CAPTAINZING2000

Waking up in jails and all the court fines and lawyers fees pretty much was the final straw.

Shame, I didn't quit at your age

aasharon90

And I thought I was the youngest
person in my AA meetings,,,,lol
and that was some 19 yrs ago.

After family intervention and a 28
day stay in rehab with a 6 week out-
patiant program tact on I proceeded
on to AA meetings everyday.

I sat looking around the rooms and
felt like I didnt belong there either.
There was so many older people than
youngons.

Of course that didnt prevent me from
suiting up and showing up everyday.

I soon began bringing a tray of fresh
baked goodies thinking it would help
me relax and feel apart of.

That became my service work and
allowed others to see me at each
meeting even if i didnt speak.

A gentle nod and a thank you soon
allowed me to relax and listen inten-
tively to the messages of hope.

Sure enough age doesnt make a
difference. We r of all ages, races,
religions with one common problem.

And for everyone to come together
under one roof to find the solution
to stay clean and sober.

Just by listening and sharing our
on stories of what it was like before
during and after alcohol or drugs.

A pretty remarkable program works
if we work it.

Kmber2010

The first time....well like many....I couldn't live an alcoholic life anymore. I was suffering the physical effects and I couldn't stand who and what I was.

I relapsed in April and got back on the wagon because I couldn't take the physical pain of drinking anymore and I am certain I was going to die. Yeah....I got so trashed on my bender that I was popping pain meds and all sorts of pills prescribed for an injury.

For me....I want to live and do every darn thing possible to be the best person I can be. If the good Lord hadn't taken me already there surely is a plan for me. Now I am teaching again and doing so much more again. I lifted that veil of alcohol to see what was truly off in my life and I have and will continue to take the steps to improve each and every day.

Yeah....I hate alcohol...and how it almost destroyed me.

Kjell

B/c alcohol did for me what I could not do for myself. ...but then the progression turned for the worse and the blackouts started

I soon found myself broken up with, fired from a job of 11 years, forced to move, dui and totalled car #1, then dui and totalled car #2. This all happened in 2 1/2 years time where I spiralled out of control in front of everyone and I still drank during all of that. I'm still picking up the pieces and more are falling apart from the insanity of those last few years. Not to mention all the hangovers, lies, and just complete and total BS I lived in.

I don't drink today b/c alcohol stopped working for me. I rode it out until d@mn near the bitter end - I pretty much ran out of options - in short, I finally stopped fighting and surrendered. Thank God for AA, SR, outpatient therapy and help from other alcoholics. I can now say I have almost 150 days since my last drink.

There is hope. I can see a faint light at the end of the tunnel. I want to know what's on the other side of all of this.

aasharon90

The promises stated in our Big Book
of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Anna

I was afraid I was not going to survive and that fear was the initial drive to stop drinking. And, once I began to recover, I would not give up the life I have for anything.

0sT

I decided to stop drinking after a complete disaster happened to me, all my fault because of alcohol abuse. Right now the realization of what is happening to me is enough to keep me from the bottle. Like Anna I think that I am afraid for my survival if I have another drink, that is reason enough!

eastcoast04

You said: "The AA program did work, but I was by far the youngest person at every meeting and it felt awkward. My aunt is very active in AA, and I had no problem getting support from the community... but I still felt out of place (being so young)"

It may "seem" weird being the youngest person in the room but I wish that were the case for me! I wish that I would have stopped drinking when I was younger. Think of it as a blessing. I am sure nobody in those rooms is judging you for sobering up while you still have so much life in front of you!!!

wichitalineman

PRIOR to getting sober, my main motivating factors (that I was aware of) to become sober were: emotional insanity, drunk dialing (legendary! and not in a good way...), financial squandering, avoidance of underlying problems/issues, and the vast oceans of time wasted being, well, wasted. And lastly, and at the time, definitely least, there was the realization that I was damaging my health in a serious way. This is just a compact overview, this list could be greatly expanded.

AFTER getting sober, the inverse of all of the above KEEP me sober. Additionally, waking up without a hangover and enjoying the morning is something that had become utterly foreign to me and now that I have that back, I really don't want to give that up. Waking up sober is personally my main motivational factor, supported by my twin higher powers, Cherry Coke and the E-flat major 7th chord. I realize that might seem utterly simple and possibly even ridiculous (just waking up sober?), but if you've gone years without a 'normal' morning, it really packs a punch. At least for me.

Many good bits of advice thus far, many worthy motivating factors on this thread. I hope you make a smart decision while you still have the good field position that you do. The best to you and yours. Cheers.

jade09

after many years of trying--i think what has finally done it for me was just the complete self hate, shame and embarressment of who i had become. i was living a lie. i was a lie. and i finally found a way to be brutally honest with myself.

my motivation is trying to live a life i am proud of, that i actually want to be living--life is just too short to waste another minute pretending to be happy--i want to REALLY be happy

good luck

kaymess

Here is a small thing I do that somehow keeps me from picking up anything. I am an alcoholic but I am an even worse RECOVERING meth addict. Go to this website .

