BASEjumper

You know langkah, this person came in here looking for some ideas for something to do, and you've crapped all over his thread, contributing nothing. Way to go.

INH, go make a tandem skydive, you'll forget all about booze and you won't be bored!

Terminally Unique

There is always inevitably a period after people give up the drink where they think "OK, now what do I do?" This is perfectly normal, considering that drinking was always 'the thing to do' before. You can hide out in a bunker for a little bit, but if you keep that up for too long, you inevitably start going a little nuts. Eventually, 'boredom' kicks in, and you have to start going about the business of living.

Tippingpoint

Nothing I say or do is going to have any affect on INH's decisions to drink or not drink. It's his call. He is not powerless in this - quite the opposite.

RobbyRobot

Tippingpoint

I found myself sitting all alone at 10:30 last night - wife and kids were all gone to bed and I was wide awake.

So...I packed up my camera and tripod and headed to downtown Toronto to take some night shots of the city...I didn't get back home till almost 1:00 am. It was fun driving around looking for neat and new things to take pictures of.

leenliz

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Terminally Unique

I have a feeling that INH only has Internet access at work, not at home, so we'll probably hear back from him on Monday.

leenliz

Hello! I found it useful to keep my belly topped up with fizzy drink, it stopped those urges to drink dead in their tracks, I took up a hobby to fill my time. This worked wonders. I urge other people to do the same. it made the whole process that bit easier.

InsertNameHere

WOW did I miss a discussion! I was going to start quoting people but then kept reading and thought if I did it would take me a while. So I will sum up.

First of all yes I only have internet at work hence the reason I haven't been responding, I used to have internet at home but a power surge took it and my computer out (damn you Africa this continent has played hell on my electronics ). Secondly and most importantly I did not drink. I went out and got my sushi which normally I would drink a beer or three with, but instead had green tea. Sadly they did not have quail egg, oh well you take what you can get. Then I spent about an hour looking for the only pool hall that I have heard of in this town as I like playing pool and used to be pretty good at it. But I don’t know my way around town very well and couldn't find it. So around 1100 pm I finally found a little dive bar that said they had billiards in the down town district, and stopped there. I didn't leave till 0400 something in the morning. While I can't say that I had a great time, it wasn't bad, I played several games won some lost some, and drank coke the whole time. I was going to switch to water but they didn't have any bottled and I have been advised against drinking the local tap water. There were two French guys there trying to sing some American rock songs on karaoke that I had to help out from time to time because while they spoke good English they couldn't get the rhythm of some of the songs down . Then I drove home put in a movie and went to bed. Spent the rest of the weekend at home, Saturday and Sunday night I went to my usual late night beer spot to satisfy my new late night craving for a coke a cola, which I didn't even know they had I just figured I would give it a try and got lucky. So yeah no problems heard my AV a little but just felt it and tried to put it out of my mind.

Another successful week down untold number (however long I live) to go. Thanks for the concern and suggestions everyone, but like TU said I was getting antsy and realized that I can't stay cooped up forever. I used to really like pool and be damn good at it. One day I shall be again only sober this time so I will remember it .

Terminally Unique

There's a period ahead for you where your thoughts re-organize around your new non-drinking mandate, but it shouldn't take very long. Mostly, there will just be a lingering type of feeling, but by 90 days this should feel like your new 'normal'. I don't recommend going to bars for no reason at all, but if you have a reason to be there, there's no need to fear so-called 'triggers'. With AVRT, 'triggers' are good, merely an opportunity to drive another nail into the Beast's coffin. Be aware that your AV may also re-organize itself during this time, and may spike occasionally, kind of like the last gasps of a dying Beast. Remember — NO FEAR.

InsertNameHere

I deffinetly had that this weekend not so much at the bar but in the house, Mostly it was just kind of a whiney AV saying "hey you don't have to go to work tomorrow, and you know drinking is fun, you could have a blast tonight and not have to worry about tomorrow. You know this is what you normally do, why not what is it hurting." Thoughts like that, as you said though it was more a feeling than a thought, kind of like a quiet but still present longing, or sense of missing something I guess. I just put it in the I am new at this and still getting used to it catagory. I drank on the daily for 5-6 years it is going to take me some time to get acustumed to not doing so.

