Seared

I've been posting in here, and I have my outpatient program twice a week. Is that not enough?

FT

No.

Until you make the decision that you are a non-drinker, you will continue to drink.

It's a reinvention of self, a new identity you have to try on for long enough to tell it is a fit. Setting obstacles in your way, making lists of "pros and cons", and all the logic in the world will not work.

You might want to check out the secular connections part of this forum.

Seared

I thought I had already made the decision to be a non-drinker.

Sapling

You're done when you're done.

eJoshua

You have to make the decision not to drink every day. It's not something you can decide once and then have settled.

Every day you wake up you have to make the decision not to drink for that day. Choosing every day not to drink that day is a lot easier than trying to decide that you won't drink for the rest of your life.

JMHO, I know others don't agree with me.

Sapling

Makes sense to me Josh...

ru12

I don't know, I made the decision about a year ago that I don't drink anymore and that was that. I do NOT make that decision again each day, that sounds terrible to me. I made a decision and also made the decision not to question that decision. It works for me.

Sapling

Say no more.

Sapling

See I have to revisit my first 3 steps everyday...Am I powerless over alcohol, people, places and things....Am I sane or insane? (Meaning picking up a first drink when I know the results or not picking up) and who is running the show...God or me. I work that everyday and it works for me.

FT

Change the "to be" to "I AM!!!!" and you got it.

FT

FT

I disagree.

I am NOT POWERLESS. I and only I have the power to determine whether I am a drinker or not. Alcohol and drugs have never "overpowered" me. I made conscious choices to drink. I have now made the conscious choice NOT to drink or use opiates.

Giving over that power to anyone or anything else, disempowers you to someone else's agenda. That does NOT work for me.

FT

Sapling

Do you have the power to make a conscious choice to quit right now forever?

Sapling

And nobody or anything changes my agenda. I can go watch a football game with friends, go to the pier and go fishing...I can do whatever I want. I can just do it without drinking. Or obsessing to drink. Which to me is more painful than drinking.

Terminally Unique

Yes, absolutely.

Sapling

Than you have done it? I see a few people here have. How long are you sober/clean?

Seared

I actually agree very strongly with this statement.

Sapling

That's fine seared...I have no problem admitting that I couldn't stop drinking on my own. I am powerless over it. If I could do it on my own...I would have. That's why I chose the path that I did.

Terminally Unique

Have I quit for good? Yes. I will never drink again, and I will never change my mind, either.

I don't recall exactly, but I have no need to keep track, either. I would only be counting the remaining days of my life, which serves no purpose. It would also suggest to others that not drinking is somehow out of character for me, and that I might return to it.

Dee74

I found 'enough' was whatever it took for me not to drink.

That didn't mean that I didn't think about drinking for a while or that I immediately stopped wanting to drink - but the not drinking was the first step in changing my life, being sober, and liking it.

If you drank again, the bottom line is what you've been doing just isn't enough.

Pick yourself up - think about what more you can do.
Stick with it Seared

D

SixStringZen

As a marathon runner, I once had a friend ask me how to get into running...he got the right clothes, the right watch, the right shoes...but, he kept coming back for advice...I told him, "If you're going to be a runner, you're eventually going to have to run"


Seared, if you're going to be a non-drinker, you're eventually going to have to stop drinking...