Old 07-27-2010, 04:37 AM
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LaFemme
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: New England
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Alternative Approaches - A different AA:-)

Okay, I know most of you seem to favor a scientific understanding towards dealing with recovery...and I'm all for that, I love knowing how alcohol effects our bodies, as has been said knowledge is power.

I wanted to share some of what I've learned in the past three years in my trying to get sober, but I didn't think it exactly fit in the "Science" thread.

So about three years ago, I finally acknowledged I couldn't just "STOP" and I was very uncomfortable with going to AA for many reasons which I won't get into here. Being the geek that I am, I decided to study up on the subject.

My first approach, was more in the self-help genre, reading books about mind over matter essentially. I think positive thinking can go a long way, but this wasn't enough to get me sober. Although I did have some 2-3 day sober stints in there.

My second approach was reading a book, "Seven Weeks to Sobriety". This book dealt with the bio-medical effects of alcohol and how it pertains to recovery. The premise is that alcoholics are malnourished and also physically inclined to have unbalanced body chemistry. The approach is to take a very heavy nutritional supplement regime to get everything back in order and that will, in large part, take care of the addiction. I tried it and made it to about 7 days. I just couldn't handle the amount of pills I was supposed to swallow.

My third approach was to talk to the only person I know who has 13+ years of recovery under his belt. C. used to be the lead singer in a hard rock band and he lived the life that went with it. He realized he was killing himself and decided to do something about it. I don't know much about his early recovery, but I know that he maintains sobriety by relying heavily on meditation and yoga. So I talked to him and did a lot of reading on different types of meditation. I tried the meditation approach and made it about 6 days...even though I didn't succeed with this approach I really like meditation:-) It also makes a lot of practical sense because meditation is essentially about controlling your thinking, if you control your thinking you can control your drinking.

My fourth approach was reading a book by Allan Carr, called "The Easy Way to Stop Drinking". You might be familiar with Carr for his incredibly successful "easy way to stop smoking" program. This book, takes the concepts for smoking and applies it to drinking. It's a little too involved to offer a synopsis of, but a lot of it deals with how society and culture essentially brainwash us as to how great alcohol is, and how impossible it is to quit if you are an alcoholic and then he offers an alternative viewpoint. He stresses that you don't need to white knuckle it or use massive will power to quit, I can honestly say I am not using any willpower to not drink right now, nor am I white knuckling it. I really liked this book, it's very empowering and kind of turns the whole alcohol thing on it's head. I made it 6 days on this approach.

So here I am on my fifth approach, and I can't put my finger on why it's working this time, except that I think it is a combination of all my previous approaches coming together right. I am thinking positively, meditating, doing a detox program and viewing alcohol as the poison it is instead of something I am depriving myself of.

I want to continue to read new and interesting approaches to dealing with this problem until I feel I have it beat (which I think is doable).

Hope you found this interesting and not just a waste of space...here's to Day 16!
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