That was one of the reasons why I wanted to go out last night, to prove to myself that I could still do what I used to do without alcohol. I fully plan to continue to play pool on a regular basis even sober and unfortunatly or fortunatly depending on your point of view, where do you find pool tables? In bars. True in the states you can find them in youth centers and the like but not here and even in the states there is only so much teenager I can stand before I would rather hang out with the whiskey'd up 60 year old that wants to tell me his life story, but only manages to tell me one story 5 different times and I still haven't got it straight . I do agree with not going to a bar with no intention or reason because then Mr Beastie will say drink all the louder because you have nothing to aid you in distracting/detache from those thoughts. Not that you necessarly need something else there but it helps. I went to play pool and that is what i did. Truthfully I had to explain a couple of times that all I wanted was a coke and not whiskey, btu they got the idea eventually, sometimes language barriers are entertaining, sometimes not. Well them are my thoughts, staying at work again tonight not because I am "afraid" I will drink if I don't but because as I said before its boring there. Here at least I can post read and look up random things on the internet. I started playing a game last night that I haven't played in years, and after 4 hours of it I remember why. Man I need to get my regular computer up and running again. Then I will be set. Pool on the weekends, Starcraft 2 in the evenings, and maybe some work inbetween

Have a good week all!

Terminally Unique

What better place to teach your Beast a lesson it will never forget than its own lair? To humiliate it and take away its favorite ploy — people, places, and things.

Well done.

Tippingpoint

Good stuff INH! There's something very powerful about being able to tame the beast as you're learning to do. I take great satisfaction from it and almost look forward to that moment when I can stare down the bartender and order a "diet coke please".

LOL

Terminally Unique

These days, it doesn't have quite the same effect, since my Beast is finished, and rarely even bothers to try. I do remember a certain satisfaction from driving the Beast into the ground in the beginning, though. It felt kind of like payback. I was at a bar at five days dry (Gasp! The Horror!), and had 'cravings' for almost five months. The SOB didn't want to die.

RobbyRobot

Back in 1981 when I detoxed in rehab I had flat-out told my entire family to stay away until I got back to them. My older brother thought differently, and just past the first week of detoxing he paid me a visit. I met him at the door, and immediately I took him for a coffee at the 24/7 coffee house just around the corner from the rehab.

The coffee house resturant being licensed of course my brother quickly ordered two beers - Labatt's Blue for me, and Labatt's 50 for himself. Blue was my beer of choice, you see. So I let the order arrive. What a jerk, and I told him so. He smiled and said something like - "Oh yeah, I forgot. You're wanting to quit or something, eh?"

"Yeah" I said. "For good. Fukk it. And fukk you. I'm done. Not playin' around this time. So here" and I shoved the Blue over to him. "You drink it, okay?"

And he did drink it too along with his 50. What a jerk my brother was then and still is today, lol. We haven't spoken in recent years with each other.

So we talked anyways and I ordered a tall glass of coke. We talked about my really stopping and him really not. I spent 90 days at the rehab. he didn't come to see me again for a long while. Eventually the next summer my sister went into rehab too. My younger brother while drinking that same next summer smashed into a tree with his cycle and into a coma for like a week. My siblings all continued drinking for years. I never did again. My sister hasn't drank for a few years now. Both my brothers still drink. Life happens. My youngest sister died when she was six years young. She was killed by a drunken driver in the summer of 1974. I was fifteen back then and the entire family just fell apart. It was already totally dysfunctional before my sister's death and that dysfunction contributed to her death truth be told.

Yeah. Being in a bar never bothered me once I had detoxed enough to know what I know about saying no to alcoholic drinking. No means no. Even while in rehab I took some guys from rehab and we went down the street around a different corner to an old drinking hole called "The Hitching Post" I think it was called (closed now) which had a string of strippers on rotation working their craft and setting the mood. A real dive and just the kind of places I hung out in while drinking. The lower the better. Any ways, I calmly drank cokes and watched the strippers, reflecting on my good fortune to be sans alcohol and what to do with my new life. I was enjoying myself to no end, you know? My three buddies were not doing so well though and one guy actually just caved and ordered a beer. He didn't return to the rehab. He still sat with us and just quitely drank his beer staring at his hands. Another left early, returned to the rehab, after the first guy put his beer to his mouth and drank. The last of the three went back to the rehab later with me although he was a little shaken but wiser. I got called up on my taking this guys out to a strip bar since it was my idea originally, but in the end it was live and let live. Real life happens and i wanted to see some strippers strip. I was 24 years old. I was like a month sans alcohol.

Yeah.

Done means done when you're truly done. No exceptions. No takebacks. No broken promises. Done for good and all. Finished. All stocked up now, thanks. I'm good.