Untoxicated

Like most of the threads I've started, I'm just looking for helpful advice and words of wisdom to help me stay stopped.

Were you finally fed up and mad as Hades?
Were you given and ultimatum (lose job/spouse, jail, etc.)?
Did you have a breakthrough moment?

What was your defining moment when you said to yourself, "Enough, I'm finished and I'm never looking back!"

Thanks in advance, I'm hoping those that have already helped themselves can still help those still figuring out how to help themselves.

("Just don't drink" so simple yet so complex)

aqua4017

For me, my last bender was what convinced me to throw in the towel on my drinking career. Before this, I had lost jobs, a boyfriend, and many friends over my alcoholism, but it was never the wakeup call I needed.

This last time, it was a relatively short bender for me (maybe 5 days) but on the last day for some reason my boyfriend found me passed out in my car and he had no idea what was wrong, so he took me to the ER. The next morning, I told him the truth about how I had really been drunk and all about my problem. I couldn't believe how supportive he was, and this made me realize what a future we had together and how much of my own life I was throwing away because of alcohol.

My trip to the ER was bittersweet though, because they found some abnormalities in my bloodwork while I was there. After further testing, I was diagnosed with Lupus, and luckily, it was caught very early. After realizing how important my health really is now, I quit drinking.

So I guess it was a combination of several things that inspired me to stop drinking. That, and I was sick of being so shaky when I was hungover that I couldn't eat anything that involved a spoon or it would never make it to my mouth...

Astro

There was a similar thread last week, you might find the replies helpful http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...want-quit.html

Untoxicated

Thanks, didn't see that - feel free to delete the thread.

Apparently, I can't include your entire quote because I'm on probation - had to delete the url first.

Astro

One more post I believe and you're off "probation". Lol. Enjoy your time here on SR.

Untoxicated

Thank you Astro!

Oh, and uh, one more post...c'mon baby daddy needs a new pair-a-shoes!

LBW

I have quit drinking only twice in my life... both because I was pregnant. Both times the main motivation for getting pregnant was to quit drinking and change my life. I made both decisions to do so while I was very drunk. (Hey, it seemed to make ALOT of sense at the time! Ha, ha!) That's all it took too... just one night where I thought this would be a good idea... I do not have any fertility issues, that's for sure!

Morning sickness and pregnancy hormones really make a person not even crave alcohol. It really was a non-issue the first 3 months of pregnancy. By the time any sort of craving may come back, you're already in a non-drinking routine... and plus, you have this little life inside you that's kicking you reminding you to take care of it...

I realize this is probably the easiest way in the world to quit. The trick is going to be to stay quit after pregnancy. I am very determined to do so.

I admire people who have the fortitude to quit the hard way.

DrZero

I just got tired of feeling ashamed. I tend to make an a** of myself when drunk. I love waking up in the morning and not having to worry about what fool thing I did the night before. I am only 11 days into recovery so far. (It's also kind of nice that my wife can't go around criticizing me for drinking.)

smacked

Got sick of killing myself.. got sick of lying, living in the hell i was causing myself.. got sick of feeling shame about the way I was living.. became interested in living my life instead of hiding from it.

Nothing magical happened, I was just done.. and looking back I cannot even believe I lived the way I did, or thought that alcohol was the amazing solution to (insert any typical alcoholic excuse here), when I had no idea even how to live.

Sugah

I had become something unrecognizable as a human being. I was hopeless to the point that I didn't care if I lived or died, though if you asked, I'd have told you I preferred the latter. But, in the midst of my self-hatred and disgust for myself, my apathy for the world, I heard two little kids still calling me Mommy. I didn't get sober for me. I made a decision to try to get sober because they deserved more than I was giving them. If I died in the process, so be it. At least I tried.

But I did get sober, and in the process, I found I was still human. I gave the Universe something to work with, and in the process, I became someone I didn't have to hate anymore. And though I would not have believed it in the beginning, all those years I thought I wasted drinking became an incredible gift. They've become the foundation by which I can relate to others who feel the same way I felt -- and I can tell them I don't feel that way anymore.

