Sobriety for a College Student
 

Greetings everyone! I am glad I found this site and, thus, forum. I would just like to introduce myself and get a few things off my shoulders. I am 23 years old (soon 24) and attend a University. I am sure you all know what goes in college. I happen to be at one that involves quite a bit of partying and drinking. In fact, a lot of my close friends fall into that category as did I for a few years.

I realized I had a drinking problem before I turned 21. I'll save the stories for another time. Upon realizing my problem I had quit drinking. Not a drop of alcohol that is. It was all fruity pebbles, but I slowly fell back into my bad habit with alcohol. So this continued for a couple of years and it was all very gradual. Being young, naive, and over-confident, I failed to admit my problem and eventually lost my girlfriend of 6 years, failed a couple of classes, and got a DUI. My DUI was this last May of '09 and I am currently going through the required program. Even after my DUI my alcohol abuse continued.

A few months before the new year I significantly reduced my alcohol intake. It was just at mealtimes and other times when I would give in to peer pressure. But I realized that I had to say "NO!" firmly for once in my life and take control. So I have been. It is still very hard to say no at times not because I want to, but because I am losing "friends" (if that's what you want to call them - more like drinking buddies who I thought were friends). So this is why I decided to join this forum, attend some AA meetings in my county, and acquire a sponsor.

Thank you for listening and I welcome any comments, suggestions, feedback, and/or questions.

~The Heartbreak Kid

Hi HeartbreakKid

Welcome!

Yeah peer pressure is a biggie - and it stayed with me a long time past University...

In the end I had to realise that I wasn't everyone else...what seemed to be ok for my friends was undeniably destroying me. I also had to accept that I couldn't cut down for any real length of time - I always went back to party mode. For me, it was all or nothing....

I made a decision to do what was best for me, and stop drinking entirely - and I've never regretted it.

You'll find a lot of support here, and at AA. It's a great decision :)

D

If I had it to do all over again I would have quit at your age. I am 41 now and did the same thing throughout college and continued until 8 weeks ago. I have had a handful of great jobs and I'm sure I would be at the same job that I started right out of college if it was not for all of the drinking.

Be thankful for realizing your problem now and take control of it. Life has to many great things to offer, get sober and great things will come your way.

Welcome to SR and the best of luck to you.

Hey Kiddo

I know very much what it is like to quit drinking on a college campus. Not easy. I tried to quit many times between 22-26 for the same reason you did but I always ended up back on the bottle. Fortunately, I feel like most college campuses are "getting it" and starting to offer plenty of fun sober events.

For me, quitting now is easier because the campus I'm on is nearby a major city, so I can easily leave campus and go into town. It would be much harder in a small college town, like Ithica or East Lansing, I know.

You can do it! Just remember what you're fighting for.