fitness68

Hi there . I have made the decision to stop drinking today and taking this step for support and advise. I have known for years that I can't handle any kind of booze. I'm 41 years old and started drinking as a teenager.I have said for years that I'm going to quit and end up picking up the drink again. I don't drink everyday so I guess you would call me a binge drinker. I recently went for 2 weeks without a drink and felt so wonderful!!!No anxiety and no panic attacks!! Then I bought a bottle of wine and drank the whole bottle....I can't just have 1 drink....it leads to many more. The day after drinking is what kills me. I'm so depressed and upset that I drank. I don't want to feel this guilt anymore. I don't want to drink anymore
The amazing thing is that I work out several time a week and keep myself so fit then end up poisioning my body with the booze. !!!!!!

Impurrfect

Welcome to SR!!

You'll find a lot of people here who can relate to your story...lots of support, and you are not alone!

Hugs and prayers!

Amy

Dee74

Welcome to SR fitness

Yeah - the day(s) after always killed me too - and not just physically.
I've been blessed to have a life where I've left all that behind for the last 3 years or so.

Hope we can help you find your way as well

D

fitness68

I will pray everyday! I want a better quality life with no hangovers Do you have any advise? Meetings? talk to someone?
It seems the older I get the worse it gets!
Thanks so much

Dee74

Well, SR's been enough on it's own for me, but I did a lot of drinking to get to that point - I don't recommend following my path

a mix of SR and AA seems to work for a lot of people here - I think if you're open to the idea of AA you should definitely have a look into it - this place is great, but face to face support, and getting numbers to call, is hard to beat, and AA is pretty much everywhere, and pretty much round the clock

Of course, there's other recovery groups and methods besides AA too - here a link to most of the main contenders

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...resources.html

D

NellieM

Lots of folks here will have good advice for you. I'm on Day 15 myself so I'm new at this. My situation is similar to yours: wine, hard to stop once I got started, both the effects and the next day changed for the worse as I got older. Finally I too said no more, can't live with the fuzzy brain, the headaches, etc. There's lots of information on the forums so surf around and read all you can. remember, you just have to not drink today. Don't worry about tomorrow.
And welcome to SR!

fitness68

Thank you so much. Wine was my choice too....1 glass then next thing I know...the bottle was empty. I sometimes even opened another bottle. I'm self medicating! and its not working anymore. I can't tell you how many times I said I was going to stop.

Anna

Hi and Welcome,

I was in huge denial about how much I was poisoning my body. When I look back on it, I shake my head in amazement.

My advice for getting through the early days is to change your routines. It really helped me to do things differently - plan to be doing something specific at the time you would be drinking, drive home from work a different way so you don't pass the wine store, get rid of things in your house that you connect with drinking. For me, making those kind of physical changes helped.

fitness68

I will do that. I can't imagine how it would feel to be SOBER everyday. Everyday waking up and feeling incredible. The days when I dont drink I wake up feeling fantastic. Its those nights I drink...I wake up feeling depressed,tired and so guilty. I can't stand it anymore.
Thanks!!!

Fandy

welcome fitness68...I'm also newly sober after almost 25 years of 8-10 glasses of wine every day..today is Day 27 for me...SR has been my source of support and help, I am so glad i found this site.

fitness68

Well Im so happy for you! I bet you feel like a million bucks! No more hangovers,anxiety,panic attacks. Well ...those are some of the things that came with my drinking. May I ask...are you going to any AA meetings ? talking to a doctor?Or just doing it on your own? Any advise would be so helpful.
Thanks again!

darkriver

I used to quit "once and for all" and "this time I really mean it" like every time I really felt super-sick or did something really horrible - usually both. Then when I felt better and the other consequences had faded I'd be right back for more destruction. If I had a dollar for every time I've quit some habit I'd be in that Forbes Magazine list of the richest people on the planet.

