Welcome KaPuka, Diana, Pattylulu and SNT!

I'm having a great (sober) weekend! Sooooo much better than any non-sober weekend - and I know this because I can remember all of it :)

I had bowling league on Friday night and drank cranberry juice and a virgin bloody mary (I've always drank virgin bloodys - it's like a meal! YUM). My friends were so freaked out by the fact that I wasn't drinking alcohol! I guess they'll just have to get over it! I had a ton of fun - more so than I did when I drank! I was even able to wake up at 6am on Sat. to take a class at my gym! Then spent the day hiking with my family! Needless to say, I am SUPER sore today! lol! But it feels waaaaaaaaay better than being hungover!

I hope everyone else is having a great & SOBER weekend! Looking forward to hearing from all of you and hearing about what you did to stay sober!

-ewo

Ewo, just hearing about your weekend is making me tired! ;) I managed a walk and the rest of the time I have sat and read, oh and a few naps x

I'd like to join the Class of March 2012. I quit today/had my last drink last night. Woke up this morning thinking wtf why do I keep doing this to myself, binge drinking several times a week n destroying my body and in the end, my life no doubt. So have quit and will stay quit. Have stopped smoking at the same time/quit the ciggs today too. I will succeed, I have way too much to live for, namely my daughter x Good luck everyone x

Welcome new members it's great to have you here! My weekend is going pretty good... I work friday/saturday nights and it's soooo much easier to do without drinking. Before I'd bring 50ml nips with me to work and time them out so I was sure I wouldn't get the shakes throughout the night... I'd be just so tired working 5pm-2am. Well the last two nights w/o drinking it was so easy and I had so much more energy. I thank my HP. Of course I did my job a lot better too and I noticed a lot more smiles from my co-workers. Today I'm just going to take it easy and watch TV and read threads for a while... it's a good way to stay grounded I find. I hope and pray that we all make it through the day without drinking alcohol... just remember that it's a poison and it will kill us!

March 9th for me. Here we go. It's my 3rd time trying to stop, only difference is this time Im not trying it by myself. Im sure ill get some great support from everyone here! Lets go March!

Thanks Tanja and Hyporchondriac for the replies, Took your advice on not having that first drink and appreciate hearing your plans....
Mine are similar plans in the SR, the exercise and keeping busy to cover my trigger (boredom and habit between 6-8pm) and keeping a diary which is keeping me honest in what I have drank etc.....
I am now on day 3, met my mates at the pub yesterday and drank lemonade only (however So full and gross from too much lemonade! Arghh :) but sure beats being hungover on Monday morning!)

Think this is all going to go well, hangovers will not be missed!
What do people drink when going out is unavoidable...Thinking Soda and lime as no/limited sugar.....

What a waste these last alcohol obsessed years have been, sober is soo much better
God luck Marchers! Have a brilliant and sober week!

Oh and Thanks Ewo for the welclome too :)

I'm very wary about going into bars/pubs at this point in my recovery even if it's just to drink water or lemonade. Being around people drinking sort of scares me even. My brother always says "If you go to the barber shop you're probably going to get a haircut." Be careful my friend I want to see you here for a long time to come!

Hello. This is, what I hope, the first day of the rest of my life.

I gave alcohol January of last year for over six months, and my life changed for the better because of it. I thought I was strong enough to drink again, and since then...alcohol has been in and out of my life.

I gave up alcohol for lent this year, under the pretenses that I wanted to lose some weight...and when things got more difficult in my life (not better, as I thought they would because I wasn't drinking)--I gave up and drank.

Needless to say, the other day I got so drunk I ended up peeing on myself, humiliated myself and my boyfriend, and miss work the next day in my hangover.

I need to turn a new leaf. I am tired of repeating these same cycles of sobriety, and then when I think I am strong enough...falling off the wagon. Then destroying all these things. It only leads to destruction. Last time, I did this battle on my own with the help of family and friends, but this time I think I need a new force to help me. To kick this for good.

I am thinking positively. I am ready to move forward with my life, now.

Just posting my news, like hypocondriac I am reading AVRT and the threads on it on this site and trying to apply it. I haven't done so well but then again I have not really gotten any sober time under my belt. I mainly post in the alcoholism forum because every time I join up on a monthly newcommers class I eventually fail again. I am an evening binge drinker I guess only its every day. Tonight I haven't had anything and am going to make a plan for a repeat of that to make it at least one week.

