Emmy69

Hi. This is my first post. I found this site a couple days ago and have been reading many of your posts. I feel like I don't need to go into details about my life of drinking, as I've found that I've read many other stories that are very similar to mine. I'm a male in my late 50's and have been drinking my entire adult life, in varying quantities over time. Lately, way too much.

What I do know now is I am an alcoholic. I also know I will never be able to drink in moderation or "control" my drinking. I've tried to quit so many times I can't count and the "I'll learn to control my drinking" is always the excuse I use to start again. But I am looking for guidance on a couple subjects and it sounds like I'm talking to the right folks.

First, I'm not really interested in the 12 steps. The whole religous aspect doesn't fit with my beliefs. Also sitting in a room with a group of strangers spilling my guts just isn't me. I am interested in speaking with a counselor or psychologist that specializes in alchohol problems more one on one. Is there any special accreditation or counselor type that people have had success with that you'd recommend.

Second, any books that you've found particularly helpful? I recently bought a couple but didn't find much useful info in them.

Also, one of my biggest challenges is that my wife is also an alchoholic. She has no intention of quitting. She feels that she deserves her "one vice" and I'm not going to try to change her. But I'm interested if others have had similar "challenges" and if so how they succeeded, (or not).

So I'm 4 days into my latest attempt at sobriety. This is the first time I've ever shared this with anyone (which is a huge step for me) so I'm hoping by talking about it and sharing that my results will be better.

Thanks for any advice you can give.