spen71

Some of the good people of this forum now me frommy past attempts of trying to quit the drinking. This might sound like a silly question but I hae noticed my drinking goes in a monthly cycle. I do not drink for 3 weeks then I go on a week binge. Repeat and repeat again. Does anyone else experience this? And what can I do to get out of this cycle?

least

THe first thing to do to break the cycle is to stop drinking. Make drinking no longer an option. Check out some recovery programs: AA, Smart, LifeRing, etc. Look into counseling with an addiction specialist. Above all, make changes in your attitude and behavior. You've got to make some fundamental changes from your drinking self to the new, non-drinking self. Nothing changes if nothing changes.

Anna

Yes, you can get out of the cycle, but you need to take a leap of faith. I had a 3-day cycle and later a 3-week cycle, and I had to recognize that I needed to believe in myself and that I deserved a good life. You can do this, and be sure that drinking is not an option.

yeahgr8

Yeah i did that for a year or two, 9 years ago...

Ronan

This is how I drink. It's the worst because it's the disappointment on everyones face when I've been doing so well for 3 weeks then I guess what happens is the depression of the last binge finally wears off and you feel great and you decide to drink again.

I've tried stopping and moderation for the last 3 years, and especially in the last 2, but the only way for me to live a successful life is by never drinking again.

CAPTAINZING2000

We will not regret the past nor, wish to shut the door on it.

There's an illusion every time we drink, it'll be the fun time we had in the past. The good times before there was any pain involved. I can look back at years gone by and say, I had some good times a drinking. I don't want to think, I can ever drink again and have a good time of it.

I don't miss hangovers, I don't miss wrecked cars, broken marriages and families. I don't miss coming to in jail cells.
WTF fun is that??

NEOMARXIST

yes, I can relate to that. Sounds like classic binge-drinking cycles to me. I used to manage a maximum of 3 weeks and then come the third weekend I was absolutely gagging to get obliterated. I was excited for days about my session. It would keep me awake at night thinking about it and I would meticulously plan picking the booze up and getting enough ciggies and drugs in. I was usually blacked out after a couple of hours and it was all downhill from there just drinking and drugging around the clock getting more and more sick.

I had to surrender and admit total and utter defeat to king alcohol. I would never be able to beat booze and it would always beat me down into the dirt eveerytime. I totally and wholeheartadly accepted that I was an alcoholic and that drinking booze was no-longer an option for me 'just for today'. Booze cannot be an option if you want to stay sober. More than nayhting though I was done with booze. It had beaten me and smashed me down as low as I wanted to go. I don;t think I could have safely gone down much lower mentally without serious repercussions.

I had to go to AA. I had to embrace sobriety and my alcoholism and try to use it as a positive rather than a negative. I know that booze would take me to jail, institution or death and I didn't want to go to any when I was sober. When drunk I couldn't care less as long as there was more booze.

I am an alcoholic. Most other people aren't. For me I don't drink alcohol 'just for today'. By working on my recovery then this becomes just a natural way of life and is much more rewarding than bingeing on booze and drugs ever was. It was good for a fleeting time but never worth the terrible cost that it would come with.

HumbleBee

Raising my hand in agreement about the 3 weeks off, one week on binge cycle.

For me it was a combination of really needing the 3 weeks to fully recover from the bingeing and in another way, it was psychological rationalizing that I wasn't that bad cuz I could go for 3 weeks without it.

As with any problem drinking, it escalated. The 3 weeks off became full-time on, every day of every week. I kept chasing that initial buzz from the early bingeing days, but I had crossed that line of no return - my drinking had evolved into near fatal toxic levels.

I wish I had consciously recognized it way back then like you are now. But I am grateful to have found recovery at all and am here to talk about it.

Dee74

I use to drink that way too Spen. It's pretty common I think...

unfortunately by the end of my drinking I'd done the inverse - 3 1/2 weeks on and 3 or 4 days off cos I was so ill.

Like others have said - the only way to get out of the cycle is get out...stop drinking.

If you can't do that by yourself it might be time to give a recovery programme a go mate?

D

OZboy

..last year,ive had about 120 days sober..not bad-not good..

yeah..seems like i want to reward myself???

..keep fightin'...I am..

AmandaPanda

Yup, I cycle like that too. I've gone longer now than usual. Not counting the days so I am not always thinking about it and don't feel like I should 'reward' myself has helped so far.