SHaring my way to resist alcohol (Thanks To my Conselor)
SHaring my way to resist alcohol (Thanks To my Conselor)
One of my counselors from Spenser recovery in Los Angeles thought me 5 steps to remove alcohol from my system.
Step 1: Avoid situations which gives you a chance to drink (Avoid bars and enabling/alcoholic friends)
Step 2: When In a situation that you are about to drink think of the most embarrassing/
Terrible/Horrifying thing that has happen to you after drinking. (mine was Destroying my computer with all my work files and all my stuff and fighting with my GF while drunk.)
Step 3: Find supportive friends and family who understand your situation and let them help you keep yourself sober. think of how you would let them down if you drink.
Step 4: Remove the reason why you drink and replace it with a different healthy activity. ex. I drink when I'm depressed or sad. what I do now is jog and exercise instead
to take my mind off things
Step 5: if someone offers you a drink Throw/spit the drink to him/her. He doesn't deserve to be your friend hahahaha!
Im also taking a drug that makes me so ill when I drink that I don't want to drink again. I reserched it and I saw the name was "disulfiram" damn nasty when mixed with alcohol.
Step 1: Avoid situations which gives you a chance to drink (Avoid bars and enabling/alcoholic friends)
Step 2: When In a situation that you are about to drink think of the most embarrassing/
Terrible/Horrifying thing that has happen to you after drinking. (mine was Destroying my computer with all my work files and all my stuff and fighting with my GF while drunk.)
Step 3: Find supportive friends and family who understand your situation and let them help you keep yourself sober. think of how you would let them down if you drink.
Step 4: Remove the reason why you drink and replace it with a different healthy activity. ex. I drink when I'm depressed or sad. what I do now is jog and exercise instead
to take my mind off things
Step 5: if someone offers you a drink Throw/spit the drink to him/her. He doesn't deserve to be your friend hahahaha!
Im also taking a drug that makes me so ill when I drink that I don't want to drink again. I reserched it and I saw the name was "disulfiram" damn nasty when mixed with alcohol.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 581
Changing my environment never changed my obsession to drink. Sure, I tried, but eventually, I went back to it.
Many of us can regale you with stories about failed attempts to fix alcoholism by altering people, places and things.
I found it much easier to change me than to change everything around me.
Let us know how it works for you.
Many of us can regale you with stories about failed attempts to fix alcoholism by altering people, places and things.
I found it much easier to change me than to change everything around me.
Let us know how it works for you.
This may sound crazy...but it worked for me when I had craving...I'm simple minded and can't concentrate on multi thoughts.... spell any word.."S T O P" then spell it backwards .."P O T S"... "F I G H T"..."T H G I F" ... I would have to visualize the word in my head to spell it backwards... like I said I know it sounds crazy... but it has helped me beat many cravings ..
"RATS LIVE ON NO EVIL STAR"
Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Oxnard (The Nard), CA, USA.
Posts: 13,939
Step 4: Remove the reason why you drink and replace it with a different healthy activity.
Hi Greste!
If you’re a heavy drinker looking to stop drinking, your counselor’s suggestions may work for you. If this is the case, I send all of my sincerest and very best wishes to you on your journey.
On the other hand, I’m an alcoholic, and as much as I may have wanted to be able to follow these practical-sounding suggestions to freedom, they would fail me.
If you want to know how the Big Book describes the differences between the moderate drinker, the heavy drinker and the real alcoholic, you can find them on pages 20-21 in the chapter called "More About Alcoholism."
If you conclude that you are indeed an alcoholic rather than a heavy drinker, you might want to consider that, from what I can tell, the experience laid out in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous conflicts with the suggestions you've been given. When it comes to alcoholism, I have never found a better written source for surviving this frequently fatal illness than the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous -- or a better living source than those alcoholics who have recovered by a spiritual awakening as achieved through the 12 steps.
Here is one concept to consider:
From the chapter "How It Works":
"The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called willpower becomes practically non-existent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink."
If thoughts of how we would let our family and friends down if we were to drink were enough to keep us sober, I believe that many of us would have stopped a very long time ago. It has often appeared that the greatest efforts from and our greatest concerns regarding our best friends, our beloved spouses, our parents, our siblings, even our children, our grandchildren, our jobs, our mortgages, our finances, etc. were simply not enough to keep us sober.
From the chapter "To Wives":
“Another feeling we are very likely to entertain is one of resentment that love and loyalty could not cure our husbands of alcoholism. We do not like the thought that the contents of a book or the work of another alcoholic has accomplished in a few weeks that for which we struggled for years. At such moments we forget that alcoholism is an illness over which we could not possibly have had any power.”
Fortunately, my experience is that recovered alcoholics are uniquely qualified to help when it seems no one else can.
I can share with you the bottom line for why I kept drinking: I’m an alcoholic. Before I recovered, I suffered from a mental obsession regarding alcohol. This is why I could not stop and stay stopped for any significant amount of time based purely on my own resources (e.g. no doctors, no other drugs/medication, no therapy, no meetings, no substitutions, etc.). Every time I went back to that first drink, I did it sober --this was despite the fact that I could see that whenever I drank, I would lose control of my drinking. Here, the second component to the double-edged sword: I would lose control over the amount I drank because I am bodily different than non-alcoholics. I suffer from an abnormal reaction to alcohol, which can be likened to an allergy. That is, whenever would I put a certain amount of alcohol into my system, it would trigger the allergy, causing me to drink more and more (and more). So once I started to drink, I became powerless to stop.