So, that's more than you asked, but that's how it was.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

rondfw777

Drank for 8 years,then took 7 years off from drinking,then put in another 7 years of drinking. First 8 was just young and stupid.Quit because I matured and got married and had kids and had alot of things to take care of and be a Dad. Starting drinking again to kill anxiety and ignore the reality of life. Quit again for the last time in October on my B-Day. Been to hell and back with drinking and I'm done! I knew that chapter of my life had to come to a close and be done with it. Wife and kids deserve a sober Dad and I had to grow some Balls and deal with life just like the millions of sober people do every day. Took a good hard look at today and not tomorrow. Really just alot of factors made me think about it and be thankful I'm still alive and God has given me a chance to live the life he intended for me,not the Ole selfish drinker that ran from every little problem with a beer in my hand. I crave no alcohol and don't even think about drinking. Mentally I have blocked it out and give it not the slightest chance to creep back into my life. I made a promise to God and family,and I'm sticking with it!
Hope I made alittle sense to yall.

Keep strong and never give up people!


Ron

Untoxicated

Thank you so much for sharing all, these stories are miracles really...I don't know any other way to describe them.

No such thing as "more than I asked" when it comes to your live saving story and I thank you for sharing it with me!

sunrise1

One night I nearly made a public spectacle of myself in crying hysteria... thank God I had the presence of mind to grab a friend and go outside, but there was still some talk. Most of it isn't remembered but in my business I can't afford to get any kind of reputation like that... My very next day was my first day of sobriety.

thisisme

I was suicidal and googling how to hang myself with 5 empty bottles of wine in front of me. I googled how to quit drinking instead. The depression and low self esteem vanished quickly when the cause was removed and sobriety embraced. I see hope now.

Krismutt1

It was a feeling of complete dread. That something very bad was going to happen if I didn't stop. Almost a premonition of sorts. I saw my husband leaving, kicking me out and taking my kids losing my job (again) getting a DWI (again) or possibly killing someone.

NOT going to happen. Those thoughts brought me to SR, lead me to post and now work on my sobriety on a daily basis.

Kris

jazzz

I had a deep desire to quit for a long time. I hated the hangovers and the fact that I couldn't control what would happen when I drank. But it was also a lot of fun for me to drink. But as time went by it wasn't as much fun anymore and the suffering and emptiness and complete lack of goals and motivation in my life made me REALLY want to quit. So I tried on my own but always went back, trying to be moderate but that didn't last long. It just ****** me up even more. In the end I became violent to my girlfriend and just a complete crasy drunk! I wanted to quit but I couldn't do it on my own, that I had found out.
So I gave AA a shot and it was a great shot!!

txsar

Well, I thought I had a wake up call a couple of years ago when my dad almost died from alcohol detox. I didn't want that to be me in 20 years. I didn't drink near as much as he did. Early on in college/20s/30s I was more of a binge drinker then became a daily drinker after marriage and kids. I stopped for a few weeks after my dad almost died, but then went back to it. I tried to stop a couple of more times and could only get a few weeks sober. My real wake up call came on Oct 27, 2009 at around 5:00 am when God woke me up and spoke to me by leading me to scriptures about drunkeness in the bible. This had never happened to me before. I knew what I had to do. And He is giving me the strength to stay sober today. The fear of me turning into what my dad was is also helping to scare me straight a little And I want to give my kids a better chance at not becoming alcoholics.

4ever

I realized that I had a serious problem (not that it hadn't been serious for years) on July 4th, 2007....very drunk and refused to let anyone take me home. I insisted on driving even with all the road blocks. How I made it home that night without being pulled over I'll never know. This had happened several times before, but this particular time my brother was there and we got into and didn't speak for some time. I finally just got to the point that I didn't know why I was treating myself and my family the way that I did. I'm not even sure what happened last month that finally made me see the light. I guess I was just ready and mostly tired of living the way that I was.

bob_sapp

sick of my sh1tty life, to the point where I would do anything, even never drinking again, to get a better life than what I had up to that point. To me that was rock bottom. Just realizing that my life was a living nightmare, and I had just more or less wasted the last 10 years of my life living in a black hole, and had accomplished virtually nothing in some of the most critical years of my life with all the opportunities I had. It was priceless.

24hrsAday

i won't say i'll Never Drink Again.. but.. i've been sober for over 2 years and 10 months now because i would have been dead had i not stopped drinking when i did..