YoungAndClean

I was reading the "Chapter to the Agnostics" in the Big Book of AA and it mentioned a man who having had a spiritual experience, no longer wished to drink even if he could.

Im curious, if you could drink without the financial, relationship, legal, health problems associated with alcoholism, would you? At first this seems like a foolish thing to ask, and searching my own heart I feel like the answer is a resounding YES. But perhaps it is possible at some age and/or length of sobriety to no longer desire drink AT ALL. I'm certainly looking forward to that.

Opinions?

keithj

I'll give you something more reliable than my opinion. My experience is that I couldn't drink, even if I wanted to. AA guy as well.

Coldfusion

But I CAN drink "without the financial, relationship, legal, health problems associated with alcoholism." I don't know for how long I could pull it off-probably not very long. Who's to know if the problems would appear quickly or slowly. I'm not going to take the chance.

Dee74

I understand it's a hypothetical but the point is, for me, I can't drink without all that other stuff happening..

As long as I remember that I'm good - if I forget it, I'm screwed.

D

gettingbetter64

I would say no,I'm disgusted with alcohol

silentrun

Those aren't the reasons I quit. I just couldn't mentally handle it anymore and I knew it was about to get worse. Can I drink without losing my sanity? That was the worst thing it took from me. It's not until I started to get it back that I even knew I lost it. I look back at how far out I've crawled out and think "wow, that's a long way down".
The answer is NO WAY! not if there was even a chance something like that could happen again.
Thanks for this thread. I never thought about that before.

CAPTAINZING2000

Not now I wouldn't

venuscat

Could I keep destroying myself? That's what I hear....the answer is sure.
But for me, drinking can only lead to the very worst place imaginable.

The spiritual experience talked about in that chapter means that question no longer exists...the relief is having the will to drink removed.
I am going to work hard to get to that place.

V xx

SillyString

Hmmm...I read that question as, do I wish I could drink and be drunk with zero consequences. If I could feel pleasantly buzzed and not black out, and be satisfied with a few beers vs. say 15-20, and have NO health or interpersonal negative consequences, sure. But that is not real. So, under the circumstances of what occurs with me and alcohol, which is that having just a few drinks or beers never was "enough", I finally understand what alcohol does to me and I've accepted it. I'm not an AA person, so I haven't felt that I've had a spiritual experience to come to this realization. I just seriously don't want it anymore or the pain it comes with. It's all just become too exhausting. That's my day 23 answer. I hope to get to a point where I can honestly say that even in the perfect circumstances, that I would no longer ever even want to be able to drink. I think that will come with time and distance from alcohol. But today, that's my honest answer. I just keep playing the tape forward. I feel like I've been on an endless loop for years.

nancylee

No. Never. Now that I know how real life is, with both its beauty and its pain, I would never drink again. It clogged me mentally, physically and spiritually, even before it became a problem. Being drunk is being altered and I honor myself too much now to alter myself in a false way.
Nancy

MaidenNZ

..."if you could drink without the financial, relationship, legal, health problems associated with alcoholism, would you?" Probably...yes

gaffo

To be really honest, I would love to be able to taste the really fine booze and wine that I am offered from time to time.

Thankfully, I am at a point where I feel free of the drinking. I don't even fantasize about being able to drink again anymore.

1newcreation

It's a fantasy so I'll pass; that's why I used to say would only drink again if hit lotto which never played coz wouldn't have to drive. But not until heard in a mtg you can't drink on truth & enjoy it. Sure to pass out but hate myself next day & that ain't happening again

Taking5

If I could be the star player for the Boston Celtics I would do that. But it is too hypothetical, too unimaginable. There is no practical use in discussing my future a Boston Celtic.

Likewise, there is no practical use in discussing my future as an active drinker.

Itchy

No,
If God came down and told me I could drink and never have ant consequences, I'd tell her thanks, but no thanks. I drank my fill, know how it tastes and feels and I have better things to do than isolate, or gather with other poor souls in dark places, loud or quiet, in desperately trying to catch a happy moment in crazed despair.

Honestly, I was done when I was done, and until I am done.

lillyknitting

My reply to you is why would I want all that rap back in my life. The longer you go away from that lifestyle and continue down your new path the stronger you become. Every now & then the thoughts come back to me, all the horrors, the terrible hangovers,. I never, ever want that back.

Bostonsportsfan

I think most of us wouldn't have stopped drinking if it didn't cause any problems.

RobbyRobot

No, I wouldn't and won't drink no matter what may or may not happen to financial, relationship, legal, health problems associated with alcoholism. It's not about the outside issues and responsibilities that caused me to quit in the first place. I quit because of my insides. I stay quit because of my insides too. The way I am today could never be if I drank. The me I am would die if I drank. And its not just about being sober either. I'm much more than just sober.

tomsteve

Im an alcoholic. this describes it for me:

The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.

We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals - usually brief - were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.

We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse.

By every form of self-deception and experimentation, they will try to prove themselves exceptions to the rule, therefore nonalcoholic. If anyone who is showing inability to control his drinking can do the right- about-face and drink like a gentleman, our hats are off to him. Heaven knows, we have tried hard enough and long enough to drink like other people!

Here are some of the methods we have tried: Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums - we could increase the list ad infinitum.

The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.

the delusion was smashed.i accept I am an alcoholic and with drinking comes consequenses, consequences a norrmal drinker wouldhnt have to face.

" But perhaps it is possible at some age and/or length of sobriety to no longer desire drink AT ALL."
it is. many here to prove it.

least

Would I drink if there were no consequences? No. I like my sober life too much to drink. I have no desire to taste the stuff again, consequences or not.