The Power Of Sobriety Thread (POST!) #11
non-drinker
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 13,848
Originally Posted by Jross 
How could i fall into addiction after watching my dad go through it growing up and everything he gave up for it?
It's funny, but I was just talking about that very thing in an online recovery meeting the other day. My Dad was an alcoholic all the while I was growing up. I swore up and down that I would NEVER drink like he did. Guess what, I ended up drinking even worse than he did! When I was 17, he finally quit and he never touched another drop for the last 31 years of his life. When I turned 43 (in 2009), I decided to follow in his footsteps once again and quit drinking. It's now been 11 and half years of recovery for me. I only hope I can also stay sober for the rest of my life, just like Dad! In the end, it doesn't matter what anybody else did, WE can control our own destiny!!
Quit 4/17/15
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Pa
Posts: 15,189
Welcome jross!
I think you will find that alcohol issues have a very strong genetic component. Basically, offspring of alcoholics have somewhere between a 50-60% chance of developing alcohol use disorder in their lifetime, of course dependent upon environmental issues and other contributing factors.
The main point is that you now want to stop. I would highly recommend joining the monthly support group, either November or soon December 2020. There you will meet a group of people who are nearly at the same stage of quitting that you are. I found it helpful to share experiences with the folks going through what I was going through.
Secondly, you might want to look at programs such as AA or Rational Recovery. They have helped many people quit drinking and stay quit.
Remember, you have control of things until you pick up that first drink.
Best of luck on your journey!
I think you will find that alcohol issues have a very strong genetic component. Basically, offspring of alcoholics have somewhere between a 50-60% chance of developing alcohol use disorder in their lifetime, of course dependent upon environmental issues and other contributing factors.
The main point is that you now want to stop. I would highly recommend joining the monthly support group, either November or soon December 2020. There you will meet a group of people who are nearly at the same stage of quitting that you are. I found it helpful to share experiences with the folks going through what I was going through.
Secondly, you might want to look at programs such as AA or Rational Recovery. They have helped many people quit drinking and stay quit.
Remember, you have control of things until you pick up that first drink.
Best of luck on your journey!
Quit 4/17/15
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Pa
Posts: 15,189
Hiya everyone! I hope everyone is doing as well as possible during these trying times.
I personally feel that the walls are closing in on me. One of our neighboring stores has half of their management team out awaiting the results of Covid tests after being exposed. Our regional manager is pulling managers from other stores to cover the absences at this store. In my opinion, this risks potentially spreading Covid throughout the company at breakneck speed right before the ongoing holidays. I know she feels she has to do this to keep this particular store open, but I feel she is risking shutting down the chain en masse before the holiday implementing this strategy. One of my management coworkers left yesterday after an hour when his wife called and told him that the babysitter his family uses is Covid positive. Our management ranks could be wiped out shortly. If this person comes down with Covid, the natural inclination would be to have everyone get tested. But the kicker is, at my company, one can't work while awaiting Covid test results. In my state, it is back to taking a week plus to get results. We are forced to decide whether to be "company people" and soldier on with little piece of mind, or potentially screw over our coworkers and our store.
Frankly, I am surprised it has taken this long for the situation to come to a head. My county is down to less than 15 ICU beds left as of Thursday, and I imagine that they are all gone by now. People are being diverted to random hospitals at this point. As an old person, I am naturally pretty concerned. It's ironic. Just as the vaccines are dribbling out, Covid is packing its hardest and most dangerous punches.The state is begging people to stay home and stay away from grocery stores and pharmacies. Meanwhile, we are having record sales. People are fatigued by this fight, and just don't seem to care anymore. It's a no win situation for me. For those of you that can work from home or work with few coworkers, be grateful. If you don't need to go out, stay home. It is frightening going to work each day at this point.
I hope everyone is keeping on. The holidays seem especially somber this year.
Hang on everyone! Stay safe.
Reporting live from the front lines.
I personally feel that the walls are closing in on me. One of our neighboring stores has half of their management team out awaiting the results of Covid tests after being exposed. Our regional manager is pulling managers from other stores to cover the absences at this store. In my opinion, this risks potentially spreading Covid throughout the company at breakneck speed right before the ongoing holidays. I know she feels she has to do this to keep this particular store open, but I feel she is risking shutting down the chain en masse before the holiday implementing this strategy. One of my management coworkers left yesterday after an hour when his wife called and told him that the babysitter his family uses is Covid positive. Our management ranks could be wiped out shortly. If this person comes down with Covid, the natural inclination would be to have everyone get tested. But the kicker is, at my company, one can't work while awaiting Covid test results. In my state, it is back to taking a week plus to get results. We are forced to decide whether to be "company people" and soldier on with little piece of mind, or potentially screw over our coworkers and our store.
Frankly, I am surprised it has taken this long for the situation to come to a head. My county is down to less than 15 ICU beds left as of Thursday, and I imagine that they are all gone by now. People are being diverted to random hospitals at this point. As an old person, I am naturally pretty concerned. It's ironic. Just as the vaccines are dribbling out, Covid is packing its hardest and most dangerous punches.The state is begging people to stay home and stay away from grocery stores and pharmacies. Meanwhile, we are having record sales. People are fatigued by this fight, and just don't seem to care anymore. It's a no win situation for me. For those of you that can work from home or work with few coworkers, be grateful. If you don't need to go out, stay home. It is frightening going to work each day at this point.
I hope everyone is keeping on. The holidays seem especially somber this year.
Hang on everyone! Stay safe.
