Struggiling with drinking
 

Hey Everyone,

I have always had my struggles with alcoholism but it seems lately its been a lot worse. I am constantly stuck in the house while I work from home and I find myself drinking earlier than normal. Its hard to talk to people about it, I have a couple of supportive friends. It's really pissing my wife off and I understand why. I have the issue of I just can't have 3 beers, its either 0 or 15 beers for me.

I wanted to go to AA meetings but apparently you cant during this lockdown. Does anyone else have a good resource I could use?

Thank you,

I continued to drink for a long time after coming to the self realization that in order to be done , I’d need to quit full stop.
The idea that I needed anything other than making a commitment to myself to quit , helped keep me from quitting.

You can quit , you must first remove all the obstacles you placed in the way of your commitment.

You got this.

I hope that you decide to stop drinking. I believe there are lots of AA meetings online. As well, you can always use SR as a tool for support.

Flyersfan,

I was the same way, I think a lot of us were...we lack the "off button" normal drinkers seem to have. At the end of my drinking I was starting about an hour after getting up and not stopping until I went to bed. The reason I started so soon was because I had reached the point where I was usually experiencing withdrawals by the time I woke up. I had reached the point where I couldn't imagine living life with alcohol or without it, but I had to choose one or the other, and I knew choosing alcohol meant an ugly death and I could see it on the horizon. One day out of the blue I picked up the phone and made an appointment to see my PCP for the next day. I came clean to him about how bad my drinking was and that started the ball rolling on getting help. I hope you have your "one day out of the blue" soon.

There is a thread in the 12 Step forum where members have been posting links to online meetings across the country and across the world. I'll put the link below for easy access.

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...ying-them.html

Welcome back FlyersFan :)

Like others have said there's any number of online AA meetings right now so it's probably never been easier to hit a meeting :)

I drank a lot at home, and put in less than top quality work because of it - but I got sober in the same house I got drunk in, so it is possible.

I had to accept that it had to be all or nothing though.

As long as I drank, no matter what amount, I was at risk of losing everything.

It was never the last drink that was the problem - the problem started with my first.

D

In New Zealand the central AA office has a list of zoom meetings, on line meetings as a substitute for regular meetings. My home group runs one on a monday night. There are literally hundreds around the world, so it should be simple to connect and it may be good for you if you are a little bit inclined towards social media type communication. Worth a shot.

We have had a change of rules here so that up to ten people can gather, which is not enough to cover a regular meeting but enough to allow me and one or two others to turn up at meeting venues and if any newcomers show up, we take them to one of our houses and have a meeting there. I much prefer face to face, and we do have a few members, especially newer ones, who do not have access to computers or phones.

Thank you very much!

What did your primary doctor do?

I'm not an AA person now, Flyersfan, I eventually followed the rationale that Dwtbd pointed at, but that's just me. However, I know that AA is so beneficial to many people, so why not try it if you haven't already, and press the link that Grungehead posted, and select and join a Zoom meeting.

Not sure but I think you were directing that question at me Flyersfan, since I mentioned going to my PCP. He did two things that helped jump start my recovery. He referred me to an outpatient treatment center that was also part of the hospital system he was affiliated with (I was "resistant" to going inpatient), and he set me up with an at home detox regimen (again, I was resistant to inpatient detox). I'm not sure if all PCP's would go to the length he did, but we had (still have) a long relationship and I had never given him a reason to not trust me when it came to detoxing at home. I successfully detoxed at home and went to outpatient treatment for several months, which included weekly one on one therapy sessions with a counselor and monthly meetings with a psychiatrist. I also went back to AA again (this wasn't my first rodeo). I celebrated 7 years sober a month ago. :)

Congratulations!!! I am very happy for you

Ff- my local meetings are on zoom now. I live in Australia- and a guy logged in from SF last week- so there are definitely meetings online you can access.
Support to you.

Flyersfan, my group in Pittsburgh has been conducting meetings over the phone. I would contact your local AA office to see if they can give you a number for a phone meeting. On another note, I'd like to share with you what really helped me. The 2 things that enabled me to drop my addiction: 1. turning my life over to my Higher Power 2. Becoming more loving and helpful towards people.

Everyday I reaffirm that I am giving my life over to God, that I want him to come into my life, that I want to have a relationship with Him.

Becoming more loving started by posting positive messages on post it notes and leaving them in bathrooms and other public places. And then everyday I think of what I can to help someone that day or make their life easier. It has produced amazing results for me.