shaun00

Some years ago your therapist would have been a dream come true for me...

Someone giving me permission to drink ..man.....yeah yeah ill do the moderation..lol..lol...thanks doc.

Its ok to get opinions....wise in fact i guess.

BUT...bottom line is how do YOU feel about your drinking?

Your on a recovery site full of alkies....i guess youve considered it a problem..

Ive seen many doctors ..therapist...prison doctors...mental health wards and some of them DIDNT diagnose alcoholism..

I knew...at a gut level my drinking was alcoholism and getting worse.

I wasted many years running from it......and it always caught up.

trucker

firestorm090

It's nice when we can affix a label onto something, try to throughly define it, and deny it's application to us personally if we don't fit all of the definitions we use to describe that which we have labeled. It can easily go like this in our heads, "Well, maybe I'm not an alcoholic because I only drink on weekends, I only drink beer, I work everyday, I still am responsible financially, I still own my own home, etc."

Two questions I would ask myself if I were told that I'm not an alcoholic by my therapist:

1.) Why do I have a therapist?
2.) Why am I asking questions about alcohol on a website full of alcoholics?

In the end, the label isn't all that important. What's important is whether or not our use of alcohol to escape, self-medicate, or whatever, is causing enough problems in our lives that we would be better off by not drinking it. If so, then maybe this group can help you. As others have already stated, only you can make the choice that is right for you.

Iriss

Addiction therapists have their own beliefs of alcoholism and addiction and it may not be the same as yours... For me, I cannot to moderation, I'm all or nothing.. If I was given the go ahead to drink weekends only, I would probably try to fit a whole weeks worth into two days.. Im sure you know deep within yourself if you can do moderation or not. I also found when trying to be moderate, that all my time was consumed thinking about when I could drink, I would rather focus now on the benefits of not drinking...I hope it all works out..

CarolD

Once I finally quit drinking...I found I no longer
needed my psychiatrist .

Of course this is not true for everyone....
but I certainly don't regret my choice of abstinance.

I do hope you find your way into peace...

sfgirl

What I first thought when I read this was where does self-medicating end and alcoholism begin? I sort of think they are one in the same and just find it a very strange way to put that. I understand perhaps temporarily drinking more because of situational issues, which is perhaps what he meant, but if you need to drink every time stressors increase in your life no matter what you want to call it, you probably should learn new coping mechanisms.

Other than that I don't think attempts at moderation are such a bad thing. If it doesn't work you know something new definitively. I know that I had to do experiments in controlled drinking which my therapist did not challenge me on (she did not suggest it though) before I got to a point to be ready to accept my alcoholism or surrender to it, however you want to say it. And perhaps if it is just an issue of you finding new ways to cope and moderating drinking is an easy task, then you are a lucky guy and can go on with your life.

mle-sober

Yes - I tried moderating and controlling my drinking for 9 months. (Prior to that I was in denial that alcohol might be a problem - duh.) Those 9 months were absolutely the worst time of my life. I was failing miserably again and again, hiding my drinking, spending huge amounts of time planning and obsessing over my drinking. In the end, it was clear that for some reason I drank MORE during that time. Oh, man, I was miserable. It was a relief, in some ways, to finally admit I was an alcoholic and dive into recovery.