tnman1967

Got your attention didn't it? Have you tried offical support systems? Any other support group? Therapy with your health care provider,?moderation on your own, cold turkey on your own? Did you last a while or just a few days? I did all these things over a period of several decades. I'm now 52 and working on six years of sobriety. I had DUI's. Marriage problems, PI's. Got robbed twice, had accidents, got in fights. All this spread over several decades. It cost me serious money and issues with my health. So what did I do? I decided once and for all that I had enough of this nonsense. I decided that I needed to make a drastic change for me. Not for the court, not for my spouse or family, but for ME!. Until you decide that you don't want to live this miserable pathetic drinking life. Excuse for a life really, until then all your attempts will be almost impossible to succeed. Notice I said almost. My method is not the only one but I do believe the majority of drinkers who succeed has done this mental exercise before they join either AA or any other method. If you don't want this it won't work. You can't feel sorry for losing your so called drinking buddies or lament over the fact that you can't sit in bars wasting away any more. Today is the day you can change this. Make a list of all the misery drinking has done. Take a mental inventory and think about all the crap drinking did to you. Be honest with yourself and try to find anything good that came out of drinking. If anything good came out of it, I guarantee it wasn't the drinking that did if for you. Remember, If I can do it so can you. I drank for more than three decades. I was pitiful and cried over the thought that I couldn't drink anymore. It was like a death in the family. Guess what, I'm finally living and the last six years has been the best of my life. Sure, I do have all the normal obstacles and issues like everyone else. I'm sitting right now dealing with a tooth issue that I'm taking care of by going to the dentist. In the old days, I would have numbed it with alcohol. Good luck to you, whatever you try but remember. Any attempt at quitting without this mental inventory is a waste of time in my opinion. Any attempt at moderation is not going to work. Save yourself some decades and grief by quitting entirely right now. My way is not the only way, but if all your other ways didn't work. Try mine, what do you have to lose.

Purpleman

I certainly concur that there has to be some kind of "mental shift" (or whatever you want to call it). You have to want it, &, just as importantly, you have to be prepared to get down & dirty & actually do something about it.
I do have to admit tnman1967 that when I first stopped drinking I was doing it solely to save my marriage, but as time went on I realized I was doing it for me, which is just as well as my marriage failed anyway.
Thanks for posting & best wishes

ScottFromWI

Lots of good points TNman...and I agree that it's really all about wanting and taking the necessary action to get it. And that anyone can have sobriety if they want it enough.