Done4Ever

It’s not I won’t drink. I keep telling myself I won’t drink today. This is not easy!

wildflower70

Nope it's not that easy.....
But, it does get easier each and every day......
Then the days start passing without a single thought of booze....
One day at a time...

Bird615

It helped me immensely to realize and then accept that stopping was not going to be easy. I used to get blindsided by how tough it got and then cave in to the cravings.

Once I was prepared to go through that first difficult stage and ride it out no matter what, I began to see results. Of course I also had to have a good plan in place and make sure I used it.

ScottFromWI

It's definitely not easy, but then again neither are most things in life worth having. Keep active here and make some plans to do things locally that foster your sobriety and health - you'll be surprised how much better it will get.

Forward12

Just stay sober for today. It may be down to the hour, the minute, even the second. NO DRINKING! Just for 1 day.
You can get absolutely demolished, ending up in the ER, jail or dead tomorrow, but just for today, there is no drinking, no matter what.
Repeat daily.

WeaverBird

No it's not easy but it can be done, lots of us have done it and you will too.

At the beginning I would say to myself, "ok, I'm sober this second." And that second was gone as I thought it. I was succeeding, you see, even if I was doing it in tiny slices of time. It was too big a mountain to climb to tackle a whole hour!

It does get easier

LadyBug66

That got me thru the first week. I would say out loud. I'm not going to drink today, maybe tomorrow, but not today. I did that everyday when I felt the need to drink.

Maudcat

I could not wrap my head around not drinking ever again.
So I didn’t.
Like you, I just said I won’t drink today.
It did get easier for me and it will for you, Done4.
Peace.

Gottalife

I often stopped drinking. It was a piece of cake. Often I had incentives like being too sick, having no money, being locked up. But most of the time I just stopped. The problem was eventually, I always started again. How to stay stopped was the question.

You see, when I started again it often was not intentional. Started the day with a firm resolution not to drink today, but somehow, during the day i just changed my mind. I would find myself on my thrid drink before remebering Hey! I wasnt supoosed to drink today. By then it is to late.

I needed to find a way to prevent my efforts at sobriety being derailed so easily. Clearly my memory and my mind were not enough. I needed a more reliable defence against the fatal first drink. But that's just me. You may be different.

Marcutah1

I think of the final morning I woke up feeling like garbage not remembering exactly what I did the night before. I never want that feeling again. I didn't do anything stupid, I just lost that time and I still can't remember 28 days later.

Gottalife

I guess that memory fade can take differents amount of time. There are some folks who can rely on it for years. Here is an example of how well it worked for me.

One morning I was arrested at work for something I did when I was drinking, six months earlier. I had pinched a car if I remember correctly. It wasn't a first offence, so in terms of consequences, I was really feeling it. I thought ther was a good chance I would go to prison.

So about two oclock in the afternoon I had been before the jusdge and I was remanded at large for some reports. I stepped out of that court a relatively free man. The consequences of my drinking could not have been fresher in my mind.

Across the road I spied a bar. My thinking completely lost touch with reality. I thought a couple of drinks would settle my nerves and help me relax, so over the road I go. There was no sinister intent. I was looking purely for that sense of ease and comfort that comes with taking one or two drink, something I got when I first found alcohol. Completely forgotten was all the drama of before, all the problems that arose out of my drinking. None of that came to mind to save me. All I could see was a viable excuse to take the afternonn off work and the chance to relax a bit.

By ten oclock that night I had pulled the door off a taxi and was fighting with police in the street. They won. As I landed face first in the cell I still remeber that total despair. "How the heck did this happen. It was the furthest thing from my mind when I took that fatal first drink"

Back in front of the same judge the next day. We were almost on first name terms. He sent me to the laughing academy for 10 weeks. When I got out, it wasn't longe before I was at it again.

Loss of control and choice was my problem. At certain times, no effective defence against the fatal first drink.

waynetheking

We can only stop one day at a time. That's the reality. But we do have to quit for the rest of our lives. It's like taking on a 30 year mortgage at age 90. You only have to pay each month, but you will pay on it the rest of your life. It's nothing to fear. It's actually a relief. You NEVER have to revisit the nightmare of being drunk again. You NEVER have to worry about dying of the disease known as alcoholism.
So here's my point, embrace sobriety. Look forward to a life free of this disease. Forever. Quit one day at a time, stay sober for the remainder of your life.