LouisC8128

No easy answers. You will quit for good when you decide quit for good. Looking back, the first 2 months of being sober was probably the hardest. It really is true when "they" say - one day at a time... I don't know you (obviously) but I hope you are successful.

dkayvins125

I hope and pray that this is your last attempt and are successful in your road to recovery. But if it is not your last attempt I will pray that you may be fortunate to have another chance to recover.
Dean

houseoftrousers

I hope you do. I think it's important for yourself to do it if that's what you want. Just think about how good you feel when you are not on the drink and and how bad you feel when you are. Always remind yourself.

For some people it's an addiction for some it's habitual. You can break it the cycle either way

All the best

FrancoSarto

I guess I don't understand why anyone would not just disable the flashing smilies in a reply when the OP has requested it.

Would you go visit a friend who you know wasn't religious and bring an angel picture or a bible?

I'm one of those who think less is more when it comes to smilies, for a number of reasons. I hit the ESC key to stop the movement because I can't read a post that has stuff flashing in it. I think they are just "too too" cutsie pie for the most part. I like them in birthday threads etc, but think one is enough.

We're supposed to be supporting each other here. Going out of our way to comment on how we won't suppress our smilies is ubber passive aggressive and patronizing IMO.

smacked

I could only stay sober if I changed my entire life.. it wasn't about 'not drinking' it was about living in new and better ways. Like others have said, as long as I put conditions or timelines in front of my sobriety, I stayed drunk.

I wish you the best!

10yrwasteland

Today's the day right? Good luck. Sobriety starts and life begins. Awesome day it is.

Dee74

Let's cool it on smileys.

I don't know about anyone else - but there are people here struggling for their lives.

I could care less about if someone sends me a smiley or not.

To disable smileys, images and avatars go to your user control panel:

Edit Options-> Visible Post Elements

uncheck
Show Signatures
Show Avatars
Show Images (including attached images and images in [IMG] code)

result...plain text....no smileys...ever

If anyone else wants to carry this on, PM me.
I don't want to see it in this thread again.

Let's get back to the business at hand here, and Scarlet's thread.

D

shaun00

Heres my ten pence worth scarlet i hope your consider this and it helps.

id bummed around AA for years......full of smug.. arid people with crap coffee was my general opinion for a long time....

i also thought it didnt work either because id done thousands of meetings and i wasnt staying sober.
id made the coffee and still got drunk.
id dumped my b.s and still got drunk.
id put away the chairs...picked up all the cig butts and still got drunk.

coming off the last bender......and with serious thoughts of topping myself i fall back into AA for another round of coffee making.. lol

i was approached by an old guy.......he told me he knew how i felt.
i was sharing about being sober is more unbearable than drinking.
we talked for a bit.......to be honest i wasnt that interested....but he did approach me........which was unusual.......i was an angry idiot and most avoided me.

he asked me why i went back to drinking after getting into serious trouble last time.
i couldnt really answer that........"i just do"
he said....if you drank again with the full knowlege of the consequences.
dont you think "our" problem centres in our minds..

bloody great.....im a nut job and doomed.

he tells me i can recover........ha ha ha ha ha ha ....actually mate your the nutter...lol....
but he had my attention.....he showed me in the book "alcoholics anonymous"
100 men and women........recovered.

so how am i gonna treat that mind......well the first hundred had the answer to that too.
in the form of 12 steps.....not easy.......but simple clear instructions.
so here i am.......nearly ten years on........i did those steps and recovered from a hopeless state of mind and body.

seriously.. i was dying......a hollow alcoholic with no solution other than drinking.....
a hopeless skid row drunk...with limited time left.
and i never drank again and dont intend too..

i now try to carry that message of hope to newcomers..that there is a solution...but just doing meeting dont normally cut it..imo

what you got to lose?

Scarlet20

Thank you, and I accept your wishes and your right to use the smiley's

nogard

I drank and used drugs for 23 years, I died many times, spent over 4 years in prison and was commited three times. I tried therapists, religions cults and none of them helped me stay clean and sober.

What finally happened was that I became a member of the walking dead, was very sick physically, mentally and spiritually and as Rusty said I became so desperate not to have another day like the last that I quit and I asked for help and was given it.

There are many ways to stay clean, all of them involve other people most other addicts in recovery.

It takes as long as it takes to get clean and stay clean, limiting myself to one more go would have been a death sentence or even worse a living hell sentence.

Kevin

donbradmaniac

I know you can do it Scarlet

Kmber2010

Scarlet please stay strong. You can do this and we are here for support. I started posting Day 1 and when I couldn't manage this blessing of a community was there for me so I knew I wasn't alone. I was in the worst place prior to tossing the bottle so in the midst of my darkest hour I began posting.

Sobriety is amazing and I am will be looking for your updates.

God Bless - Kim