Johnston

I've been struggling to stop drinking after picking up again with 16 years sober under my belt. Today I admit I am powerless over the drink. Has my life become unmanageable? Yes, in relation to the first drink. Enough is enough. I want this monkey off my back.

Dee74

good to see you again Johnston

Are you thinking of trying AA again?

D

06yz125

16 years...WOW.

May I ask what you believe may have started the relapse?

Best wishes for a brighter and sober future.

artsoul

Sounds like you're ready to get sober again, which is great. Better days are ahead......

I went back to drinking after a good bit of sober time, and before I knew it, the obsession starting taking over. It wasn't any easier quitting the second or the third time, but I'm so glad I did.

Stay away from the first drink, and the rest will fall into place.

Zebra1275

My experience has been that even after considerable periods of sobriety, once I start drinking again I'm quickly back to where I left off. And staying sober becomes more difficult.

As the Big Book says, alcohol is cunning, baffling and powerful. It's also patient, and will silently wait 16 years and then quickly knock you on your butt again.

joeclayvowell

I always tell myself that today is a new day and Im not going to drink, even when I am done withdrawling and I am completely sober I tell myself I will not drink, then something triggers it and I wind up drunk again, that sounds so stupid and it makes me feel so stupid, yet I am powerless to stop it.

keithj

So that's the real deal, Joe. That's the whole problem with alcoholics like me. Completely stone cold sober, after suffering the consequences and swearing off forever (again), I would somehow make that decision to pick up that first drink. I would have to be insane to make that decision, wouldn't I? But I made it over and over.

This is the exact experience described in the Doctor's Opinion and throughout the first 164 pages of AA's Big Book. The doctor (after treating many thousands of alcoholics), came to the conclusion that unless this person can experience an entire psychic change, there was little hope of his recovery. Carl Jung termed that psychic change as the 'ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them.'

Those of us that have recovered in AA have a solution that brings about that psychic change. Pretty simple deal. I take those 12 Steps, and things transform.

quotes from aabb1st