Jen73

Most alcoholics cant control their drinking. They might at the beginning when they drink but the more you drink and the more problems occur it will catch up to you.

sugarbear1

I tried that for many years, didn't work. Got sober, made it 5 days and went to AA, things got worse for me, found a sponsor on day 12 and life made a complete change for the better. That is my experience. AA isn't for everyone nor is it the only way!

Congrats on day 1!!

Nonsensical

This was my experience. I drank 1 or 2 and I was miserable. I'd rather not drink at all.

pulltight

It is by far easier for me not to drink than try to control it. I took the easy way out and quit.

IOAA2

Hi.

I suppose there is a possibility to control drinking but not by me as I proved for too long I had lost control.

It used to be said at meetings that if we need to control something we’ve already lost control. Control drinking was also said to be akin to controlling diarrhea.

Not pleasant but neither is the results of drinking.

BE WELL

thisisme

There is an Easy Way to Control Alcohol.
Allen Carr nailed it.

Boleo

Usually the first thing I would lose control of when attempting to moderate was my math skills.

JMZ

Nope

ScottFromWI

Would you be here if it was?

otter

Heh, I control alcohol the same way I control elephants from wrecking my living room.

least

When I controlled my drinking I didn't enjoy it (if you can call that 'enjoyment') and when I enjoyed my drinking I couldn't control it. It was so much easier to just stop completely.

KAD

Exactly. I came to the conclusion that the very fact that I had to concentrate on not drinking too much was all the evidence I needed that I shouldn't drink at all. Non-addicts don't have to think about that. Once you are addicted, your options are pretty much limited to abstinence only.

H2SO4

Yup. Having just 2 beers is agony. It's annoying. It's a tease. Why bother.

Ever see Family Guy, when Stewie keeps trying to get Lois's attention? "Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mama. Mama. Mom. Mom...."

It's like that with the lizard part of the addicted brain. "Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Finish that beer now. Now. Do it. Now. You're not even paying. Hey. Hey. Hurry up. Finish it. Get another. Who cares if it's $6 a pint? Drink it in 5 minutes. Now. Hurry. It's 1am, bar is closing in 45 minutes. Hurry. Hey. Hey. Are you finished yet?"

And on and on and on.

PurpleKnight

Wishful thinking in my opinion, the problem is things for me would spiral as bad as ever, so not even going there is the solution!!

keithj

Actually, in my experience they are very similar. As I look back, all of my failed attempts at not drinking (abstinence) were simply another way of trying to control my drinking. I was trying to control it by not drinking at all.

And it met with the same disastrous results as my many failed attempts at moderation. I see them as different degrees of the same thing. Abstinence proved equally as impossible for me as moderation.

jerri11

I tried using pennies (I had a max of 10). For each drink I'd move a penny from one jar to another. I never officially made it to 10 because I'd forget to move the pennies.

Nope. Moderation did not work for me.

GetSmart

Good sober friend of mine put it best. Moderation was just Russian roulette. The bullet might not be in the chamber this time (and idiot av would take that to mean that bullet was never there), but there is no doubt that any drinking would lead to the worst at some point. And each relapse only proves that point again, inevitably, inexorably.

The sad thing is that even knowing this, the alcoholic mind wants to ignore it.

MelindaFlowers

I tried that experiment thousands of times. I replicated it on different days, different types of alcohol, different settings, mods, people, different schedules.

Did not work of course.