Dan25

Hi babycat

I'm the same as you I don't get hangovers only really bad anxiety. I truly don't know anymore which one came first was it anxiety or drinking. Today is my first day of being sober and just like you know that for us bingers the challenge isn't today but 5 days from today. I don't know how old you are but I'm 32 and have been binging since as you Americans say College we call it University. I guess that is where it all started I was a very good athlete played football (soccer) and was getting paid for it, now I look like well to be honest **** and I don't think I could run around the block. My blood pressure is through the roof I got anxiety and sometimes depression. What I'm trying to say is that this behavior is destroyed my health, body and mind. We need to stop in order to help ourselves while it is not too late. Also who says you can't go to a restaurant and have a icy cold coke or do you call it soda. I wish you the very best in your road to recovery.

minorthreat

It's hard to stop when the people around you encourage you to drink. I had a friend who was totally aware how problematic my drinking was, and whenever we would hang out, it was the running joke. We laughed about it like it was the funniest thing ever, all while getting trashed of course. Looking back, its just sad.

SSIL75

I am trying to lose weight at the moment and can see myself doing the exact same things I used to do with alcohol.

Last night my daughter's chocolate cake (birthday cake) was in the fridge. I had run out of calories for the day so why did I eat it?
- I'm not THAT fat
- I'll knock off 400 calories from today
- I can consider it 'flex calories'
- Once it's out of the house I won't have to worry about it anymore (of course, does it have to exit the house via my intestine? No. But I wanted the cake)
- I solo parented yesterday. I deserved the treat.

Did I forget that cake is fattening? No! But I wanted to damn cake. So I ate it.

It's exactly what I used to do when I was drinking. ie - whatever the eff I wanted to do

Then at some point I wanted to stay sober than I wanted to drink. The balance was tipped and has stayed that way for over a year.

Good luck with your recovery.

TheOjibway84

I can relate very much to your post here. I myself am 2 months sober now..well coming in two weeks I'll be 3 months sober. Yeah anyway I had just moved out of my parents hosue for the first time and it was all exciting and nerve racking because I have never had to look after myself until then. I was good up to the 2 week mark of being on my own and then I picked up. Sadly I had a choice and I chose wrong. I thought "Oh the parents won't know if I want to celebrate one night with a friend I haven't seen in a year" Then him and I go all out drinking all night into the nexting morning!

No hangovers after being black out drunk? god. I had those all the time and the hangovers were unbearable. You ask how to stay on the right path? Are you really wanting to be sober? I can't really say your an alcoholic you
re the one who needs to determine that and what you want to do about it. Anxiety is tough, I know once I sobered up I always had mini attacks due to all the things I cared about going down the drain. Almost losing my parents wanting to see me, holding onto a thread now with my job which I love very much. AS I was saying, not everyone does the AA way, some find ways to cope with staying sober other ways. It all depends on how much you want to stay sober and to stay sober means there are some life changes you need to make, such as.... it is a bit of pain and let down sometimes depending how close you are but.... friends. If your friends enjoy drinking and nothing but everytime you get together it may be time to move away from them in early sober times. I had no choice and had to say goodbye to some friends who drank everytime we got together, I tried to mend the friendships by inviting them over with no drinking and the strangest thing was the fact that we didn't really know each other sober! We sat there in the chairs and stared at each other and within an hour we parted ways. Never heard from them again which is fine. But there are some things you need to consider if you want to be sober and stay away from drinking for good. I had to move out of the place I lived in because temptation was too strong there, my room mates were all drinkers and they drank every other day and night. I guess the tough part was staying away from them, being stuck in my room while they drank away and it was hard so I picked up and continued my drinking with them which was "fun" until my drinking brought me back to wanting to yell and get in fights with my room mates and always had to make amends with them the next day etc etc.

Anyways Im fairly new to this being sober and we all know how it feels when it seems impossible to quit drinking but just keep in mind if you think its bad right now, it'll only get worse unless you act and put your foot down and do something about it I know I have and the cravings are gone and the thought of drinking has never occurred. Good luck!

MyPaperAnchor

Fear and regret couldn’t keep me sober. They could get me sober, but never keep me sober. I always found a reason to drink. I had to have a fundamental rearrangement of my thoughts and ideas, my place in the world, and realize that not only had my “medicine” stopped working, but it was going to kill me before my life had even really started. I was in my 30s and living my life, essentially, as a selfish, spoiled child.

I had to work the steps of AA in order for this change to come about. There are some people who may be able to stay sober by willpower or some other means, but I know I literally tried every conceivable method, and only tried AA after everything else had failed. And what I mean by that isn’t that I didn’t go to AA first. I did. I just didn’t get a sponsor nor work the steps nor do much of anything other than just sit in meetings. And I may catch hell for saying this, but in the beginning, for me, I think the fellowship did more harm than good. Point being, not all meetings are created equal.

So I relate to your experience. Hope you find some peace.

langkah

Babycat, it is a turning point when we stop kidding ourselves that the future will be any different than our past attempts at quitting unless we do things differently. That we have a problem larger than our capacity to decide the way things are going to go in this area.

You can learn that many more times if you want to stay in that difficult school, but it's not required once you recognize it as true for yourself. Once understood, then you get to try to stay sober doing as little as you believe is required, and then because that's hardly ever enough raise that bar bit by bit until it works out well for the longterm.

No way to shortcut it that I'm aware of.

quitforme79

It's hard to stop babycat but I'm so glad you posted. I am less than a week in and usually would've given in by now. And hey, it's Friday right? How much harm would one little glass (read bottle) of wine do? I have been thru all my rationalizations already today. I don't know what's different for me this time but I just feel like I am really ready to make this positive change. I know that all the benefits outweigh the minimal pleasure I would get from drinking. I also fear that if I continued down that road I will never have the great things in life I desire; my health, time with my family & friends, love, companionship, sanity..just to name a few! Maybe sometimes it just needs to "click", I guess everyone has their own journey. I hope you are staying positive and feeling well.

Pigtails

Sorry wrong thread

Threshold

Nope pigtails, the RIGHT thread! I think many of us here will benefit from reading this, thanks for resurrecting it!

Sudz No More

This IS the right thread for Babycat to see. This problem we all share is bigger than ourselves, that is why we need to help each other to realize why we need to stay sober.