Alyce14

I wanted to post this thread for anyone (including myself) who hasn't put down the drink yet. Maybe if we have a thread of our own it will help.

As much as I like to hear "14 days" "2years" etc. I really feel like I need someplace to go where others are still dealing hour by hour.

Yes, we all start someplace, but I know that that "someplace" can come again, and comraderie helps.

Please post here if you have not quit, are trying, or if you have had success in stopping drinking, tell us what those first few days were REALLY like.

My experience with AA was that it was both good and bad that everyone was so doggone HAPPY. OK, sure, I want that, but I want to know how difficult it was to get there.

This is a thread, not about success stories, but about the terrible journey at the beginning.

Help anyone?

Alyce

Anna

Alyce, I hope you don't mind if I post on this thread. I think this is a super idea for the newbies who haven't quite been able to make it.

It's been awhile for me, but I will never, ever forget the beginning of the struggle for me. The anxiety was overwhelming, as was the loneliness. And, physically, I was a mess - not eating, shaking, sweating - just feeling completely out of control, which I was.

Please know that you can stop the cycle and step out of it. Make one change today and it will begin to change the rest of your life.

MyGraySkies

I was way gone, I drank constantly. Morning, noon and night. Couldn't sleep more than 5 hours because I'd wake up shaking and sweating needing a drink. It was a horrible existance. I hurt all the time, way more when there wasn't plenty of alcohol in me. I started realizing how bad my problem was, how bad I was hurting myself and those around me. I made an appt to see a doctor, to find out what HE thought I should do. He ran blood tests and they came back showing liver damage, and he told me I needed to detox and possibly go into rehab. Got me in with a therapist. She told me flat out, there's no way you can safely detox at home, you need inpatient detox. I called my doctor after that appt to try to convince HIM I really could detox at home and he said no, she's right, you need to go inpatient. So, after thinking it over and talking to my husband, the next day I went to the ER and asked for help. The crisis unit found me a bed 2 1/2 hrs away in a detox facility. It took most of the day sitting in the ER, which was hard, I was shaking bad and hurting all over, but I hung in there and waited it out until they had somewhere for me to go. My husband drove me to the detox facility and there I stayed for 3 days, the first day and a half on valium to keep from feeling the worst of the withdrawal. It sucked, I missed my family, I was scared by many of the stories the other patients told me about their using drugs and alcohol and how bad their lives had gotten... but I NEEDED that. I needed to be somewhere safe to detox and to be around others that understood. I'll never forget those first few days and how scared I was. But it was all worth it, and you can do this Alyce, you can take back control.