Originally Posted by
Scott231 
Im really lost , im working on day 5 right now and i've been skimming through the previous threads. I'm stuck on the first one. " I will never drink again " . Why can't I drink again ? People have beers all the time and they're not alcoholics.
You can do whatever you want, Scott231, provided you are willing to accept the likely consequences, and it doesn't matter one whit if you are 'an alcoholic' or not. Have you read "Rational Recovery: The New Cure" or gone through the free AVRT crash course?
Originally Posted by
Scott231 I don't see why I cant just get a handle on it to where I can have a few and be ok ( but not everynight of course ).
With this statement, you are effectively saying that you can't drink like all those other people who can have a few beers without all those bad consequences. The only people who yearn to drink moderately are those who have already proven that they cannot do so. Why else would they yearn to drink moderately?
As for why drinking moderately usually doesn't work, see this post:
Small amounts of alcohol :
Actually, you might want to read that entire thread:
Crossing the Threshold :
Originally Posted by
Scott231 Especially now in the beginning it just seems way too overwhelming to make a commitment like that. I know somebody said " one day at a time " and that seems a bit more uplifting. Like all I have to do is worry about not doing it today and I can worry about tomorrows urges tomorrow.
You are deeply ambivalent about your drinking. Part of you wants to stop drinking, or at least drink without the bad consequences, and another part of you wants to keep drinking forever. This is the hallmark of addiction.
The ODAAT thing works for some people, in AA or not, but that's not how we do things with AVRT. "Never say never to the possible future use of alcohol and other drugs" is the cardinal rule of addiction itself. AVRT goes straight for the jugular and smashes it.
Originally Posted by
Scott231 I'm not submitting to failure but just saying i'll handle those problems when they come not right now.
Your addictive voice is attacking, saying don't say never now. AVRT is a "now" approach, however. "I will never drink again" is equivalent to "I will never now drink" or "I will never drink in the present moment." See this post on the static time idea in AVRT:
Originally Posted by
Scott231 Am I missing something ? Any advice ?
Go through the free AVRT crash course, and get yourself a copy of
Rational Recovery: The New Cure for Substance Addiction by Jack Trimpey. Make an interim plan, such as "I will not drink for the next two weeks, during which time I will get the book and read it, along with this entire thread." Then, make up your mind.