Alcoholics Anonymous Grapevine.org

And enter in your clean time. It gives days,hours,minutes and even seconds. It is absolutely amazing to me.


I have:

Years: 0
Days: 141
Hours: 3,405
Minutes: 204,328
Seconds:
and over 11 million seconds


The days are a lot but the hours and minutes just blow me away. When I couldnt go a minute no less an hour at times.
Check it out I have over "OVER"
3 THOUSAND 4 HUNDRED HOURS CLEAN AND SOBOR. Why would I want to lose that. For what. And why would I. If I can go 2 hundred trhousand minutes without drugs and alcohol I can live the rest of my life with out the S@#T ! Know what I mean.
Check yours

betterlate

How did I stop drinking? One day I realized that I was an expert at being drunk. I knew every phase of a drunk backwards and forwards, having practiced hundreds of times. I knew exactly how much of each type of liquor, thrown down my gullet at exactly what rate, would lead to exactly what level of drunkenness. My expertise was not arrived at cheaply, I had paid an exorbitant sum for my expertise, probably much more than I had spent getting my university degree. For sure I had spent a much longer time getting my bona fides in drinking than I had put into working for my professional certificates.

It was an extremely embarrassing moment. I realized I had spent my life force, my precious time, my energy, my mind, my heart, my health on becoming an expert on flooding my brain and body with ethanol. I had lost endless amounts of money, lost family, friends, respect, possessions, opportunities, potential romances, interesting interludes, and just plain restful afternoons just to chase the quick, easy "buzz" of alcohol.

I'm on day 26 sober now and one thing on my mind is how puny 26 looks next to the thousands and thousands of days wasted drinking. But there's nothing I can do about it except push on. I'm not drinking today. Today I am not drinking.

Dee74

We have a sober clock here too kaymess

SoberRecovery : Sober Time Sobriety Calculator
D

BadLove

Betterlate, your post really rang true with me. It reminds me of a song quote I like that goes "you don't deserve to be lonely / but those drugs you got won't make you feel better / pretty soon you'll find it's the only / little part of your life you're keeping together."

Realizing drinking was the only thing I've been succeeding at the past few years was a big step for me. When I really let it sink in that EVERY other area of my life was being neglected, that alcohol was the only thing I was living for, it helped push me toward change. I'm very early in recovery, but knowing deep down that things can only get worse if I drink keeps me sober in this moment.

Taking5

That my friends, is the surrender they talk about associated with step 1.

My step 1 story is this: I went into AA after nursing a 4 day hangover and they asked for newcomers. I said "Hi I'm Dgillz and I'm here to beat my problem".

After the meeting an oldtimer came up to me and said "Son, you aren't gonna beat anything in there, your ass has already been whipped".

That pissed me off, but after I thought about it, he was right. I was gonna fight alcohol and win? Maybe I should just play Michael Jordan one-on-one and whip him while I'm at it? At that point I surrendered.

The BB says "we stopped fighting anyone or anything, including alcohol". IMHO this is a necessary part of step 1 and quitting drinking.

Stang

There is one way to beat alcohol.

Die sober!!!

Omega10

Here's an excerpt from my story - to set the scene, I was at work when my detox started.
Around 2:00 in the afternoon I started to detox. I was lucky no one was in the bathroom any of the times I threw up, and I made sure I used one certain stall that had a lid on it that would block the automatic flush sensor so that the toilet would not flush in my face. As I stared in the bowl heaving, one thought popped into my head. "This is no way to live. This is a way to die." I went to the sink to wash my hands and saw the hag in the mirror I had become. My eyes were bloodshot from barfing. I had bags under my eyes the size of a suitcase. My skin was grey. I looked about 20 years older than I really am.

It was that moment when I was examining myself in the mirror that I finally saw the person I was becoming. I finally felt the shame of showing up at work hungover one too many times. I finally felt the fear of losing my job, my house, my life. I finally acknowledged I had a problem and that if I did not fix it fast, I was on a slippery slope downward into an abyss.

That's pretty much what got me to initially quit drinking. What keeps me from relapsing is doing a lot of self examination and introspection. I also focus on the positive things that have resulted from my quitting drinking. My life is far from perfect, but it is a heck of a lot better sober than it ever was when I was drinking.

seeker7

I reached a point where I was becoming someone I really hated. I wanted to quit more than I wanted to drink. I would wake up in the middle of the night in fear that I would die this way and my kids would grow up without a mother. Even this did not help me make the final break. I got really sick and decided to google "how to stop drinking". I found SR and read and read and read. Then I posted and posted some more. Things were smooth sailing for a while. Then, I hit a bump in the road. So, I'm back. Reading and posting. It works for me.