Thank you all for your comments. There are so many gems of wisdom in here that I can't quote them all, but I am going to bookmark this thread so that I can come back here when I need a hand.
I realise how 'new' I am to recovery when people talk about the "alcoholic voice" - I have not thought about it that way. I am very glad I am here at SR.
Last night I made it until 10.30pm then went to bed, alcohol free. Today I woke up not worrying about "what did I do last night??? Will my friends/family still be talking to me today???". It's great
Today is Saturday and I plan to play a little computer, scrap book, and (most importantly) not drink.
Ryan - I used to mix alcohol with sleeping tablets, until I had a couple of scary "episodes" when I combined alcohol with a medicine called stillnox. I was fighting with my partner and staying with my parents for the night. The last thing I remembered was taking the tablet after drinking all night. The next day my family filled me in... I'd started by going into my sister's room and waking her up (while she had a friend staying over), telling her "Can you come help us, we need help?" She asked who was here with me and what did I need, I told her "You're unavoidable linked to the mafia. There are three people in my head, one of them's an idiot but we've known them a long time, so it's ok". From there I managed to wake up the entire house, trying to get into the car to drive to get more alcohol (thankfully using the wrong set of car keys for the car I was attempting to start), and eventually my little brother sat me down and talked to me and I went to sleep. Only he knows what he said to me, he didn't tell my parents and I don't remember. I had another incident with stillnox where I called my boss and told her I was going to kill myself. It was surreal because I wasn't even depressed or sad at the time, I have no idea where that came from. I was alone for most of that episode so I don't know what else I did... She came over and stayed with me until I passed out, and she came over the next morning to make sure I was OK telling me to take the day off. She was a great lady, never told anyone about it so far as I know.
Since those incidents I don't mix alcohol and sleeping meds at all. I can only imagine what would've happened if I'd gotten into that car, and talking about there being three people in my head really scared my sister (and me!). The talk of committing suicide while I had no suicidal or even sad thoughts when sober was completely terrifying... so don't worry, I'm not going to mix the meds and drinks!