AlericB

I have read and thought a lot, recently and not so recently!, about how I can deal with my alcoholism. SR has been a fantastic resource so my thanks to everyone here.

My thoughts and views have naturally developed as I've learnt about different approaches and paradigms and I thought it would help me to focus my efforts if I clarified my current thinking by writing a short statement about where I am now. My statement is:

• I want to quit alcohol because I fell into morning drinking and I believe I will eventually end up doing so again if I ever drink again.
• My plan is to never drink again by utilising urge surfing.

I thought I'd post it here is case anyone else would like to add statements of their own.

Soberwolf

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...at-we-did.html

NYCDoglvr

A better strategy is to simply not drink today. Forget about forever, it's impossible to predict what we'll do. Good luck!

AlericB

Thanks for the responses but it seems I've been misunderstood.

I wasn't seeking advice - I was just saying that I find it useful to summarise my thoughts about giving up drinking occasionally and wondered if anyone else would benefit from also doing this. Or not as the case may be!

Ken33xx

Never worked for me. I could never occasionally give up drinking. At best I might stop for a day or two.

Although if I recall I did have 10 days once. I was working out in the countryside and there were no liquor around. When I returned to the city I was happy and feeling good. So, I bought a liter of vodka and got righteously hammered.

ScottFromWI

I think it is a good idea to write our thoughts down, and SR is a great place to do it. I think you have some good ideas Aleric and I commend you for making the decision to quit.

As a point of reference, SR is an interactive community - so you will receive comments/advice/etc even if it is unsolicited. That's just the nature of internet forums in general. If you'd prefer to just post information and not receive feedback/opinioins, your best bet would be to use our Blog feature, which everyone also has access too. I would encourage you to keep reading though, i have been here for many years and still learn something new every day it seems!

AlericB

My bad. When I said "summarise my thoughts about giving up drinking occasionally" I meant "summarise my thoughts occassionally about giving up drinking"!

AlericB

I agree with what you say about the nature of SR and blogs, of course. My intention wasn't to post information though but to start a thread where people could say where they were up to in their sobriety. I found it a useful exercise and just wondered if others might too. I thought my first post may have been misunderstood given the first two responses and so tried to clarify it. Apologies if that came across as critical in any way.

puddlejumper70

I think of those specific feelings of elation and relief that I have in the morning after having not given into cravings the night before.

I would think of every bad thing that I had just avoided by simply not picking up that first drink hours earlier. Everything from the obligatory feelings of despair, loneliness, regret, worthlessness, to the money I saved, the damage I didn't do to my health, or even the thousands of empty calories that I avoided.

By honestly and objectively putting myself at that point in time when a craving arises seems very effective for me.

waynetheking

Good post alericB...ty

Gottalife

What could be wrong with that? Seems like a good plan and worth putting effort into.

My plan is also to never drink again. That is what AA offered me, permanent recovery, and I have absolutely no reason to believe I will ever drink again. Through the program, however, I did learn about living life one day at a time.

Urge surfing is something I don't know anything about. But taking it literally, I don't think it would work for me today because the plan I chose has removed all urges, so there would be nothing to surf. The water is calm. I don't think my knees would be up to surfing either.

All the best.

AlericB

Lol. Weak knees is something I hadn't thought about with urge surfing. Urge paddling perhaps?

August252015

Thinking is ok - to a point. Action is necessary.

I have a much more detailed and fleshed out plan of AA work (BB study, recovery and spiritual reading etc) and meetings. Ideas can help- and hurt- as the alcoholic mind is a wily beast.

Good luck - keep coming back.

Dee74

Urge surfing was really useful to me in the early days, Aleric.

I use the technique more to deal with physical pain these days but its still effective

D

AlericB

That's very encouraging, thanks Dee.

I'm glad the technique is helping you with your physical pain. One thing that struck me when reading about the different ways of dealing with alcoholism is that they all embrace and benefit the other areas of our lives too. You wouldn't wish it on anyone but the base metal of alcoholism can be turned to a golden life where you are a better person for the experience.