Redmayne

'It's not the meetings we make but the steps we take,' - Charlie Parmley, which includes the words of 'The Serenity Prayer', which if you think about it echo Epictetus saying,'It's not things tat disturb men but their view of things'...

Just suggestion but it's a good idea to think before you think or plan anything...especially for those who, like me suffer from alcoholism..

Dee74

Really great update FN

D

badlands

Excellent thread, and great to see that you've decided against the slip!

After 10 weeks sober in the fall of 2015 I had a 'slip' that lasted 16 months. After 8 weeks sober I planned a 'slip' for my vacation in Milan ("of course I'm going to drink wine in Italy"). That 'slip' lasted for 6 months.

After the first night of drinking, I crave it even more in the morning, so I start morning drinking and its off to the drunken races and soooooo hard to stop.

Thanks for opening up this thread.

Quit290117

Just came across this thread and it really relates to how I'm feeling. Former binge drinker 91 days since last drink. Longest I have ever gone. For the last few days I have had this nagging voice in my head trying to convince me that once I get to 100 days that's it I have proved to myself that I don't have a problem and that a night out is in order.

I won't drink as I can't take the feelings the next day. Shame, anxiety, regret and fear. Not to mention the feeling of burning up and not being able to sleep. All these terrible side affects are waiting for me the morning after. Then the cycle starts again.

I have wasted to much of my life in this cycle and I don't want to ruin what I have achieved. I also don't want my problem to develop into that of an everyday drinker which is where I fear I was heading.

It's good to read other people's experiences of planning to drink and realising we all have the same thoughts. Just writing this post has helped me see a bit more clearly. I know that drinking after 100 days is no different to drinking after 10 days. I will still feel crap.

So glad to be sober and able to read and share experiences with people who understand. 👍

August252015

I am terrified for people when I hear things like this. I don't believe we get endless chances to be sober and planning to use up what could be my last chance would be the most tragic thing I could ever do.

I hope you stop drinking for good. It's a life or death thing, not Russian Roulette worth playing with brazen abandon.

treeguy24

Planning a slip is just the addicted part of your brain telling you to drink in a way that seems less problematic because it is planned and it gives you the illusion that you are in control. But you won't be in control. If you were in control alcohol wouldn't be an issue to begin with. It's just the same as planning to binge eat, etc. Instead of planning to slip, plan how to enjoy yourself with healthier, more positive things. You wouldn't plan to purposely do something that would cause you harm and pain, so why would you plan to drink? Over the long-term going back to drinking is likely to cause you pain.

Soberandhealthy

i get what you said about planning for me planning its like something comes over me and i had no option but to drink

i need better coping skills there are some holes on my plan;(

JeffreyAK

That's a key point, I think, there comes a time when you've finished your final sober period and are on the way to the grave. I'm pretty sure I don't have another recovery in me, and I know several people I went through outpatient treatment with are no longer alive. Depends how far down the hole we've gone, but every slip puts us farther down. It never gets easier to climb out, it gets harder and harder.

IFheweresaught

You have permission to drink. It may help you take step one.

IFheweresaught

"We learned that we had to fully concede to our in- nermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed."

"Commencing to drink after a period of sobriety, we are in a short time as bad as ever. If we are planning to stop drinking, there must be no reservation of any kind, nor any lurking notion that someday we will be immune to alcohol."


Planning a slip presupposes, by default, that we have the power of control, that we can drink while away on business and then stop, sort of like a vacation from sobriety. When we are asked to admit our powerlessness and stop lying to ourselves we really mean that!

iew101

Last year I quit for 71 days. I figured after that I'd drink responsibly. What ended up happening is me drinking higher amounts and with greater frequency within a year. By the time I quit 74 days ago I was drinking almost daily and more than ever.