Hardest part of quitting?
Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: « USA » Recovered with AVRT (Rational Recovery) ___________
Posts: 3,680
Getting rid of bargain thinking. IE, "I will stop drinking, but things had better improve, and quickly, or back to the bottle I go." I had to knock it off for better or for worse, or it wasn't going to stick, just like all the previous times I had stopped (but not quit).
Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 14
The hardest part about quitting drinking is missing getting completely shizfaced. We drink because we like the pleasure that comes from getting smashed. It's over-idulgence at it's purest form. It's like asking a morbidly obese person what they miss about not binge eating. I drink because I like the feeling of getting smashed... Nothing more, nothing less...
For me, drinking has interfered with many things I want to accomplish. For years I was able to drink like I wanted to and still achieve, over the past few years that has changed. So I am forced to either become a deadbeat and continue getting drunk (which my body just loves to do) OR be responsible and quit drinking...
For me, drinking has interfered with many things I want to accomplish. For years I was able to drink like I wanted to and still achieve, over the past few years that has changed. So I am forced to either become a deadbeat and continue getting drunk (which my body just loves to do) OR be responsible and quit drinking...
I'm here to learn!
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: I'm on it!
Posts: 2,038
Wow I think I can relate to Dee, Anna and TU. My experience was all three of those things at different times.
I think maybe the overall hardest thing for me though was committing to the changes I needed to make in my life to keep myself sober.
I think maybe the overall hardest thing for me though was committing to the changes I needed to make in my life to keep myself sober.
Choosing Life
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Montana
Posts: 1,435
Accepting the fact that I could never drink again. At the beginning of my drinking career, I truly enjoyed the feeling it gave me and there are times when I miss that. But toward the end, I could never get that feeling back ... I'd just get stupid drunk and black out. I chased that "buzz" for a long time and ended up in a place where I couldn't even get drunk anymore, but I couldn't get sober either. Now that I AM sober, my alcoholic voice likes to tell me, "It's been almost a month since your last drink .... I'll bet you could get that 'buzz' back now." But today I recognize that that is just my addict wanting its fix and that it will lie to get what it wants. Thankfully, the voice gets fainter every day. 
Random Guy
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: America
Posts: 2,034
Convincing myself that I actually wanted to. I liked drinking, it was my source of entertainment and alleviation from bordome and isolation. It was easily attained pleasure that eventually became more costly than it was worth, but getting myself to want to stop truly with no reservations, took me a while.
Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 4
Feelings, I hadn't had them in over a decade. When I quit I was on a huge rollercoaster, super happy one day and sobbing the next. Glad to report that the feelings to even out, it has only been two months and I already feel ten thousand times better. Just stick with it. Fake it til you make it.
12-Step Recovered Alkie
Join Date: May 2010
Location: West Bloomfield, MI
Posts: 5,797
Just recognizing I should QUIT was exceptionally hard for me. I allllllways planned to "stop temporarily." Quitting forever wasn't a thought I ever entertained on my own. Luckily, my drinking was frequent and bad enough that I eventually had a judge make that decision for me. Honestly, I don't know how bad it would have had to have gotten before I was willing to surrender. Looking back now, with the clarity of hindsight......if I had to make that call on my own, I probably would have ended up in jail or blowing my head off before I ever made it myself.
Once I got to AA and set aside some of the silly judgments I had of the program and the people, staying stopped wasn't any harder than it is to NOT walk into a bank and rob it...... It just doesn't really occur to me to drink all that often (occasional thoughts.....sure, but they're short and not very strong). Education on alcoholism, friendship/fellowship, and support are nice enough.....but I've needed more to get recovered and stay that way.
Once I got to AA and set aside some of the silly judgments I had of the program and the people, staying stopped wasn't any harder than it is to NOT walk into a bank and rob it...... It just doesn't really occur to me to drink all that often (occasional thoughts.....sure, but they're short and not very strong). Education on alcoholism, friendship/fellowship, and support are nice enough.....but I've needed more to get recovered and stay that way.
Gone In
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 223
I think for me it was coming to terms with how sick and insane I truly was. As I started to come out of it as the months went by I started to perceive more and more of my behaviour for what it was. I started to see how deep in my psyche it went, and learning to live a new life having never been a sober youth or adult was daunting at first (but also exciting).
Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Vashon WA
Posts: 1,035
Getting started was the hardest. It took decades. I remember telling my mom that I was an alcoholic when I was nineteen years old and I didn't quit until I was 46. It just took forever for that piece of the puzzle to fall into place. The realization that not drinking was super cool and that any discomfort as a result of quitting would be more than worth it.
The second hardest thing has been getting acquainted with my sober mind and living without the familiar rhythm of drinking.
The second hardest thing has been getting acquainted with my sober mind and living without the familiar rhythm of drinking.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: « USA » Recovered with AVRT (Rational Recovery) ___________
Posts: 3,680
Originally Posted by desertsong 
Accepting the fact that I could never drink again.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: LA, California
Posts: 372
The anxiety. The first week without alcohol is pretty scary, knowing you are cutting yourself off. Knowing you don't have a beer to look forward to after work, or if you're stressed. After a while that goes away though, now I don't even think of alcohol when I'm feeling stressed or anxious.
Member of SMART Recovery
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,722
As a bunch of others have said, for me it was getting to the place where I understood at a deep level that I had NO CHOICE but to quit drinking permanently.
I won't say it was all a bowl of cherries after that, but once the option of drinking was off the table everything became a whole lot simpler.
I won't say it was all a bowl of cherries after that, but once the option of drinking was off the table everything became a whole lot simpler.
Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 1,146
Quitting was relatively easy for me and I did that several times a year most years from age 19 to age 28 without too much difficulty. I was extremely fortunate in that respect.
Imagine if I had quit several times each year all those years and experienced tremendous difficulty. That would have really been awful.
What helped me a lot each time was to drink lots of water, try to get as much rest as I could manage and to take a few aspirin as needed. Of course some times were a little easier than other times each year, but that's to be expected.
Imagine if I had quit several times each year all those years and experienced tremendous difficulty. That would have really been awful.
What helped me a lot each time was to drink lots of water, try to get as much rest as I could manage and to take a few aspirin as needed. Of course some times were a little easier than other times each year, but that's to be expected.
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