Leadfoot

How long do you have to quit before you can relapse? I quit at least once a week. By the end of the day I was drinking again. If I wasn't drinking by the end of the day it was a sign I was dead serious about quitting. I could drag it out to two days. But just like clockwork, there I was. Drinking again. There's times I managed to throw in a continuous week. These weeks were sincere hardcore attempts at quitting too. So the question is, what's the difference between relapsing and having never quit in the first place?

DylanS

I heard something on a tape today: I could quit drinking any time I wanted. I just couldn't stop starting!

I don't think it matters how long you're sober before you relapse. It sounds to me like you've done some heavy-duty research on your alcohol problem and, from what you shared, sounds like you're an alcoholic/alcohol-dependent/whatever one wants to call it.

The next step is deciding what to do about it.

Leadfoot

I haven't had a drop in almost ten years. I'm throwing this out there for the sake of keeping the mind of myself and others in the solution.

Doug39

Over the last 25 years I tried so my "plans" to quit.

Plan A. Only drink on weekends. But wait, Sunday football game - got to drink for that. Sometimes made it through Monday or even Tuesday sober...sometimes - but was always plastered by Wednesday.

Plan B. Don't drink on Mondays - need to rest after the weekend. So what happens Tuesday - I drink too much. Then drink Wednesdays but take Thursdays off so I can rest up for the weekend. That plan lasts maybe a week or two before I am drinking 7 days a week again.

Plan C. If drinking at home only buy a 6 pack or a few 40 oz. bottles. If going to the bar only bring a few dollars. That way, if you don't have it you won't drink it. But wait - a 6 pack cost $8 and a 12 pack cost $10 - I am getting ripped off!! OK I will buy 12 and only drink 6. Oop I had 10.

Plan D - Z...do I really need to go on and on? All these plans never work. You are fooling yourself. I always just wanted to be plastered. Either you are a drinker or a non drinker. That's it.

Mountainmanbob

a relapse comes after some time without a drink

if we only have a day or two without a drink

not much difference

Mountainman

silentrun

10 years?

Leadfoot

Actually, it's more like nine and a half. I use Sept 4th 2004 because that's when I entered AA and stayed. My first meeting was 1982. That means I spent 22 years in a deluded state that had me convinced I was OK and society was the one with the problem. There was sporadic bouts of clarity during those years where I felt I needed to do something about my drinking. Of course those bouts were short lived. I did swear off drinking several times during that period in my life which prompts the question I asked.

Leadfoot

That's what the Big Book says.

Mountainmanbob

re·lapse

verb

/riˈlaps,ˈrēˌlaps/

(of someone suffering from a disease) suffer deterioration after a period of improvement.

synonyms: get ill/worse again, have/suffer a relapse, deteriorate, degenerate, take a turn for the worse More


"a few patients relapse"



antonyms: improve



•
return to (a less active or a worse state).


"he relapsed into silence"


synonyms: revert, lapse; More


regress, retrogress, slip back, slide back, degenerate

"she relapsed into silence"





noun

noun: relapse; plural noun: relapses

/ˈrēˌlaps/



1.



a deterioration in someone's state of health after a temporary improvement.


"he suffered a relapse of schizophrenia after a car crash"


synonyms: deterioration, turn for the worse, setback More

Leadfoot

So there's no such thing as a "Relapse"? It's just a matter of someone not quitting drinking? Is that what I'm gathering here?

pinkdog

Hi Leadfoot, the difference is whether you have gotten past the acute withdrawals. Google alcohol withdrawals. Once you are past those, a week maybe, it would be relapse. Relapse is getting drunk after being sober. If you did not get past those, it's still acute (initial) withdrawals. Sobriety of a day is not the same as sobriety of a month. Sobriety gets better with time. Very best wishes to you. Choose sobriety.

Aiko

Hi leadfoot,

I do not think you have quitted you had attempts to quit...
maybe you need extra help...

Can you get access to help??
Or go to AA... you need some guidance.
and you have all the support from us too...

Glad you are taken actions to quit...

IT CAN BE DONE...
THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE...
JUST KEEP GOING AND YOU WILL GET OUT...

Carlotta

It does not sound like relapses to me, more like you taking breaks from your drinking.

LadyBlue0527

You know what? That's a really good question. It's a tough one to answer!

In my own opinion:

I guess we could simplify it and say if you said you were going to quit and you "honestly", actively, tried but then gave up that would be a relapse.

If you didn't "honestly" try and just gave in when you got the urge then you're still just drinking because you can't really say you actively quit.

Does that makes sense?

Gottalife

To me relapse can only occurr after there has been some level of recovery, possibly some treatment or progress in the steps.

Repetitive weekly drinking episodes, even when trying to stay stopped are not so much relapses as stepping stones to recovery. Definition of insanity: repeatedly making the same mistake in the same way, expecting different results.

Eventually, it is to be hoped, we will see that our current method is not working and that something more is required. We may even admit defeat.

tomsteve

"what's the difference between relapsing and having never quit in the first place?"

relapse happens on a race track.
I stopped quitting drinking and just stopped.