Bamboozle

I think a lot.

SR is my crutch.

Oh yeah, and junk food helps a lot. Too much, actually.

I need to go on a diet.

yeahgr8

I've been going to alcohol counselling which involves a lot the reasons why i drank for so long, i.e. why was i trying to self medicate. I still take one pill of antabuse in the mornings which i will continue taking until i dont need them anymore, this gets rid of the excuse to drink on that night as i know it will make me ill.

So far i have done 100 days. I tried for years to get 28 days and could not. I think it's quite similar to AA (although they won't like that) wherein I have hit rock bottom, understand that i cannot drink etc.

I am starting to feel..fellings i have not had in years, a smell that i forgot that reminds me of a place, listening to old music etc. basically having happy thoughts and dreams all the time instead of the worry and stress that goes with drinking in, what was, my own personal hell.

IMO the most important thing to do is to address why you drank like you did and you can't do that by yourself or you would have done it the first time you thought you drank too much and wanted to quit. Just my 2 cents:-)

KindBird

Wow - this is such a gold mine! Thank you TSH for that great list and your comments - I have so much more I can read from what you have sent. KenL and CarolI - thank you too for more resources. Many of these books are new to me and I will get and use.

One other that I have used a lot and really find a great resource is "Changing for Good" - I love it because it recognizes the complexity of behaviors like drinking and provides a lot of processes to use to change them.

I feel so lucky to get all this great stuff from all of you!

doorknob

Here are some ideas from LifeRing:

Toolbox

TryingSoHard

Thanks DK!!

BackToSquareOne

If you look at what any support group really does it's not hard to figure out why some people need them and others do not. In essence a support group of any type provides structure and a plan of implementation, it offers some definite plan or procedure one must follow to achieve the goal of sobriety or freedom from addiction.

Support groups also serve the purpose of filling the void that giving up the drug of choice creates. In a sense the addiction for the drug of choice is replaced with meetings and working on recovery. Others might fill the void with religion, exercise, work or whatever but the void must be filled with something. Replacing old destructive behaviors with new healthy ones is an important part of recovery.

I don't think there's really any right or wrong to either side of the debate as to whether or not a structured support system is necessary. If you can do it on your own that's great, if not then there's nothing wrong with a support group. Just my 2 cents worth.

coffeenut

I'm 7 months sober and use SR as my AA. I'm able to be completely honest; with others and myself, something I could NOT do in a small town AA meeting.

Like others, I also read everything I can get my hands on.

BubblyDeath

Hey Kindbird,
I'm still a drinker, and am working on stopping. I've been to one AA meeting, and plan on going back to the next on in my town. I was a little put off by all the seemingly goofy stuff that went on, like everybody starting off with Hey my name is ___ and im an alcoholic, then everyone responding with hey___. I was like okay, I get it, were all alcoholics, and please don't say hey to me again for the 30th time, but I really think it has it's place for some people. It never hurts to admit that we are alcoholics, nor does it hurt us to get support from others multiple more times. SR is a great help to me, as well as family, but as for me, I'm gonna keep going to AA for now, who knows, maybe one day I'll be one of the people saying hey to someone 30 times, because I've been sober long enough. My point, Use everything you can to get sober. If you have to run 50 miles a day, go to a million meetings in a week, or live on this site, do it. it will be worth it. Stay strong.

stillsober27

Honestly I just do it all on my own. Currently 5 1/2 months sober. Never been to AA or anything like that. I think we all need to find our own reason to stay sober. I found that I had graduated from college three years ago and just wasn't doing anything with my life and wanted to change that. I accepted the reason I wasn't going anywhere was because of my drinking. My reason for not drinking was going back to grad school. Whever I wanted to have a drink I just told myself that I couldn't because it would kill me academically.

I read a study that said most people who quit for good just eventually do it on their own. In the study they looked at people who had been sober for at least five years and almost all of them eventually decided to get sober on their own. They were to some extent making fun of the idea of people going to some treatment center. I am sure you have seem them on tv. Someone goes into treatment for 28 days, get out, hold hands with their family, sing kum ba ya, and they are cured. If it was that easy none of us would be on this site.

Strangef8

Well I am on Day 7 and while I have an appt with a therapist, I am hoping (and pretty confident) that the people and posts here, as well as the support of my wife and my own determination will be enough for me. But everyone is different. I hope you can find something that works for you.

CarolD

Hi Everyone...

We do have a sticky post here in Alcoholism....listing various
recovery methods for anyone to explore.

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-programs.html

Best of luck on your sobriety journey..

TryingSoHard

Thanks for the reminder, Carol! Sometimes the most obvious things are the ones we tend to overlook...!! LOL

sfgirl

So around month two (at month four) of sobriety I became a crazy addiction/recovery reader. Pretty much it is my new addiction. So without further ado (bear in mind I am a woman so sometimes I search out gender specific books):

Sober for Good - Anne Fletcher
A must read especially for those who forgo AA (me being one of them). A balanced book about different people's paths to recovery including the AA route and alternative routes. Basically affirms that many paths can lead to sobriety and describes the different methods and commonalities.

Drinking: A Love Story - Caroline Knapp
Memoir about a journalist who quit drinking. Well-written. Insightful.

Trauma and Addiction - Tian Dayton
Some of the stuff about the therapy I could leave but some of my favorite lines/insights about addiction and alcoholism are in this book. She is the Director of Program Development for the Caron Foundation.

Cool, Hip, and Sober -Bill Manville
The title is stupid and the man writing the book is older and very much into AA rhetoric at times. However, I really like some of the things that he says. It does get a bit repetitive. It is written in Q&A format probably because he has a recovery radio show.


More Women Centered Books:
A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps Workbook— Stephanie S. Covington Ph. D.
Happy Hours: Alcohol in a Woman's Life— Devon Jersild
Turnabout: New Help for the Woman Alcoholic—Jean Kirkpatrick
Goodbye Hangovers, Hello Life: Self Help for Women—Jean Kirkpatrick

Others that were not quite as helpful:
Cracked— Dr. Drew Pinsky
Addictive Thinking— Abraham J. Twerski


Some books I have on deck:
A Drinking Life— Pete Hammill (Memoir)
Moments of Clarity: Voices from the Front Lines of Addiction and Recovery by Christopher Kennedy Lawford (Collection of mini-memoirs)
Addiction and Change—Carlo diClemente (more clinical)

Okay that is my list although I am sure I am leaving some out. Hazelden press has a lot of recovery books- you can check out their website at hazelden dot org.

Good luck.

KindBird

Thanks sfgirl - this is great to get more recommendations. I have decided that reading time every day is a part of my "plan" and it has really helped me a lot - it keeps it fresh. I too have read and reread Sober For Good and love hearing your reaction to it.

I am planning to grow my recovery library with all this good info and thank you LOADS for these resources.