomPoster]

I am a salaried worker, so I can work as many hours as I want and I can sell all of my vacation back to the company. Every day of the year, including weekends and holidays, I get to work at about noon and work until about 3 in the morning. Then I go home and run on my treadmill and lift weights for half an hour and then drink enough high ABV beer in about 2 hours to help me sleep. I wake up about 11 with a hangover and crawl into work by noon. I finally get to work when the office gets mostly empty and fanatically build things. This is the only time in life that I am happy. When I am forced to spend the day at home, I don't know what to with myself and have to drink myself into oblivion while I watch documentaries or learn new technologies for work. If I didn't punch out and sneak back to my office, I would average over 100 hours a week. You would think a woman would appreciate my hard work towards the partnership, except they think differently I guess. As long as I stay in shape, I don't see this lifestyle as harmful. Whenever I try a hobby, it takes over my entire life to the point where I start neglecting work. Anyone else ever feel like this?

 

[fncceo]

Don Draper sez, ‘No!’

 

[MarathonMike]

Are you saying you work 13 hours a day, every day of the year? You can't be serious.

 

[night_son]

I am a salaried worker, so I can work as many hours as I want and I can sell all of my vacation back to the company. Every day of the year, including weekends and holidays, I get to work at about noon and work until about 3 in the morning. Then I go home and run on my treadmill and lift weights for half an hour and then drink enough high ABV beer in about 2 hours to help me sleep. I wake up about 11 with a hangover and crawl into work by noon. I finally get to work when the office gets mostly empty and fanatically build things. This is the only time in life that I am happy. When I am forced to spend the day at home, I don't know what to with myself and have to drink myself into oblivion while I watch documentaries or learn new technologies for work. If I didn't punch out and sneak back to my office, I would average over 100 hours a week. You would think a woman would appreciate my hard work towards the partnership, except they think differently I guess. As long as I stay in shape, I don't see this lifestyle as harmful. Whenever I try a hobby, it takes over my entire life to the point where I start neglecting work. Anyone else ever feel like this?

Yeah. I've experienced something similar. Before you know it you'll be loosing months and years of your life. It's one thing to not know the day of the week but just wait until you date something 2015 in five years. You can get to the point living under this kind of daily rotation where you no longer really even see and acknowledge some pretty important boundaries of reality. I am talking things like yeah you come out of work and see the sky but don't really pause for the acknowledgement that it's pink or black or blue; a summer or fall sky, cloudy or clear. You can pass solid months like that. it's eerie.

Also sounds like you have a seriously overactive thought process--a mind that never stops trying to question existence or solve the problems you've tried to take on to suppress those ceaseless, busy ponderings. In my case I've always written fiction to keep my mind occupied or written code in my head. Once you get past hello world the possibilities are endless. Of course I never actually type out and compile the programs but it's a fun diversion. Languages also work rather well. I've been working on Gujarati largely due to my fiancé's ethnicity, and I'll never have the courage to try a word of it on her family, but anyway.

As for the alcohol it sounds like once again, you're trying to suppress the whizzing flywheel of your thoughts and the tendency for obsessing endlessly over whatever project you're currently engaged with. End of the day, find a hobby that requires thought only. Do math or write novels in your head. Never commit them to paper or byte. What also worked for me is finding obsession in someone else: spouse, offspring--someone close so then you can make the focus of your life partially about another person who relies on you to stay sane and sober so you can take care of them properly. Ultimately with the alcohol you must eventually ask yourself if you can function or live without it. If the answer to either is no, it's time to reevaluate your relationship with the brews.

 

[RandomPoster]

Are you saying you work 13 hours a day, every day of the year? You can't be serious.

Probably more like 15. I have had my 80 hours in for a 2 week pay period by Friday morning of the first week and then worked most of the weekend because I can't stop in the middle. It's similar to binge watching a show or getting immersed in a book or hobby. I get to work mostly by myself. When I get home I have to drink to calm down so I can sleep and get back to work by noon.

There are 168 hours in a week. You can function on 5 hours of sleep a night and use 3 hours for driving, drinking, and sleeping. This would leave 16 hours a day, or 112 hours a week. Now, I get sloppy and over sleep, except I'm probably averaging about 100 hours a week or more.

 

[MarathonMike]

That doesn't seem humanly possible. People need 'down' time for both physical and mental reasons. You might consider taking some time off.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

^^^ I second this. A person needs rest and a good deal of it at some point.

God bless you and Random Poster always!!!

Holly