Originally Posted by
firstymer 
Welcome to SR, Ancient Mariner. I am glad you are here with us. Many of us (most of us?) have been in your situation - knowing that we are self-destructing our careers, our family life and our future. Knowing what is at stake, and having the resolve to turn things around, are the first two prerequisites to getting sober.
The third requirement is that you have a plan for getting and staying sober. Merely wanting to stop is not enough. If you spend some time reading through the various posts and articles here at SR, you will see what plans have worked for others, I am sure you will get some good ideas.
You can pull out of this tailspin. Many, many of us have. If we can do it, so can you.
So, about that plan.......
Hey, thanks. It's true, I have a plan for most things that I wanted to achieve in life. But getting and remaining sober I suppose I have always left it to 'will power' and 'chance'. For sobriety/choosing to be teetotal, I've never had a plan of action. I'd work hard on other areas of my life thinking the more my life improved and the more I developed myself I would enevitabley make wiser, healthier choices. I might get away with that 90% of the time but it's the 10% that's doing some serious damage.
I'm considering the AA route. I've always been on the fence about them. (without wishing to start a debate) probably it seemed a bit too religous to me and I didn't want my whole life to revolve around meetings. And I also think I was stubborn 'I can do this myself'. However, I get the concept of the higher power and any organisation that gets like minded people together with the objective of obtaining a positive goal has to be a good thing.
I'm changing cities soon where I wont know anyone. This can be a positive because it can start a clean slate with regards to friends that I make. I can start off by introducing myself as a teetotal person. That is to say, have a teetotal identity from day one.
I also need to be ruthless with the people I let into my life and if we are not on the same energies/wavelenghts to recognise that and let them go. Too many people I know here only like going out for drinks, nothing else.
There's a couple of things that I have wanted to get into lately. They don't involve alcohol. But they both involve people and self-development/confidence. I've been procrastinating about doing these things for too long. Time to do it now! They would be two non alcohol related events that I could be doing on two nights of the week.
...and i seriously need to get back in the gym. I need to return to the days of 'my body is a temple!'
Any suggestions would be appreciated!