I just wanna drink!!
 

Why is the third and fourth day so tough? I've been on and off the wagon since joining here. I stopped drinking during the week, only to get another bottle of bourbon Friday after work (thinking it will last a while... yeah right). By Saturday afternoon I stop for another (just in case!). That's two fifths a weekend. Then I sober up for Monday, by Wednesday and Thursday I am craving again and by Friday I give in. What's the deal?? I cannot remember my last sober weekend!

The 2 fifths on the weekend is the culprit. By Wednesday/Thursday your body and your mind is screaming for more alcohol. Then when it gets it over the weekend the cycle starts all over again. It's kind of live Pavlov's Theory when he conditioned the dog to start salivating in anticipation of food when he rang a bell. When Friday is just around the corner your body is conditioned to anticipate alcohol when the bell rings. In this case the "bell" is Wed/Thu.

How about, "You are an alcoholic and that's what we do." We drink. Our resolve to quit dissolves at the first craving.

But it doesn't have to. You can put a plan in place that will not crumble the second the thought comes into your head to drink. You can put a plan in place that supports never drinking again. Ever. And until you can accept never drinking, ever, you'll drink.

So what helps? I have that whole "reasoning" thing going on in my head that is trying to justify a trip to the liquor store.

You can't reason with your addiction. You can't argue with you addiction. You ignore it (or try to).

Your decision to quit was made rationally. Any thought or decision that leads to drinking is the insanity of alcoholism. Once you decide to quit, you just let the addictive voice clammer away. But you don't obey.

It's called AVRT--Addictive Voice Recognition Technique. Look it up.

Time, that's what helps in the beginning. You really just got to tough out these early cravings and get past a few weeks. If you keep going back after a few days the massive cravings you feel will only continue. Sorry that there is no magic bullet just try to hold out for a few more days and it should start to lessen a little.

To be honest, at the beginning it was negative reinforcement that helped. Playing the tape through to the end and seeing that on Monday morning I will be miserable again. I had reached a point where I hated drinking and the way it made me feel, and the pain it caused me finally tipped the scales and became worse than the pain of not drinking was.

Then I put a plan in place when I had that short grace period of being able to stop the cycle of drinking on willpower alone. I knew it wasn't going to last long so I got into treatment and then into a recovery program (AA for me). It's when you start to feel better that you know you are running out of time to stop the cycle. When I started feeling better my memory of bad stuff started getting fuzzy and then Mr. AV started having his way with me.

Just say no.

What helps is getting effective help. You've all ready proved to yourself that you can't do this on your own.

Carl nailed it... you can't engage in any internal dialogue with that "reasoning"... you simply objectify it, separate from it, and ignore it completely. Don't even acknowledge it.

Ever have a friend as a child that was a right pain in the a$$ until you did something he wanted to do - knowing full well it would lead to trouble? If not, you're lucky. If yes, then I'll bet you stopped hanging out with that friend eventually. Because like everyone does, you came to realize that "friend" was just a selfish little twit.

Same same. Any voice in your head now trying to rationalize you drinking is that nagging, selfish little knucklehead. He is NOT you. He has his own agenda, and could care less about your welfare. So ignore him completely and go build a boat, or learn French, or start threads here, or play guitar, or.............. :)

If you have strong weekly routines, break them. A strong pattern of living? change it, radically - at least temporarily. Friends that drink? Tell them you're sick with the flu and contagious. Take time off your regular life and deal with this proper.

Get away if you can, and if not, buy a game like Skyrim and PS3 your brains out whenever the little mouthy jerk starts up. Read the BB online. Listen to other alcoholics describe their own personal version of hell on earth, and what they did to escape. Buy Rational Recovery.

And get some help. AA is right around every corner in the western world, and no, you don't have to admit you believe in Aliens or Gods to go there. They won't make you go to the airport and sell flowers. And you don't have to stand up, speak, or admit you're anything. Even if you go just to break your routines, go. It won't hurt and there's some genuinely good people there.

As Carl also pointed out, Rational Recovery is a book that will help you understand what's happening to the inside of your skull. It's less money than a few proper highballs. If you can get past the author's lengthy anti-AA rants, his techniques to treat alcoholism are brilliant. AVRT (Addictive Voice Recognition Technique) works.

Thanks for all the replies. keep 'em coming!

You're on this site because you just DON'T want to drink. Try to remember why you first came here as blasé as that may seem. It's simple when you break it down.

Nothing helped until I stubbornly refused to take a drink regardless how I felt about it at any given moment. After I was sober a while I had the space and clarity to address some of my issues. Posting here helped me. Going to AA meetings to be with other sober people helped too. Rational Recovery, SMART, HAMS Network all helped.

Find something better to do with your time than getting pissed will help as well.

Ask yourself if you really enjoy the weekends ?

Know what i think ......? It will soon be thursday starting ,then wedensdasy ,then tuesday ,,, See where this leads .?

Rational Recovery and AVRT is what helped me the most. There's a long running thread in the Secular Comnections well worth reading. There's also a Crash Course on RR online. Give them a read. We don't have to drink. Once ao could seperate myself from the addiction, it all got much easier.

I hope this helps.

Love from Lenina

Have you got any hobbies?

Try get yourself involved in some activities - football, boxing , golf etc

It will give you something else to focus on.

Make some new friends, try not surround yourself by friends who drink.

I didn't read the rest of the replies yet, but this is me almost to a tee! I could go 5 days without drinking, and that was my turnaround to where I felt a lot better physically... but the cravings on the weekend were so intense I would cave in. *repeat vicious cycle*

If you keep doing the same thing over and over and it doesn't work, it's time to do something else. If you're really serious about getting -- and staying -- sober I recommend AA. You can come up with a lot of reasons why you don't want to but hey, if it saves your life as it did mine, then it's worth investing 90 days.

Remember, you don't have to drink! It was a shock to me to learn that, but it's true. Alcoholism isn't a disease of the elbow, it's a mental illness. I never could have gotten sober on my own, I needed the support of other people just like me.

Very good point! I never really thought of it that way.

P.S. made it through yesterday okay. Today started off looking good, ran some errands right beside the liquor store and had no problem.

Now at home I am struggling a little. I keep thinking of sipping (gulping!!) bourbon on a rainy summer evening like tonight.

Just keep drinking my ice water. I have a choice to be sober.