I have a weak will and am very prone to addiction to nearly anything that makes me feel good, even if it actually kills me and makes my life and those around me a total living hell. Very weird - very sick! And yet - I've been walking, day by day, in a glorious freedom from alcohol since October 24, 2003. If I can escape that hell-hole prison - so can anybody. I wish I could make it happen for other people but, though it's miraculous, unfortunately it's not presto-chango type magic. Something did "click" though on that 2003 date. For once, I actually did seriously decide that I'd had enough misery for one lifetime. Somehow I really meant it in a way that I never did before. Even to this day, I don't really know how that actually happened like that in my mind. It just did and I am VERY thankful that it did! I've convinced myself that it was God having mercy on my family (and me too) but I'm not very religious or spiritual so that's about as much of an explanation as I'm good for. Others here have much more wisdom in these things - which may be one reason I found this place.

fitness68

That is a wonderful story ! I just found this site googling on the net. Maybe this was meant to be...God lending a helping hand Guidence that I need! You nailed it..."I either felt super-sick or did something really horrible - usually both". Then when I felt better and the other consequences had faded I'd be right back for more destruction. Thats me in a nutshell! Im so sick of doing it over and over! Its Insane!
Thanks so much
Brenda

darkriver

I'm new here but this seems like a real good place to get a new mind. Stick around. I came here after watching an old Alfred Hitchcok thing on Hulu. It had Tony Randall as an alcoholic and the show brought back such horrible memories I felt scared - I'd allowed myself to forget where I had come from and I was taking for granted how absolutely wonderful not drinking is. I decided to do the Google thing and, like you, wound up here. I was impressed by the people here. They're for real.

I give you my best wishes. You can do it!

fitness68

I will stick around and Love it so far. Maybe make a few friends while Im at it
Thanks
Brenda

Fandy

i also found this website through google while I was home ill....I had a double whammy of withdrawal and having a GI virus at the same time....the memory of being so sick is still quite fresh after 4 weeks.

i knew I needed tostop distroying myself but until I started reading here I didn't know I was going to start that day....everyone here has been supportive and has wonderful insight and experience, they have helped me get to this point of 4 weeks sober.

Stayinfree

Hi and welcome!

tyler

Hi Fit, just wanted to welcome you and say your situation sounds very similar to mine, well minus the exercise part!!! Same age, same drinking patterns. I've been able to not do the "by myself empty the bottle" kind of drinking for awhile now, but am struggling with being abstinant in social situations.

I don't really feel in a position to offer much advice except to echo what Dee said (He's on point 99% of the time IMHO). You're doing well reaching out for some help here. All the best to you. Take care.

Tazman53

Welcome to SR fitness68, what worked for me after so many "I am quittiing for good this time!" after yers and years of failing staying sober was the program & fellowship of AA.

I am sure you have already learned that exercise alone does not lead one to long term sobriety, it is an excellent part of a recovery program though. I have found that one must recover physically, mentally, & spiritually in order to stay sober long term. The program of AA brought me to the spiritual aspect of recovery & the fellowship has supported me in that & the mental & physical portion as well.

Why not check out some meetings? What do you have to lose by going? Some time possibly drinking.

What do you have to gain? A new way of life sober & new friends to name just a few possibilities.

Toronto68

Fitness, you were born in a good year (ha ha). I am not as big on the fitness activity, but I am starting to change that. I need to in order to stay charged. I have always been lucky - for the most part - to have taken after my father for having a good deal of energy and being proportionate and all that, but I noticed how out of shape and weakened I was after I stopped drinking. Winter pronounces it too, I suppose. And I became in tune with the mind-body connection and how the exercise would help (duh! of course!).

When it comes to other ways of coping, going forward...I have not been going to meetings since I quit, but I started coming into this site a couple of months after I quit, because I wanted to see what I could learn and needed the connection with other people who understand. There was a sense of freedom from bondage by my quitting, and I realized it was important for me to share with other people who wanted the same thing. Even though I am not going to meetings and using Steps, I know that I am still learning from AA as a result of reading people who do follow a program. That works for me.

I also noticed there was a courage inside me after all. I had no idea I could stop drinking. It had been a medicine for so long and I was covering up the person with it. Well, I was surprised, but there was still a person under there, and I like being able to like and dislike what I see. It's hard to describe, but it makes sense to me when I think about how the danger I associate with drinking (a drug use) is always there, any day, for life. It hadn't made sense to me how it was a "disease" before. And facing that thought has actually helped.

Coming up on 4 months just after St Patrick's Day. Even though I am part Irish (etc, etc), I never made that big of a deal out of that day, but I guess it will be a big deal quietly for me by not drinking, ha ha. Every couple of weeks I tell myself not to watch the days, since there will always need to be a focus on "any day" in the present; then I take a peek at the calendar again, a new guilty pleasure. I took each of those days back for me!