Reporting live from the front lines.
non-drinker
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 13,848
Star, so sorry to hear about your situation. Working in retail is stressful enough, but now it must feel unreal. Just try to take things one day at a time. I feel that we WILL come out of this pandemic eventually and hopefully a bit wiser for the experience.
p***enger
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NYC
Posts: 19,049
Stay strong, sg. The Former Insanity Survivors are here for rough-going and smooth, here to say you'll be ok. Think of your bottom and how far we've all come. Stay home if you need to for safety but don't give up inside. <3 <3 <3
p***enger
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NYC
Posts: 19,049
How are you all doing?
I got a thing. A few days ago, it was about 100 degrees on my floor of my work building. It really is my floor now; I've been the only one in my office there for 9 months. Weird. So there was a fellow from facilities management wandering around opening doors and taking some kind of inventory, it looked like, and I asked him what was up with the temperature. He said, "I don't know, but this is a ghost floor."
???
Now I moved to my "secret" office, and it's freezing here. I've been sitting one foot from a space heater all day long.
???
I got a thing. A few days ago, it was about 100 degrees on my floor of my work building. It really is my floor now; I've been the only one in my office there for 9 months. Weird. So there was a fellow from facilities management wandering around opening doors and taking some kind of inventory, it looked like, and I asked him what was up with the temperature. He said, "I don't know, but this is a ghost floor."
???
Now I moved to my "secret" office, and it's freezing here. I've been sitting one foot from a space heater all day long.
???
non-drinker
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 13,848
Courage, every fall the heating is my apartment is either way too hot or not working at all. This year, I FINALLY convinced my landlord to install a new thermostat and now everything is hunky-dory. Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Quit 4/17/15
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Pa
Posts: 15,189
That reminds me of when I was in college and was renting a room on the third floor of an old house. The only thermostat for the entire house was in the first floor apartment, which was rented by three females. They kept the house so warm that I had to keep my windows open most days throughout the winter!
p***enger
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NYC
Posts: 19,049
Cold weather startups are always clunky! But I don't feel right squeaking when there are only handful of people wanting facilities in a campus designed for 20,000 people, in an era of massive budget cuts. They're closing toilets and starting to talk about cutting library services. It's helpful to remember the people on the streets without a roof, much less heat.
p***enger
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NYC
Posts: 19,049
Hey Canadian Koala! Good to see you. Chime in any time, we're all equals here.
Hey Carlos!
I been having a spell of the BPPV spins. With something called nystagmus, which is uncontrollable rapid eye movement. I'm milking it for all it's worth, so feel free to deny sympathy. All I've ever really had wrong with me before was drug addiction, alcoholism, and a mild case of crazies, so all-in-all healthwise, I been super-lucky.
Was having some thoughts the other day about drugs and alcohol. I used to be a heavy weed-smoker, back in the old old days. I tapered off when I got further in to harder drugs and booze. But still smoked from time to time, but ever-more rarely. Then the last time I smoked, maybe 20 years ago, I had a scary episode of major paranoia. And I've been scared ever since, even 20 years later, to smoke again. They can legalize it all they want, I'm pretty phobic.
Nowadays I feel the same way about booze. It's after that one time I relapsed. That was so scary, because in just an instant it took over my life again, and because in a week I ended up crawling across the floor, terrified I was falling into a void. So attractive sometimes as a snifter or even sometimes a cheap pint may sound, I'm done.
If anybody reading this is still drinking, and hates their life, I recommend you do whatever it takes to get sober. The most comforting thought I ever think is, "I never have to drink again."
Hey Carlos!
I been having a spell of the BPPV spins. With something called nystagmus, which is uncontrollable rapid eye movement. I'm milking it for all it's worth, so feel free to deny sympathy. All I've ever really had wrong with me before was drug addiction, alcoholism, and a mild case of crazies, so all-in-all healthwise, I been super-lucky.
Was having some thoughts the other day about drugs and alcohol. I used to be a heavy weed-smoker, back in the old old days. I tapered off when I got further in to harder drugs and booze. But still smoked from time to time, but ever-more rarely. Then the last time I smoked, maybe 20 years ago, I had a scary episode of major paranoia. And I've been scared ever since, even 20 years later, to smoke again. They can legalize it all they want, I'm pretty phobic.
Nowadays I feel the same way about booze. It's after that one time I relapsed. That was so scary, because in just an instant it took over my life again, and because in a week I ended up crawling across the floor, terrified I was falling into a void. So attractive sometimes as a snifter or even sometimes a cheap pint may sound, I'm done.
If anybody reading this is still drinking, and hates their life, I recommend you do whatever it takes to get sober. The most comforting thought I ever think is, "I never have to drink again."
Quit 4/17/15
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Pa
Posts: 15,189
We are possibly expecting our first major snowstorm in a few years. I had that random remembrance of going to the liquor store and the beer distributor ahead of the storm to make sure that I was fully stocked before the store. I never worried as much about food. A big snow was an excuse to drink early and heavily for me. Anyone else have that memory?
Courage, you situation sounds super annoying. I hope that ends quickly.
Congrats on your snow FBL. We might actually have more snow than you for once.
Have a good day all!
Courage, you situation sounds super annoying. I hope that ends quickly.
Congrats on your snow FBL. We might actually have more snow than you for once.
Have a good day all!
non-drinker
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 13,848
Star, I ALWAYS used big snow storms as an excuse to drink (of course, I never really NEEDED an excuse, but that's a whole 'nother story!). When my current landlords took over my apartment building in 2004, I remember drunkenly helping them shovel the stairs and sidewalk. Must have made a real nice first impression!
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