From the chapter “The Doctor’s Opinion”:
"The physician who, at our request, gave us this letter, has been kind enough to enlarge upon his views in another statement which follows. In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe-that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives. These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.”
And:
“Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks-drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.”
What I’ve been given as a result of the steps, drug-free:
From the chapter "Into Action" in step 10:
"Love and tolerance of others is our code.
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality - safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition."
Enormous hugs and endless blessings to you.
If you’re a heavy drinker looking to stop drinking, your counselor’s suggestions may work for you. If this is the case, I send all of my sincerest and very best wishes to you on your journey.
On the other hand, I’m an alcoholic, and as much as I may have wanted to be able to follow these practical-sounding suggestions to freedom, they would fail me.
If you want to know how the Big Book describes the differences between the moderate drinker, the heavy drinker and the real alcoholic, you can find them on pages 20-21 in the chapter called "More About Alcoholism."
If you conclude that you are indeed an alcoholic rather than a heavy drinker, you might want to consider that, from what I can tell, the experience laid out in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous conflicts with the suggestions you've been given. When it comes to alcoholism, I have never found a better written source for surviving this frequently fatal illness than the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous -- or a better living source than those alcoholics who have recovered by a spiritual awakening as achieved through the 12 steps.
Here is one concept to consider:
"The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called willpower becomes practically non-existent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink."
Step 3: Find supportive friends and family who understand your situation and let them help you keep yourself sober. think of how you would let them down if you drink.
From the chapter "To Wives":
“Another feeling we are very likely to entertain is one of resentment that love and loyalty could not cure our husbands of alcoholism. We do not like the thought that the contents of a book or the work of another alcoholic has accomplished in a few weeks that for which we struggled for years. At such moments we forget that alcoholism is an illness over which we could not possibly have had any power.”
Fortunately, my experience is that recovered alcoholics are uniquely qualified to help when it seems no one else can.
Step 4: Remove the reason why you drink and replace it with a different healthy activity. ex. I drink when I'm depressed or sad. what I do now is jog and exercise instead
to take my mind off things
to take my mind off things
From the chapter “The Doctor’s Opinion”:
"The physician who, at our request, gave us this letter, has been kind enough to enlarge upon his views in another statement which follows. In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe-that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives. These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete.”
And:
“Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks-drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his recovery.”
Step 5: if someone offers you a drink Throw/spit the drink to him/her. He doesn't deserve to be your friend hahahaha!
Im also taking a drug that makes me so ill when I drink that I don't want to drink again. I reserched it and I saw the name was "disulfiram" damn nasty when mixed with alcohol.
Im also taking a drug that makes me so ill when I drink that I don't want to drink again. I reserched it and I saw the name was "disulfiram" damn nasty when mixed with alcohol.
From the chapter "Into Action" in step 10:
"Love and tolerance of others is our code.
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality - safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition."
Enormous hugs and endless blessings to you.
Member
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Lexington KY
Posts: 21
Hey--
I am a vigorous supporter of Antabuse (disulfiram). Worked beautifully for me when I was able to pay for it.
unlike many of the others who responded to your post, I do not think the 12 steps are the only way to achieve a comfortable abstinence. Therapy and a spiritual foundation and communication w/ others who are not necessarily AA fanatics sounds okay to me.
I am a vigorous supporter of Antabuse (disulfiram). Worked beautifully for me when I was able to pay for it.
unlike many of the others who responded to your post, I do not think the 12 steps are the only way to achieve a comfortable abstinence. Therapy and a spiritual foundation and communication w/ others who are not necessarily AA fanatics sounds okay to me.
There is so much wisdom here. Thank you for sharing it.
How do we let go of the struggle once it tries to lure us again- I am finishing day nine. This is the best I have felt for 12 months. I anticipate the return of the restlessness and disquiet.
How do we let go of the struggle once it tries to lure us again- I am finishing day nine. This is the best I have felt for 12 months. I anticipate the return of the restlessness and disquiet.
Let's cool it, thanks.
I don't believe this topic needs another 12 step or not discussion.
Support was very important for me, instant - whether it's SR or counselling, or some form of inpatient or outpatient rehab, or some recovery group like AA or SMART or whatever...
It was support more than anything else that got me through the 'restlessness and disquiet' and kept me moving forward not back
D
I don't believe this topic needs another 12 step or not discussion.
Support was very important for me, instant - whether it's SR or counselling, or some form of inpatient or outpatient rehab, or some recovery group like AA or SMART or whatever...
It was support more than anything else that got me through the 'restlessness and disquiet' and kept me moving forward not back
D
Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,237
I think finding a healthy outlet does indeed help....but yes, the underlying issues NEED to be addressed....I found this to be absolutely the truth...and coping with lifes stresses as they come up...however you do that...is so important....
Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Spain
Posts: 298
This may sound crazy...but it worked for me when I had craving...I'm simple minded and can't concentrate on multi thoughts.... spell any word.."S T O P" then spell it backwards .."P O T S"... "F I G H T"..."T H G I F" ... I would have to visualize the word in my head to spell it backwards... like I said I know it sounds crazy... but it has helped me beat many cravings ..
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