I'm New
 

Hello, I'm new to the forum but not new to my struggle ( which I know is for life) with my alcohol disease. I am a binge drinker which must be the worst war. Fear! After my last one I am now on Valium. Scary for me. I go to weekly AA meetings but down here in the south of France they are very few English speakers and even less women- 1. Nevertheless, AA has helped me immensely. I don't know many people to speak with as frequently as I should so I'm hoping this forum can help me with questions or problems. I know it should get better and it will but its not easy. I'm fairly young and in good health apart from the booze.

Yours in Fellowship.

Hi Ermine,

Welcome!

I'm glad you have found us here at SR. There is a lot of support and information here, so keep reading and posting.

Welcome to SR ermine glad you found us.

Welcome to SR. Lots of great people here. Please keep posting and let us get to know you.

welcome...

Bienvenue!

This community is a godsend in my 12 days. I hope it is for you as well.

warrens

Welcome to SR.:nanarock

Welcome to SR, Ermine, glad to meet you!

Welcome Ermine :)

hi
 

glad you found SR. This is a great resource when you are unable to be there in person.

I wish you well.

Hi and hope to see you here. A really great place.

Bonjour Ermine. Je parle francais juste un peu. Qu'est-ce que tu deviens? Ils sont sympathique ici et Ils ecoutent. A la tienne!

Welcome to the forum! There are really nice people here that are willing to help you and that are willing to be there for you. Good luck and keep your head up.

:wave:
Good to see a new member
Welcome to SR!

Thanks everyone for your Welcome! And yes English is my native language. I've been out here in France for about two years now. Lived in Paris for 5 years about 12 years ago. This is my first year of earnest attempt at sobriety which is not easy. It took me a long time to get to step one. I've proceeded to the steps but have been told I should do them one by one is that true? I'd lived in Hong Kong for several years "work hard party hard". Everyone else was doing it. But why could I not control it? Was I drinking too fast or too much? Or Both?Then a ding ding went on in my head that the alcohol was becoming a problem for me & my business. Back then when things went badly I would close down my co. and go to my favorite island in Thailand for a sejour to dry out. Figured it was the work, stress or the messy divorce which was causing the problem. Ha! I thought that was good enough. Then after spending a year on a motorbike in India alcohol was not a problem. Thought I had it all figured it out. Again. Then I moved to Sydney and became a business consultant. Things went ok for awile and then cunning and baffling reared its ugly head. After two years things got out of control and no they were not ok. MY partner of 6 years left to live in the Cayman islands. We never talked about my problem. Went to several AA meetings in several places which did nothing for me. I hated it. Guess I was expecting that magic pill and all could be good again. And no, I never once saw a BB then in any meetings. I heard someone mention if you don't see a BB in the room your in the wrong place. I was. Or perhaps I know now I wasn't ready. I cracked it again, I was living alone going to work and taking the bottles of wine home to "relax". Bad idea. It escalated to needing fortification before going to work. Another NO NO. After several incidents I checked myself into a detox center. Learned alot but not enough and no BB again. Anyway, I won't go on about my love story which is another novel in itself. But I decided after two years of long distance relationship I would come here. He knows I'm an alcoholic loves and supports me totally. Yes I tried the middle path and as we know to no avail. So, it meetings now for me. I work through the steps and get some great advice but I know I have to keep working on them. Someone gave me a CoDA book which was another revelation. I thought. **** there is more to this than I am looking at. So, now I'm trying the forum because as I said our group is awfully small 6 max. And I do not have a sponsor. So that's a bit about me maybe more than a bit. Thanks again. I will keep coming back!

Ermine

welcome
 

Welcome to SR. Look around, we're from all over so I guess there are alot of diffent languages and some times we even make up words LOL.:a194:

Welcome to SR Ermine, AA saved my life, your journey I would imagine will be a bit tougher then mine has been due to where you are. Here is a link to the 12 step forum here at SR, a lot of good folks there as there are here and in the alcoholism forum where I hang out quite a bit. http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-step-support/

A sponsor I found was one of the keys in my sobriety and working the steps, it sounds as though you are pretty limited in choices of sponsors where you are at and being a lady does not make it easier because I am guessing there are very few ladies in the program where you are at.

I would highly reccommend asking someone to be your "Temporary" sponsor to start out, a lady if possible. Experience through the years in AA has found that men with men and ladies with ladies to be better as far as sponsorship.

That is not cast in stone though, if there are no ladies that sponsor others then a lady with a man is okay as long as the man and the woman both agree that it is strictly a sponsor/sponsee relaationship.

In my area years ago there was a huge shortage of ladies in AA and as a result men did sponsor ladies, but once there were enough ladies to sponsor other ladies that changed.

As you work the steps with a sponsor you will see that the best way to work them is in order because one really needs a good grasp of step one before going on to step 2. Many times when someone is having a hard time with a step it is found that by reworking the prior step it helps with the one they are having problems with.

Going to meetings helps a lot, but I have found that the miracle happens through the steps and not meetings alone. Thanks to the steps my obsession/need to drink has been lifted, it is gone and as long as I maintain a fit spiritual condition by living the steps to the best of my ability it will remain gone.

Once again welcome to SR, ask anything you wish, and share what you can.

BTW I am Martin and I am an alcoholic.