I joined today and I've spent a few hours reading the forum posts. Just thought I'd pop in here and say hi and briefly introduce myself. I'm a 30 something female living in the southeast (US). I'm self-employed and work from home as a freelance writer and remote call center agent. I have a boyfriend now since February. We live in the house I bought three years ago, with my 3 cats.
As you can imagine, working from home allowed me to turn up a wine bottle and drink pretty much whenever I wanted... not a good thing
I've got to do something about it. And for a few years now I've tried different online programs... some of which helped, others not so much. Moderation Management just wasnt for me. I'm very happy with Women For Sobriety... although I haven't been very successful with staying sober for more than about a week at a time. The longest I've evern gone was 8 months... I felt really good during that time. I was 27 yrs old and that was quite an accomplishment. I want to motivate myself to do something to completely stop my drinking once and for all. I don't want to come back here when I'm 40 or 50 with even more problems, wishing I'd done something about it in my 30's. I have lots of books on the subject, and I do pick those up and read those often. I do not like AA. My mom did AA years ago. I have bad memories of those times... and I'm also agnostic. I also disagree with some of the philosophies of AA... although I'd never tell anyone not to do it if it works. I just prefer my own secular methods at this time. I will however, listen to anything that works. But, bottom line... I choose to think for myself and if something doesn't sit well with me (rationally) then I know it's my right to discard that.
I'm glad I found this forum... it looks like a really large group of diverse people and backgrounds from what I can tell... and that's a good thing! I'll be seeing you all around the forums and chatroom!