INH, I was an evening/everyday drinker too. I have found so far that the hardest thing was making the decision not to drink ever, but the 2nd hardest was breaking those daily habits like buying booze after work. I feel such a sense of relief at the moment that I don't have to keep going out shopping for the stuff. I think I could drink more than I could carry! I haven't got very far with RR yet but it sounds like your beast is talking. Trying to make it to a week is just giving it hope. If you don't feel ready to quit have you tried preparing yourself somehow? I didn't really think about this as preparation and did it mainly to try and limit withdrawals but I cut down a lot before I quit, for 2 weeks I forced myself to drink one glass of wine a day. I know this isn't something people would recommend but for me it made me almost sober enough to know how great it felt but without actually having to do the scary stop completely thing. I hope you stick with it x

Welcome JBF. Insert - I know how you feel. I joined October's class and have had numerous relapses. I know for me - I really do need another level of support and that is going to be AA. This week-end I didn't do a whole lot, but I was sober:) I read on SR, exercised, read a book on alcoholism, did some geneaology research, yardwork, television. Not too exciting, but at least I am not laying in the bed 14 hours a day and so hungover that I can't even enjoy watching television. Wishing everyone a happy sober sunday!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I'm back at Day 6 after my 2 1/2 day detox in the hospital last week. Going through the typical exhaustion of early sobriety ... all I want to do is sleep. Why is it when I want to sleep, I can't, and when I can't sleep, that's when I WANT to sleep? Bleh ...

Anyway ... just saying "hi" and wishing you all a wonderful week. :)

Hi all. Posted a new thread with a bit about me, but popping in here to introduce myself as well. Best of luck to everyone in this new beginning.

This is one of my killers It always gets me there have been some days when I drank mainly so I could sleep (or at that is the excuse it gave me) FYI is comming up on midnight here I almost never sleep that first night. Oh well, might make a pot of coffee.

I started drinking when i was 12 my uncle gave me my first drink then i stated drinking cans of cider with my friends when i was in high school i then started at 14 to 18 drinking bottles of wine, vodka, brandy, beer, whiskey i also started to steal alcohol from shops and then from pups barrels left for delivery i have been in court for drunk driving, assault, 3 times for drunk and disorderly conduct and have stolen cars and took police chases due to drink I crashed numerous cars and ended up in hospital also my mother is an alcoholic and has attempted suicide my father is an alcoholic and has attempted suicide he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia I had to sign him in to the psych ward call the cops numerous times to our house.I am trying to give up alcohol now and suffer blackouts regularly due to my drinking so heres to sobriety:welcome

Hey, thanks for the welcomes!
Has anyone had problems with disturbing dreams? The past few nights I've dreamnt horrifically violent dreams - in one there was a man with part of his head bashed/caved in (I'm coming off a week in which i relapsed on ambien, stopped taking it, and also have stopped drinking..)

I'm giving up everything. The booze, I'm not sure for how long. Not sure how much of a problem it is. But I've been reading posts and realize that my attitude about drinking might be a "denial" thing, ha. I will see what happens but definitely giving up the booze for now

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I gave up alcohol for lent this year, under the pretenses that I wanted to lose some weight...and when things got more difficult in my life (not better, as I thought they would because I wasn't drinking)--I gave up and drank.
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I found things got more difficuult as well. I sort of felt like, well this sucks, things aren't going good, I might as well enjoy myself and drink. but then I started drinking again and wasn't enjoying myself.

I have been reading on this site for a few months and from what i have read that isn't really all that unusual, especially for us drinkers eventually we usualy get "the drinking dream" wherein we will be drinking and probably enjoying it then wake up freaking out thinking we slipped up. But nightmares and things like that I think are common too.

Insomnia/Nightmares - SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction Help and Information that is the link for the insomina/nightmares threads maybe you can find some help there.

In my case I am usualy passed out and don't dream when I sleep (or don't remember it anyway) so I am not looking forward to the first time I wake up to a nightmare, at the same time though I kinda am almost with a preverse curiosity :) what is it going to be about I wonder?