bodychek

My hat is off to you... As the Big Book states, "...if a person can make a right about face and drink like like a gentleman our hats are off to you..." Maybe you are a normal drinker who just gets drunk sometimes, or perhaps your disease just hasn't progressed. It's not for me to say.

For me, I could at times drink in moderation even though the feelings inside were always there. Unfortunately my will power could seldom overcome the urge to have more and more and I wouldn't stop until I was out of alcohol or I passed out. Toward the end before I sought help, I would be so proud if I just had 2 or 3 drinks and came home. the fact that I had to be proud that I controlled my drinking is an indicator that I had a problem.

If your controlled drinking escalates we will be here for you and will do everything we can do to help you. Good luck.

Peter

Oh I have had tremendous success with my "moderation" experiments.

I have conclusively proven there ain't no frickin' way I can ever moderate my drinking.

Lindsay

Drink in moderation? I wouldn't even try. It doesn't even appeal to me. In my mind, there is no point in just having a beer or two. My brain didn't always function like this...but it's what it's progressed to.

If there were two beers in front of me, I'd rather not even bother drinking them. Two would simply not be enough. If I did "drink" them, I'd chug/bong them...and then go get a 12 pack.

So no, no moderation for me!

scoob

Yep, I successfully got really drunk when I tried to test moderation.

Tazman53

When I moderated my drinking before I lost the ability to not drink I never enjoyed my drinking. When I enjoyed my drinking was when I did not moderate at all.

One thing I have found out by asking some non-alcoholic friends & my wife is they never even think about drinking and when they do drink they do not even think about how much they are drinking because they are not worried about it. As an alcoholic I never left a half finished drink, yet I would see tons of them at bars and at parties.... what the heck was wrong with these people to waste good booze!!

I am an alcoholic, every time in my life I ever had a drink I was never full, I wanted another one before I was finished with the first.

For me life is so much easier if I just do not have a drink. No fight, no battle of willpower, I just simply do not drink, that simple.

No marking on a calander when I can drink again and how much, no writing down how much I had to drink on a certain occasion...... I have yet to know one non-alcoholic who does that, they don't need to.

GTO

I personally cannot drink in moderation. Once I have the first one, the light switch comes on then it's off to the races to get loaded.

NewDayNow

All or nothing

Ed

Blake'sTyger

I can drink moderately for one evening.
Trouble is, the next night I will inevitably drink extremely unmoderately. I have tried this several times, always with the same result.

So to answer your question....
No.

problemchild

Heck moderation worked great for me until i got drunk, ALWAYS ONE MORE, but i am a alcoholic, a question you need to ask yourself..

Take care,
John

Last Call

I think this is classic alcoholic thinking, no doubt ingrained by social norms. I thought the same way until I had a couple fine meals without wine. There is no way wine improves your sense of taste or smell, and in fact almost certainly has the opposite effect.

My experiences with moderation are that it works for a while (a week, month, etc.) and then I find myself worse off than the last time I quit.