New to this. Do I have to quit forever?
Hello all. I've been lurking a little since Friday, the last day I had a drink. Won't tell my whole story right now, but here's a little background on me. I've known for a while that I drink to much. I make excuses for it-- mainly that I drink out of boredom & loneliness. Honestly, that's the truth. I am a mother of 2 and my husband works LONG hours (like 60-70 hours/wk). I work full-time with only one other person (who is my drinking accomplice). Then I pick up my two very small children from daycare. God knows I love them, but they tend to stress me out from the minute we walk in the house. Every evening has the same boring routine-- RUSH to get them fed before they scream to death, bathe them, tell them "NO!" a thousand times before finally putting them to bed. Then I can finally try to relax for an hour or two before I go to bed-- and by relax, I mean drink. My husband is gone to work before I get up and I'm usually almost drunk by the time he gets home. I know he doesn't like me drinking, but like I said, I'm bored and lonely. Anyway, my habit has been getting progressively worse over recent months.
Long story short, I decided to quit drinking Friday morning. I finished the last glass of wine left and haven't had a drink in 3 days now. Surprisingly, I haven't had any bad physical side effects, a little bit of shakiness today. Emotionally, I've been a bit anxious (although I tend to have a lot of anxiety anyway) and BORED. Even went to a family event for Easter yesterday. Plenty of people were drinking and I am used to drinking with those people, but I didn't have a huge desire or craving to drink with them.
While I feel okay not drinking for now and I definitely don't want to ever get back into my old routine, I'm not ready to say that I never want to drink again. Over the past few days, I've read conflicting accounts about whether a recovering alcoholic can ever drink again safely. Is it possible or realistic to think I can "quit" drinking with the occasional exception? I would like to sit down with my husband and come up with a guideline of when and how much I can drink. Maybe we can agree that once a month, we can have one glass of wine with dinner, or something like that.
Has anyone been successful in such scenario?