Originally Posted by
MrsKing 
This question caused me a lot of anguish a while back. Before I got sober, I didn't think there was any need to TOTALLY get rid of alcohol because what if I wasn't an alcoholic? Surely that would be silly to eradicate alcohol from my life when I only needed to learn how to moderate?
Once I stopped entertaining thoughts of why, how, when, etc, and just focussed on the main issue: that alcohol was causing me a lot of anxiety and upset, then I realised that I was better off without it and cut it out completely. It was the best decision I ever made and I will not be going back to it.
Thanks this is essentially the conclusion that I came to. Alcohol could possibly be helping, maybe but it was definitely hurting me.
So, now its the end of day two visiting the parents a time at which I would normally be sneaking shots of whiskey out of my dad's liquor stash in addition to the ones we would share. I find myself really wanting a couple of shots, but I won't and it probably isn't even possible because I doubt there is any there since my dad is travelling right now. I haven't checked though so I guess that is something good.
I told my buddy that when we went out for dinner as we had planned to a couple of weeks ago to commiserate my marital separation with a bunch of beers that I would not be drinking when we went out, so if he wanted to pick a different place, he could. His response was so textbook unhelpful that I had to smile: "what could a couple of beers on one night hurt?"
In a way he is probably right, I wouldn't get drunk. But it would break my decision to quit, and I may not make it again. It was strange though, his pushes to drink were quite easy to push aside, possibly because they were not right in front of me, but I think its more the type of person I am. To automatically say no, which usually is a bad thing for me, but maybe its finally found a good use :-).