Originally Posted by Stan50

Hey Brooke, this is my first post to you. Personally, I have had an alcohol problem just like yours. It's the "emotional" addiction. It's what my friends and I do. We drink. And we tend to drink a lot. I know I'm going to catch hell for this, but all of these people around here keep on preaching absenence. They keep on saying that you need to stop drinking completly. These people believe that anybody that drinks on a semi regular basis has a drinking problem. Now don't get me wrong. Drinking on a daily basis isn't right. (I've done this for years in the past) and I know it's wrong. But I've stopped drinking on a daily basis, and I only drink on the weekends now, and I don't think it's a problem.

You said that you were going out to celebrate a friends new job or promotion or something, and you said that you got wasted. When you say your wasted, do you mean you just got drunk, or do you mean falling down, blackout, out of control wasted?

If you were falling down, completely out of it, passed out wasted, during the middle of the week, then I'd question wether or not you have a problem.

But if your just going out getting moderatly drunk, I think you can stop with a little will power.

You just have to find something else to do with your time. For me, it's working out. It gives me something to do at night instead of drinking.

But on friday and saturday nights I still drink. And I feel thats allowed as long as your able to refrain from doing it the rest of the week

If your really scared of that idea (I once was) Do it like I did.

Take it one day at a time. Don't drink on Thursday for one week
Then the next week don't drink on wednesday or thursday
The following week, don't drink on tuesday, wednesday or thursday
Then don't drink on monday, tuesday, wednesday, or thursday

Then continue until your comfortable with the amount of days your drinking. The reason I am demonstrating this idea to you, is that I believe, givin your story, that you are not a true alcoholic. You simply have an emotional attachment to it. Just like me. An emotional addition can be broken through willpower. I have done it.

Like you, I have friends that drink. Some drink moderately, some drink way too much, and some barely drink at all. But none the less, I love them all, and I'm not willing to give up being friends with any of them, reguardless of how much they drink. They are my best freinds.

A lot of the people around here are true alcoholics. They are people that used to drink in the morning, in the afternoon, and even at night. And those people arn't like you and me. But those people would like you to think differently. They want you to think you have a serious problem because you like to party at night.

Although, I think it is a problem to party EVERY night, I do not think it is a problem to party once or twice a week.

Brooke, don't let these people persuade you from partying it up and having fun in a drinking atmosphere despite what these other peoples experiences are. If you can cut it down to a couple days a week, I'd say your fine.

If you can not. Then your not like me, and you need some help. But from what I've read from you, you sound a lot like me , and I think you can do it. You don't have to completely stop drinking. Just moderate it.