Originally Posted by
Cowgirlie 
Hi gonnachange - sounds like you're doing really well with recognising the habitual drinks. Interested to see how your journey goes - totally understandable that you're considering avoiding the 'allowed' social drinks as you can recognise that hey - it's still alcohol, and if you e worked hard to avoid any at all in private then why undo that work now, just because you don't seemingly have a problem with social drinking. I guess that's how so many on here end up (inspiringly!) completely tee-total! It's like avoiding a highly flammable bonfire but allowing yourself to hold a few sparklers really close-by... One stray spark and boom! That's my take on it anyway, as like you I feel very happy with my lifestyle etc and have wrestled with the idea of 'forever.' my dream is to have the social control to have one glass of wine with dinner then just stop. I'm about 90% sure I can do it now (6 days sober), but I'll delay that occasion for as long as possible, while I figure out for now, how long can I go alcohol free? Like one of the others posted, it does seem to be a journey of working it out for your own situation. To that I say: well done for taking the first steps! And very best of luck to you
I recognize that many have tried what I am attempting and failed. How many have succeeded? I have no idea and I'm not sure which camp I'll eventually wind up in, but I'm willing to give this approach a chance. I'm not going to extrapolate three days, but I'm already feeling much more empowered over my situation. Thanks for your good wishes.
Originally Posted by
flossyfressia Hi gonnachange-how did your evening go? Sending positive vibes your way!
Flossy, the evening went fine. More below.
Originally Posted by
nigey1 Hi and welcome. Best of luck with your journey.
I too was like you and could control in public until I got home.
I too had a good job, family and standing. I thought people swallowed the image I was selling and had no idea of my problem, they just thought I liked a beer.
Nah.. People knew. They just didn't say anything. Now I have some sobriety it is pretty clear to me the only person I was deceiving was myself. Humans are pretty intuitive and pick up on a lot of subtleties.
So glad I stopped before I lost anything that mattered. Hope to see you around.
Thanks for the good thoughts. Yeah, there have been times where I went out, had one or two social drinks and then came home and drank way more than that alone. Crazy!
Glad you were able to recognize what was happening and were strong enough to make the necessary adjustments in your life.
Last Night.
The evening went fine. The group had a couple of drinks each during the course of the evening and I had water; no pushback or queries from anybody helped my situation. So I'm on to day 4 which has it's own set of challenges. We're hosting a small afternoon BBQ and will probably be going out dancing tonight. I've been giving thought about what my plan for the day should be, but regardless of what I decided I'm confident I'll be successful.