Azreal

I've been abstaining from alcohol for 8 days now. Is it permanent? I doubt it. I needed a break and to back off. Am I an alcoholic, I don't really think so....but I the question came up in my own mind....when do you stop counting the days? If I wasn't an alcoholic, would I be keeping track of the days? Would I be thinking about drinking so much when I wasn't?

It's all a little scary to be honest....

jimhere

I think if you weren't an alcoholic you probably wouldn't be obsessing about being an alcoholic and counting days away from alcohol. What you are experiencing is an obsession with alcohol. Thinking about not drinking is as much an obsession as thinking about drinking.

Tazman53

Azreal here are some really good questions to ask of your self:

Does a normal person count the number of days since thier last drink?
Does a normal person come to SR to stop drinking?
Does a normal person plan how much they are going to drink and when?
Does a normal person think about drinking or not drinking all the time?

Jomey

Azreal, hun, I don't think you would have ever begun counting days if there wasn't a problem, like you said.

Here's what I can share. I am an alcoholic - no doubt about it. My husband, on the other hand, is a normal drinker. He always has a few beers around. He used to keep them in the rec room fridge, but, as our eldest son is coming into his pre-teen years, I suggested we keep them in the kitchen fridge so none of our kids or their friends get tempted to try one when they are down in the rec room out of our sight.

When I asked him how many beers were down there, he truly had no clue. He has no idea when he was last at the beer store (no beer in the grocery stores here in PA), no idea what type it is, if he even bought it or someone brought it over to a get together or when's the last time he drank one. When I was drinking, I would have known EXACTLY how much I had left, when/where I as going to get more, etc. and certainly when my last drink was.

Can you see yourself in me or my husband? Food for thought, hun. Hope you decide to keep counting the days!!

Azreal

All good points, which is why I ask the question. I think the longer I last the easier it will get, but I could be wrong. If I AM wrong, then I have a problem for sure.

Tazman53

Azreal that really depends, if you are changing your self as a person, it does get easier with time.

I quit many times before and the only thing I did was not drink, I changed nothing about my self, this always led to me drinking again. I found that I am an alcoholic whether I am drinking or not and that if I did nothing to change myself I was going to drink again because drinking was the only solution I knew to my problems and drinking was also the only way I knew to enjoy life.

I have changed, I used a program that worked for me, I worked the program and I changed for the better. If you find you really can not stay stopped why not look into working a program, there are a number of them out there to try.

Every program out there is a method of changing the "Drinking" you into the "Non-drinking" you. There is no reason at all to do this alone.

Azreal

I suppose I should say that I found out I have very high cholesterol, so I'm changing lots of things in my life. Just had a baby 7 weeks ago, so that eats up a ton of time. My mind is on a lot of things right now, health, baby, my wife, work.....so I think the longer I go, the less I'll think about booze. When you have the same routine (work, come home, drink, watch TV, go to bed) for so long, I think it feels weird to break it whether it's drinking or not.

Of course I could be trying to rationlize all this and convince myself I'm not an alcoholic....

CarolD

Good to see you again...

I quit day counting when I could say weeks.
Quit counting weeks when I could say months.
Now I count years.

Look at it this way ...you stopped drinking
for a specific reason or reasons.

Once your mind and body are healthy
(took about 3 months for me)
why would you then choose to add toxins?

Your family and you deserve the best you can be.

Signal30

If you are on a site about alcoholism, and as others have pointed out obsessing about your alcohol consumption it is a good indicator to investigate.

Are you powerless over alcohol, and is it making your life unmanagable?


Tom

serenityqueen

I count days, weeks, minutes, months, years, heartbeats, in whatever incriments I feel like counting at the time. I do this for one simple reason. I am counting how long I have been living happy, joyous and free. Free from the obsession that nearly killed me.

Sugah

I plug my date into a sobriety calculator every once in awhile. Usually, I do this when I feel like I'm not getting things done fast enough for my liking. Then I see that things happen when they will, and in the case of my (chemical, emotional, mental, spiritual) sobriety, they happen one day at a time.

Just because, I just put that date in now and saw that in another 76 days, I will have reached 2,000 days sober, and it turns out that I have something very special to do that evening. Within a few days of that date, I should be graduating from college as well. Two of my children will be graduating from high school, when five years ago, I had concerns about one of them finishing.

No, I don't usually count days. I know now how many days I have, but I'd have to count on my fingers to know how many months I have, or even how many months past five years that I have. I don't take those days for granted, though. I know that the cumulative effect of those continuous days sober, along with the necessary footwork, have brought with them each of the blessings I count in my life today.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

Zanthos

Today I have 1,167 days without drinking.

Several years ago, I went about 1,185 days without drinking. But then I started drinking again. I drank for more than 2,555 days before stopping again.

I know some people who have gone more than 9,125 days without drinking. I'd like to give that a try. Sounds like fun!

Tazman53

Alcoholism is the only known disease where one of the classic symptoms of the disease is the denial of it!

Only you can determine if you are an alcoholic, if you have made the determination that you are do not at a later date let it trick you into thinking your not! I spent years saying "Well I can't be an alcoholic, I have not had a drink for X number of days, an alcoholic could not go that long with out a drink!" I would drink again and it got worse every time, never better.

frstnm

For me I stop counting at 1 day as that is all I have.
One day at a time.

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