Stinman

I have never posted anything on this site before , but I know I have benefited from the advice I've read in the past. I think most of us are probably in the same boat. I have been able to avoid a drink for most of the days of the year so far, but recently the weekends are becoming my downfall. I was thinking a few for the games wouldn't be problem. I don't know why 20 years of abuse would equate to its ok if you only drink on the weekends. The few has turned into the old week supply wrapped up in 3 days. Any thoughts as to what has helped others in this situation?

PurpleKnight

Welcome to the Forum!!

For me I needed to really accept that alcohol and me were parting ways, no weekend drinking, no weekday drinking, no drinking at New Years, or Xmas, or birthdays, I was becoming a "non drinker" from now on!!

Until I accepted this was the solution, I tried to control my drinking, promises such as only on weekends, never on a Sunday night, only beer, only wine, but it never worked, the flood gates caused by that first drink would spiral as bad as ever!!

Thepatman

Fill your weekend with activities. I noticed if I sit on the couch at the same spot where I used to drink my AV starts screaming. Keep busy!

LBrain

Once I told myself I will never let alcohol affect my life again, that was it. I didn't give myself any outs. Regardless of whether or not I could actually moderate or cut down, I didn't want to. I was done plain and simple. Alcohol caused my life to be rearranged - not in a good way. Never again.

Dee74

The only thing that really made the weekends different was me...I had major FOMO....fear of missing out.

Make your weekends full and rich with activity and I think you'll find you'll miss drinking less?

D

happyandfree

It usually ended back to almost daily for me....I tried many times to limit it to weekends. Just didn't work. And...now I enjoy my weekends more.

Hobbers

My wife has called me a FOMO-addict for years! (long, long before I came out as a booze addict, haha! )

MelindaFlowers

Hey Stinman,

I can relate to the trigger that weekends bring. We finish a long week at work and just want to check out. For the first month or so I had to set up fort on the couch and not move. Literally me, under a blanket, bag of Fritos, Pepsi or water, and my laptop, here on SR. I could do nothing else to occupy my time. I guess I set up this plan so every day was the same. I couldn't even pretend go out or have fun for the first month or so. I was an every night drinker so honestly the weekends weren't much harder than the weekdays.

I used to want to be a weekend drinker. I used to want to be a two drinks a night drinker. When those failed I wanted to be a once a month drinker. That failed too. When you're really really sick of being sick and tired the days don't really matter. Weekends are tough but you just have to find something, anything to occupy your time. I logged in here to SR every single day. Day and night for hours and hours. I read hundreds of posts a day just to keep my focus on not drinking and remind myself why I needed to stop.

I am happy to say that after about 70 days or so the triggers are nearly gone. Give yourself the gift of a month or two of sobriety to see what the other side is like. It's not easy by any means. I didn't know how to live without it at first. You can do this!