Originally Posted by
Theresa 
Hi SnOman and welcome. This site is full of wonderful people willing to share their experiences (like you) and is an invaluable resource.
I understand your comment about religion. I have had the same reaction to many organized religions and still respond negatively to having had religion pressed upon me as a child, a religion in which I found little comfort only criticism--I came away feeling bad and evil, which is the same way I feel when I drink.
But what I have found is I have a need for spirituality, which for me is WAY different than religion. Jung used the expression "spiritus contra spiritum" to describe this need, which I understand as spiritual thirst being addressed with other spirits (i.e., alcohol). This makes some sense to me. For me spirituality is about finding my real self because I know that the person who drinks too much, they way I feel and act when in a stupor, IS NOT ME.
Like you, I can take or leave alcohol for days or weeks at a time, and if I do quit I only feel better. But when I do drink, stopping is a big problem.
What I have learned on this site is that I need to go after (understand) the behavior behind my taking that first drink. The more conscious I am of my behavior, the less likely I will pick up. One SR member (sorry I cannot give due credit right now) recently made a list of things s/he has learned about drinking, one of which was that the most insane thing s/he ever did was to take that first drink sober: how crazy is that knowing what it will lead to? I have reminded myself of this line repeatedly and it has been very helpful.
Glad you are here.
Thanks Theresa
Over the years, I have abandoned religion, because I honestly believe it is a lie. I have seen what religion does to people, something I was blind to when I was a part of it, but something that has become quite apparent now that I have left it behind.
I am not going to judge people who are religious, nor down talk their beliefs. I have just come to find faith in someting else: science. And not just accepted science, but the science of what is probable.
I won't get into it here, as it is a discussion unrelated to the purpose of this site, but I can say I found comfort in the science and a renewed sense of 'faith', though that faith I speak of is not one of blind faith but of the search for the provable truth.
I think religion can be improtant to some people when trying to recover from a disease such as ours. Moreso, I think it is faith that helps people recover - whatever that faith may be. the human mind is capable of unimaginable wonders, and often we find these wonders present themselves when they are drawn upon by people who truly believe in something - but I find that something is not bound by any religion.